Rationale
I chose to create an anti-voting poster. Through my preliminary research, I became interested in the idea of disillusionment regarding democracy that George Carlin specifically talks about. I set out to visually communicate the idea of voting being a facade and it concealing a greater agenda. Through development of many concepts and different iterations I arrived at a design solution. I achieved this through specific photo manipulation and text distortion design techniques. I chose an unfamiliar face so the subjects identity does not add unnecessary information to the audience. The old aesthetic that the photo possess further separates the viewer from the subjects identity. Also I discovered that if I had used a recognisable political leader, the posters meaning would change to that of a possible political campaign by a rival political party. I used photoshop to manipulate the two faces into one, personifying two so called different political parties and portraying the idea of them both really being one and carrying the same agenda. The translucent bitmap layering of elements throughout the poster alludes to the idea of concealment and facade, communicating to the viewer that politics is made up of secrets and corruption. The grainy bitmap aesthetic also borrows stylistic qualities from the anarchist and dada movements which are relevant to the message the poster is communicating. I warped the Illusion of choice text to further communicate the idea illusion and anxiety. I adopted a clean swiss style design aesthetic for the tagline so it does not overtake the main message. The rhetoric nature of the tag line 'Two major parties. One agenda.' forces the viewer to consider a different stand point on the issue of voting and also offers them to consider what the governments agenda actually is.
Isaac Laughton
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