Evaluation

At the beginning of yellow week, we were given the brief of Obsession. Initially i thought about what in life obsessed me, and what i could not live without.  Things that first came to thought were shopping, fashion, family and doing well in life.  However, i then thought about it further, and thought this would be much to simple, and would not be a subject i could really go into depth about.  Ideas of real life situations then came to thought, such as poverty, living in recession, living in the slums, and most importantly body image.  I liked all of these ideas, but thought body image was the most interesting, as without a doubt 99 percent of people can relate to this.  I then started to brainstorm ideas related to body image, being plastic surgery, anorexia, being overweight, constantly having to look in the mirror and being obsessed with your general appearance.  I considered looking at weird obsessions to do with this but thought i could get much more into the writing side of this if it was something serious that i could really connect with emotionally. I sat down and started to draft an article, and found it really interesting to write as if i were the person obsessed, or as if i was living a day in the life of someone with the disorder. I found it quite difficult at first to find a starting point, and did not no where to start.  I eventually wrote the article and brought it into college the next day to be looked at and to receive feedback. I general feedback was good, as they were quite pleased with what i had written and liked the way i had approached the style of writing.   However, there were some elements that needing changing such as the beginning line as they did not find it grabbing enough.  I therefore decided to go straight into the 'day in the life of' instead of introducing the article with a question to the audience.  Little areas of the article needed editing such as punctuation and wording, however i completed this quite quickly and was soon left with my finished article.  I then needed to think about how i wanted my article to be designed.  I looked for inspiration in magazines such as ASOS, as many of these were collaged and colourful, which is something that really interests me. However, i did not feel this related to my article, as i thought it was much more serious and needed something either really detailed like the mind of an anorexic, or something simple like an anorexic being stripped away.  I decided to go with the simplicity, as i wanted the article to be the main feature and stand out off the background.  I knew i wanted to create something to do with mirrors for my background, and looked at cracked mirrors but thought this would be hard to do as i did not want to break a mirror myself due to bad luck.  I also did not want to take an image of the internet and copy it.  I therefore looked at handprints on a mirror as i thought this related well as it is not obvious, but holds a deeper message as if they cannot escape the disorder.  I think my final article and design is very successful, and i am very pleased with the way it has turned out.  I think the message it portrays is a very strong one that many people will be interested to read as it is something that happens everyday yet many people turn there back on or are unaware of. I feel i worked well on the project itself and put time and effort into creating my finished article. If i could do this project again i would not do anything differently as i feel i have approached it well and have come up with an original yet relatable idea.  

FINAL ARTICLE!

My handprints.

I thought this was very successful.  However, after receiving feedback i have decided to make the hand more far apart and more off centre.

Initial ideas.

Here, to create my final design idea i took an image of the internet of handprints.  I edited them in photoshop and illustrator.  I think this layout is very successful as it is simplistic.  I like the idea of this as when i think of Anorexia i think of everything being stripped away to the bare minimum.

Page design.

I then decided for my article spread i wanted two hands almost 'crawling' up the page.  Using illustrator, i therefore copied and pasted the hand then reflected it.  I am really happy with this design as i think it is very simplistic yet effective and will draw the reader in to reading the article. 

To create this handprint, i rubbed charcoal thickly on a sheet of plain white paper.  I then continuously rubbed my hand over it until my hand was completely covered.  I repeatedly printed until i found a print i was happy with.  I liked this print as i thought it was very detailed, and created the effect i was looking for.

Final draft.

Initial draft.