final

After I made the sub-text slightly smaller and the title slightly bigger, I got it printed. I chose a satin paper as it would go better with the photographic nature of my design. The colours ended up being slightly more blue than I had intended but I preferred it to the purple tones that it had when printed on the school's printer. I feel the blue also makes it more sad/ sombre.

Rationale:

My poster against superstores communicates the plight of workers who manufacture goods for superstores through pathos. The bloody handprint on the package shocks the viewer and reflects the poor conditions and abuse the workers suffer. It also blames superstores  with ‘blood on their hands’. The handprint is upsidedown to show that this abuse is wrong and seems to reach out to the recipient of package/viewer for help but with no hope. This handprint and the angle of the box leads the eye down to the main point ‘buy local‘ which offers a solution to the initial shock of the image. The image of the package is centred and isolated creating an atmosphere of desolation. I used the Kmart logo as they are a superstore with ties to sweatshops and are relatable to a New Zealand audience.

I went and put an A3 copy of poster in context on street.

type

 I decided that I preferred the portait layout better, it create a more desolate feeling with the isolation of the box which i though conveyed my message better. Then after finalising the layout, I decided to play around with type some more, however I think the neutrality of Helvetica, works the best as it contrasts to the shock of the image with a factual feeling.

I also played around with colour in the type, however I feel it conflicts with the handprint too much and is distracting.

After critique

After a peer critique, i shortened my tagline as it was unnecessarily long.

Then after all the issues I've been having about getting my tagline to fit, Lee had the brilliant idea to switch the placement of the two to make it flow better. I've been playing around with composition to try to get it to fit with the switched lines.

I felt that the centered type didn't really work anymore (I wasn't really a fan of it before anyway) so tried lining up the type with the point of the box. it created this really interesting assymetric composition.

i also found that cropping it to print A2 left me with this dynamic version of my poster. I might pursue this a bit further?

Tagline

After talking to others I have changed my logo to kmart. It is more accessible to a NZ audience however it is not a NZ company (I was worried that 'buy local' with a nz company could be taken the wrong way) It also has ties to sweatshops:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-24/australian-retailers-linked-to-sweatshop-abuse/4773738


I also did some more research so I could con=me up with a better tagline:

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/bangladesh-garment-workers-2013-5?op=1#the-countrys-garment-industry-employs-about-4-million-people-at-4500-factories-7

http://www.monitorglobaloutlook.com/Briefings/2014/07/China-needs-labor-reforms-not-just-wage-raises2

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-06/china-workers-power-sets-off-strikes-for-nike-wal-mart.html

New Tagline:

layout

Playing around with some people's suggestions from critique, like centering the type and changing composition.

After interim 2

I've been having a few issues with the tagline, so I though of reverting back to using amazon as my example of a superstore. I feel though after reasearching some more, that amazon's guilty of less brutal crimes than that of sweatshops, and it doesn't quite match with the bloody handprint. I will have to think of a better tagline for walmart, it needs to be something that would reflect the brutal impact of the blood like abuse rather than pay.

In the interim people also thought that the sub-text would work better centered as the rest of the composition was centered so i tried it out.

Tried one not as factual...

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/inside-amazons-very-hot-warehouse/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=2

https://upworthy-production.s3.amazonaws.com/nugget/4ff6a22ccae5b5000300589e/attachments/amazon-infographic.png

fonts before interim 2

Been playing around with some type options, I wanted something simple so it won't compete with the image.

I liked this first one the most, it is the simplest and easiest to read.

Adding text

I put in some text to see if it worked.

I felt that the brightness of the bag took away from the image, you couldn't really see the handprint.

I liked the idea of this one, however i photoshopped the footprint on and it's quite obvious, i would need to actually put a print on thee shoe if I wanted to do this and I would probably need to find a shoe with a lighter coloured sole.
However, I feel like this imagery isn't as strong as the one with the box. It lacks an automatic recognition as foreign, perhaps if I used a Nike shoe?

I liked this one even more, but once again I should've painted the ground, however the paint I was using was difficult to get off stuff so I didn't want to put permanent blood-like handprints on the ground so i Photoshopped it. Would look better if i actually did it.

I liked the imagery in this, like the whole family is involved in this because you bought them clothes from superstores. or like the saying 'it all comes out in the wash'

If i used this in my final I would have to re-take the photos with a new label (because the only one I had at the time that would work was 'made in NZ' I could photoshop it out maybe or blur it.

This one has more emphasis on the label, and is more interesting as it cropped closer. I also played with different font colours to create emphasis. I think I like the first composition better but the red text needs to be dulled or tried as a neutral colour.

This one has nice movement and depth of field, however you can tell the label is pinned on.

I feel as it the imagery of these isn't as strong as it could just be another message on consumerism it doesn't really relate to the issue directly. It was supposed to be about how much we buy at superstores as they're cheap, but we don't notice the suffering of the worker that made the objects that we bought.

In context

I placed these objects in context and took photos

 

 I also took more photos of the box, but in different locations.
however, i like the bleakness of the original location the best.