Design Principles, Visual Analysis

VISUAL ANALYSIS

 

This assignment requires I choose one goal from the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, and the one goal I decided to choose on one of Gender Equality. I believe that this is something I strongly support in regards to giving equality to all genders. Especially putting treatment of women on the same level as that of men.

 

Inspiration for Design work 

I was inspired by this purely because that women's rights have been something that has been taken for granted in a way. The inequality they have to go through and worse treatment than what men have, creating a sense of negative treatment in favor of one gender to the other.  This artwork, while subtle, shows that women should be empowered and should be brought on the same level as men.

Visual Analysis

The crux of this is the issue of the general gap between women and men. For example, they have a relatively large employment gap, men standing at a whopping 72% while women only have 47%. Another example is that more than 1 in 4 women have been subjected to intimate partner violence at least once in their lifetime even getting to a point that only 57% of women are making their own decisions on sex and reproductive health care. What I see on this artwork is a woman, with a symbol or marking of the gender female imprinted on her face. A green gradient behind her, to be a cool contrast to the warmer tones on her face. The expression on her face being that of a neutral expression or perhaps even one of slight power. 

I believe that this piece shows that the state of equality specifically towards gender is flawed, lending more bias towards men than women. This piece shows a sense of empowerment, the expression given on here is a neutral but prideful one, especially in conjunction with the female symbol marked on her face. A woman showcasing an empowered feeling, and giving the impression of fighting for something, for example, gender equality.

Design Process

Initial Sketch

The initial design shown above was inspired by my visual reference, taking an almost similar composition and position. Leaving a slight bit of negative space on the right to showcase a bit of the background.

Line Art and creation of character

 

Now with the line-art, I decided to use the character that meant a lot to me, utilizing that aspect to deliver a message that is personally more meaningful to me. I gave her a neutral expression, in the same vein as my reference but more to showcase that she is a woman and first and foremost, a human, just like all of us.

 

Addition of the female symbol marking

 

 

Removal of sketch lines

I added the female symbol to symbolize empowerment and pride for being a woman. Her identity on full display. Showing how proud she is to be the gender she is.

Addition of shades of grey

 

 I utilized the tones of grey to emphasize a relatively somber tone and setting up for a potential contrast in colors particularly in the gender symbol.

Addition of a dark background

 Pride flag colors in the symbol

 

 I added a dark grey background again to emphasize a more sombre tone and to also play with the aspect of contrast and emphasis. Drawing peoples' eyes to look at the woman but to also emphasize more on the female gender logo, covered in the pride flag's colors. Not only to emphasize the aspect the clear gap in treatment of genders, but also the disproportionate amount of discrimination that people in the LGBT+ community face, the treatment and inequalities are a pressing issue in conjunction with gender issues. And as I made this, I pushed the boundary even further. 

The eyes taking on the Transgender Flag's colors

 

I decided to add in the colors of the Transgender flag into the eyes of the character, not only to add some very subtle emphasis, but to also showcase that people in the transgender community are facing similar or even more difficult issues than cisgender people. I put this in because this is also another form of gender inequality and how much it gets overlooked in the conversation of gender equality. This is to showcase that transgender individuals are just as important as cisgender people and thus should be treated similarly and giving equality to all.

 

 

The text Gender and Equality in a pattern form

 

Finally I added in the words Gender and Equality. A more on the nose message of Gender equality and a message to send to individuals who look at this art piece. Their eyes at first moving to the character and then to the background. To hammer in the fact that indeed, gender equality is a very important aspect of our society and its issues should be tackled with great amounts of care.

 

I then proceeded to dim the text in the background to meld more into the dark colours so as to not overwhelm the viewer with bright colors.

 Final Image

Musical Theme

This song gave me inspiration to draw this and I feel it encompasses both the world as a whole and how maybe, if things were treated with more kindness, if people were treated equally regardless of gender, race or sexuality, things would be better, and this piece, despite it being a small blip in this world, if it can help one person see these issues and to take steps to help fix it, it is an accomplishment to me.

Reflection

 

Overall, this particular assignment has me doing much research on the troubles and issues that women must face, likewise the LGBT+ community and its fair share of issues regarding being accepted, especially transgender people and the issues they must face for just being who they are. I believe this assignment was an eye opener and also gave me the passion and bravery to speak out on these issues in a creative form that I am very much inclined to showcase through. I very much think this assignment is a brilliant aspect on what it means to be a designer. To showcase the passion and inspiration that I have and how I can make profound and forward statements through the use of subtlety and design elements.