TABOO Klaudia Cios
What does TABOO means?
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aboo basically means as forbidden action or thing, however it can also mean that the topic of conversation about a prohibited action might be taboo. The taboo is most often created by social or religious believes.
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Definition of taboo in English: NOUN (plural taboos) 1 A social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing: ‘the use of violence must remain a taboo in our society’ 1.1A practice that is prohibited or restricted by social or religious custom: ‘speaking about sex is a taboo in his country’ ADJECTIVE 1Prohibited or restricted by social custom: ‘sex was a taboo subject’ SYNONYMS 1.1Designated as sacred and prohibited: ‘the burial ground was seen as a taboo place’
TABOO subjects
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here are few different TABOO subjects which break into different categories. The main TABOO subjects concern sexuality, religion, food and crimes.
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n my opinion the two strongest TABOO subjects are sexuality and religion.
Sexuality TABOO
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he sexuality is still a massive TABOO and controversy topic, even thought the age of young people starting their sexual relationships is going down in a very fast speed. There are still a lot of conservative families who forbid their children from watching nude scenes on TV, wishing their children, especially girls, will keep their virginity until they get married, and not even have to mention that the sex subject is a TABOO in their families.
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ubject of sexuality TABOO divides itself to lots of different categories, such as nudity, homosexuality, changing sex, pornography, sexual fetishes and many more. Most of those things are considered as TABOO in our culture. People who known for breaking the TABOOs are often victims of people with lack of knowledge. Bullying is often a defence action of new situation.
Rikako Nagashima
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ikako Nagashima is a Japanese graphic designer who does lots of advertisements and branding work. She is also a founder of the village, the graphic design studio based in Tokyo. myself thought of doing some posters about TABOO and sexuality with the blurry effects, as it’s something forbidden, however the way Nagashima did it is just incredible. She found a way to blur the image and at the same time keep it sharp and contemporary. The blurs themselves are also made with deep consideration which adds this stylish effect to the images. f I’ve seen those images when walking by the street or looking through some well designed magazine, they would surely caught my attention and they wouldn’t be forgotten that easily- and this is what every graphic designer should aim for.
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My Ideas
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. The woman’s legs on high heals- only legs visible, nothing beyond that. This indicates that people want to look away from female sexual parts, as it’s a TABOO itself and also leads to worse ones. . A 3D object of a woman, with some parts of her body broken off. . Naked woman sitting- the view form behind (only naked back visible) and covering her front (black& white). .Naked woman’s photo with the parts of her body blurred out/ graphically covered. . Typo revealing image of a woman’s body/ TABOO’d things. . Seeing things through the key hole, as everything happens behind closed door. . People looking away from the sex shops on the street/ preservatives in the supermarkets . Typo covering intimate body parts.
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Religion TABOO
here are lots of TABOO subjects concerning the religion. Each religion has its TABOOs which concern different thing, however sometimes are connecting. I am going to look into TABOOs of Islam and Catholic religions. oth religions are concerned about sexuality of their believers, however each of them looks into different aspects of it. or Catholics it’s important to wait with sex until marriage, and to stay with that person till their deaths. It’s also important so the priests will dedicate their life to God, and only him, so they
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not allowed to have any sexual relationships with either woman or man. n most parts of Islam, men can have as many wives as he wishes, when in other religions or even cultures it’s considered as a crime. Another thing is that women needs to cover up their bodies, as they only belong to their men, and only them can see it.
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My Ideas
. Pregnant bride hides her belly behind the baguette in many cultures a pregnant bride means, she’s getting married because getting accidentally pregnant. . Woman with her face blurred out- the women who cannot show themselves to anyone else expect for her husband. . The family album with one of the daughter’s face blurred out, because she committed some forbidden thing, and ashamed the family with her action. . A woman with her face covered with shape, probably triangle. . A woman with her face partly covered with the blinds effect.
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Catch- phrases
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xpect from the “TABOO” title I also decided to do the catch phrase of the campaign, so people know what it’s about and makes them do something with it. I have come up with few catch phrases that would fit to my project. I used a different catchphrases to different typefaces, as I as getting new ideas while creating, and also wanted to test more than one of them. Those are my catchphrases ideas: • Stop and Discover • Stop and Find Out More • Stop and Acknowledge • Don’t Let It Stop You From Learning More --> Don’t Let It Stop You, Learn More liked all of those catch phrases, however I decided on “Don’t Let t Stop You From Learning More”, however it was a bit long, so I tried to shorten it, and came up with “Don’t Let It Stop You Learn More”. he catch phrases aim people to become more open minded to the things, so they won’t be afraid to explore their TABOOs, and maybe, those topics stop being TABOOs for them any more.
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My Typefaces
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have created various typography designs, and the more I experimented with it, the more I knew what I am expecting from the typography for this particular project. he type I did was quite modern design, with the black spaces in-between the borders, however soon after I finished it, I new this was exactly what I didn’t want. I needed to aim for something bold and maybe even rebellious.
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Typeface 2
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he second typeface I have created was much bolder and stronger than the first one, what already fit much better to the TABOO project. I also cut out part of the “t” and “d” upper sticks to give it this special something, so it’s not lake any bold font.
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fter recreating the typeface in Illustrator, I didn’t like it as much as before. Now it looks a bit scary, or like from an old computer game. For the background I used a piece of paper which I used underneath the page which I drawn on, so the permanent market won’t go through to the second page.
Typeface 3
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he third typeface I made even bigger and bolder than the second one. Even thought it’s really big and in block capital, it still looks kind of modern, because of its sharpness.
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hen I recreated this font in Illustrator, it looked really good, mostly because its layout- the first 3 letters at the top and 2 o’s underneath it. I believe this layout makes a big difference, and if it was in a one lane, it wouldn’t look as good. In this type I also used the scanned pages of the permanent marker coming through, and the lower opacity of the font.
Typeface 4
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he forth typeface, which I have created is probably even bolder than the third one- it doesn’t eve have the holes inside of the o’s and d’s; the t’s and l’s are so bold they almost look like b’s. This typeface is so bold it might even make it hard to read, however I’m not doing a large text in it, so it’s not as important.
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hen I recreated this typeface in the Illustrator, I think it might look even better as it’s much clearer, what makes it easier to read, what is important in this font. In this font I also used the same scanned page as a background and lowered the opacity of the typeface.
Choosing the Typeface
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was deciding between third and forth typeface for the final typography for my TABOO project. I liked the forth one more, however when I re-created it in Illustrator, I decided that the their one might look even better now, mainly because its layout. Why won’t I lay out the forth one just as I did the third one? The reason for it is really simple- even thought those two fonts might look very similar because their boldness, they have quite a different style. They are both very heavy fonts, but because the sharpness of the third font, it also makes it quite modern and this is why it looks good in this layout, when the forth one is just heavy, without this modernistic style.