Final Idea + Evaluation

The sketch of having a black background with a huge white sewing machine gave me the idea of using a shadow of the machine instead. The image of a stretched-out silhouette of something and not knowing what the thing was would be intimidating enough to show it as 'evil' or even a 'monster'. So I came up with the idea of the silhouette of the sewing looming over the sweatshop working who would be curled up on the floor; the machine would have a number of bars which would act as the cage over the worker.

This idea not only uses the same imagery from the previous cage idea, but because I used a shadow instead of an actual cage eliminates the problem of portraying the worker as an animal. It suggests the worker's worst nightmare and how the sewing machine affects them mentally which flows with how the workers are motivated mentally because they want to provide for their family.

I went through a number of images of a sewing machine and tried to get the perspective of the machine looming over the worker, but however I did it on the computer, I couldn't get the perspective real enough. So I ended up drawing it with pen and paper first, then scanning and tracing over it. This made my final poster look much more professional and believable.

I found it hard coming up with a tagline to anchor and pull everything together, I went through a number of cheesy lines which didn't work at all. Then I began thinking of taglines which encouraged people to donate, but this was a bit to forceful and would actually discourage people to give money. Some I felt that I needed a tagline which linked back to the shadow idea and wasn't too corny. After much thought, I ended up sticking with 'Bring a life to light. Donate.' This is catchy, easy to remember and clear, perfect, as the imagery can do the rest to get the message across.

I decided to include the edge of a table with the sewing machine on so that the viewer would see that first, wonder what the object actually was and then come to realise that it was an intimidating sewing machine through the shadow. Before my final poster, the imagery was actually reversed and the table was on the right side, though after some consideration, I felt it worked better if the table was on the left as we usually read from left to right.

All in all, I think the poster is a success in portraying the idea of the sewing machine trapping the worker's life and the small working area and conditions they have to work in. It's simple and a person waiting for the bus would be able to understand it in an instance. If I had more time, I would develop my 2nd dimension more. In addition, I do feel that I could have used my resources more and research more into other charity adverts.

I felt I didn't have much time to realise my final idea as there was a pattern of me coming up with an idea and then shooting it down to start a new idea. This went on for some time, and it took a lot of time and effort to finally be happy with one idea; this in turn meant I didn't have much time developing my final idea. But having said that, I do feel that my final poster is still very successful.