Design Principles // Final Project : Visual Analysis
10.06.22 - 01.07.22 (Week 11 - Week 14)
Emelyne How Sok Hing (0352938)
Bachelor of Design (Hons) Creative Media
Design Principles // Final Project : Visual Analysis
LECTURE
Week 11:
Visual Analysis
It is a method of understanding design that focuses on the visual elements and principles. The purpose of this analysis is to help in recognising the reason to why an artist chose to do something or use a specific technique but it also helps in understanding the meaning behind an artwork.
Visual analysis is a critical part of visual literacy, a skill that helps people to read and critically interpret images. Practicing visual analysis helps people to develop their critical thinking skills instead of just receiving information.
Three phases of visual analysis:
1. Observation
It means to closely look at and identify the visual elements of a design. This phase is about looking, thinking and finding good language to communicate your own view on an artwork.
2. Analysis
This phase is about reflecting on your observations and try to make some statements about the work based on the evidence of your observations.
3. Interpretation
These are facts and official research made to support our observations.
INSTRUCTIONS
Week 11:
For our final task we are to assess, investigate, document and analyse a design material of our choice. After that, we need to produce a work of design inspired or influenced by the one we studied on.
The theme for this task is on 'Reduce Inequalities' and after choosing a design/work revolving around this theme we need to provide a 50-word explanation of why we chose this artwork. Then, we were tasked to write a 500-word visual analysis on the work that we chose. After that, we need to create our own artwork inspired by the work that we chose and hence write a 200-word rationale explaining and defending the decisions that we made.
Part 1 - Visual Analysis
For my visual analysis, I decided to choose an artwork based on the inequalities faced by children specifically the ones who are forced into child labour. I found this issue very sensitive as for me who had the chance to live a normal life with a normal childhood, I find it hard to digest that many children are still suffering and being forced to do things that one would usually do during adulthood.
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| Figure 1.0 Banksy. Slave Labour. May 2012, spray painting, 11th June 2022 Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/5a/Banksy_Slave_Labour_Mural%2C_2012.jpg |
Observation
'Slave Labour' is a mural painting done by the artist Banksy. The painting is in a landscape format and its main element portrays a young child working with a sewing machine trying to patch together the symbol of England that is its flag. The colour scheme consists mostly of black, white, with a touch of red and blue. From afar, I would say that the texture of this artwork looks quite smooth, and I also think that the positive space is quite packed compared to the negative space. Additionally, the curved lines in his work are quite thick and bold.
Analysis
Despite using the stencilling technique, I think that Banksy was able to make it look realistic enough. He did it in a way that it looks like he used an actual brush to merge the colours. Moreover, there is a lot of contrast between the light and dark values which I think makes the artwork looks balanced and adds a dramatic effect. The composition is asymmetrically balanced and looks like an L-shaped composition due to the flags being aligned in the right direction only. This work is harmonious mostly due to the lines and colours used. Honestly, even though at first sight you might notice the flags due to the latter being the only coloured elements, I would say that the child remains the main emphasis in this work due to its size but also as there is something so poignant in his stare that impacts you and makes you want to keep looking at him. As you go down, you can see the flags which also creates some movement and repetition into the work but also hierarchy due to the difference in sizes between the flags and the boy.
Interpretation
Back in the days, Banksy was inspired by a French graffiti artist called Blek le Rat who was known as the father of stencil graffiti. Moreover, it is good to know that Street Art is also considered as an illegal act of vandalism which is also one of the reasons that Banksy shifted to spray-paint rather than traditional mural painting.
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| Figure 1.1 Blek le Rat artwork, 11th June 2022 Source: https://urban-nation.com/artist/blek-le-rat/ |
As you can see, Blek le Rat's and Banksy's style both look so similar that it can become hard to determine who did what.
Banksy is known for his artworks where he delivers and raises a lot of political, anti-war messages and issues. 'Slave Labour' is no exception as you can see. This artwork was painted on the side wall of a Poundland store in Wood Green, London in May 2012. The work was a protest against the use of sweatshops to manufacture Diamond Jubilee and London Olympics memorabilia in 2012. The meaning of this artwork was mostly to condemn the practice of Child labour and raise awareness towards this issue that we still face nowadays. His goal was to provoke alternative viewpoints on this issue about the exploitation that many children have to go through due to their family lacking money, resources, education and so on.
My interpretation on this artwork would be that Banksy is calling out and criticizing the people who still engages into Child labour. I really like how he approached this topic by not painting something that would offense others or use any statement to call people out directly but instead he just used a simple picture of a child working. Something recurring in his artworks is the fact that there is always some deep meaning behind every masterpiece that he creates. The messages can be very flagrant at time or sometimes it requires the viewers to think a little deeper. On the overall, I would say that this artwork looks very evocative and makes you want to reflect more after the first glance. Furthermore, I would add that the arrangement of the elements is quite compact. It looks like there was not enough space in between them, hence evoking this feeling of confinement suggesting that those children work in precarious conditions. The atmosphere of this work feels very somber and bring forth a feeling of pity towards the child.
Reference for facts:
Syer, J. (2022). Banksy: Master of the Stencil. MYARTBROKER.
https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-banksy/articles/master-of-the-stencil
Kooness. (2018, December 04). Is Blek le Rat still influencing Banksy?
https://www.kooness.com/posts/magazine/is-blek-le-rat-still-influencing-banksy
Batty, D (2013, May 11). Banksy Slave Labour mural row re-erupts over new sale in London. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/may/11/banksy-slave-labour-mural-row-sale
Part 2 - Design
We are to produce a work of design inspired or influenced by our visual analysis. We also need to write a 150-200 word rationale for our design.
For my final project, I decided to base myself on the same topic that I chose that is Child labour and try to make a composition that would express my thought on this issue.
What is Child labour?
It is the practice of having children engage in economic activity, on part or full-time basis. This practice deprives children of their childhood, and is harmful to their physical and mental development.
Visual Research
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| Figure 1.2 Visual Research, 11th June 2022 Source: https://www.slideshare.net/srinisrg/chiild-labour |
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| Figure 1.3 Visual Research, 11th June 2022 Source: https://www.slideshare.net/srinisrg/chiild-labour |
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| Figure 1.4 Visual Research, 11th June 2022 Source: https://www.slideshare.net/srinisrg/chiild-labour |
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| Figure 1.5 Visual Research, 11th June 2022 Source: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/70/4b/70/704b70d92f8b1c895d2f6d45e14ba671.jpg |
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| Figure 1.6 Visual Research, 11th June 2022 Source: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/world-day-against-child-labor-kid-1979708009 |
Sketches
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| Figure 1.7 Sketches, 11th June 2022 |
Sketch 1 - In my previous works, I never really tried including typography into my illustrations. So, I wanted to try something more formal like a poster whose message would be against Child labour. For the letter 'O' I had the idea of using a sign like the 'No Entry' sign that we usually see on the road. Moreover, for the letters in the word child I thought that instead of using the normal alphabets it would look more impactful if I used silhouettes of children doing manual labour.
Sketch 2 - After some reflection on this topic, it made me think how lucky we are to even get a chance to think about our future and how we have the opportunity to pursue our dreams. So, this idea was based on the fact that children forced and exploited don't have the same opportunity and chance like most of us do. Most of them won't even dare to dream about a better future. Hence, in this artwork I wanted to portray a little story about a girl working in the rice field who dreams of becoming a doctor. In the foreground, there would be her and the harsh reality that she has to live in compared to the background which would look like an illusion of her achieving her dreams.
Sketch 3 - In this composition, there is a girl carrying a basket and being imprisoned with chains. This is to portray the fact that her freedom had been taken and she is chained down to work.
Week 13:
Digitalization process
So as to create my artwork, I used Adobe Illustrator. I started by designing the hand used in my sketch 1. I used he complementary colours blue and orange as I thought that it would make the artwork more interesting as compared to if I were to use normal skin tone.
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| Figure 1.8 Illustration process, 25th June 2022 |
Different Layout trials
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| Figure 1.9 Composition 1 version 1.0, 25th June 2022 |
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| Figure 2.0 Composition 1 version 2.0, 25th June 2022 |
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| Figure 2.1 Composition 1 version 3.0, 25th June 2022 |
For the compositions above, I tried to add some texture in the background using the paintbrush tools. I wanted to go for some texture that would suggest filthiness and show that the children work in precarious conditions. I also added some speckles of blood on the silhouettes so as to picture the fact that they are suffering.
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| Figure 2.2 Composition 2 version 1.0, 25th June 2022 |
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| Figure 2.3 Composition 2 version 2.0, 25th June 2022 |
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| Figure 2.4 Composition 2 version 3.0, 25th June 2022 |
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| Figure 2.5 Composition 2.0 version 4.0, 25th June 2022 |
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| Figure 2.6 Composition 2.0 version 4.0 with texture(noise), 25th June 2022 |
For the compositions above, I tried to go with a more subtle background by using the gradient tool. I also tried other fonts so as to see which one would look the best.
Week 14:
After feedbacks
After getting my feedback from Mrs. Jinchi, I made the necessary modifications which were to increase the size of my font for 'Child Labour' and also try to add some speckles of blood on it.
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| Figure 2.7 Composition A version 1.0, 1st July 2022 |
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| Figure 2.8 Composition A version 2.0, 1st July 2022 |
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| Figure 2.9 Composition A version 3.0, 1st July 2022 |
When I was doing the corrections for my work, I also tried to experiment with different shades of red for the word 'Stop'.
Version 1.0 - This shade of red is the one that I have been using initially but after some reflection, I thought that the colour was a bit too bright so I preferred to change it.
Version 2.0 - I liked this darker shade as I thought that it looked quite harmonious with the other colours. However, I figured that it was not striking enough and was blending too much with the other elements in my work. Since I'm trying to make a statement throughout this poster, I believed that this would not be the right choice to express what I wanted to.
Version 3.0 - I think that this shade is better compared to the previous ones.
Final Project: Visual Analysis
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| Figure 3.0 Final Project: Visual Analysis, 1st July 2022 |
PDF file link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z4xo06GKjOKr2rTqjJg2U-u0oSwVR-5p/view?usp=sharing
[My PDF is too large and I am unable to embed it but I put up the link which can be viewed using Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome]
For this final project, I made an artwork based on Child Labour. Like I said, previously this subject is quite saddening to me which is one of the reason why I chose this topic. I wanted to make a statement just like the artist Banksy, who I have chosen for my visual analysis. In the beginning, I was already visualising something related to puppeteering as for me children who are forced to work at a young age without having the right to choose are like just puppets. At first, I wanted to replace the letters from the word 'Child' with silhouettes hanging from the puppeteer's fingers. However after illustrating my idea, I saw that it was quite difficult to identify the word 'child' throughout the silhouettes. My initial idea was to write 'Labour' only but I added the word 'Child' since it was not readable enough. I also replaced the 'O' with a no entry sign so as to symbolise and emphasize the meaning of the word 'Stop'. I went with a colour scheme which is quite muted and contrasting as I thought that it would match the theme of my work which is quite depressing. I added speckles of blood onto my work so as to represent their suffering. Additionally, I chose to add some texture into my work so as to have a more polished rendering for my poster.
FEEDBACKS
Week 12:
After reading my visual analysis, Mrs. Jinchi suggested to me what I needed to shift in my paragraphs and showed to us how to write the referencing part.
Week 13:
I was told that my composition 1 is more visually impactful and has a stronger message as compared to my other ideas. The word 'child' has a playful appearance at first sight but after some more thoughts, we can see that it has a deeper meaning. It has more graphical elements when it comes to the principles of design like typography and layout. Doing it digitally would have a more professional look to it.
Week 14:
Increase the size of my lettering for 'Child labour'. Add some speckle on the lettering too. Try to lighten the gradient for the background.
Increase the size of my lettering for 'Child labour'. Add some speckle on the lettering too. Try to lighten the gradient for the background.
REFLECTIONS
Week 11:
Doing the visual analysis went on pretty smooth for me. Back in Highschool, I used to do Art & Design for my A-levels and I had to do a lot of visual analysis which had the same concept but was just shorter. Since, this was not something new to me I was not too overwhelmed or stressed about it. I liked how we were given the freedom to choose any topic related to inequalities and that we did not have to stick with only one specifically. Doing the design part was a bit more tedious. It was a bit hard to create a new idea as when I was doing my visual research, I saw that there was so much artwork already on what I wanted to do. So, creating one artwork which could somehow look unique was tough to do. But, I do think that I was able to get through this and was able to find some ideas.
Week 14:
Finally, I can say that I am done with this project. The process for my illustration was not as hard as I thought it would be. I did feel a bit stressed out at first as I don't normally do my works using Adobe Illustrator. I did feel the lack of inspiration mostly for the background. But after some time, I got through it and was able to do something where I felt satisfied enough. This project was very different to the previous ones as we are given a theme but even that it did not feel much like a burden.
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