OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Further Type and Image Developments

In sourcing further imagery, it was decided to experiment with the use of secondary photography which may convey my idea better. This image visualises specifically my initial idea whereby people are sat on the subway reading the New York Times, the brand of newspaper which is referenced directly in the statement I am communicating. The use of this would help create a better link between type and image therefore. It was also thought that the monochrome image works well to convey the typical standard of printing associated with newspapers, and giving the approach a level of sustainability since printing in black and white would save on the amount of inks being used in the printing process and would make the posters more cost-effective to print.

Due to the monochrome nature of the photograph, the original type was found to not stand out as well from certain elements of the image. The was played around with therefore, changing to black and to a 70% opacity. In this format, the black type worked better to provide clarity of information.

Despite the black type working the best, the use of a lower opacity I thought was an interesting idea that I could continue to work with since it is more representative of the colour of newsprint and does not seem as striking against the background, which could have potentially be seen as too distracting. The lower opacity also uses less inks in the printing process and could be used to symbolise the fading of our rainforests to nothing if deforestation occurs at its current rate.

To work better with the image, the second line of text was then moved to the right-hand side of the image where the colour is lighter in tone and the text shows up more clearly. Both left-alignment and right-alignment were experimented with in this instance. The brand guidelines for WWF state that left-alignment should be used in most cases, however, in this case it was felt that the type on the right side worked best right-aligned since the edge of the image gave it a sort of barrier to be placed against, whereas left-aligning this made it seem slightly out-of-place. It was thought that the right-alignment did not affect the way in which the text was read in any drastic way like it might in a longer passage.

These developments started to show that the use of black and white was something which should be pursued in further developments towards a final outcome, and so the original primary image I had used was also turned to black and white. It was found through these that the larger statement of text works well in white at a lower opacity, however, due to the varying shades present in the bottom of the image, the smaller passage of text has been made harder to read.

In thinking about the use of imagery, careful consideration needs to be taken into issues of copyright, particularly when using secondary sources. Either a credit line needs to be placed somewhere on the poster or the image should be changed enough that copyright won't be breached in its use.