This project responds to the themes of ihi and wihi, the complementary terms associated with emotional and psychological behaviour, where I have explored the use of rhetorical approaches to conceptually interpret and communicate the societal issue of The New Zealand flag change. The stance that I have taken on this issue is for flag change, where the underlying concept that I am depicting through my two posters is the need for individuality and independence to be shown in our flag.
The persuasive and rhetorical techniques that I have included convey a theme of individuality and independence, where the idea that New Zealand is too attached to Britain, and we have now had enough, is portrayed within the posters. These techniques contribute to an overall concept that our current flag and its ties to Britain, is not our cup of tea.
Within these persuasive and rhetorical techniques lie the concepts of pathos, logos and ethos, where pathos appeals to the emotions, logos refers to logical conclusions and ethos can be seen as the source of the message, where trust and credibility come into play. I have taken these concepts into consideration when designing my two posters, where for pathos I have capitalised on the emotion of national pride and patriotism. For logos I have looked at conveying a sense of logic in the visuals, where they are predominantly British to emphasise that there is a need for change in order to make the flag our own and 'New Zealand.' Finally, for ethos, I have used imagery that is easily recognisable to create a sense of trust through this concept of familiarity.
It is through visual language that I have achieved my concept, with the use of rhetoric devices to persuade the viewer to take my stance. For my first poster I have predominantly utilised homage, using the style of the Sex Pistols God save the queen album cover in a manner that gives a nod to the original. However, I have put a twist on the original image, using be technique of subversion to manipulate the original design to better suit my concept. This included the addition of the arm with a cup of tea and the replacement of the old text with 'not our cup of tea.' Further colour changes were further made, where this also emphasis's the juxtaposition between the style, which is very punk rock, and the subject matter, which is rather delicate and dainty. For my second poster, I have used metonymy, where the red background gives an automatic feeling of urgency, with reference to stop signs. Furthermore, I have ever so subtly used the technique of satire, where the use of a very British saying to communicate the an idea that is negative toward them is very ironic. The position of the tea stain higher than the teapot is a further use of irony, where a stain would usually sit underneath, however I have positioned it above, as if to communicate an uprise or change in dominance.
To further my visual language I looked to fundamental design principles, where for poster 1 I predominantly used contrast to portray the idea of irony, with the queen having connotations with delicacy and decadency and the punk rock style being much more rebellious, this was done to bring emphasis to the idea that New Zealand can not be represented by Britain, and the queen, but rather, it is an exaggeration of rebellion, where we need to create our own representation of ourselves. This is justified through the use of colour to provide visual clues, where the greeny yellow background represents this idea of 'yuck' or 'gross' tea, further emphasising 'not our cup of tea.' The white and light pink are used to convey this delicate perception of the queen and tea parties, where the contrasting black strokes over top bring a sense of dominance over it. In poster 2 I used balance and scale to create a hierarchy, creating visual clues as to what visual messages had dominance over others.
In terms of the application of the grid, I utilised it in a way that would structure each element of the poster in a balanced manner, where the composition was simple and refined, in order for the images to be the focal point, where, this way, they could be easily read and interpreted. Furthermore, I looked into the use of the golden triangle for the second poster. My typographic approach reflected both the style, for poster one, and the subject matter, for poster two. In both posters I had a very crafted typography element that was suited to the overall essence of each poster, followed by very simple and refined sub headings. I wanted to create a hierarchy in the typography, where it was obvious that the crafted typography, where I created newspaper cut out text for poster one and a coffee stain text for poster two, was the prominent message, and the simple sans-serif font was the sub-text that justified or explained the main message.
Throughout this design process I have learnt that critique and feedback are a very effective way to further your project, an aspect of deigning that can not go a miss, where often it is useful to get another pair of eyes to analyse and interpret your work, to see things you have missed, or even question your motives. These processes will inform my approach in future projects by providing me with an idea of what is needed to gain the most helpful and constructive critique, as I believe critique and feedback has been the most substantial way for me to develop my project and make it the best it can be.
