01.08 Week Three / Session One

Interim One

These  are the posters I decided to use for my first Interim presentation. After critique from my table group, it was decided that the mousetrap poster may be my strongest because of it's subtlety 

 combined with clarity, but we agreed that it was a close call between that poster, the drowning poster and the gun poster. The fourth poster was clearly weaker, which I was aware of beforehand. The main reason the mousetrap poster was chosen although it was a close call, was because the image was clear even without the use of text, which I think gave it strength. Critique of all my posters showed that I had strong use of colour, with the red being the strongest colour. 

I found it really useful looking at other students posters, one in particular jumped out at me. It used the iconic Edmonds cook book cover with the 'Sure to Rise' tagline, but had a picture of a house. I loved the way in which it clearly commented on the rising house prices but used something that all New Zealanders would recognise, it was ironic and humorous. That is something which I have the potential to use, I have not made my posters relevant to New Zealanders. I also have the potential to make it personal and find a story. 

This is the poster I chose to receive feedback on. All people who critiqued my poster agreed that the central issue was easy to identify, and they all believed the central issue to be student debt or loans or loans or education payment being money traps. One person knew that it was about student debt, but wrote 'higher education is a trap?'. I expected people to maybe be unsure about what exactly the issue was, as I wanted to spark conversation around the issue, but this is something I could take into account and make more clear, especially with the introduction of text. All people that critiqued the work could see that I was using pathos, but some said I was also using logos which I didn't recognise beforehand. My feedback included that the imagery was effective, easily identifiable and powerful, and everyone got the idea of the trap. Some people interpreted ideas into it that I had not recognised myself, which I liked, such as the idea that student loans appear to be free money but they are a trap. I think that is one of the benefits of leaving it slightly open-ended. One person was unsure whether I was saying that Universities only want our money, which I could think about more. Another person was wondering if I was implying that higher education is a trap, which I could clarify through text. Overall, my feedback was positive. 

In this mousetrap poster I wanted to show that tertiary students are being taken advantage of financially by playing on the idea that the mouse, which is vulnerable and innocent, has had a trap set for it. The graduation cap, or degree, is acting as the bait or temptation for the mouse/victim. The underlying idea of money being behind it all is shown by the shadow of the dollar sign, in which I had used dramatic perspective for shock. The colour red I have used for it's sinister nature, the idea that violence is approaching, and the idea that something is wrong. I have also made the mousetrap small with the shadow towering over it to imply that it is serious and dangerous. 

In this poster I am playing on the common phrase 'drowning in debt' and also using pathos to communicate the sensation of feeling suffocated in debt. I have done this through the use of scale, with the person being so small, it reinforces the idea that they have been made a victim, the feeling of helplessness and the power of the water. I have partially covered the type in the water to convey the sense of claustrophobia and the sense that the water is rising. The blue not only shows the colour of water, but also sadness and depression. The red of the type is sinister and demands attention, which is reinforced by it's scale. The text brings the image into context, they do not work individually. 

In this poster I wanted to use shock and violence to get my message across. In this image I have incorporated the text as part of the image itself, turning the word 'student' into a gun and the word 'debt' into blood. I have used the red to show blood and also shock. I have used the yellow ironically, as it is a happy and bright colour to contrast with the obviously unhappy scene. 

This fourth poster is clearly the weakest of all the posters. The colours are uninteresting, there is too much going on, it is vague and unclear and also doesn't make that much sense. I wanted to use the idea of weight to convey the sense that debt is a burden. I wanted to show that the person wants to gravitate towards the degree, but the money trap is in the way, which he is desperately trying to avoid. I have not communicated my pathos well enough for this to be effective. I have used the fact at the bottom to bring the image into context 'tertiary costs have risen by 37% between 2009 and 2015'.