Monday 7th March 2011:

Today I explored new materials to use in my sketchbook to find new and interesting ways of working. I wrote out ‘Anti-Bullying Campaign’ in the front of my book using scrap materials and masking tape. I think this is more interesting than if it had just been written out with paint or pen. The masking tape creates a nice effect for each of the letters and could represent either the masking up of feelings (bullying) or how it needs to be fixed. I think this way of working could be relevant to my work and I will explore this further. I also noticed that, because of how I created the word ‘bullying’, the word ‘lying’ (from ‘bullying) stands out quite a lot by itself, and maybe this is something which I could explore further (taking words from other words and making them also stand out by themselves).

I also researched a few more resources to look at, such as typographers, which I think will be useful. I came across the website: http://www.freshbump.com/featured/special-features/a-z-of-typographers/ which contains an A-Z list of different typographers. When just quickly looking through it I saw many different styles and examples of materials to use. I will look at these further and decide which ones I could explore more in relation to my project. I especially liked a piece by Jakob Nylund which is really simple, only using black and white. I also liked a more experimental piece by Marian Bantjes, and this reminded me that there are many ways to create the same thing, and that more experimental pieces are more unique and can stand out a lot more.

I also took part in a group/ peer discussion about our ideas so far and how we can develop these. From this review I decided to research the illustrator Michelle Thompson which was a suggestion made as well as looking at a few more photographers and typographers. The general ideas which I recorded included: child’s perspective, controlling puppet NSPCC advert, not too patronizing, bully (psychological) – may be being bullied themselves, chain reaction, storyboard narrative (different bullying situations), child abuse advert, alcohol limits advert (you wouldn’t start a night like this, so why end it this way?). I found these ideas useful and I will think about them further when developing my work. It was also useful to find that my idea of also looking at the bully themselves and what problems they have was received well and it was agreed that this is also an important factor. In terms of my actual pieces, the discussion made me think about perhaps using 3D type on the posters in order to make them stand out more and go against the norm. I have also now considered using lino printing, screen-printing and wooden type blocks to create different effects. It may also be nice to cut the words out from the poster so that when displayed you read the negative space.

After this discussion, I went on to research the suggestions given. I found that I really liked Michelle Thompson’s work and feel that this will be a good influence on my own work. For example the piece, ‘Queen of Heart’s’ is really unique and made me think about how although it seems really simple and plain, the photograph in the centre has something about it which makes you look twice. The young girl looks sad which draws in the viewer and then makes you think about the overall composition and why the girl has been put in place of the Queen. I think this sort of image, which makes you think due to its visually appealing elements, is something which I would like to explore further as this would be really interesting to look at when developing ideas for my anti-bullying campaign and how I can grab attention from the viewers. I also looked at David Bailey’s photography. I liked the use of black and white as I feel this can give more of an impact sometimes, and how the character and emotion was captured so well. This will be an important factor to consider when creating my own pieces because emotion and feelings is a major part of bullying. As well as artists, etc, I had a look at the adverts mentioned in the discussion and have found them really fascinating. They gave strong messages in simple, but effective ways. It also surprised me how the advert for the NSPCC (The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) was slightly more ‘scary’ than the alcohol (know your limits) advert, which would be aimed at older people.

Furthermore, I read some more of the ‘Bullying’ book and read some of Chapter 6 -‘Anti-bullying exercises to use with students’. There were many exercises which could be tried with children in order to get them to understand the impact of bullying and to hopefully stop them from participating in it/ allowing it to happen. It may be interesting to carry these exercises out in my sketchbook to see what visual elements I could take from them. I could also consider asking a few people to do them to see what they come up with. An example of one of the exercises was to each day say something to someone to make them feel good about themselves and to say something to someone different each day. I think by focusing on the positives, it would really help to prevent the negatives.

I also had a thought about to perhaps (eg: in one of my posters), have the same model in the photograph twice – one as the bully and one as the victim. I could then include a message such as ‘it’s not nice to bully yourself, so why bully others’, or it could be showing how the bully is usually being bullied themselves, and in turn this could turn a victim into a bully.

Target for today: Start working in sketchbook and thinking about some ideas in response to research.

Target for tomorrow: More sketchbook development work and relevant research. Focus some more on the branding side as well as the awareness campaign side.