- Social/political: “Discuss the role that Graphic Design has played in Political and/or social change in a specific period in history.
Topic : Nazi Propaganda in WW2
Technique - Most techniques used within the 21st century is mainly focused around online media due to the social boom of the Internet and social network sites like Facebook, Twitter & Linkedin. The technique is also mostly emotional response in the form of photography & aspects around Photoshop. So using features within photography's to trigger emotional responses whether they are hard hitting images or subtle.
Content - Most popular approaches to content is by using Symbols & images. Back in the days of war propaganda within Nazi propaganda and even WW1 & WW2, illustration based artwork was most popular choice and this was the case because Photography wasnt as advanced so being able to prepare, use and somehow uploading the photos onto a poster was extremely time consuming and expensive. However Illustrations were quick, easy and still realistic. When the Nazis made damaging propaganda campaigns against Jews they did in fact create unrealistic, caricatures of Jews. So illustrations has it's advantages and disadvantages.
Today Photography has become so much more efficient and a simple form of medium. Photography is more real and connects more with the audience emotionally as it could be them in the driving seat or even their children. This kind of communication is what illustrations cannon replicate.
Communication - With propaganda in general, it can be any kind of communication whether it is expressive or minimal. Expressive design can be used to communicate a hateful messages or a message were the context maybe unclear or unimportant. Subtle propaganda can be used to subconsciously feed poinsious information which over time can brainwash and change opinions.
Example of expressive propaganda would be political party campaigns where they try there best to slam, insult and target opposition part leaders. Subtle propaganda can be brief radio messages, using certain words to subtly get across their message without bothering their audience or annoying them to much. You can even go to the extremes of North Korea, where they play the radios constantly, sperting the great leaders most famous speeches and words of wisdom.
Research -
- Colours and what effect these will have on the user? What different colours mean and how can they be used to trigger certain responses
- Emotional response through design.
- Existing political campaigns. What designs have they done? is it effective? Lib Dems, Conservative, UKIP, Green party and even activist groups like Greenpeace, WWF and so on.
Analysis -
- What are the main emotion and sub-conscious trigger/responses.
- Technique used whether from design/colour/composition.
- Is it successful in terms of what I'm trying to achieve.
Exploration -
- Photography
- Goggle images? Taking my own photos would be extremely time consuming and costly.
- What kinds of mediums?
- best kinds of layouts, grids, hierarchy?
- Where about will i be placing my propaganda pieces? billboard. wall, leaflets?
Evaluation -
- Does it trigger a response? if so what?
- Is it rememberable?
- Has it changed your opinions?
Test -
Place advertisements around town or uni? Undertake primary research/surveys/questionnaires, experiments.
What is your research question?
My topic question is “Discuss the role that Graphic Design has played in Political and/or social change in a specific period in history. The hypothesis that I'm hoping to find out is whether through intrigant design process and repetition while also applying guidelines which Hitler & Joesph Goebbels used with in WW2 whether or not i can change opinions or create emotional responses, which worked so successfully for the Nazis.
I will undertake primary and secondary research. Going around college with surveys to ask for peoples opinions on different designs processes like what are their responses to certain colours and imagery. Even posting repetitive images on walls within a close proximity and to see if opinions can be changed. My practical work will link strongly with my written work through Hitlers guidelines through mass communication. With the guidelines that he mostly implemented, i will apply these to my practical work to see if i can get the same results. However i will not be creating Nazi propaganda but instead apply these rules, guidelines to recent campaigns like Green party or Greenpeace.
My time line will be to firstly undertake primary research. So conducting surveys and questionnaires to random peoples, asking for their opinions on colours, images and other designs aspects. See how i can start implementing Hitlers guidelines within my piratical work.
Start mocking some designs based of my research. However create a vast amount of mock-ups to see the impact that implementation has with people. After this create more primary and secondary research based of my mock ups.
Finally collect all my research and produce a final piece of work.
