A Day in the Life - 290mm x 105mm Editorial Evaluation

I think this piece isn't as effective at expressing its meaning as my other 200mm x 200mm piece, but I really like the overall aesthetic of it and the story I was trying to tell. After the evaluation of our roughs I decided that I wanted this landscape design to be a sequential idea that had a narrative running from left to right on the page. I chose again to take on the ideas of Volkswagens hidden dangers concerning fuel emissions and pollution and break the idea down into simple and recognisable colours and imagery. The first object I thought of when I thought of danger, without regarding the specifics of this story, was a gun. I decided that the immediacy of this visual tool was appropriate for what I was trying to accomplish with this piece. I wanted to work in the recognisable symbolism of Volkswagen but wanted to stay away from overusing their famous logo, so I chose instead to cartoonise (is that a word?) their most famous car, the Beetle. The Beetle has an immediately and universally recognisable shape with its curved edges and enlarged nose, so I thought it would be an effective tool in showing my audience who this piece was talking about. I was going to have the gun simply firing the tiny Volkswagen to communicate how dangerous these cars can be, but instead I chose to have the car break out of the inside of a bullet, as I wanted to suggest towards the company trying to hide the danger from us, but the truth getting out in the end. I was initially going to restrict the piece to duller colours to convey the theme of pollution, but I decided that really the theme isn't just pollution, but rather danger in general and our ignorance towards our self destructive natures. With this in mind I thought a harsh red would work as a sort of alert to the reader that these hidden dangers are real and, well, dangerous. I used Mars red gouache in limited quantity here to contrast with the duller effect of pencil. The gun and the bullet casing are representative of corporate structures masking the truth from us, and I thought what better colour than grey to communicate shady corporations. I think the gouache works well in this piece a I was working inside a limited space with it and it accentuates the piece more, whereas if I had used loads it would have probably taken away from the singular point I was trying to make. To improve this piece I would definitely consider alternative media; I particularly think that digital enhancement would have worked to my advantage as its possible to get much starker contrasts and much more accurate line work and shapes. I would also play with the composition and the angle of the piece perhaps to create more dynamism within the image.