The cold wintry wind
that blows so hard that
the sun sinks in the ocean
- Natsume Soseki
Joy, A. (2016, October 2). An Introduction To Haiku In 5 Poems. Culture Trip. https://theculturetrip.com/asia/japan/articles/an-introduction-to-haiku-in-5-poems/
Uncertain times. These past few months have changed our lives completely. The COVID-19 virus taking over the world has brought us all to a stand still. Developing on the haiku, the theme that I wanted to portray in this storyboard is a battle or clash. In the haiku, the winds are seen to be in a battle with the sun. The strong winds pushing the sun into the ocean which can be described as a clash among the forces of nature. Therefore I wanted to portray this theme in conjunction with the most recent problems our world is facing today which is the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lecture leading up to the creation of this poster was all about storyboards and its characteristics. We developed further understanding on form and composition and how salience comes into the mix.
The things that worked well for me in this poster was that I could use something that I was heavily reading about and out it into a visualisation.
The theme of clash was something that I could experiment on in the tutorial session. I was able to come up with a design which i could build my foundation on for the final poster.
This design showed 2 individuals fighting on a coastline with the sun in the back. There is a double story developing in this design with the main characters battling it out but also the literal translation of the haiku where the sun is pushed into the ocean is playing out in the background. I thought this is a very good idea and tried to portray in the final poster too.
I did some planning around the poster. I made up various scenarios in which I could portray the theme of clash. The I felt that the theme of clash between the people and COVID-19 is something that would work very well. Then I made a grid pattern , wrote down what I would like to include as well as imagery around it.
I divided the poster into three parts namely Plot, Twist and Reveal. I was able to set out my imagery accordingly. The plot would reveal that we humans fight against each other. We are fighting over past grudges, land oil etc.
The pandemic has begun to spread in the society but no one bothers about it which leads to deaths. This is shown in the first section.
In the plot section, we humans are fighting still pointing fingers on each other, as well as blaming mother earth and the pandemic has now taken over the world. This has led us to make amends in our thinking and unite as one as we try to spread love peace and joy in the community which is shown in the reveal section.
A first iteration was created with these ideas in mind.
The first iteration includes all my ideas. I did make changes in certain slides in order to allow them to look better in the poster. I changed the third slide in the plot section. This included the pandemic appearing in the world. The blue background broke the sequence of a dusk which showed that the day is ending with bad events. Therefore changing the background allowed me to continue with the sequence as well as add direction to the poster for the viewer to follow.
A second iteration was made with thee changes. The image below on the left shows the second iteration and the image on the right shows the further changes made to this iteration.\
I wanted to include the main aspects of the haiku into the poster. Therefore more realistic winds were added to the poster to show how the pandemic blew hard onto the world. The second change comes in the final slide of the poster where people stand freely on top of the hill. The sun seems to be shining brightly but still maybe sinking behind the mountain. Therefore this allowed me to have the double story feature as I had for my tutorial design.
In order to create the silhouettes as wells as the various body images. I used photos that I took in order to replicate for the poster. An example of this can be seen on the left.
I had to use previous skills from the earlier poster and some more practice on Illustrator to create the poster.
The main characters in the poster is humans versus the pandemic. There are no specific characters. Therefore the poster includes people from all walks of life. A soldier, doctor , common public and some dealing with grief, all of them are being faced with the pandemic. Therefore the poster is made to represent them all.
In conclusion. The theme that I wanted to portray in the poster was a clash between entities. I wanted to show that united , we are strong but divided we lose. The pandemic was something that affected all of us rather than war which only caused harm to soldiers and war struck victims. I used the colour theory in coordination with sequence in order to create a flow path for the viewer. I used yellow and orange which are colours beside each other on the colour wheel to create this dusk effect showing that the day was filler with grief sorrow and problems, The middle section being black separated the good and bad on its either side. The black colour used for the slides in the twist section shows that there is no goodness. Black is often related to dark times, or a gloomy mood etc. The light blue used in the last section of the poster shows hope. Hope for a new day. Hope for good things in the world. People are listening to doctors and social distancing, donations are made all over the world to help cure people with the illness. Even though we are quarantined, we can express emotions for one another online and through social connections. The last slide with the people with the arms stretched out shows that these times are uncertain and we dont know when we will be out free in the world once the pandemic has passed but with spreading love, joy and hope , we can stand as one against the pandemic and spread these wonderful feelings among the community.