OUGD403 STUDIO BRIEF 4 - INITIAL DESIGNS

Following my mind map I started doing some initial sketches, experimenting with colour and layout, to explore different design options for each idea.

These are my developments of my "don't go under the knife" idea. I experimented with black and red colour schemes, as I thought these two colours best suited this gory image I was aiming for. Red also suggests danger as well. I also tried the knife both horizontally and vertically, to see which one works best. The vertical knife looks like the knife is stabbing the word "don't" however rather than just being above it, so I don't think I will go with this layout. Whilst I was producing these designs, one of my peers commented that it isn’t clear what it is meaning, and suggested using a scalpel or a needle instead.

These designs develop on from my previous photograph, where I have developed on the feedback I got from one of my peers. I think my needle design works well as it’s an interesting illustration, however I don't think that the scalpel design works as well as it's a really simple design and I don't feel like it's bold enough. I also tried with a caption along the bottom saying “say no to cosmetic surgery” to make it a bit clearer what this poster is about.

These are my designs for my image only poster, with a woman with plastic surgery likes on her face, inside of a road sign. The road sign in traffic terms means, for example if a bicycle was inside the circle, no cycling past this point. For my design it means no cosmetic surgery. I thought the woman looked a bit weird so I tried giving her hair, which I think looks better, as it makes her look whole, like an actual person rather than a floating head. I also tried including an illustration of a needle as well, to make the reference to cosmetic surgery more easily recognisable, which I think works quite well for this image, however it just doesn't stand out that much for me as a design.

This is my design for the Barbie doll proportions text and image poster. I have placed an image of a Barbie doll next to a woman with Barbie's proportions, stretched and morphed to fit the correct size, to show how unrealistic it is for a woman to want to look like Barbie, as it is physically impossible I included the caption “the grass isn’t always greener on the other side” at the bottom to suggest how although you may think that Barbie is gorgeous and you want to look like her, in reality if you did look like her then you would be so out of proportion that you’d probably die, and if you didn’t you’d look like a freak. I also thought about instead of using a woman with Barbie proportions, I could use Valeria, the human Barbie doll instead, although I feel people may think she looks beautiful and that’s the opposite idea I want to portray.

These are my designs for the "abstinence is key" idea that I had. I started off writing it out, and then with stripes too, to separate up the lines to make it bolder, although in hind sight the orange and blue combination has no relevance to plastic surgery at all except it looks like a beach. One of my peers thought it wasn't clear what I was persuading people to abstain from, as immediately you think of sex or alcohol, so I replaced the "i"'s with scalpel's to have some reference point with cosmetic surgery. I think this design looks okay, however I'm not sure if a scalpel is enough to make people think "plastic surgery".

Here I have developed upon my previous designs for this idea and replaced the scalpel's with needle's, as I thought the needle worked best in the "don't go under the knife" idea, and I feel it also works best here as well.

Here I have made half a person out of machines, using the Terminator film poster and an album cover for Christina Aguilera as reference points as to hoe to draw the machine parts and wires and cable's effectively. I found it really hard to make it look robotic and not just like squiggly lines placed randomly, so I tried it with plastic bottles instead, as I thought this would be a lot easier, and would also work as a reference point to plastic surgery as well. Although the plastic bottle idea does work a lot better, I still don't think you immediately think of plastic surgery. The message is too vague.

In this text only design I experimented with different phrases such as “what happens when he finds out your natural beauty isn’t so natural?” which I feel is a bit long winded. “Just say no” which I think is a bit vague, it’s not clear what you’re saying no to, it could be drugs or sex as easily as it could be cosmetic surgery. “Say no to cosmetic surgery” as well, which I think is very clear and to the point. I also experimented with different fonts, to see if it would look better with curly font, to make it look more feminine, as my posters are aimed at women. I think this works better as it makes the text look more interesting and personal.

This is my text only poster design I came up with the phrase "plastic not-so fantastic", which is a twist on a line from the iconic "Barbie girl" song that everyone knows, even if they don't want to. I created this out of plastic bottles, as I thought this would reflect how plastic Barbie is, and also what you turn into when you get plastic surgery. I think this works really really and creates an interesting and unique typeface. This bottle idea is also one of which I have taken from my previous designs from Studio Brief One, which made it a lot easier to design this typeface. I also tried to put plastic bottles inside the letter "P". I could possibly use a clipping mask for this, to make it neater. Although I think this idea works, it just doesn't have the same bold effect that the previous bottle type design has.