Tagged: collage

STATEMENT OF INTENT

For my final major project I intend to research into one of my main areas of interest in contemporary feminist issues, to interrogate the lack or insincerity of powerful feminist messages and content in fashion imagery and communication, as I feel it is an issue that is particularly prevalent, and more individuals and collectives are trying to find new ways to use their voices. I can build upon and broaden my research into these concerns from previous projects to create work that summarises my interests in fashion and contemporary society. I want to direct this project towards art direction and graphic design, working on new or novel ideas in image-making and design, culminating in a new fashion or art publication.

I have begun my research by looking into ‘feminist’ mainstream fashion campaigns and imagery, for example H&M’s new Like a Lady advertorial film, and the backlash that often comes with this, to question whether the fashion industry can ever really be feminist, unless it disregards trends or becomes a parody of itself, for example the fashion house Vetements, known for its satirical use of logos and simplistic design. I also explored the Riot Grrrl movement to collect visual examples of self-published zines as well as contemporary zines from the current DIY movement, a form of underground communication to rebel against societal norms. I think the concept of this could easily be translated into an anti-fashion publication. I also began to think about graphic and editorial design, format and printing methods, to carry my research forward by looking into alternative graphic design that ‘breaks the rules’, to explore how this can be translated into fashion communication. I’ve looked into mainstream current feminist publications such as Bitch and Lenny Letter, as well as Bay Garnett’s Cheap Date magazine of the 1990s, to examine the topics and debates they discuss, to begin thinking of the possible audience and content of my outcome.

My contextual and visual research so far has informed my early experimentation as I begin to process and test ideas. I began experimenting with collage, using imagery and text from vintage publications as well as contemporary fashion images to display, and make a mockery of, how issues of sex and gender have been presented in fashion and advertising. Using the language of Riot Grrrl zines as well as contemporary media as a starting point, I have thought about ‘trigger words’ that have connotations that could link to feminist concerns, to begin thinking about the title and tone of my work. This thought process allowed me to also experiment with typography ideas, which I hope will progress further into my final major project as I work on the visual identity of my work.

I feel that through investigating these issues and existing work relating to this I can deepen my knowledge and create work to provoke change and conversation, while using creative fashion imagery. A publication such as a new magazine will be a successful outcome as I can showcase and improve on my existing knowledge and experience with typography, design and layout, critical writing and image-making. This will also allow me to produce outcomes alongside the publication if the direction of my project takes me there, for example promotional material like a film or online graphics. At this point I am particularly interested in creating satirical or light-hearted, playful work in response to my chosen theme, to encourage me to experiment and push boundaries to communicate my topic in an innovative and perhaps shocking way.

With this project I hope to gain a deeper understanding of new and innovative fashion imagery and promotion, especially when tackling contemporary societal issues. I hope to improve my graphic design and image-making skills to a professional standard while also gaining greater understanding of the production and marketing of art publications. To achieve my desired outcome I will need to carry forward my initial research and experimentation to repeatedly test and polish my ideas to a professional standard, as well as managing my time well through a work plan or Gantt chart, and keeping motivated and inspired through constantly revisiting my research.

I feel my initial research into my interests and the questions I want to answer have given me a strong idea of the themes, visuals and work I will need to produce over the course of my final major project. Alongside this statement I have designed and produced an initial media pack for my magazine, which highlights and displays the research and experimentation I have produced so far. This will be helpful to refer back to, alter and add to throughout my project as my ideas develop and change. I now have a more solid idea of how I want to progress with further research in regards to design and image-making, as well as intended experimentation in printing methods, layout and book arts.

FMP RESEARCH: WEEK 3

This week I began experimenting with initial image-making fed by my research into feminist matters in fashion and fashion publications. Using images and text from vintage publications as well as contemporary magazines I created simple collages that provoked thought around debates of sex, gender and equality. This sparked ideas around the concept of creating fake advertisements in my proposed magazine, as a playful but thoughtful way of interrogating issues in the fashion media industry.
This made me start thinking about the identity of my publication. I started thinking about ‘trigger words’ that appear in advertisements or women’s/fashion magazine that could have connotations that fit with a feminist theme. Taking inspiration from Riot Grrrl zines and the way they reclaim aggressive or misogynistic words in their publications, I wanted to put a contemporary twist on this. I brainstormed words that popped up in adverts or articles that suggested concerns around women’s bodies, beauty or sexuality, as well as researching into other offensive terms for women to find a catchy, meaningful title.

BROAD – old-fashioned, offensive term for a woman. also think about stature or build. sounds aggressive and stern (could also mean something to do with print? ‘broadsheet’)

SILICONE – cosmetic surgery, implants, artificiality but also smoothness and perfection

FILLER – surgery and beauty standards, but also could sound sexual? also a term for a sound or word to fill a pause. (type meanings – filler text.) could also have food connotations?


After this experimentation I was motivated to look further into contemporary design of small-press or artistic publications, to get ideas for visual identity and alternative printing methods – to take a contemporary approach to the older, photocopied zine. I looked briefly into Bay Garnett’s Cheap Date magazine (which I want to look into further during my FMP – content ideas, design and written tone) which was mainly black and white but with creative, childlike graphic design. This made me start looking at graphic designers that create work that isn’t traditionally clean or professional, such as Lennarts and de Bruijn, whose work features bright colours, wild combinations of typography and shapes. I also looked at People of Print’s poster zines, which look risograph or screen printed, a method I am very interested in exploring further as I have used risograph printing in my personal work and love the vibrant colours and overlapping of layers. The fold-out design of these zines also helped me start thinking about the formatting of my publication, as I want to explore more creative ways of working with ‘the book’ as an art piece, rather than creating a conventional magazine.

diversity now: collage workshop

In our collage workshop I started thinking about themes within “Diversity” that I could explore. I found myself selecting images around body standards, sexuality and gender as those are often areas I enjoy discussing and challenging. This first collage was very minimal but I think it worked best this way as it had a strong enough visual message with just the two images, creating a theme of masculinity and sexuality, and the idealized body.

In this piece of collage I focused more on the female body, slicing the body to resemble the pig image next to it. I wanted to create a thoughtful message around women’s body shapes; our lack of confidence with our bodies and our desire to constantly change ourselves. However the pig illustration also touches on how women’s bodies are seen as meat or something desirable, to be consumed. I experimented with stitching into the collage which I had not thought of before but I really feel it has the ability to add to what you are trying to say with an image.

This expanded on the discussion of the sexualisation of women’s bodies. Although very simple again in composition, I think I was able to create a strong message, aided by the addition of type and sewing.

.gif experimentation

I started to create simple .gif animations from my illustrations/collages. I looked at elements of the image I could make move or appear/disappear to create a more dynamic and exciting image that viewers would look at rather than scroll past. In this image I erased sections of the yellow brush stroke and saved the image at each stage before combining the frames into a .gif to show the scribble being ‘painted’ on the screen.

still up gif improved
I then experimented with this collage I made near the beginning of the module. I scanned the collage in and then used the clone tool and spot healing brush to fill in the curtain and flooring to make the ballet dancer disappear but still leave the photograph looking whole. This created a really eerie effect which I thought fit in with the Twitter text of ‘What’s happening?’.

ballet gif improved