Photography Poster Outcome

Research/ Inspiration 

For another poster I'd like to show through another medium, one more relatable, the message Chat Room is communicating. Through photography I want to use a model giving it more of a human touch than the other poster, but ensuring I emphasise anonymity visually. This is down to the fact that many people who answered my questionnare remarked how uncomfortable they felt expressing their mental health or issues to do with stress with other people. This stigma and fear of expressing ourselves I aim to tackle through this poster, highlighting also that there is no specific audience or type of person which would be excluded from utilising this service.

I drew inspiration from the character 'No Name' which I remember watching in Spirited Away animated by Studio Ghibli, as a child and being terrified of this demonic manifestation, similar I felt to this fear of expressing ourselves, only this demon actually comes from within us which we can tackle. This mask then lead me to Anonymous, the mask uniting those who rebel against 'the system' and are curious and often aggressive in the means to find out more which seems furthermore relevant in this discussion as we hope to uncover emotions that may be suppressed.

Considering more this idea of a mask or featureless face I stumbled across this image by instagram user mimles, her representation of a hole in her face was created just using make up. This approach visually was perfect. She was inspired by <Salvador Daali's bronze sculpture 'Surrealist Newton'.


Canadian makeup artist Mimi Choi aka mimles has some inspiring makeup designs which led me to question further the face of anonymity:

My favourite was the 'hole in face' which was most appropriate in terms of tentacles emerging from the face.

Feedback agreed this appeared "like a void", this gaping dark casm visually represents mental health perfectly, a place in which monsters are bred (the kraken).  

Implementation 

Experimenting with the concept of anonymity I didn't want the poster to look specific to a certain type of person or gender so as to not alienate student audiences, hence the distortion of the face and gender neutral clothing the model is wearing. The main focus is therefore on the tentacle, being the metaphorical representation of that person's inner demons.

Re-creating this facial void I played around with the breadth of the tentacle, I wanted to use the same tentacle as I am for one of the way-finding stickers, further aiding visual recognition  and fluidity in terms of design. I also added the logo in the bottom right corner indicating a link as well between this and the other poster which will be pinned up on university notice boards. 

This poster however I want to print in A3, this will stand alone and hopefully emphasise the importance of this issue, whilst there is often large prints/ posters around universities advertising certain clubs or people's work, it seems just as vital to advertise the importance of mental health. This will engage wider audiences of students and reach out to those who may not have been looking for it deliberately on notice boards for example, ensuring everyone is welcome and it's not exclusive or something to be ashamed of.