Social Issue Poster
Design Brief:
You will practice techniques in design thinking and ideation with the goal of developing a unique image using your burgeoning photo-manipulation and digital collage skills. This image must communicate your chosen social issue through the use of visual metaphor and will be used as the focal point in a poster that you design. The issue you choose to focus on should be something you feel passionate about. You will need to familiarize yourself with the issue. Research the issue, even if you feel that you already know a lot about the topic. While the primary focus of the project is creating effective communicative imagery, you will also need to include some text on the poster, so make notes when researching the social issue for potential copy.
Design Process:
Phase I
To begin exploring visual metaphor, generate a list of things that relate to your issue. The more extensive the lists, the more helpful it will be in the next phase of your creative process. Be mindful to focus on concrete visual imagery - something that can be physically represented - when you are list building. Writing down abstract concepts is not helpful in this process as it doesn't allow for quick visual representation - an important part of visual metaphors. You might even find it helpful to sketch simplified drawings of the images in your list during this Phase.
Phase II
Scour your lists to create visual connections between items. Is there a way of combining two list items/images that replaces a bit of one with a bit of the other, changing the overall meaning of the image? Identify shape relationships wherever possible for this swap. You'll find that without even adding words to this unexpected composite image, you have created an impactful message.
Once you have identified a number of opportunities for visual “mash-ups”, sketch 10+ relating to your issue. You will present your sketches in class review, and your top selections will be made into rough drafts, where you better determine composition and resolve any written component (call to action). With instructor approval, pick the strongest one to render digitally using (ideally original but certainly copyright free) photographic imagery using Adobe Photoshop.
Phase III
Create a visually stunning poster using your burgeoning photo collage skills. The visual metaphor must form the focal point of the poster. However, a few well-chosen words should be included to further punctuate the message and provide a call to action. A call to action is what you leave your viewer to do after she has interacted with the content of your poster. It could be visiting a website, calling a phone number, posting something to social media with a specific hashtag, or donating money, etc. If you decide to additionally include a headline, words and image should work together as an integrated concept.