“Me, Myself & I” – The last project of the HND!
Designed on a (student) budget with the aim of getting people to interact with the individual facial features and take an ironic and non permanent way of looking at themselves in a non permanent way. The style that I chose was a fun cartoonist and very unreal form of illustration – almost “cutesy” but not quite because, even though the collection is meant to be light hearted, fun and entertaining – it has a darker more sinister side.
The darker side came about when I detached myself from culture by not using my technology for a short while and observed how everyone (and I do mean everyone with varying degrees of course), was and still are focused on how they look. Some dealing with is as simple as a bit of mascara or a flick of hair gel, this is the tamer end of self vanity and is generally accepted by the consumer and their close friends and family (There are obviously varying styles within this). The tougher more extreme end of self vanity twists into the plastic surgeon sector, with shocking numbers of both men and women opting for some kind of surgical enhancement. The most shocking figures being split between the younger (18-25 years) and middle aged (40-50 years). After researching though different means (observation, question airs and experimentation) shows the younger age groups “main” reason being they are not comfortable in their own skin because the standards of how people “should” look has been raised thanks to the wonder of Photoshop. Of course we can just blame everything on Photoshop, like anything technological – it is never the technologies fault but the drivers, so the button pushers and the head of fashion and media have been focusing on this look and people getting skinnier and skinnier. So children and the younger generation even though they may insist on not being – they are impressionable. The “middle-age” group is more trying to keep what they had and keep in contact with their youth instead of ageing graciously, which who am I to say “you can’t do that” to? It isn’t my place to assume a role of command as an Illustrator/Graphic Designer, but rather offer them (the public) the facts and to let people make up their own mind about the facts presented to them.
I however didn’t show all the hard facts more as an experiment to see if the general public wood look for a deeper meaning in my work. Which I will have to be honest, only those tho are used to looking deeper saw what I was trying to say, where as those not used to that style of presentation just saw my show as a bit of fun and to get their photo taken with the Polaroid camera. (which seemed a huge hit on the opening night!)
Over all, I think if I touch such a personal subject again in an artistic manor I will defiantly show the facts some how, perhaps it could be used more as a shock and remember system, than the fun and reminisce on a moment in time – like how I approached the subject.
Illustrate-Tor 