Sense and Sensibility

I have never seen a film with as much estrogen and crying almost entirely through the whole thing, such as this one. Don't get me wrong it was good, but I found myself laughing through some of it because the crying became so dramatic. Sense and Sensibility, the story of sisters and their mother left to unfortunate circumstances when the father passes away. Not exactly stable monetarily and affected by this when the two oldest begins searching for a husband. This story has romance and heart break leaving the practical Elinor with all that she ever wanted. When watching this movie, I kept thinking about when we talked about the women being constricted by corsets and feeling like weighted down by all of the dresses and of course emotions. It reminded me of the Impressionist era and overall it was a nice film to watch while working on my portfolio :)

Esquire's Iconic Muhammad Ali Cover

Esquire's iconic Muhammad Ali cover (page 398, Meggs) makes a visual comparison between a contemporary controversial figure and a famous image from the history of art. Describe how this approach affects the viewer by conveying a powerful philosophical statement without the use of words. Offer one contemporary example of a similar image and do a quick compare/contrast between it and the Esquire cover. (Campaign 2008 is a good stop).

This image associates Mahamad Ali with St. Sebastian. St. Sebastian as an innocent and saintly person, standing in crucifixion pose. The cover was saying "You are persecuting Mahamad for his race and religion. He is powerless. He is a victim to America, and to you. For the viewer, it is showing us how helpless and innocent he is tied up by the people of the world. All of this I can feel without even a word of text on there. 

On this cover, Janet Jackson is in a very open pose, almost contrastingly accepting the critiques and world views of her. Still, this image similarly is vulnerable and in a way presents Janet as a victim. A victim of judgement and sexual desire. 

Examining Bayer's "Great Ideas" advertisement

Compare Bayer's association of the female image with excess and corruption with contemporary treatments of women in ads. Do we still see this same association? If so, how has it changed? Is it now seen as a good thing or a bad thing? Use at least two contemporary ads.

This advertisement specifically exemplifies corruption and excess identified with the females. This ad is supposed to portray soft living. Partying too much. Female forum and the woman taken as an element expressive idea. Females were popular in Art Noveau and this specific one is embodying an idea and expression. I believe that we still have excess and corruption with contemporary treatments of women in ads. The following two adds are very degrading towards females, regarding them as just an object of sex or just a body. It may not be apparent by the topic of the ad, but the feeling when looking at these ads is that women are considered objects. They are not people but just something. The Burger King ad shows that the woman is being "put in her place" and the portray of soft living because she isn't good for anything else. The Marc Jacobs ad is more of a this girl is only good for showing her legs, because she failed at shopping. It is literally saying she shopped until she dropped, but the idea of soft living is also prevailing throughout this ad. Today, we still see the same association as Bayer's advertisement. I think it is dissappointing and not something to be proud of.

Help Alabama: Inspired by Lester Beall

“A designer…has the true responsibility to give his audiences not what they think they want, for this is almost invariably the usual, the accustomed, the obvious, and hence, the unspontaneous.  Rather, he should provide that quality of thought and intuition which rejects the ineffectual commonplace for effectual originality.”

 – Lester Beall

The Rural Electrification Administration posters of Lester Beall demonstrated visually the use of color, line, photography and design. Above, I created a Beall inspired poster for the Alabama Tornado victims (as a whole) with the eternalized theme of "helping tornado victims participates in the identity of America--that is to say helping these victims, helps the United States. Like Beall, I used red white and blue as my predominant colors throughout the image. Similar to his simple shape use, I created a large blue shape for the background with over a hundred stars fading through out the entire image. These stars not only represent the people of the United States, but more specifically the victims of the tornado. On top of the blue I also incorporated an abstract red and white basic shape to reflect the image of a flag. The stripes, line of font, and lines in the stars project the same decision from Beall as a designer, in using line. Beall also was known for taking black and white photographs and either using a part of an image or  incorporating the image in its entirety within the image. I chose a black and white photograph of the tornado damage specifically at one location. Under the flag (the most forward image) is of a turned over couch. The eternalized message and idea I had behind this photo is, Tornadoes can hit anywhere and affect anyone, it is something that damages people personally and really hits home (hence the furniture from a home). With the stars representing the victims, I wanted a more personal photograph representing an individual or family - something people can relate to. Regarding the text in the poster, I chose "Help Alabama". It is a very simple message similar to Beall's many simple messages through out his design. I Overall I really enjoyed studying Beall's work and replicating a poster with a little bit more of a present time feel. 

The photo I used-

Rural Electric Administration: Designing for America's Future

What is the New Deal? Created in 1935, the New Deal's achievement was bringing electricity to rural areas like the TN valley. Power Companies said that farmers must pay for the energy they use and pay the power company for costs of construction. In order to avoid this... Rural Electric Administration was created.

What is the Rural Electric Admin? Sponsoring cooperatives that received low-cost government loans for developing electric power, The Rural Electrification Administration, a division of the Department of Agriculture, was developed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It improved the nation’s rural areas as well as  reviving the post-Depression economy by providing jobs.

Why a poster campaign to convince people to have electricity in rural areas? Because the audience for these posters had limited reading skills, these simple but visually dramatic posters express their messages in primarily graphic terms. The bold colors and images made electricity very appealing and showed an improved  quality of life. Electricity would improve the standard of living and the economic competitiveness of the family farm. 

Why is it fruitful to apply techniques to Alabama tornadoes? Simple readable designs that are very powerful may have quite the impact on people and reach a broader audience across the United States. Bright colors including red white and blue exhibit patriotism and "togetherness".