ART DIRECTOR/ EDITORIAL
For this Art Director/ Editorial Brief, my partner ( and Director) gave me the article "Did Last Summers BLM protests Change Anything?" by THE NEW YORKER to create an editorial piece on. The article covered many issues and instances that were talked about in summer 2020, such as looting, violent protesters, supporting black owned businesses and more serious topics, such as educating those on black history. However, overall there was a pretty neutral stance from the author. The Link to this article can be found below:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/did-last-summers-protests-change-anythinghttps://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/did-last-summers-protests-change-anything
As you can see in the pages above, I started designing some neutral designs for this article. I used signs in most of my designs. I thought that these were so representative of of the protests and was also an opportunity to add text into my editorial.
All of my designs were slightly on the negative side, which I knew I needed to change slightly. I chose my portrait design to develop on as I personally felt that it was most effective. I did have discussions with my partner on each of the designs and she also agreed that the portrait was most effective but, the layout needed adapting somehow. We also chose this design because of my use of a child, we felt that it may draw readers into reading the article as they felt sympathy for the boy.
I found this image online, and I found it really powerful. This supported our reasoning for choosing my design idea with the child on it. This piece really inspired me to keep developing on my idea. I changed my design by making the boy hold a cardboard sign, rather than be surrounded by a protest. This neutralised the opinion of the piece as I felt that this gave the boy a voice, rather than him looking lost an overwhelmed.
ATTEMPT 1 ATTEMPT 2
FEEDBACK:
AS you can see in the images, above, I tried to make the piece have a lot of texture to make it look dirty, and the sign to be hand made. I even used a photo of creased paper as an overlay for the cardboard to make it look dented. After doing the design of the boy and his sign, I sent it to my Director for feedback. This was her response:
"I like your work very much, especially the boy portrait. I'm wondering if the sign could be highlighted more with a lighter shade or lighten the background? Maybe put a light shadow behind the lettering to bring it forward a bit more. Maybe the same for the colour of the boys eyes.
Other than that I think it's great and come across well and in a way that's appropriate for the subject matter."
I instantly saw what was wrong with my sign. It was obvious that my sign didn't resemble paint on card board at all. So, baring my feed back in mind, I created a collection of images of signs from the BLM protests. (below).
I took the directors advice and made the background lighter to see if that helped with making the text stand out more. I then began to test many paint type brushes on procreate to get the right texture. I used the brush I chose on a lower capacity so that I had to build up the paint texture, just how paint would be used traditionally, which I think worked. I sent over the second attempt and she was pleased with my work. Yay! Following the advice, I also improved the colouring of the boys eyes and added paint to his fingers and the background to tie the piece together.
This has made me realise how much peer's opinions are important to get when producing artwork. It wasn't until it was pointed out that I noticed the flaws in my work.
The finished piece!:
For my partners Editorial work, I gave her an article by 'Breathe Magazine'. I thought that this was well suited to her interests as she produces a lot of work based on themes of and surrounding Mental Health. You can view Joanna's work here in the link below:
https://pinkwaferart.co.uk/cate
