There was almost no prep work to this project: it was stressed that editorial pieces typically have a quick turnover and therefor need to be perfected quickly. This is true, but I feel it might've been more auspicious to see both sides of editorial: not all editorial are small news images. Some are developed, full-sizes, well-considered illustrations for something like a thinkpiece or timed investigative journalism, like a lot of the work Yuko Shimizu does.
Our first article was NYT's "Billionaires' Row and Welfare Lines".
However, we did start with some thumbs of sorts, exploring different compositions. No one (including me) could seem to get their head round the topic (on the widening gap between the uber rich and super poor and the horrifying reality of child poverty in the US) but it helped to hash out a bunch of wrong compostions to work out what visual language wasn't working.
For example, as most of the article seemed based in New York and cities. For the primer I did a bit of research around the topic in general and two NYT articles stuck with me: "Where Nearly Half of Pupils Are Homeless, School Aims to Be Teacher, Therapist, Even Santa", about children at Manhattan's Island School and the complexity of poverty for families (and schools trying to educate their children); and "A Sea of Charter Schools in Detroit Leaves Students Adrift", about how greed, politics and an education system that's lost sight of who matters most has ruined the lives of children already in extreme poverty. As someone who grew up in the countryside and moved to the city, I know there's something specific and horrifying about urban poverty and homelessness. That's not to say it isn't a problem anywhere else, but cities like New York, Detroit and London promise fulfilled dreams and wealth with their sights and skyscrapers, but so many people are left behind and with no good reason: it's the best place to see the canyon between rich and poor.
These worked but the message got a bit lost and particularly the scale idea seemed a bit too didactic. The second one in particular, if carried to completion, would also make more of a point about gentrification than people.
I then tried to work with the visual language of money, given that that's the stupid thing this all comes down to. It somewhat worked but it's hard to get such a specific point across in a clever way; for example, the SOS banknote would have been more detailed in completiton and may not have been recognisable for its message. The first one, with a stack of money, doesn't make sense: it presents the difference in capital between the two, sure, but doesn't look to comment on hat that measn to the poor person. I therefore extended that idea to the third idea, where wealth is a burden and throws the poor into darkness.
The last ones don't entirely make sense but I as trying to use the child-poverty side of things. Charities always use children in their campaigns because the thought of child suffering tends to distress people who have a heart. It seemed somewhat cheap- when I hear the phrase "women and children", I always think it's stupid that men and/or adults aren't considered to be able to be vulnerable and lost and in need of help when they so clearly are. Life just throws adulthood at all of us and people shouldn't be denied help because of age (or sex). Maybe that feeling is what makes us want to protect children though: the power of being an adult gives you the ability to protect children so they can either get the protection you benefitted from and/or give them the protection you never had.
I then tried to develop one of the pieces into something more planned out. They didn't work amazingly- I sent them to Luke for him to crit and he thought it looked like the person was sad because the bank wasn't open, and there was too much focus and not enough of a point for the presence of the cityscape.
Alas, I still had to complete some work, so I ended up using this idea but working in an advert in that day's LES that I thought was pretty effective: simple graphics, point made, and a version that could suit the placement of text.
Unfortunately, though they show a divide and the graphics are relatively good, they don't quite make their point effectively. The colour aren't as strong as on the LGW advert, possibly because I worked in greyscale and then used colour layers to make sure the colours worked harmoniously, but this meant they weren't as bright. It also fails to underline the anger and misjustice of the situation, and the vast extent of poverty in America
I feel these are slightly more effective but still not perfect. The iconography of a wealthy business man (and faceless, as is often the sentiment) is well-executed and I'm particularly drawn to the one casting a shadow across America as patriotism and enemies of the people are strong calls to arms in the States. The shadow one is also vaguely based on an illustration I saw for the 10th anniversary of 9/11 but cannot for the life of me find: a watercolour of the map of America with the shadows of the Twin Towers cast across it, without the Towers standing. That was more poignant because of that, and because of the idea of memory and casting a shadow, but I think the idea somewhat remains.
This last one also doesn't work so well- it was pointed out the tag references more the price of good etc, rather than wealth. The colours also seem too upbeat and the shadow perhaps not strong enough to effectively make its point. However, the form is good and it's not a terrible illustration- it might make its point OK if put next to the article.
Our next article was slightly more in my comfort zone, in that it talked about a topic about which I feel more fluent: "Who is the Black Man?" on the violence and commodification of black masculinity.
I did some basic thumbs for this but mostly jumped right in, given I had a clearer idea of where I wanted to go with it.
It's a slightly cliche image and I improved on it in a number of ways, but it makes its point about the violation of the black man's privacy, dignity and body and white culpability, a lot better than my previous attempts at editorial. I also tried to use my own style, which is slightly less effective and I feel somewhat subtracts from the seriousness of the message, but doing so means I'm one step closer to better integrating my own style into my university work and therefore a mistake as part of an integral learning curve.
I also did this one, an attempt at demonstration the diversity of what a "black male" is and why it's so stupid to pin it down to a bunch of stereotypes. Some of my earlier ideas had a white guy holding up a black guy stereotype, which might've worked better, or these guys holding up question marks over different parts of their body. I feel like more characters would've made the point clearer: filling the screen with them to emphasise the sheer vastness of the term, but I was short on time for this and I think the style doesn't work anyway.
I eventually went back to my first piece to improve on it: making the man look older, adding more violence and slightly more diversity in skin tone in the hands, as well as more texture in the background. It's far from perfect but it's one of the more effective pieces of the project and would actually work with the article. The fake 3D effect is maybe slightly overdone but generally the colours are better and add to a sense of violation and danger.
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