Since I am an avid traveller, I had taken a number of photographs from my overseas trips to countries like Canada and Scandinavia in recent years. So I thought I would sift through some pictures from my travel album. I came across some dog-related pictures, as shown below:
A huge dog in a fenced up yard
A toy breed dog being walked by its owner
A 'dog toilet' sign
Hence, I was thinking of designing a poster with the theme of "Prevent Cruelty to Dogs", which would show the huge dog being caged up and isolated from the dog toilet which I would place outside its "cage" while an owner is walking his dog nearby. I would most probably place the caged dog at e centre of page with the dog toilet sign and the walking dog on either side of it (framed by a circle to represent harmony while the cage would be rectangular/angular to represent imprisonmment). This is to show that the dog in the middle is being deprived of two basic "needs" that a pet owner should provide: a proper dog toilet and exercise. The title and the text would then fill the top of the page, as shown below:
However, after thinking for some time, I did not feel that this was a good idea because firstly, the picture of the big dog is rather blurred and hence may not be too presentable as the main image for my poster. Secondly, I am not sure if people would get the message by linking these images with cruelty, since they seem rather isolated from one another and the connection between them and the word "cruelty" may not have been made instantly, as compared to if I show someone getting ready to beat up a crying dog (pictures which I do not have).
Hence, I continued browsing through my photos and came across another idea, albeit a more ubiquitous campaign message: Save Wildlife Habitats. This is because I have images of wildlife and their natural habitats, as shown below:
Squirrels in a rocky area
A duck in a grassy area
A forest
A river
Hence, my idea here is to "frame " the sqirrels/duck (which in the photos happen not to be in their natural habitats of forest and river/lake) in a rectangular frame and have them look out towards their natural habitats framed by a circle (again the shapes imply imprisonment and freedom respectively). This is to highlight the plight of wildlife by showing that the animals are yearning to be in their natural habitat but are displaced because of mankind's selfish acts of clearing/polluting the natural environment. I then came out wif three possible layouts with minor variations, as shown below:
1.
2.
3.
After some deliberation, I chose layout 3 because I wanted to wedge something (in this case the text) in between the animals and their habitats to symbolize an obstacle in the way of restoring animals to their natural habitat. Furthermore, by having the text and title centralized in one block, I thought it would draw reader's attention to the important message within by taking note of the animals and habitats isolated from each other at the side. Here is the text which I have composed:
"Every year, millions of wildlife are displaced from their natural habitats due to our indiscriminate acts of clearing forests, dumping toxic waste into rivers and polluting the air with ozone-depleting gases. We do all this to improve our own lives, while neglecting the needs of these creatures whose contributions to the natural ecosystems we ultimately depend on for our survival. Let us be their voices, and grant them the right to share this earth with dignity as fellow living beings. Free them from their prisons by helping to restore their natural environment. Do your part today. Their survival counts on you."
I also typed some participation details/information which would be placed at the bottom of the poster and in smaller font than the main text:
"The Wildlife Rescuers needs you to join the effort to save wildlife habitats today! For more information on our research and campaigning activities, and how to participate, please visit http://www.wildliferescuers.orgs. Alternatively, you can contact us via email at wildliferescuers@coldmail.com. Thank you for your support!"
Next, I got to work on the poster using Photoshop and Freehand. Here is the final result:
In addition, I had changed the colour of the animal images to grayscale becuae black, grey and white represent something that is dying out or facing extinction, which was exactly the message that I intended to convey in this poster. This is in stark contrast to the full colour images of the habitats, thus representing life and vitality. Furthermore, I used Microft Wordart for the title of the poster, 1 type or each word (I thought of having some variety because one font design type may seem boring). However, I unified the colour scheme to green and brown for the text to represent the theme of natural environments (because forests are brown and green). Also, I used a Freehand-drawn pine tree for the "I" in "Wildlife" and a snow capped mountain for the "A" in "Habitats" to give a more pictorial feel to the message conveyed by the title.
The tutorial presentation, however, did not go as smoothly as planned. My tutor and classmates thought the layout was rather messy and unfocused since there were so many images which they said make them unsure of where to focus. Siti commented that my pictures were nice (in terms of the colour and quality, I suppose), however she wants me to re-do it as it was too wordy and the message was not conveyed well overall. One of my classmates suggested having an image of trees being destroyed or cut down (which he acknowledged was a lot of work to do), while another suggested merging the images into one to represent a sense of continuity and unity, with one end of the image showing a pristine natural environment, merging with the other end showing a barren landscape with the squirrels in it, an idea which I thought was more feasible than the first one. Also, someone else commented that my rectangular "frame" did not adequately convey the feeling of the animals being trapped; hence he suggested adding bars to depict imprisonment instead.
Hence, I started to make rather drastic changes to my work, beginning with removing the duck and its natural habitat and focusing only on the squirrel and its forest. I found another photo of a rather barren mountainous grassland which I used as the backdrop to place the "imprisoned" squirrels (literally so; I "trapped" them in a cage with bars). This landcape (in black and white) is merged with the full colour landcape of a forest, with the whole image framed by an oval which I "feathered" with Photoshop. I feathered the border between both landcapes too, the gap representing the plight of wildlife which are "trapped" away from their natural environment. Furthermore, I changed the font to only one type to provide more unity to my poster. Lastly, I shortened the text to simply:
"Our selfish acts of clearing forests, polluting rivers and emitting harmful gases have displaced millions of wildlife from their natural habitats. Free them from their artificial prisons by helping to conserve their natural environments today."
This is to reduce the huge chunk of text that cluttered my original poster so that it does not look so wordy. My friend commented that my amended poster looks much more pleasing to the eye. Furthermore, now it should be better able to focus readers' attention to the main message of the poster, pointing out the grim plight of the wildlife (represented by the caged squirrels in a hostile black-and-white environment) with much more effectiveness than the previous one. Here is the result:
Latest Update: I have touched up on the title further to make it look clearer by downloading and using the raw font in Freehand instead of importing from Microsoft Word which I had done in the above image. Also, I centralized the bottom-most text so that attention will not slip to the edge of the poster. Here is the result:
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