Week Three / Formative Feedback

Today we had the interim/critique among peers and staff of four of our concepts. This was to get critical feedback and help us refine our ideas and pick a design to move forward with. 

This stage in the process is essential and gives you and idea of what works, what doesn't and how other people respond to your work. 

Three little pigs - poster wouldn't be clear without the text. Perhaps it needs some indication of their houses, like the ruined straw house, ruined wood house then a cardboard box or something to indicate the lack of house. 

-Out of the three story based posters the three little pigs one is strongest, best use of FDPs, most dynamic, most recognised story (someone didn't know E.T. and someone didn't recognise Dorothy's shoes).

Dorothy - Again not clear without the text but the text makes it very clear

E.T. - Got a laugh. 

- The person who didn't know E.T. suggested the finger points at something like the writing or a cardboard box. 

The three story based poster ideas have the best potential for development and style while the FB one doesn't have that. The Ethos aspect of the story ones were appreciated.  

Facebook - voted favourite

- Most relatable to modern people as almost everyone has fb but not everyone knows E.T. etc. 

- FB one best use of Pathos

- Try some more casual, relatable text in fb one

- Try image of glowing phone rather than screen shot

- Try just using speech bubble and 'seen' and cut out the rest for more impact

Rest of class on FB poster:

Issue - Housing. Lack of support for housing. Something dumb about Jenny Craig. Housing through FB

Identify the idea - Idea is very clear, %100 got it. Relatable and relevant to people our age. Clever

Why/why not - Change name, Jennifer Craig too much association with weight loss program. Make it so more time has passed for more impact.

What is designer commenting on - Our politicians don't care

Designer uses Pathos - easily recognisable as facebook. 

I really appreciated genuine feedback from the group and from the class and I really enjoyed going around and seeing everyone else's work

I think some of the feedback was irrelevant such as the comments about 'Jenny Craig'. Seemed those comments made it that people didn't bother with any useful feedback. I forget 'Jenny Craig' is a thing but it's also really good that I was reminded of this. It's a very famous weight loss program so it definitely takes away from any issue I'm trying to address and confuses the reader. 

The feedback was really helpful in helping me decide which design to stick with and which designs didn't work. I have very clear ideas of what direction to go in now and I know what questions I have to ask myself and address. 

Critique with Jacquie:

Agreed with class feedback that FB one is strongest and most emotionally engaging. 

Also like the Dorothy one but mentioned the background looks like the result of a natural disaster which doesn't relate to equality. Be careful of the contrast between the story space and the gritty reality of homelessness - make sure it's very purposeful. 

Likes the way the fairy tales take one back to childhood. This creates a specific Pathos regarding children and nostalgia. 

With the three little pigs poster the wolf is very dominant which can give the impression the wolf is to blame/is the scary part of this design rather than the lack of housing.

Back to FB one, very powerful because it's in first person which is something the others lack. Makes it more personal. 

The three story pieces are a little less personal, to change that make them first/second person. 

Scribblings of a coffee fuelled mad woman!

Just notes, brainstorming and thumbnails

- Trying to hit that point of relatability among the well off and obnoxious. Using well loved icons/characters? Using something instantly recognisable like a facebook message/movie star/classic fairy tale. 

- Target audience - middle/upper class, those who don't understand, who can't empathise. 

- To bring awareness to: Those who experience 'primary homelessness' - sleeping rough on the street, in make-shift shelters or in state shelters who have no support system

- Call to action - be kind, understand, be aware, don't ignore 

Just an initial mock up, looks terrible of course. Too wordy. Made it black as though she were floating in the void but I think it needs a different background. 

Just a further development. Not sure if I'll go with this idea yet though

Furthering the facebook message idea:

Needs to be simpler?

Notes on fb message idea:

Three little pigs brainstorming:

Strongest thumbnail. I like the dynamic use of space, scale and composition. Colour will change of course, this is just a composition mock up. 

I'm less keen on this one. Doesn't work as well, I think the symmetry and composition are a little weak/needs development. 

Reversing the story? "The wolf only wanted some shelter" or something

Just to confuse you, these are all from the same page:

E.T. ideation:

 Quick mock up:

Interviews

I did two interviews. One with a well off, young white woman who will probably never experience homelessness. We'll call her Lady McLadyface, who is well loved and has a solid support system of fairly wealthy friends and family.
My other interview was also with a young white woman who we will refer to as Jane Smith, but someone who did not have a good support system and subsequently spent three years homeless.



Lady McLadyface


Q. What visuals spring to mind when you think of 'homeless'?

A. Hobo, fisherman's hat, old white man, unwashed, holy jumpers, ripped clothes, unshaven, sitting on a dirty street or lining up in a soup kitchen.

Q. What other thoughts spring to mind?

A. Alienation and isolation, sadness and despair, both what I think they feel and what I feel when I see them. Hungry, I don't know whether I should give them food or money, whether that would help or make it worse.

I'm pretty shy around strangers but I also know that lots of homeless people don't get much social interaction so I'm not sure if befriending them would help them or be condescending or potentially put me in danger. I wonder if they have any friends or family.

I heard someone say once that part of the 'student experience' of Wellington when they moved down from Palmy was to sit on the street and beg for money for a day, just for shits and giggles and to see how much they can get. I think that's pretty messed up.

I do wonder about the mindset of homeless people, if you know what I mean. Like someone can try to help them but if they don't want to help themselves or if they feel like it's no use then nothing's going to happen.





Jane Smith

Q. How long were you homeless for?

A. I was homeless for 3 years

Q. What age were you when you became homeless?

A. I was 14 when I became homeless.

Q. How did you become homeless?

A. My father's third wife was extremely psychologically abusive. One day she told my father she would leave him if he didn't kick me out.

Q. Did you feel you were in danger at any point, in any place you were sleeping?

A. I felt in danger less often than I should have, looking back on it (children think they're invincible). The places I slept were unsafe, yes.

Q. How did you find income to survive?

A. I pan-handled on the side of the street and occasionally sold photographs in art galleries. I also received food stamps when I was about 15. I got a job when I was 16 and stayed at a homeless shelter until I saved the funds to move out on my own.

Q. How did other people react to you?

A. Other people did not notice I was homeless unless I told them. I took pride in trying to look 'normal and clean' (stealing new clothes or getting them from drop-in centres, bathing in public restrooms with washcloths or in shelters, etc.). When I was pan-handling, I received more sympathy for being perceived as 'normal and clean' (probably didn't hurt being white as well).

Q. Do you think there's a lack of understanding or empathy from people who've never experienced homelessness?

A. Yes, there is definitely a lack of empathy towards the homeless.

Q. If you could say something to people who don't understand or people who are rude to homeless people what would you say?

A. I suppose I would just try to tell people to be more empathetic, and that they couldn't fathom the hurt these people have had to endure either by abuse, unforeseen life circumstances, or quite often, years of underlying institutionalised racism. But people don't really relate to those things either.

What I learnt from these two interviews is there is clearly a lack of knowledge and understanding around homeless people. Obviously as I only interviewed two people I can't speak for everyone, but I'm combining this information with other research I have done and evidence of what other people have said on social media regarding the homeless community.

Many of those who care and are compassionate have no idea how to help or how to treat a homeless person and as a result don't bother, and many people are just horrible. Rude and cruel and un-empathetic. there needs to be more information circling about homeless people, more of an understanding and more empathy, or at least less cruelty. I need to find a way to show people who don't understand that homelessness can actually happen to anyone for any reason. I need to find a way to relate to people who can't relate to homeless people. I need to reach out to them and help them understand.

Further Research

This video damn near broke my heart. It's just an advert for CCTV but my god, it's not a happy ending. Seems an odd approach for an advert to take but it sure stuck with me. Don't watch if you don't want to feel sad, I can summarise: Homeless man sleeps outside of shop, shop owner abuses homeless man every morning when he opens, homeless man eventually isn't there anymore. Shop owner misses homeless man and views CCTV to find out what happened. Homeless man had been protecting shop owner's shop from vandals and hooligans, only to get in a fight with some robbers and get stabbed to death. See? Not happy. But very good at reaching audience with pathos technique.

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/govt-fronting-up-9m-address-homeless-problem-two-new-schemes

Interesting article, the government has put 9mil into helping the 2000 homeless people of New Zealand. Andrew Little says it's last minute and not enough. But at least SOMETHING is happening. I was starting to go mad with the inactivity in the government. Seems national is the embodiment of the business man walking past and ignoring someone in need of help.

I saw this guy's shelter on the street and was really curios as to what it was, I thought it might've been some kind of performative piece but it was actually a homeless shelter he built himself! So innovative and interesting! He's got an amazing attitude and says some really insightful things about homeless.

Article on the same guy: http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/meet-the-guy-who-s-living-homeless-2-0

Week Two

Session two


Today we continued to create ideas and concept, doing mock-ups of our ideas and making some of our best thumbnails into bigger and better rendered concepts. This of course is also a vital stage of designing and necessary to working out which of your thumbnails work on a bigger scale and which do not.

This is one of my thumbnails I felt looked good, so I blew it up and printed it out

I painted over it with dramatic reds and a contrasting blue

Then used generic symbols of death as the iris

As these were just rough concepts let's ignore the fact that the digital icon cut-outs clash terribly with the painted eye and just focus on the idea. While I thought this looked pretty good and eye-catching at thumbnail size it's not nearly as impactful as I'd hoped on a bigger scale. For starters, the eye doesn't actually represent homelessness so without context, the viewer would be clueless. The whole 'death symbol as the iris' thing is pretty overdone and generic. So a failed experiment really, but a good one. I've got that out the way now I can focus on bigger and better. 

During my research I came across a fact that really jumped out at me. The mortality rate of homeless people. People who sleep rough have a life expectancy of 39 years. That's crazy! 

This information was actually from an American website and I literally couldn't find any stats on mortality in NZ. In fact the best info I found on New Zealand homelessness was that there wasn't enough info on New Zealand homelessness. 

It's apparently not enough of an issue to collect solid data. 

But anyway, I wanted to try and illustrate that. It had an emotional impact on me so I tried to translate that into imagery. 

The homeless person sleeping on the street in a body bag rather than a sleeping bag:

On a similar note I wanted to capture a clear combination of death and homelessness. So I had the torn socks and dirty feet with a post mortem tag. The class had some interesting feedback on this one. They seemed to get the intent of my message straight away which is always a good sign. And added that the fact there was nothing written on the tag struck a chord with them too, noting that this could be a symbol that the dead homeless person is anonymous, has no one and is considered no one.

Over all I'm not hugely happy with any of my designs so far. I feel like I really need to get back to the drawing board, look for further inspiration and brainstorm better concepts. 

Inspiration

I find the illustrations of Pawel Kuczynski both poignant and amusing. His sense of satire and humour is great, coupled with his political standpoint and statements make his art memorable and thought-provoking. This statements are simple and clear, making them all the more strong.

Various comics I feel are very relevant and often say what I'm trying to communicate  

I love these parodies!! They're simple and instantly recognisable. It seems the most striking parodies are the ones that everyone knows, beloved cartoon characters or famous musicians. Icons make the best parodies. 

Similarly, parodies of corporate super powers make the most poignant statements. Perhaps because people love and use these products every day, perhaps because deep down they know they're feeding into the de-forestation or slave labour but they ignore this fact. Perhaps they just recognise it and it's powerful simply for that.

Useful and informative info graphs 

Useful icons/images!