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ILLU5050 - Protest Pack

13/4/2021

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The Brief

This brief is a very open-ended assignment;

Select a problem that needs to be fought against, and that needs greater attention. This could be an issue on any scale.
Create materials which may be used to protest against the selected problem & inform people about the issue.
These materials should be accessible to anyone so that they may join the protest. This is to be a D.I.Y. protest kit.

Introduction

Protest Pack Content Ideas

As addressed in my protest pack content ideas document, I've narrowed down my selection of issue to either:

A Review Of Some Of The Absurd Entries Onto The UK’s Offensive Weapon’s List
The Curtailing Of The Human Right To Freedom Of Expression By Insidious Authoritarian Government Action

Since, in my opinion, there is a massive difference in the scale & severity of these issues, fundamentally their treatments will differ.
It's much easier to have some fun and be playful when the stakes of an issue are minor & still have an effective impact, whereas treating a serious issue with the same level of joviality without the utmost care would hinder its effectiveness & provoke disingenuous counter-rhetoric from opposing viewpoints.

As to a possible treatment for "A Review Of Some Of The Absurd Entries Onto The UK’s Offensive Weapons List" I would address the absurdity of some of the listings by presenting mundane objects that fulfil the criteria in a satirical manner, highlighting the specific wording of the legislation within the image to inform as well as promote my rhetoric. A satirical campaign against Ninjas could be quite an amusing route to take & has the potential to create some bizarre unique imagery for poster designs. Satirical anti-ninja propaganda maybe.

The treatment for "The Curtailing Of The Human Right To Freedom Of Expression By Insidious Authoritarian Government Action" would be far more serious & urgent in its message. Since this is an immediate, current & ongoing issue that I feel strongly about, I feel like I'm obligated to take it in a far more aggressive & opposing direction. For the imagery I would use in this treatment, I would focus on citizens being oppressed by the state: classic imagery of the state's boot crushing the common man, liberty being undermined & decades of progress lost, the state oppressing the citizenry.

Out of the two, I think that reviewing the offensive weapons list would be more enjoyable for my project.

A list of possible items to include in the protest pack:

Large sign made from multiple sheets of printed A4
Single sheet poster about A4 in size
Miniature Logo/ Sticker - 9cm x 9cm square area to print out 6 on an A4 sheet
Pamphlet/ Manifesto - folded/ double-sided A4
Sandwich-board design

Research & Inspiration

Protest Signs In Use

Points for protest sign design:

Words tend to be higher up in the visual hierarchy.
Center-alligned type.
Logo-like images - simple & easy to read images.
Rhetorically convergent text & image.
Direct & to the point - quickly read & easily understood.
Rectangular format.
Few different colours used - greater contrast.

Initial Idea Exploration

As I've decided to address "A Review Of Some Of The Absurd Entries Onto The UK’s Offensive Weapon’s List" I've compiled the narrative points I wish to convey with my protest pack material:

The Very specific entries about weapons that are clearly only used by ninjas (about 8 out of 20 total entries on this list)
Everyday objects that fulfil the criteria of "Offensive Weapon".
The references to an object's "Design"
Entries that are entirely about perception/ aesthetics rather than any kind of logical reasoning.

So far, all my designs are for handheld protest signs, and so the intent behind them is to push an instantaneous & simple point or to intrigue viewers into seeking out additional information.
Since my protest pack has a specific piece of legislation that it is opposing, I believe the content for informational material such as pamphlets should be relatively easy to construct.

Initial Ideas Review

I believe that the more information-focused sign designs are more effective, and narrow the scope of my movement to a more clear & concise range of issues.

After reviewing my issue in a practical sense regarding how many people it affects, I've concluded that the vehicle of delivery for my message should change from hand-held signs & other physical protest mediums to something that is less dependent on a large-scale involvement.
While the rhetoric of my initial sign designs doesn't need to change, the medium in which they appear should be changed to a more appropriate form.

The reviewed content formats for my protest pack are:

A4 poster(s) - For print & digital use
Informational poster designed for social media
Brief Manifesto/ mission statement
Logos/ icons for possible sticker designs

Since my intent for the poster designs is to be informational, I believe a more iconographic style of illustration would fit alongside them.

Developed Work

I've decided to shift from a portrait to a landscape format as I see my pieces being used within a digital context, so landscape is more screen friendly. Since my graphics are quite simple & the execution of their ideas are flexible, they should be capable of changing format without too much issue.

Blueprint style poster regarding the overly-broad definition of a "Blowpipe" or "Blow Gun". A disassembled ballpoint pen fulfils the definition.
I like the simplicity of this piece, having just two primary colours helps the graphics stand out.
After doing a test print of the piece, and reviewing it in context, I've come to the conclusion that some of the type elements need enlarging to be more legible & attain more presence on the page.

In a roughly A4 printed physical version (offensive weapon for scale), the smaller typographic elements fall into the background & become difficult to read.

A revised version with adjusted type sizes for greater clarity.

To address item R, which is the primary cause for me to be invested in this cause, I've decided to highlight the absurdity of this legislation by showing four swords which have:

Identical hilts
Identical blade styles

The only difference between any of them is the curvature of the blade & the length. The curve is mild & the length is arbitrary.

The first piece was just to figure out the composition & show the graphical style I wanted to go with.

I then experimented with the colours of each of the elements, as the placeholder colours I started with didn't have enough contrast with the background (particularly the lighter coloured guards).

Here I've adjusted all the colours to match each other, and I believe they have enough contrast with the background, and enough harmony with each other so as not to draw attention to any one piece of each sword.

To increase clarity, the two shorter swords have been removed as they were causing some confusion about what exactly this piece was saying. To further clarify the argument, I've added more text to fill up the free space made by the removal of two of the swords.
Now the poster is saying something without the need for additional materials or knowledge.

To address entry N on the list, I just looked at the provided definition, and discovered that any two objects tied together would fulfil it, so I thought of some recognisable everyday objects that are naturally tied together. The comparison between the actual "weapon" & the objects highlights the absurdity.

This poster was the most educational in terms of the creation process, because I had to create assets for illustrator to solve problems. I made three different pattern brushes in this piece which I then used in future pieces to keep a consistent graphical style.
The brushes are:

The Chain-Link brush, which was the inspiration for creating my own assets, I started trying to make a chain link one piece at a time which took far too long, but I liked the aesthetic so I researched how to create my own brushes so I could just tie the pattern to a single path.
The Rope brush, much simpler than the chain-link brush & fulfilled a variety of different uses at different sizes.
The Cable brush, just two parallel lines combined into a brush so I could draw it on a path.

Having all the objects in black forced me to focus on the clarity of my images silhouettes need to be the correct shape & proportion to be recognisable.

Item G is one of the two on the list that could apply to lawn aerators (the other being item F) my thumbnailed posters featured item F, but I felt like I could do a more diagrammatic image with item G.

Reusing assets created in a previous poster helped speed this one along.
Continuing the style of my blueprint poster, I focused on annotating the image with very clean & clear noted sections to highlight exactly which parts of the definition fit where on this gardening tool.

Item S is just the epitome of the knee-jerk reactionary laws made by the U.K. government that achieve little to nothing apart from a public relations band-aid.

Again, an annotated diagram style highlights parts fulfilling definitions, and the comparison between the two knifes does all the rhetorical work for this poster.
I decided to use fairly innocuous content for the "zombie" knife's violent images/ words to emphasise how open to interpretation such language is.
The quote on the blade is from the bible, Psalm 144:1.
A fist is an ambiguous sign that could be interpreted as associated with violence or violent action.

Just to cover the pop-culture ninja weapons quickly I wrote up the entire Offensive Weapons list & highlighted the entries that are ninja weapons. I could've added more entries to this definition but decided to only go with the really explicit ones with named examples in them.