After a really informative session where we all had to present our shortlisted potential issues I finally decided I would take on the behemoth of World Poverty after all. Paul and Ela pointed out that the skill would be in selecting a particular aspect of World Poverty and finding a visual hook or shocking fact to make the design stand out amongst the glut of charity posters and graphics.
To set about finding a focus and drew up another shortlist:
1. Microfinance Vs. "Bad" Aid:
I began by looking into the problems associated with foreign aid and possible alternatives.
Problem: Because aid from rich countries is inconstant it is difficult for developing countries to invest it effectively and so does not provide a long-term, sustainable solution. In addition, aid is often used to pay for Western consultants who not only charge more than local workers, but who often have no knowledge of local culture and so are not able to offer realistic solutions to ending poverty. As such, the foreign aid often does little to change the lives of the poorest people long-term.
Solution: One concept which seems to make a lot of sense is that of microfinance, that is, a small loan of around £50 given to an individual or group of individuals in the developing world, which is used to develop a small business. To me this is a much more realistic and long-term solution to world poverty as it gives the world's poorest a chance to develop their own self-sustainability and in addition the system empowers women, who are almost always refused loans by local banks/finance institutions. Ultimately, the major benefit with microfinance seems to be that it breaks the cycle of exploitation and dependence for the world's poorest.
Action: I guess a poster raising awareness of the current problems with foreign aid would either need to promote the benefits of microfinance or highlight the unsustainability of the foreign aid structure as it currently stands, or both. It could be aimed at businesses to support microfinance initiatives, at people who already give money to charity, to persuade them to support these initiatives instead, or at the population as a whole, to pressurise the government to provide better aid to the world's poorest.
2. Women & AIDS:
Although neither of these issues are new in themselves, what interested me was the links between the two, that is, the extent to which the infringement of women's rights in the developing world is exacerbating the AIDS pandemic. I was shocked to learn for example, that the fact that women have low status in society and relationships means they are likely to be victims of rape (which in itself increases the risk of HIV infection), they have no say whether their partner uses a condom, and their partners are often unfaithful. Furthermore, women have no property or inheritance rights, so if their partner dies or leaves them they are left economically unstable and are often forced to take abusive partners who may subject them to (sexual) violence, or to take jobs as sex-workers, where, again, they have no say over whether their partner uses a condom.
Once a woman has been infected with HIV, they are often isolated ostracised from society and again, put at further risk of (sexual) violence, hence violence against women is both a cause and effect of HIV infection.
Action:
The most obvious target audience for a poster about violence against women would probably be liberals who already recognise the problems associated with the issue, and who are most likely to be moved to take action. Again, as neither violence against women or the AIDS crisis are new issues, the crux of the poster would need to be about highlighting the links between the two, whilst also encouraging some sort of action or change...
3. Millennium Development Goal - Aid Shortfall:
Finally, in researching some of the issues around World Poverty I discovered that the UN member states (including Britain) pledged to increase aid to the developing world to 0.7% of their GDP in an effort to alleviate world poverty. Only a handful of the member states are honouring this pledge, and thus perhaps my poster design could raise awareness of this pledge to the British public and urge them to put pressure on the UK government to honour their promise.
On reflection, I decided not take this route, partly because I concluded that, at a time when Britain is only just recovering from the recession, perhaps it would by unrealistic to expect the British public to support an increase in the amount of money being donated as foreign aid, in the face of large scale unemployment and financial hardship at home. Secondly, having realised the shortfalls associated with foreign aid, I decided pressuring the government to increase foreign aid was perhaps not the most effective way of 'making a difference'
Ultimately I decided to tackle the interrelated issues of violence against women and the AIDS pandemic, as I believe, at present these are two crucial hindrances to the alleviation of world poverty. In addition, although I support the notion of microfinance, it may be a challenge too far to convey a relatively complicated and involved concept in a short amount of time and space...
Visualising my concept
Once I had chosen the subject for my poster, I set about coming up with 3 initial concepts for our next session with Paul & Ela. Unfortunately, because I had spent so long researching World Poverty issues, I didn't leave myself enough time to fully develop these concepts and so wasn't particularly happy with any of my initial concepts, eg, the 'Iceberg' concept below:
What became apparent talking to my peers and Paul and Ela was that the concept needed to concentrate more intently on the female body, ie, the site of difference, and take a more visually economic route...I also realised I wanted the design to implicate men more obviously in the destruction of women in the developing world...
I explored two concepts following the workshop, one of which conflated the form of an hourglass with the female form and one of which was more graphic and showed a large (male) hand hanging a naked woman:
Although these concepts were nearer to communicating my message, I still didn't feel I had quite hit upon the right concept. The hourglass concept seemed inappropriately "Western" in feel and seemed to be more of a comment on size zero and the fashion industry, rather than the oppression of women in the developing world. The hanging concept though perhaps a step closer seemed too explicit, showing all its cards at once.
I decided I needed to do further research into existing socio-political work to inform my ideas...
In researching the project I noted that the most arresting and engaging posters were those that played with negative space to conflate two (often disparate) ideas or visuals into one visual message. It struck me that as the poster is a medium that requires economy of information, conflating and distilling the message into one central visual or idea was prudent; imply much, but employ little.
I started looking at ways of implicating men in the infection of women, taking as my cue a few posters which played on the idea of conveying dangerous sex through dangerous objects or things, such as razorblades or spiders, scorpions, etc.
The snake seemed the perfect visual solution as not only does it already carry a host of existing connotations relating to predation, masculinity and infection, but the simplicity of its form can also be used to imply a female silhouette defined and confined by the form of the male.
I did a quick collage mock-up and sent to a few friends to test the readability of the concept on people who had no prior knowledge of my subject matter. Overall, the concept seemed to work, so I've set about digitising and cleaning up the image. However, figuring the pubic triangle with the form of a mouse seemed to complicate the message and the image somewhat, so, in the interests of visual economy I've opted instead to bring together the poster’s ‘slogan’ and the form of the pubic triangle typographically, intensifying the focus on the site of sexual difference, sexual violence and HIV infection. To concentrate attention on the slogan/pubic triangle further I've experimented using the only instance of colour on the poster – red, with attendant implications of danger and urgency.
I feel like this concept is on the right track...hopefully Paul and Ela will agree!
