Week 9

COVID-19 Government posters:

Images: Government posters intended for adults and the elderly are black, with splurges of yellow and green. Children’s posters are informative, but long-winded – are they really going to read all of that?

Just from looking at these posters I have come to the conclusion I am desperately wanting to re-design them from a creative, NHS friendly, stay-at-home design perspective. What strikes me most about these posters is that the only recognisable splash of blue we have on them is the NHS logo. Why? Surely these posters need to be celebrating the NHS during this time and blue is instantly recognisable as a healthcare colour. Black is daunting, like a plague. Yellow screams danger, and there is not one sense of the whole community behind coronavirus – the self-isolation, the home-schooling, the social-distancing, healthcare workers, supermarket workers, the way people are becoming creative, gardening/crafting/painting/redecorating. There is something wonderful that is coming out of this – a community.

  • NHS identity is blue; a symbol of healthcare in the UK
  • Using the same colour I experimented with colouring in the blue illustrations
  • I experimented with using a paler blue background; almost to represent the body of the NHS and its community.

Above, I have taken a blue from the NHS logo and experimented with colouring in the cells. I didn’t think this was very effective as the cells themselves aren’t blue. I then made the blue a pastel based blue and coloured in the background. This works better and I think it looks effective – there’s something about the way the cells are floating around on a blue background that makes it seem quite calming, and safe. This could represent the NHS itself – these little covid-19 bubbles could be people all floating around in this community of self-isolation.

experimenting with different mediums:

fabric:

Above, I have selected grey/pale blue material to represent what I have discovered so far in my research – that the covid-19 cells would be grey/invisible and taking the colour blue from the NHS identity.
I have cut out circles from fabric to represent the bubbles. I really liked the cut-out fabric that I used and layered them over each other to see what effect that would make. With the circles, I have sewn some to acetate and made them attached to a clear background, as I wanted the lines to be coming off the fabric to appear spiked.

In my research for existing Covid-19 posters, I found this website which has adorable entries of children’s ‘stay at home’ posters. I really love the colours and how playful this is, and the submissions by children are all so colourful and crafty.

This has inspired me to use colour. I really want to make the posters colourful and as I was originally so inspired by my dishwater soap bubbles – due to the iridescence – I feel it would be so much fun to incorporate that into the final piece.

watercolour:

Communicate an emotion you perceive your city or location is about.

Take the word and use an appropriate material, form or medium – 2D, digital, 3D or immersive.

milton keynes – isolation

I have decided to use watercolour as the expansion of the watercolour also represents my city. It is rapidly expanding with industrial areas and housing. Therefore I have experimented with creating watercolour bubbles:

Images: I began thinking about expansion of my city and using watercolours to present that. I painted bubbles as that was what I started with. I think the outcomes look visually effective; the expansion of the paint in the water has set as it has dried and left striking contrasts and detail.
Images: I have experimented in photoshop with using the watercolour background to represent expansion, and moved the bubbles I painted to create a thought bubble. I also applied the fisheye warp on the ‘isolation’ text to look as though it’s in a bubble/a bubble.

Thinking about the final outcome, I thought it would be effective if the design became a window sticker that people could stick in their windows. The effect is not as great as I’d hoped – light reflecting off the window does not work in the watercolour’s favour.
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