I’ve been working with my portfolio, doing some updating, rearranging and such. Decided to share some here.
Here’s some of my print work. This is the start of an ad campaign for Nabisco cookies. I actually finally got another idea for Nutter Butter, so I’ll probably work that one up, too.
So both of these are Photoshop work. I lubs me some Photoshop.
This is one of the first ads I did. It is in InDesign. The idea I had here was that I remembered reading about an award winning ad for CBS News. A print ad, instead of pictures, it was two very large quotation marks with some small type in between. I liked the juxtaposition of type to represent a visual media, so I used visuals to represent NPR since the radio is words.
Here’s a drawing I did that I’m particularly proud of, my voodoo doll. I did this for class, we were supposed to do a book cover illustration for a mystery novel on black paper. I didn’t want to to anything cliche like the noose in the doorway or a smoking gun. So I did a voodoo doll. I think I need to write the book that goes with this now, too.
I shared my museum commercial in an earlier post, Museum Commercial. This was done in Adobe AfterEffects.
And here’s another video. This was for the class on Adobe Premiere. Fun class. This project is a swipe-o-matic. Basically, it’s a piece to quickly relay a concept. You swipe content from videos that are similar to what you want and cut things together to show your idea. Most of my content is borrowed from World of Warcraft cinematics (student project!!! Fair use!!! lol ) and some from within the game that I shot myself with Quicktime. And those of you who are fans of The Guild will, well, recognize some stuff.
The fact that we even have to talk about this kind of thing says so much about humans. Recorded history shows our need to portray ourselves in the best light possible. The ancient Egyptians idealized themselves on their tomb walls. But these portrayals have really evolved into something beyond seeing ourselves in the best light possible and have become a way to prove to each other that we don’t measure up.
“There are 3 billion women in the world who don’t look like supermodels and only 8 that do.” ― Anita Roddick
It’s a sad state of affairs when only a very few women are set up as the ideal for everyone. And even sadder to realize, as Jean Kilbourne has pointed out time and time again in her presentations, that those few aren’t even presented how they really look.
As artists we learn how to manipulate photos. We learn how to achieve that ideal–whatever that may be at the moment–and we never really learn to question if it is right. We are dazzled by the ability to alter the photo, to make it something new, something akin to perfection and we wield that power with no thought to the consequences. Whiten someone’s teeth? Hide a bulge on a woman’s side? Make her blemish free with glowing skin? Check. Check. And check. Then watch the same woman become frustrated when the acne scar is noticed, no matter how carefully she applies her makeup. Watch her wear restrictive undergarments in the hopes of smoothing out that bulge. Watch her apply chemicals to her skin to give her a “natural” glow. But it is never as good as the magic brush of the computer.
Yet, as if to remind us not to worry about all those extras women are enticed with articles about celebrities or models without makeup. “See,” they tell us, “celebs get acne, too. They look just like us.” And indeed they do, except for every other time that we see a picture of them. It’s only in rare articles such as this that we can get this reassurance.
Why we desire perfection is probably not the surprising thing. What is surprising is how far we let advertisers go in training us to hate ourselves for not meeting an ideal that frankly, no one can meet. And as artists and people who work (or will work) in advertising, do we perpetuate the illusion? Or do we take a stand and try for more realistic approach?
A few years ago, Dove started it’s Real Women campaign. Here’s a photo of some of their “real” women:
While I agree that these are real women, they are still not representative of the average woman. I challenge you to find a roll of fat, droopy upper arm skin, a double chin on any of these beauties. They don’t have them. Again, it is the cheat that advertising uses to soothe the “plus” size women. Use a well proportioned model of a size barely into the double digits instead of the standard size 0 supermodel.
This is what “real” women look like. They have bumps and lumps and double chins and cankles and droopy triceps and big bellies and junk in the trunk and yet they are beautiful. Take a look at the comments if you don’t believe me.
We can only hope that someday, advertising will truly sell to the REAL women and hold us up as an ideal that reflects who we really are, not what a few advertising moguls wish we were. As artists entering the field, perhaps it is up to us to push the envelope, to show that consumers need to see themselves in the ads in order to be sold a product. After all, ultimately we are selling the product, the ideal is only the hook to get us to buy.
I ran across an interesting set of blog posts by author Jim C. Hines. He had become interested in whether or not the poses of the women on the covers of romance novels were realistic or not. So he set out to prove, or disprove, their realism and his post shows pictures of his findings.
He actually started by trying to copy the pose of one of the girls on the cover of his novel. And while he did capture the pose pretty well, he complained that it pained him. I can see that. Some odd poses there.
The follow up, copying poses of men on book covers, also had some ridiculous poses. Most not as bad as the female ones, but still.
It’s something to think about as artists. Illustrating known forms in a natural way. If you want to create something alien and fantastical and completely yours, then you can twist the form into any strange pose you want. But people only move certain ways and we should be aware of that. Learning anatomy is a big help, but if nothing else, have someone pose how you want and photograph it. Then work from your photograph. I think Jim successfully illustrated that working from the painting to the photograph is definitely the wrong way!
I’ve been doing a lot of poking around on the web to supplement my reading and learning for a copywriting/marketing class. I found a couple of links I thought worthy of sharing.
The first is an evolution of brand icons. There’s two parts and a few icons to flip through in the galleries.
With the icons that are people, Betty Crocker or Aunt Jemima, for instance, it’s interesting to see the changes and correlate them with the fashions and standards of beauty of the times. (And let’s not even get into the whole change of how people of color are portrayed in advertising because that is another several posts in itself. I’m just commenting more on the fashion, hairstyle, what is considered hip or cool.) Like several of the icons changing from cartoons to real life. Burger King becomes a dude with bling, for instance. (But is there anyone other than me who finds that photograph looks as if the King is drooling? Gotta look at the details before you publish, guys.)
And the way Ronald McDonald changed. The cup for a nose? Um, no. No wonder kids are scared of clowns. At least a real nose is not as scary as that cup. Makes me wonder, what were people thinking when they came up with that? “I know, clowns are scary, so let’s give him an inhuman feature right in the middle of his face to make him more approachable!” Yeah. Or not.
One of my favorite evolutions has got to be Smokey the Bear, though. He got more rugged and less teddy bearish over the years. Although when he started being teddy bearish probably worked well for him, what with the teddy bear becoming popular because of President Teddy Roosevelt at the time. I love how his catch phrase changed from ‘forest fires’ to ‘wildfires’ and I wonder if it has anything to do with the propensity of fires out west that really aren’t in forests at all, but usually grassland or mixed terrain. Wildfires seems a more appropriate term for the sort of land those fires rage through.
The second link is geared more toward business people, to help them understand the power of having a designer on their side. I think as designers, this is a good tool for us, as well. It can help us understand how to sell ourselves and the value of our creativity.
Definitely some things I’ve never thought of before. The 10 Principles of Good Design are certainly something I’m going to keep around and mentally check off when I’m working on a project.
None of us may naturally be the elusive unicorn, but at least we have a target to aim for.
For my class on Adobe After Effects, my final project was a commercial. I did an ad for the Utah Museum of Natural History because they just got a spiffy new building, and well….dinosaurs.
The content is purely stolen – erm – borrowed. Yes, borrowed under Fair Use. So please UMNH I did this cause I think you’re cool. And BBC I only borrowed your Utah Raptor, cause, well, it’s from here. What were you guys doing with it anyway? Oh, and UMNH your new logo is blah, so I used the old one cause it still rawks!
