Week 6: Rationale

My Final Posters were designed to reflect the idea that New Zealanders should vote for changing the flag, based on the idea that the New Zealand flag is too similar to the Australian flag.
The rhetorical approaches I've used in my first poster are pastiche & juxtaposition, borrowing the comic book layout style and juxtaposing this & informal kiwi language with an old 18th century painting. These elements together create humour which gets the viewer to read and argue with the point made in the posters dialogue. In my second poster my rhetorical approach was to use subversion, replacing some of the stars on the New Zealand flag with the stars found on the Australian flag, highlighting to the viewer the almost unnoticeable difference between the two nations flags. In relation to Ihi + Wehi, my aim is for my posters to attract the viewers attention through either one's familiar comic book style, or the others strong graphic visual style with elements of contrast.

Week 5: Lightbulb moment/Development

I took the previous posters focusing on the statistics around misrepresentation and changed it to align with another approach: the idea of the New Zealand flag being too similar to the Australian flag.
In this version I've subverted some of the stars in the New Zealand flag with stars from the Australian flag, with the rest of the flags elements belonging to both. This effect I believe shows how easily the two can be mistaken for each other as immediately you might not even notice there's anything wrong with the flag. I've decided to highlight the vote for a change with red as an eye catching way to emphasise the main message of the poster without just making it the tagline and boring viewers at first sight. The tagline I have used "Identity Crisis?" is a way to engage viewers - to ask them a question and make them wonder what they're looking at and stop to find out. People passing by who stop to have a look may not even notice the stars are mismatched until they stop to consider the poster.

Week 5: Development of Comic Concept

After feedback that my use of humour in my concepts was successful (particularly in this one) I developed the composition to be more like a comic book spread with multiple cells instead of a one page cell. It makes the composition more dynamic and interesting to look at. It leads the eye over the composition in a logical format as well. Most of the developments after that just focus on altering the type at the top to create context without sounding too complex or losing the viewer's interest.

For my final iteration of this poster I added a tagline down the bottom of the composition as a call to action, and to link the idea of the New Zealand and Australian flags looking similar to the need to change the flag in the upcoming referendum. I used the phrase 'no it ain't' as a continuation of the colloqiual/informal language used in the rest of the poster. A sort of reply from the viewer to the statement by the subject of the poster.

Week 5 Feedback

In class I gained some feedback from Matt where my 2 final choices and their ideas/slogans ("changing more than just the flag") were too ambiguous in regards to what standpoint I was taking on the flag change. Instead it was suggested that I develop my more humorous comic style poster which uses homage, subversion and juxtaposition to get my point across. The message is also a lot clearer on what standpoint I'm taking. The only issue now is to find an image that suits my poster's style - an old picture/painting of men who are talking and preferably have paper with them (to portray the current nz flag as a draft) - that's also big enough to blow up into an A2. I was told checking out archives at the library was a viable option. I'll try to also refine the comic book style I've subverted into the composition.

Week 5: Interim Presentation 2

These are the two posters I chose to present for interim presentation, I got feedback which I'll post in the next blog post

Week 4: Different approach to Aussie vs. Nz Flag concept

I did a few developments of a new approach to my concept (of needing to change the flag because it's too similar to the Australian flag and isn't immediately distinguishable from other flags). In this approach I've subverted Tasmania for New Zealand as a reference to a well known misconception among foreigners that New Zealand is a part of Australia. Then further developments were simply adjustments in the type on the poster and then including imagery from google maps to play on that visual style and use something familiar.

Week 3: Development

For some development on my chosen poster from our interim presentation I used the posterised style of image from the Obama hope posters and merged it with the idea of changing more than just the flag and retained some of the communist propaganda fundamental design principles. I've subverted the classic fist (sometimes alone but sometimes waving a flag) and changed it into a disgusted pinched hand holding the flag like a dirty rag/tissue. The Type 'Meh.' is meant to be a play on kiwi slang and add an element of humour into the composition. The full stop in place of a exclamation mark often found in type on propaganda posters highlights the difference between the typical inspiring propaganda poster and this half-hearted uninspiring image of our current flag. 

Below are some development/process screenshots.

Week 3: More development/new approach

These developments are an approach to the concept that the New Zealand flag doesn't fully represent New Zealand's entire population and their cultures/ethnicities. I attempted to display this through contrast between black and white and full colour flag and blocking out the same proportion of the flag as the statistic was referring to. This wasn't entirely successful as the shape of the flag distorted the proportions of the statistics and diminished the effect somewhat. Also my statistics weren't extremely compelling in the first place. If I had to pick one the one that's more grey seems to come across stronger. 

Week 3: Developments of "Changing more" concept

Here are just some rough mock ups of potential further developments for my concept of the flag change being a catalyst for further potential change in NZ society. I don't think I'll take these ideas any further to be honest, they seem too generic and cheesy, also they're slightly ambiguous as to whats going to change if we change the flag. But they're part of the design process, so here they are.

Week 3: Interim Presentation

These are the four posters I showed at the interim presentation on Monday.

The first poster's point is that a change in the flag could incite a change in other aspects of NZ society such as relations between Māori and Pākehā New Zealanders. I've paid homage to communist propaganda posters and subverted the skin colours of the shaking hands for the colours of the Union Jack and Tino Rangatiratanga. The slogan 'Changing more than just the flag' is used to provoke thought in viewers about what the flag change could possibly mean in the greater scheme of things.

 The second poster's point is that we need a flag that represents New Zealand properly and not as a colony, and also doesn't hold symbols that represent colonialism and mistreatment of the Māori people. It's a parody of the iconic Obama 'Hope' campaign for the 2008 United States Presidential election. I've subverted Obama for a Union Jack and replaced the 'H' with an 'N'.

Feedback I got on this one was that overall it was a bit vague what the message was. The use of the Union Jack instead of the New Zealand flag was confusing to some and came across as representing saying 'nope' to the commonwealth or the UK in general. The singular use of the word 'nope' without any subtext was too vague as it isn't entirely clear where the negativity stems from or what the reason is that we're saying 'nope'.

The third poster's point is that the New Zealand flag isnt distinguishable enough from the Australian flag and needs to define New Zealand as a separate, unique identity. I've paid homage to comic books and their style by putting comic book speech on top of an historical painting of men writing at a table. I've also also parodied the comic book style by adding colloquial kiwi language in the speech bubbles to create humour.

Feedback for this poster was that the humour worked well and it was obvious what the poster was conveying, although for the poster to directly allude to the fact that it's taking a position on the upcoming referendum it may need more conextualising (possibly through subtext). Another criticism was the poor production quality so I'll need to work harder on pushing the comic book aesthetic and possibly incorporating the background image into a full page of a comic book.

The fourth poster's point is that the current flag doesn't inspire or invoke pride in New Zealanders. I've subverted a single soldier and sad looking flagpole into a composition originally featuring many soldiers raising an American flag (iconic of WWII). 

This poster's criticisms were that it could also be saying that the flag is MORE inspiring as it only takes one person to raise it, or that NZ as a smaller nation can compete with the strength of larger and more powerful nations such as the U.S.A. I personally don't agree with it coming across as NZ being inspired by the flag as I've shown the flag is droopy and sad but if it's not coming across strong enough it's something I'll have to work on.


Overall I think I'll move on with the concept from the first poster, however the third poster is also maybe something I'll spend time developing as the humour works well to convey it's message and it's a bit more of a fun point to explore.

Week 2: Research

I've been doing research into both sides of the flag change argument and have decided to take the stance of pro flag change. I started off as pro flag change before this assignment even began and have just found my opinions reiterated and supplemented by new information which should make asserting my standpoint easier than if I had no opinion or an opposing one.

One resource I found really helpful for informing my argument was http://mdes.thomaslebas.com/
I found it much easier to sift through and understand since he's taken all the information he's learned and condensed it into relevant blog posts that aren't too long and tedious to read. My favourite points are:

The money spent on the flag referendum isn't necessarily money spent elsewhere - thats not how the government and money works. If the money isn't spent on the flag referendum its not put in other places, it's left unspent, and unspent money is technically useless money.

The flag represents a lot more than simply a new logo for the country -  it represents a potential for change in other areas such as the current relationship between Maori and Pakeha New Zealanders, and potential discussion around the issues to do with the Treaty of Waitangi.

Week 2: Mind Mapping Topics

The results of a group mind mapping exercise we did in class. Some feedback we got was that we weren't extending our ideas far enough past the words and ideas associated with the original topic. 

Week 1: Poster research

Here I've collected a few posters I think are relevant to the Ihi/Wehi exercise we did in class, I've got some observations in my workbook of more posters.

This poster doesn't necessarily have any point it's communicating but I like that it uses pastiche and subverts soldiers for fish (Ihi) conveying a humorous tone (Wehi). The fish may be metaphors for something else but I can't find any sources explicitly stating so.

The use of grid in this poster is evident and I love the use of contrast in colours, movement with the open and closed doors and the sense of pattern/repetition (ihi). It reminds me of exploring a complicated multi leveled and mysterious building or space (wehi).

I like the use of diagonal lines and figures (ihi) to portray movement and activity (wehi), and the use of the colour blue (and type)(ihi) to allude to the product (the olivetti studio 45 typewriter) (wehi).