Project 1B

The final product for 1B, in correct viewing order

This advertisement sequence is meant to market Modcloth in i-D magazine. More so than Project 1A, Project 1B really seems like a culmination of all the learning, research and hard work over the past 10 weeks because it utilises not just the knowledge and skills gleaned from previous classes but also the images we have created from the tutorial classes.

Inspiration

A dark and macabre twist to the original tale of the Little Mermaid. Image Reference: Light, M. (2017). The Lure Review. Retrieved from: http://horrorfreaknews.com/lure-2017-review

I had a spark of inspiration after watching The Lure (2015) – Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczynska’s unconventional take on Han Christen Andersen’s classic fairytale, The Little Mermaid. I had caught it during a film festival at the National Museum some weeks back and was inspired by not just Smoczynska’s spunky characterisation of the titular character (a cannibalistic mermaid!), modern setting, dark themes, and twisted ending but also by how Smoczynka continues to push the boundaries in filmmaking for women. It isn’t as common to find women-centric films in the industry, less so one helmed by a female filmmaker. This rebellious spirit and spirited vigour was one that I found in line with Modcloth’s ethos, and was something I wanted to capture in project 1B.

Themes and Concept

Therefore I decided to use fairytales as the unifying theme/collective idea for my advertising sequence. I did not want my advertising sequence to be one with the pictorials viewed in isolation, I wanted it to tell a story. Very often fairy tales and fables are serve as cautionary tales, with the female protagonist being portrayed as one that is weak and needs saving. From Sleeping Beauty, who needs prince charming to wake her from a sleeping spell with a kiss, to Little Red Riding Hood who is saved from a hungry wolf by the strong and very masculine woodcutter, the damsel in distress imagery is consistent throughout. I wanted to take this meaning and invert it to fit the ethos of female empowerment and strength that Modcloth is about, especially for an up and coming era of smart and strong-headed Millennial women that Modcloth sells to.

Also to make my advertising sequence more identifiable, I decided to use the common visual communications principle of negative/positive space and technique of stencilling respectively. Therefore, I would take the most characteristic visual representation of a fairy tale (e.g. Snow White’s apple, Rapunzel’s hair), do a papercut of it in red and impose of it on top of the original image. This technique, I believe, makes the fairy tale characters I am making a reference to more easily recognisable for the audience, and also the sequence more easily identified as a set rather than each image being a standalone advertisement.

Why Red?

Dorothy's ruby slippers as seen in the Wizard of Oz. Image Reference: Smith, A. (2016). Smithsonian has launched a Kickstarter to conserve Dorothy's ruby slippers. Retrieved from: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/news/2016/10/24/kickstarter-dorothys-ruby-slippers/

In fairytales, the colour red is often seen as a symbol of lust and deceit, such as the trademark red shoes in The Red Shoes, and Little Red Riding Hood’s cloak. At the same time, I think red is the colour of passion, boldness and adventure, so I would like to take this colour and put a positive spin on it.

Rationale/Write-up

This is the advertising rationale I have envisioned for this series of images:

In this series of advertisements, presented in i-D magazine, we have inverted the damsel in distress imagery found in fairytales into a source of strength and encouragement for women. We present our own take on the childhood, adolescence, and adulthood of a woman using the tales of Red Riding Hood, Thumbelina, and Cinderella. At Modcloth, we are commited to empowering women, and we believe beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. Be bold. Be fun. Be quirky. Shop Modcloth.

Work Process

The fairytales I have eventually selected, after going through my repository of images, were

• Little Red Riding Hood
• Thumbelina
• Cinderella

I wanted the images to be as colourful as and yet incorporate a variety of layouts as reminiscent of i-D magazine's ever-changing style.

Image 1

The first image in the sequence was Little Red Riding Hood’s.

The final product for Image 1

As I did not have an image of Little Red Riding Hood in my previous works, I had to think creatively instead about how to still visually communicate the idea of Little Red Riding Hood to the audience. Thus, I used the image of this makeup model from the Deconstruction and Repetition experiment, and traced the outline of the blanket over the head as well as her shirt on tracing paper. I transferred this onto red paper, made a papercut of it, and transferred it back to the original image – viola! I now had an imperfect makeshift, but nonetheless characteristic red hood for the Titular character now.

I knew that I wanted to create the feeling of the heroine being lost in the woods, but since I had no prior images of photos or trees, I thought of using faces instead. I picked out 3 images, namely being the Clown mask from the Disturb/Abstract/Make Strange experiment, the Guy Fawkes mask from the Stencilling tutorial, and the Astronaut from the Line tutorial. I then deconstructed the images to isolate their faces only, digitally manipulated the tonal values of the images to make them green, and repeated them by making various copies in the same size. This was to make the faces similar in tone to that of the forest, but I think serendipitously it created a sinister effect with the green gleam on the masked faces. Playing with the placement of the faces, I rearranged them to form the background of the advertisement. Thus by repeating the faces in the same size throughout, it creates similarity and harmony through scale and repetition, making Little Red Riding Hood’s contrasting image stand out more in the sea of faces.

Elements repeated in the order of Astronaut, Guy Fawkes Mask, and then Clown

I first arranged them in an ordered manner (top left), but I think this did not capture the convoluted and insidious nature of the woods in the original story, so I scrapped this idea.

Next, I tried two methods, first arranging them in a haphazard manner without any order (top right), and secondly arranging them in the following order – Astronaut, Guy Fawkes mask and Clown mask. I like the second method a lot more because I think there it creates a rhythm by repeating the images in a varied yet predictable manner. As with visual communication principles, there needs to be a good balance of both harmonious and contrasting elements to create a visually pleasing whole.

Positioning of Red Riding Hood according to the Rule of Thirds. The grid on the iPhone camera comes in really useful!

Next, instead of placing Little Red Riding Hood in the centre of the photo, I chose to employ the Rule of Thirds instead. Besides creating the visual effect of dynamism and movement, I thought having her at the corner of the image encouraged the viewer to “look” for her in the crowd, instead of revealing her identity as easily if I were to put her in the centre. The overall effect is of Little Red Riding Hood being being ‘lost’, or ‘standing out’ from the sinister forest of faces by the use of contrast to draw attention, depending on whichever perspective you adopt. I think the masked faces and anonymity add a nice touch as it is reminiscent of the superficial nature of the fashion industry, where people are usually judged for their looks and not so much for what is ‘on the inside’.

The final product for Image 1

To put the finishing touches on the advertisement, I wrote a tagline, “Fight your own demons” and collaged it in a Dada-esque style. I chose a sans serif font type that is commonly used in i-D magazine. I also placed the Modcloth logo at the bottom right of the image, keeping it consistent throughout the 3 photos.

Summary of Visual Communication Principles and Skills Applied for Image 1 (Non-Exhaustive)

•       Negative/Positive Space
•       Rule of Thirds
•       Deconstruction
•       Repetition
•       Similarity
•       Harmony
•       Contrast
•       Tracing, Papercutting and Stencilling
•       Collage

(There might have been some that I missed out. Do tell me if you noticed another principle that I might have subconsciously used, comments are more than welcome!)

Image 2

The second image in the sequence would be Thumbelina.

The final product for Image 2

Using the same tracing and papercutting methods, I first scaled down the image of this woman from the Negative and Positive space tutorial and made a red stencil of it. I think rather than an object, Thumbelina’s small stature is the most characteristic feature of the old fable. I wanted to position her in contrast with a larger object/person/animal to show her small size, so I decided to use the papercut of a bird from the papercut tutorial. However, I found that using 2 shapes of solid colours tended to divert attention away from the focal point of the photo (Thumbelina), so I made a new line drawing of the bird instead, using thin lines so as to downplay its visual weight and relative importance in the photo.

As the image looked somewhat boring and static, I chose to incorporate some movement into the photo by drawing directional lines using blue colour paper. This added an illusion of movement and dynamism into the image. Finally, I glued the components, including the text and the logo, down according to Fibonacci’s prescribed Golden Mean.

This image is the second in the series – while Little Red Riding Hood was more focused on the adolescent period of a young girl’s life, the Thumbelina image puts the spotlight on the teenage years, where women begin to face the pressures of a society rooted in ‘lookism’. Thumbelina thinks that there is never a wrong size – in fact there is never a right size, because all women should not be normatively judged for their skills and abilities based on their waistline. The message of self-love and confidence that Modcloth exudes is clear in this advertisement.

Summary of Visual Communication Principles and Skills Applied for Image 2 (Non-Exhaustive)

•       Rule of Thirds
•       Negative/Positive Space
•       Rule of Thirds
•       Movement
•       Visual Weight
•       Line Drawing
•       Tracing, Papercutting and Stencilling
•       Collage

Image 3

The third and last image in the series is Cinderella’s.

The final product for Image 3

To accurately depict the liking of Cinderella, I used the image of a ballerina on a rooftop used in the Positive/Negative Space tutorial. Again, I repeated the techniques of tracing, and papercutting as previously employed for Images 1 and 2 to get a stencil of her ‘glass slippers’ in red.

'Cinderella' with her glass slippers in a red stencil image

I have envisioned Cinderella to be dancing the night away at a party or banquet, so I decided to reuse the balloons from the Disturb/Abstract/Make Strange experiment. I made 2 photocopies of them – I knew I wanted to experiment with balance as I didn’t employ it during previous exercises, but I wasn’t sure how exactly to place them yet. Eventually I decided to place them on symmetrical opposites alongside Cinderella’s figure, as it was in reflected the ballerina’s movements well and placed her in the focal point of the picture in a general view.

Next, I put in cutouts of the faceless figures from the Positive/Negative Space tutorial. They served to be background figures of the party, and the anonymity acted as a good semiotic representation of how Cinderella is so confident, self-assured, and absorbed in her dancing that other key figures have faded into background stock characters – they simply do not matter.

I also added deconstructed waves obtained from the background of the Whale papercut in the Papercut/Stencilling tutorial, repeated in different scales and orientation. It was meant to be a play on the phrase “making waves”, because I think Cinderella, epitomising girls of all ages, are ground-breaking, special and capable of revolutionary ideas in all ways. Finally, I added the tagline “Be Your Own Prince Charming” as well as the Modcloth logo.

However I found that I wasn’t satisfied with the final product – it looked too cluttered, and there wasn’t a good balance of contrast to emphasise Cinderella as the heroine in the image. Having already printed out the images, I thought of a way that I could improve on it without having to start all over again.

Experimenting with tracing paper to adjust tonal values

Hence, I transferred the elements to black paper instead, and decided to manually play with tonal values, even if I didn’t have the help of a computer to digitally correct it for me. I used a piece of tracing paper and overlaid on the components in the advertisement aside from Cinderella herself and the text. This did a surprisingly good job of reducing the visual weight of elements in the background, by simply adjusting it values with tracing paper! I also liked how it blurred out the background elements.

To make Cinderella more easily recognisable, I fashioned a skirt out of crumpled blue paper and added leftover sequins from Project 1A onto her top. This image reminded me of the Straight Up photography employed in i-D magazine, and if the image wasn't so cluttered I would definitely have added a writeup of Cinderella's life as well as her likes and dislikes, just like how editors do in documentary photography. And that concludes the work process for the advertising sequence!

Summary of Visual Communication Principles and Skills Applied for Image 3 (Non-Exhaustive)

• Negative/Positive Space
• Balance
• Deconstruction
• Texture
• Tone
• General View
• Tracing, Papercutting and Stencilling
• Collage

Takeaways from Project 1A and 1B

Overall, I really liked how the both projects turned out. I had put quite a lot of effort into conceptualising and the work process itself for 1A and 1B, so I was glad that it translated into tangible results. I also became a lot more sensitised to different visual communication principles after this project. It made me a whole lot more appreciative of the work advertisers and visual communicators do too!

I would also like to touch on the difference between digital and traditional art. Previously, I had always seen the distinction between the different platforms as being a tangible rather than conceptual barrier – that it is possible that work done in traditional mediums can never been replicated in digital mediums and vice versa. After this project, I realised that the difference could be a conceptual one, as traditional mediums could more accurately capture the essence of mistakeism and creativity. In Image 3 of Project 1B for instance, I realised belatedly that I wasn’t able to change the tonal values of the background. To overcome this mistake, I had to work creatively using available tools and came up with the idea of using a tracing paper to adjust the tones manually. I’m not saying that you are unable to make mistakes or exercise creativity on digital platforms, do not be mistaken, but rather the effect of making these mistakes and working within the constraints of these mistakes may not be as visible in the end product to the audience. Does it really count as mistakeism, which is the epitome of experimentation and learning when you are able to easily erase it with an eraser tool, or even change the position of images even when its glued down with a hand tool?

However, I do not mean to discount the relevance of digital tools. Several works, such as Image 1 in Project 1B, was digitally enhanced using colour correcting applications on the computer. Thus, rather than think of them as polar opposites, I think both digital and traditional art can work well to be complementary mediums.