Illustration in Response to an Idea Protest Packs

Project 4

Weeks 8, 9, 10 & 11

This is the first project of "illustration in response to an idea" and here the idea is activism. We have been asked to produce a "protest pack" of resources that can be shared online among other people supporting the same course to aid in the protesting. I've decided to pick modern day women's rights and the #metoo movement as my subject. 

This was my initial notes and ideas while reading though the brief and during the introductory lecture - to be honest there's not much of substance here but it's helpful for me to get going. I knew very quickly what my subject would be and some of the ways I'd like to present it. 

Research and Inspiration

So my thought here is to create a sticker sheet with around 10 stickers on it in the style of a traditional tattoo splash page. I have a few reasons for this - some aesthetic and some more sentimental. So in terms of aesthetics, since stickers are small you want something bold and bright to grab your attention and this style works really well for that, I do think I will change the colour palettes because I also want to include the sort of 70's design style that I have been seeing around recently. My more sentimental reason is that sexual assault is something that stays with you for a lifetime, you can feel it on your skin and this idea obviously resembles the properties of a tattoo so it's like a reclaiming of your body kind of thing.

I really like these designs, I don't think I can really incorporate this style into the work I want to do but I felt they were worth including anyway. 

So I started off here just doodling down a few things I had in mind, I didn't put much thought into them I just wanted to get them down and then I developed two of them while looking at my traditional tattoo references and just picking certain elements from each artists style that I like and incorporating it into mine. Once I had these two done - and maybe it's just me - but one stands out to me way more than the other. I think the woman's figure is beautiful and gets across exactly what I had envisioned. It combines so many elements of things I love, it has the statue style with the missing limbs although I'm not certain I'll stick with that, it has the "tattoo on a tattoo" thing that I think is so cute and it has the strong message that she should be able to strut around proudly like this with no worries. I really want to celebrate women with this project so I'm thinking of doing many different shapes, sizes and colours of women each presenting an important message. 

While I was browsing traditional tattoos on Instagram I came across these two artists that take the traditional style and put a cutesy spin on them and I am OBSESSED. I love the idea of making them really pink and "feminine" because I'm always of the opinion that being a woman who loves all things pink and cute doesn't make you any less of a bad bitch and I'm really excited to bring this style forward into my work. The main change from the ones I was looking at before is the colour scheme so I'm going to put together a palette on procreate based on them.

While I was out walking about in Carlisle I spotted this beautiful sticker on a lamppost, and it's given me such a good idea of what size and colours grab your attention because I spotted this from a little while away. It's less than 15cm tall but the black against the light backdrop really makes it pop so this is something to consider - I need to think about where the stickers would be likely to be placed so that I can make sure the colours would be bold against that background. I also love this design because it's so simple but it certainly gets its point across and again that's something I want to consider because I don't want a really detailed design that isn't easy to understand from a distance 

Process

So to the right is a continuation of the doodles I did to get going because even though I've somewhat changed the direction I want to take this project, I still wanted to see this part through because I felt it deserves it. This could easily be a sticker sheet on its own but I just don't feel like this is the direction I want to take this project anymore - I have my feelings about the concept of being a victim and I want to show my women as being strong and powerful as we are.

So since I want to stick with the trad-tat style but incorporate the more "sweet" colour scheme I've come to the idea of combining strong women with some strong animals. A lot of traditional tattoos have animals that are very powerful- mainly big cats like tigers and leopards, snakes, eagles, wolves and bears. Obviously this isn't a full list but I will make a list elsewhere of animals I want to use and some inspiration images. 
I'm struggling to gather all my thoughts together but I'm thinking a series of designs of a woman with an animal, and a message on the design and then these can be used as probably A5 stickers. These designs can then easily be versatile enough to go onto tote bags, poster prints and maybe even temporary tattoos because I still love that idea. I also still want to have the social media posts but I need to figure that out a little more still as well as things like large posters and banners. 

The Things:

• A6 individual sticker sheets
• A5 collated sticker sheet
• Prints/posters
• Tote bags
• Temporary tattoos
• Instagram posts
• Large sign
  
• Banner

The Things on the Things:

• Big cat
• Snake
• Wolf
• Bear
• Eagle
• Doberman dog

So now I need to get on and do it. I'm planning to hand sketch each of my designs first and then do the nice neat work digitally and put it all together that way. 

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Outcomes

So here's my protest pack. I've made a box with the logo on for the actual pack that could be purchased.
This pack would contain:

• Pack of temporary tattoos 
• T-shirt 
• Pack of A6 flyers with paper sleeve
• *Exclusive* tote bag
• *Exclusive* poster
• *Exclusive* sticker book 

On the site where this pack would be available to purchase you would also be able to buy the following items individually:

• Pack of temporary tattoos
• T-shirt
• Pack of A6 flyers with paper sleeve 
• Individual A5 stickers 
• A4 sticker sheet 
• Prints
• Tapestry banner 
• Skateboard  

Stickers and Tattoos

Since the issue of the naked women being misconstrued came up in feedback, I have created versions with and without flowers covering them. I could have never put clothes on them to cover them up but the flowers feel cute and classy to me. In the mock ups I'll be using the covered version since I feel it eliminates the issue of unnecessary sexualisation (although I do still stand by a body being nothing more than a body). 

So unfortunately I've come to the conclusion that I can't mock up the tattoo pack like I wanted to - I can't find and mock ups online and I can't make one of the same quality as the others I have myself. I considered physically making one up but my printer is out of ink and basically the universe has decided I'm not allowed to present it how I would've liked. I do like the mock I've made of it on the skin at least.

Posters, Prints and Flyers

For the poster I made a collage type thing of the designs and added in the logo and on the boarder I put on the hashtag and the knife design from the logo; this poster would be exclusive to the protest pack. For the flyers I made a font of my handwriting and typed up some powerful quotes from powerful women. I kept the design simple as I'm imagining these to be A6 sized flyers that can easily be left places, put on pin boards or taped up. For the prints - which would be A5 - I combined the quotes with the designs for just a very simple but effective way of showing off how great women are. 

​Clothing, Bags and Banners

I really don't know why it took me so long to think of t-shirts - its such an obvious choice ​for my whole "protest by simply showing off your support" vibe. I decided to have just the logo on the front pocket area and a full design on the back and then I did colour schemes with the sleeves that matched the illustration and inverted the colours for the illustrations of the same colour. I don't think that was a great explanation but you can see what I mean below. I also mocked up a tag. I'm having fun, can you tell? (shame no one cared to iron the mock up though) I wish it were cheaper to get tops printed because I would love one of these - the Doberman one is my favourite but don't tell the others. 

Skateboard

Dwayne had mentioned in a call about trying some other things and was saying about another illustrator doing designs for a skateboard despite that not being something she would usually do and I really wanted to give that a go too - and I love it! Look at it, its sick. I changed the line work on the logo to white to contrast the grip tape and I made a collage type thing of the designs to go on the underside of the deck. And I changed the trucks and wheels to pink. I had to. 

Web Page

And here's all my products mocked up onto a web page, showing off the contents of the protest pack and the other products available. It took me a while to make this page because I made my own template and put it all together in procreate. I really love how it's turned out and I really loved this project on a whole - I'm kind of sad to see it of but I'm really proud of what I have created. 

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