Researching Method

As I am creating a material poster which includes stitching I thought it would be a good idea to look more into techniques since I have not embroidered before and have only limited skill with material. I am using this task to be able to learn something new. I have been watching videos and reading articles on the simple stitching methods and learning more about what can be possible within my design.

Designing for emotions

I want my booklet to be in a style which shows that it is okay for men to have emotions. I had a discussion with a group about this and shared my feelings of creating a more feminine publication. They said that they understand my reasoning but as a male he would be less likely to pick up and read the booklet if it looked feminine. This brought forward the idea of having the cover very stereotypically masculine but the inside contradicting this by being more relaxed, calming and feeling more feminine. This relates the the fact that men feel they have to be masculine but not show there true feelings and emotions.

Looking at the way I can portray this through design is looking at type layout. I find that arranging type with more white space makes it feel more calming and relaxed. I also think picking lighter colours and more hand drawn images feels more relaxing and friendly. Thinking about masculine type you stereotypically this of bold and blocky letters that look strong and is probably in uppercase. Although my cover and insides will be in different styles I still want them to be linked in some way so they are not too different.

I am aiming for my booklet to be around 24 pages.

I looked into the differences of Masculine design and more friendly design and found it was very different in type and colour.

Collecting Statistics

Now I have a clearer idea of what I want to create I want to start collecting information I want to use within my publication. Statistics are important to include to show the facts of the increase in suicide and to make people more aware that it is a issue.

I looked at the information given in reports on websites such as Samaritans and government websites and took the information I thought would be most important.

• Men in the lowest social class, living in the most deprived areas, are up to 10 times more at risk of suicide than those in the higher social class, living in the most affluent areas.
• In 2012 4590 males lost their lives to suicide in 2013 the number increased to 4858
• Around 17% of people say they have had thought of suicide at some point in their lives
• The highest suicide rate in England in 2014 was in the Northeast at 13.2 deaths per 100,000 population. London is the lowest at 7.8 per 100,000.
• In 2014 76% of suicides registered were males.
• Men ages 45-59 had the highest suicide rate in 2014 for the second year in a row. Men age 30-44 had the second highest rate.

Areas to discuss 

• Man Hood - Talking about young adults in the stage of life when they overcome stress and changes
• Mid life - Talking about mid life crisis and stress on life
• Stereotypes - Talking about stereotypes that males face
• Media - How social media and tv can effect self esteem
• Depression and mental health- Addressing mental health
• Help- List people who can help
•  Stories - People who have lost someone to suicide how they felt.
• What can we do? - what can society do to help.

Up Yer Sleeve _ 3

 I began sketching some of the summer objects that I identified and creating some initial sketches of what my album cover could look like. I like the idea of using the summer objects as line drawings. I want to use bright colours to maybe create a pattern. I may use a sand or sea texture. Next I will begin to develop my ideas.

Up Yer Sleeve _ 2

I began looking at the lyrics of the song and listening to the song for inspiration. The song is cheesy and talks about fun and sunshine. It reminds me of the British views of holidays when people go away to be able to drink and get a suntan. I decided to make a mindmap of objects that remind me of a summer holiday and items I saw in the music video. I could incorporate some of these objects into the design.

Looking back at the Summer Fashion of the 80s there was a lot of pattern and bright colours. I want to look at maybe using pattern on my album.

Up Yer Sleeve _ 1

Cameron Wolfe from Level 6 Graphic Design is organising a cross course print exhibition showing the art of record sleeve design. Secret 7 was not on this year so he is doing a similar style for if we email him we will send us a track that we will design for and we have to make the cover not give away the song. I decided to take part because designing a album cover for a set song last time was really fun and creative. I emailed Cameron, the theme of the artists is people who have died in the last few years. I was given the song- Club Tropicana by Wham.

This is the album cover that the song already has. Wham is a British pop duo made up of George Micheal and Andrew Ridgeley. Club Tropicana is a satire song made due to the demand for cheap package holidays. The song was released in July 1983.

Looking at the album cover it is tropical and reminds everyone of a tropical getaway however I don't feel that is fully represents the fun of the song. I will brainstorm some ideas of how to make a more fun and holiday themed album cover.

Minor set back 505

My idea was to create a booklet filled with anonymous stories of people who have lost someone to suicide. This was so that it encourages people that it is okay to talk and share there stories as well as it being advice and reassurance for others.

There is a website called the Alliance Of Hope which is for suicide survivors. The website hold forums for people to talk to others about their loss. I contacted the Websites Administrator Ronnie to ask weather I could use her website as a forum to ask people questions. After a while of discussion she said that they need to look more into there policy and in the future it was a possibility but not for now.

I also contacted Samaritans asking if I could be put in touch with people who would be willing to talk to me, however they said due to confidentiality that it was not possible.

Mind replied and said that if I needed that information I would need to contact my local branch however that were unsure if they could help.

After these initial set backs I have decided to rework my idea to have different information and only a small amount of stories in that I can collect from people I personally know as I think that the idea of having peoples stories is important to helping the cause.

505 Practical work Planning

After some of my initial research into my issue I began to think of what I wanted to create. I want to create a booklet that educates the public on suicide and also includes stories from people who have lost someone through suicide. I want to make a platform that people can be use to look for help and advice as well as just go to feel reassured there not alone.

After I did my presentation and was given feedback I was told to based it on male suicide. So I began to brainstorm ideas for what style my publication could be. I want it to be calming and friendly to read due to the subject nature being emotional it is important to think of the tone of voice. I want information that is clear and easy to read and use and to use statistics and fact. I want  the publication to be aimed at both men and women even though the content is for male suicide. I want the publication name to be simple and easy to remember but with a strong meaning.

505 - Presenting research

I had a presentation talking about my research for my issue of suicide prevention and the male suicide rate this is what I said.

My Issue is the male suicide rate. Sadly numbers are increasing with time.

Its a growing issue shown as a crisis in the media. As a part of my research I wanted 

to look more into the causes of this and how it can be helped.

I Began researching charities looking at how they campaign through social media

 and graphic design. 

When looking at men in general I found that the highest number of suicides is the category of middle age men. This could be due to the male stereotypes and pressures. Men feel that by that age they need to have a successful job and being supporting there families. If this is not the case it can leave men feeling worthless and a failure.

Suicide has been seen as a taboo for a long time. I wanted to look more into this. In religious history it was seen as a sin to commit suicide and brought shame to families. Even though society is more educated it is seen as a weakness and it is difficult to talk about.

There are many different campaigns already out there. I found that the most import thing is that they are in public places and is accessible to everyone.

My aim is to creating something that encourages people to learn and talk about 

suicide and how it can prevented.

After my presentation I received some feedback

• Aim it at men as suicide causes are very different between men and women.
• Research and get information from charities 
• Think more about target audience

I will take this feedback and start brainstorming 

Group Meeting 8, Putting work together

We decided that today it would be best if we all sat together while working on the project as we can could work better and get more done. I started working on the back and asked Louis if I could have some of his textures for the background and I asked for Penny small illustrations.

I liked this texture that Louis had made as I feel that the leaves link to forests and Greenland which  locations in a lot of fairytales. I took a section of the texture and added different colours and I will use these of the background on the back of the cards. 

We scanned in Pennys like drawings and I put them on photoshop and added colour. 

I created two of the layouts. I had to add coloured shapes so that the writing could be seen against the texture. The smallest font size is 8 which is still readable for younger children. I think the mix of fact and image works well as they relate to each other. I am missing the boarders and still need to create the last card. I will meet up with my group again tomorrow to carry on working and get feedback.

Creating a bear Typeface

I decided to create my own typeface for bear. I based the design on 'Century Schoolbook' as it is a font that is used within books and it is traditional like the fairytales. I wanted to portray the fact that fairytales are very old stories therefore I had the idea to make the type look battered and chipped like they are old and worn. This type will stand out more on the card and be more fun and different for the children to look at. I showed my group my type idea and they really liked it and what to include it in the logo and maybe on the card fronts on the story titles.

Initial Layout, Logo and coming across a problem

I decided create the logo design as a large open book of fairy tales. I made colours that would stand out as the logo is going to be very small on the card and packaging but it must be readable and easy to identify. When showing it to the group they really liked the small details and colours that I choose.

I began to create layouts for the back of the cards however I came across a problem that it was very difficult for me to be able to move on with my job as I didn't have any of the illustrations from Penny yet or the textures from Louis. Therefore all I could really do was type up the text ready for meeting them the next day. I told them about my problem and they said it was best to wait till the next day. However I did begin by creating half of a book that can show the narrative part of the card as if it is part of the story.

Bear Meeting 7

I met up with my group today so we could finalise our layouts and make a more detailed list of what we needed to get done as the deadline is a week away. Together we thought about layouts of the front and text that we could include on cards. We also talked about the feedback we received from the critique and what we found relevant.

 As I am in charge of laying out the back of the cards and looking at type I made detailed plans of what I needed to type out and I made a list to give to penny on what illustartions I needed. This gave me a better idea of where to start.

By the end we had a overall idea of what we needed to do and we agreed to meet up tomorrow so we can get more work done together.

Some initial ideas

I am looking more into how I can co-oprate colour of material and stitching while making it look feminine. I have decided to include the words skilled and Equal Pay within the design as the main message.







I started with some initial sketches of how I could include the suit pattern. I thought I could have either an image of a sewing machine or a women wearing a suit in a strong pose.

After talking to people they said it would look stronger and link more to feminism if I used an image of a women in a strong pose wearing a suit. Knowing that I will be creating the whole poster out of material I need to take into consideration that I will need to have a more similiar layout as I am not a confident sewer. 

My initial idea is to have a flower embodied poster with cursive type. Have a girl looking strong in a male suit and large in cross stitch EQUAL PAY. I will go to the market and buy supplies and also get some feedback on this idea.

Strike research

Thinking about the critique I had with Sammy and looking more into the event I began to explore how I was going to present my poster.

The Leeds Woman who strikes worked creating Mens suits in Factories. They used sowing machines and would work in a assembly lines. They were fed up of the divide between women which was known as 'Skilled' and 'Unskilled' which meant that Females would be paid less for their work. They were described as 'Not bitter, but they were tough'. They wanted Equal pay and I want to highlight that within my poster.

I looked at the fashion of suits in the 1970s and I want to think of how I could in-coperate suit material into the making of my poster.

I also want to portray a strong feminist message through stereotypical feminine embroidery and pattern. I want to experiment with different stitching and colours.

I will begin to create some initial sketches.

Bear Critique

We were told that we were going to meet with out groups today and have a critique with other responsive groups. Before the critique we got together and decided how we were going to approach this. We decided that I was most confident in talking about the idea, Louis would ask the questions and Penny could write down all the feedback that was said.
I made a presentation for us to show which had some questions we wanted answers to.

This was the feedback we received :

• Loose? Keep it loose?
• Consider type - don't be too harsh with imagery?
• Be Careful with type - don't put directly over illustrations
• Careful with phrasing of facts - make sure they relate to the story
• Be careful with the use of shape - Could risk losing fluidity of a loose style of line work
• Dont assume to much - knowledge ? Maybe we could be working with the assumption that people already know these stories? Keep simple and consistently link facts back to the story.
• Perhaps work on ways of softening shape work to ensure not too harsh on line work & Vice Versa?

Overall we were happy with our feedback and will take on board the comments.

Feminist Design Research

As the event impacted feminism I wanted to research some impactful and positive feminist designs.

Guerrilla Girls are well known for there sometimes confrontational design. This banner they created drew a lot of attention due to its boldness and strong message. The Guerrilla Girls have a way about them that suggests they are strong and powerful and are fighting for women all around the world.

Toni Robertson created these posters which I found instantly impactful. The style is graffiti style and the use of type draws attention to the cause. Showing the two time eras really shows where history has came from as well as how long we still have to go.

See Red Women's workshop is an exhibition and book that shows feminist designs from history. Girls are Powerful (1979) stood out to me as they had the aim to show that all girls are powerful and used young people to try and encourage young women to attend events. The colours and style make the poster stand out and is very effective.

I want my poster to link to feminism in its own way as it is a cause that we should all still be considering within design and it still has its issues.

Ethical Concerns with suicide

As I am creating design for such a sensitive topic I need to think about the ethical concerns there is with the topic.

• It is important within a campaign to give truthful statistics and facts
• The campaign should have fair and equal access to all in order to be successful
• I will need to respect people by not shaming the people who have commit suicide
• When it comes to creating I must respect privacy and only use case studies of people who accept. (confidentiality)

I have to be sensitive to feelings and opinions of people on this subject as it can lead to a person choosing to live or die which is a great responsibility. 

Group Bear Meeting 6

Today I met up with Louis and Penny and they should me there layout ideas. I was impressed and liked what they had come up with they are asked what I thought about textures for the illustrations. I said that it would work well as it would be more likely to stand out. We all sat around the computer and looked at different textures.

We decided on roles and what we will all be working on till we finish the project.
I will be working on the Logo for Beary tales, the typography and the indesign layouts
Penny will be working on the line work, detailed areas and patterns
Louis will be working on creating the main shapes and creating textures.
Together we will all need to think about layouts.

After we have finished the cards we will think about our further ideas of the stickers and sticker book collectables as well as all getting together to create the competition boards.

Meeting 5 (Louis and Penny)

When I was away in Berlin my group met up to talk about how they could make their illustartion styles work together and so Penny could tell Louis about what I had discussed to her in the last meeting. I feel like this was beneficial as I am specialised In drawing and sketching and that is something they need to work on together before they have my input. I will meet up with them soon to discuss what they have and get some new aims moving forward.

Bear Group session 4

Louis was not feeling to well however I felt there needed to be a meeting before I went to Berlin so me and Penny met up and agreed that she would pass the information onto Louis at the next meeting when I am away.

I showed her my type and colour ideas and we looked at the critique comments.

Penny took on board the comments about her type being used however we are leaning more towards my old serif type. I also looked at her sketches she had done on character design.

Here is some of Penny's sketches

We looked through the styles and I really like the look and texture of having the images painted and coloured in pencil. I also like the cartoon bear style better than the more realistic as it is more fun to make into characters and will look more entertaining for children. I think the images should be simple but with necessary detail. I will be going to Berlin and while I am away Penny and Louis will have a meeting which they will put onto the one drive for me to see what they achieved.