Christianity & Atheism Intended Audience: Religious and non-religious people, young people, adults, sociologists, researchers, collectors, anyone who is interested. Area of Reserach or Content: I will continue to look at different atheists and go in deeper, into their mindsets, and to find out what makes them think the way they do. I will also look at what Christianity has to say about atheists. I may move into getting opinions of actual Christians in my local community/church, instead of the Bible, to give it a more personal perspective. This is to get people thinking: Why Christianity? Why Atheisim? Why religion? Why faith? Why the contrasts? Proposed Media/Outcome: I propse to try and have posters on a large scale format. How would I relate to other faiths? A place as diverse and multicultural as the UK. Take the work to the other side. More perspectives.
As you may recall with my posters from the last project, I used a contrast of atheist quotes and verses from the bible. I used different colours and slightly different formats. I put them together in a little issuu booklet, as a collectable. I think in the end it was a success. It all came together quite well. My next challenge was to push it slightly further. To think about what else I could do to it, to make it just that bit better.
Ok, so the idea is typographical posters on Christianity and Atheism, bringing opposite faiths and views together into one format. The reason for this, is to get poeple to think about their faith or to think of if they have a faith. Why they believe in what they do and to perhaps re-evaluate their perseptions. After the first project, I thought about where else I could move to, keeping the same concept but showing it differently. I moved onto introducing the qu’ran to the idea. Whilst looking at verses from the qu’ran, I found that it had similar views to the bible, however it used more harsher words and sounded just as brutal as atheists. In order to show that comparison, I put the two together. I put together a quote from the atheist Quentin Crisp and a quote from the qu’ran. It worked just as well as the bible, but it was not what I was really looking for, so I moved on... Although my idea was to have contrast as my concept, I also thought to bring together the qu’ran and the bible, to see what that would bring about.
I took the same topic i.e forgiveness, and looked up verses about it and put them together. Although I did not want to seem like I was thinking for the reader, by having one view presented, it seemed to work quite well; having the same topic, but written differently.
Next was to think about how I could make these posters better. Think about how to address the audience well; speak directly to the audience. To think about removing the reference at the bottom of the poster to get poeple thinking even more. To try and use some imagery. To use different text/typography/font. To try different formats. The big question was, ‘what do i want to come out of this?, Why am I doing this?’ As my theory was to not use any imagery whatsoever, as I wanted the words to speak for itself. I did not want the audience to lose focus with imagery distracting them. However I thought to try and see what it would look like anyway. The idea of the poster, is to get the reader to think about their faith, and to focus on the words only. Ideally, that is what the empty space on the poster symbolises; the readers thoughts. The words are quite powerful enough, I did not want to bombard it with imagery. As for the format, I did not want to make it
too complex or complicated. I did not want to lose focus of the reader to a variety of various formats, I wanted to keep it simple. The real challenge was to have a simple formatted poster, which is also powerful. I used a concept I got from a designer called Gerd Arntz. I took specific words from the quotes, that summarised what the quotes were about, and put a series of the icons at the bottom. e.g the group of people in the first poster, would symbolis the nation. I also removed the reference at the bottom of the poster and put “What do you believe?”, addressing the audience directly. To be honest I did not really see a difference in what I had previously done. It did not work. I needed to think of something else...
... The feedback from my tutor and peers, was to play around with the text/type more. To try and play around with the background instead of having block colour. Thoughts were also to have textures as backgrounds. The ideas basically was to do something different in order to capture the audeinces’ eye. I decided to google in ‘typographic posters’, and these posters are what I found. I liked the idea of having the image with the text inside it. I thought I could use the same concept. For example, I would have a pint or wine glass for the poster on drinking and gambling, with the text inside or as an outline. I had to think more like a designer, than a Christian.
After looking at a couple of typographic posters, I started to incorporate it into my own work. I chose the posters on the topics drinking and gambling, adultery and forgiveness (coming away from darkness). I think the posters came out very well however, I just need to tidy it up, possibly digitally. As long as it looks clear to the audience, I think it is a process I would like to continue working with. I will be awaiting feedabck on this process and see the outcome. The next step would be to come up with other topics, and continue with this process. The text may need to be bigger to be legible.
As I was not very keen on adding imagery to my posters, my challenge was to see how good I could make the posters look with just text. With the bold colours and block shapes, I think I pulled it off quite well. “Think About It�, was a way to direct it at the audience. Also for reference, I added the quotes at the top. With the bottom two, I decided to make the reference a major part, so the reader will know what it is about straight away. I also used light, medium and bold for the different weights, to give it an inbalanced effect and to make it more interesting to look at. With these posters, I didn’t want to just give the audience something to read, but also something that had to look attractive to get them to read it in the first place, which is where the bright colours come in.
I then began to look at another angle, using blocks, to give it a different perspective. I was not too keen on the first poster. It didn’t really draw any attention, even with the colour. The second one however, looks more promising. This little experiment taught me that you do not always need colour, to draw attention. Black gives it a certain edge but also innocence, and somehow a sense of authority. There is that sayin ‘It’s the quiet ones you have to look out for’....
... With my mind focused on how good the poster had to look in order to attract the audience, and also looking at how I could use just typography and no imagery, the concept flew out the window. I seemed to be using just one quote as an experiement, which was not my plan from the beginning.. So going back to basics, I had to bring both quotes back into the poster. In a feedback session I had, Ben and I decided that this was our best one out of the bunch, so I decided to use this design for my next experiments. The blcoks give it another kind of aspect, it seems as if there is another part to a story. I used black, becuase I did not want to over power the text, and with the blocks working well on the page, I didn’t want to make it look too busy. The thing was, what else could I do to it...?
... Besides imagery, texture was another way I could make my posters look interesting, and draw the audience’s attenion. At first, I used an ancient looking background from the internet, which looked pretty good, but was a problem when it came to printing. It looked fake and blurry, not very professional So using an old trick from primary school, I used teabags, which did a much better job. Not only did it give it the old texture look, it also gave it the feel. You can see the difference between the posters on the right, the one at the bottom was done by hand, and the one at the top was the background from the internet. The poster at the top right, has an image in the background of a man and a woman, to symbolise adultery, which is what both quotes are about. The text used to form the image are the same as the quotes used.
With this poster, I used the shape of a pint glass, to illustrate my quotes. These quotes are about gambling and drinking, and basically the behaviour one goes through whilst drunk. I had to use different sized fonts, to get the words to form the shape of the pint glass, and also to make it look more interesting. The colours were not something I deliberately chose. It was just an experiment that happened to look appropriate. I also decided to add the ‘tea bag’ effect for the background, to see how it look. I think it works really well. But the real question was, was it really necessary. It does give the effect of ‘scroll’ and ‘ancient’, which is how the Bible is sometimes referred to, but, is it too obvious? Sometimes obvious is the best way, but is it really needed here? It is good to test out the obvious and put it aside. Which is what I might just do.
Evaluation
Through this journey I have discovered alot about myself, as well as my work ethic. I have brought out a side of myself in design that I never knew I really had. Using typography as the main aspect of my design was not something I thought I would ever do, as I never really enjoyed typography. But things changed after this project. I enjoyed using the geometrics/shapes in my work, it just gives it another angle. I think this maybe my new signature statement as a designer. Another thing I enjoy about this way of working is that there are not really any rules. You just go with the flow! It has been an exciting journey, especially because I was able to use my faith. My faith is a big part of my life, and I live through it every minute of every day. I did not allow my faith to hold me back, or to interfere with my work, and I think this maybe one of the reasons why I was able to progress. I was not bias or one-sided. I still kept quite a bit of empty space in the posters, to symbolise the readers thoughts, as I mentioned earlier. I did hit a few walls, but I was able to overcome them. I learnt quite abit about other faiths. The main wall I hit, was adding imagery to the posters. This was a main point in feedback that I got from
peers and tutors. I really wanted the words to speak for itself. However I did manage to get a good balance with two illustrative and two purely typography based. The topics for these posters(in order) are: - Obedience - Alcohol & Gambling - Forgiveness - Adultery These topics are quite crucial in both religions, which is why I chose them, to illustrate. My plan was to use the ‘ancient/scroll’ effect, but I had to make the paper, before printing on it, and it seemed to be a problem with laser jet printers. The downside was that, because the paper is not smooth, it could get jammed in the printer. My aim was to get people to think about their faith, or even if they have one. If they do not have one, why? And if they do have one can they relate to what they see in front of them? Does it differ to what they see in front of them?