Don't Panic Brief - Resistance

D&AD student awards 2010

Brief -

Create an image for Don’t Panic that captures the theme of Resistance.

 Resistance is about going against the grain. Going left when everyone is going right. Resistance is radical for the short term, and revolutionary in the long.

We’d like you to capture on paper resistance to the politics (with a small ‘p’) of existence. From a personal level (interacting with you peers, neighbours and work colleagues) – to globally, countries, sexes & religions.

Consider sub-aspects of resistance – protection and armour (both physical and mental) aspects of survival, hardiness & determination. Try and think the opposite of your standard practice, work with new methods - push out of your comfort zone.

My Designs:

Noah’s Ark - My design for Don’t Panic was not my main idea originally, it was a thought I had right at the start of the project, and it was unsystematic and accidental for it to become the final design. The idea is very loosely based around Religion, as the brief stated this was a political project, but not to be mainstream political, to hint at the little things in life. So I thought about religion and faith and how I am an Atheist. I do not believe in well….. ‘belief’ I think we are all here by evolution. And nowadays religion is not as Big as it use to be the numbers are dwindling and/or there are new age religions now. This design represents Noah’s Ark, but the new age version, I personally think if ‘God’ was to ask man now to build and ‘Ark’ , the man wouldn’t cooperate as willing as he did back then and his attempt would lack any thought or care, he would collect a few animals (not the good ones), just the typical British animals and maybe even fake ones (like a merry go round horse). His boat or Ark would be an old bath and his attempt at saving his planet would be discreditable.

I have made this design with collage using watercolour paint and pastels with the use of found images, to create the scene. I have used all different type of paper and mixed media to produce the type and the layers to give texture to the work. Then scanning in to edit in Photoshop, changing colours and transparencies. I like the effect this gives as the words ‘Noah’s Ark’ is readable but yet difficult to see, and how the darkness of the image gives it a depth it previously didn’t have. 

Welcome - This collage has developed from the word exhibitionism, I wanted to capture  the subtle tones of this dark, sex-driven world. The brief is to show resistance in politics (very loosely) and so I have thought about all walks of life, which are frowned upon. This scene I have created is to persuade the viewer to invent his or her own story of this ‘demeaning, undignified’ attitude in life. It is conveys the red light district, brothels and the law against this demeanour. I feel the use of collage for this piece works beautifully as it expresses emotion more freely than I think a computerised version would. The bright tones of watercolour contrasting with the text and images, it is unclear and ambiguous, but lets the mind wander, the uncertainty of it reflects the extrovert way of life that I am amplifying with this project.

Watershed - This is my third design for Don’t Panic- Resistance. It is conveying television restrictions with the use of watershed, I chose this because I think it is becoming common to ‘swear’ on TV before 9pm, and I think this is not helping the youth of the generation grow to be polite grown up individuals. This does not anger me in anyway, but I have started to think more about this problem about antisocial youths and such. So I wanted to produce a piece showing or stating what is overwhelming us at the stroke of 9pm; sex, violence, drug use and explicit language.  I wanted to aim this collage at the younger generations so I have made it vibrant with colour and full of information. 

Opposites Attract - This idea came from magnets, which may sound odd but I felt it was an appropriate idea to create a collage based on this fact. I have used this simple idea of the north and south poles connecting to influence ideas of all the controversial groups and walks of life. Trying to encapsulate diverse relationships, different ethnicities and the many religions. Using song lyrics of "Black And White" by David Arkin and Earl Robinson, I feel this song does justice to the inspiration of the collage.