FMP Week 5

Using last week's research on various brands and the initial sketches I had, I started to focus on one particular design to experiment with how I could further develop the initial idea into something that both connects with my concept and also starts to develop on an aesthetic style from which I can produce a final outcome.

Looking at both visual examples of "culture jamming" and particular articles and statistics, I narrowed my aim down to targetting three brands for varying reasons. The first brand I focussed on was Coca-Cola and their avoidance of corporate tax as well as their use unethical production methods. As I already had the research to base designs for 5/6 brands, this week was fully aimed at producing a primary mock-up for three of them, in the mediums I chose during my mid-point review (billboard, leaflet and web advert).

Working through this, I intended to produce a initial mock-up by effectively altering an existing Coca-Cola advert or at least try to produce a mock-up that looks like it could be an official, existing advert that contains my subversive message. Creating a quick mock-up will also allow me to experiment heavily with it after because once a layout and aesthetic is finalised, I can then use experimentation to make it my own.

After producing this piece, I asked some classmates on their opinion and the general feedback I got was that it worked really well to carry my message and had a nice clean aesthetic which serves the purpose of carrying the message well but could be further developed into a more appealing visual outcome. From this, I want to take a very experimental approach to redesigning the aesthetic of this particular piece without changing too much about it and consequentially overcomplicating the piece and also to keep it looking like a realistic advertisement.

So as to not dwell too long on this particular outcome and produce overkill, I left this piece momentarily to move on to the second brand so I also wouldn't run out of time this week without achieving my proposed outcome of three visual mock-ups. 

The next brand I looked at was American Apparel which I had chosen to focus on for it's use of explicit sexual objectification of its models which exploits the human psyche in what many believe is an immoral way. The use of provocative poses and scantily clad models appropiates the "sex sells" culture of advertising in a way that enforces a negative impact into body image by pressurising the public into falling for their "sex sells" trap by using this immoral shock factor. Their use of solely skinny models wearing very little clothes has been slated before, many labelling the brand as sexist and misogynistic. 

From a quick Google search of the term "American Apparel" this use of sexual objectification is very clear with the horde of barely clothed females in provocative poses that is used to catch the eye of any viewer. Due to my project being aimed at creating a transparent look into the unethical/immoral underbelly of large corporations, I want to force the semi-nude, provocative method of American Apparel to even more of an extreme. For a clothes company, the idea that most models are actually half naked seemed like the property to focus on. My main idea for this mock-up was to see what difference, if any, it would make if the clothes were not on the model at all.

I started this by planning out and executing a nude shoot with a friend of mine with the aim to replace the models in American Apparel adverts with her, who would not be wearing any clothes, American Apparel or not, at all.

Looking at the way that many clothing/fashion editorials, not just American Apparel, I also went the length to airbrush out any "imperfections" on the model and to manipulate the image to enhance particular parts of the body that affects the "sex sells" element of these advertisements.

From this I then went about planning how I would lay this out, as this particular outcome was to be a pamphlet format so would have to look visually good as one but also serve its function well. Just to test this layout, I used an actual existing American Apparel advert as a template to simply replace the picture on them with my own. This was just to test the combination of my photography and the aesthetic of American Apparel branding but also to get a rough idea on how I could develop my own more personalised pamphlet to portray my theme.

In hindsight, the layout of the model next to the clothes wasn't only aesthetically jarring but also seemed too obvious. Although my idea was to create a transparent look at the flaws of each corporation, the over obviousness of what I was doing here connected too much to the original idea of American Apparel's advertising. To successfully force my message across using a nude model, it needs to be done in different ways. 

This is where I started brainstorming alternative ways for me to attack this brand's flaws and ended up using the rest of this week focussing on experimentation on this particular brand. Although this meant I was to fall behind schedule, I believed I could justify this with some of the ideas I got from experimenting with this brand. 

One of those particular ideas was to censor the model, but over something like their face rather than any "sexually" explicit parts. This idea came from an idea to actually remove the model and use a outline of a model instead which is also something I wanted to explore. With the idea of censorship though came an idea that I would develop next week where, using the censorship bars, I would write over them the specific thing wrong with the corporation its targetting. So over American Apparel's nude model's face it would read "sex sells", and perhaps over the Coke Zero can, I add tape with the word "tax" on it.

Although this weeks work has meant I am behind on schedule, it has allowed me to work out a clearer schedule for next week due to knowing what I want my outcomes to be, and have a clearer idea of where they will head for the final FMP show.