Luxury / High street / Sports / Cosmetic / Accessories
Then I started with the topic of cosmetic that I was most interested in and organized a list.
I hope to reflect my theme from multiple dimensions, so I selected 12 projects or commercial goods of different brands. They challenge body shaping from different aspects of women power / bare skins / racism / age / body size / tone differences.
After tutorial, I realized that my research was not in-depth enough.
Many brands are driven by economic interests. In order to be politically correct and attract more different consumer groups, superficial and false beauty campaigns are carried out.
I need to further investigate the culture behind the brand and find a brand that truly speaks for women and the body.
After talking with Cai, I realized that I should find the intersection between my topic and my real passionate field.
As a young girl, I like shopping and focus on fashion, always paying attention to the latest brand information and fashion new trends.
I am confident that if I combine the topic of “body shaming” with fashion, I can make a work that shows “Myself“.
So I went to a Sainsbury local, the nearest market to my home, to research what kind of magazines the general public would read in their daily life.
I read over all the magazines about “fashion”, “women” and “lifestyle” on the shelf, found that all the women who appeared were slim or fit models, except for the only large model used in the advertising of weight-loss equipment.
I think this situation aggravates people’s negative impression of non-standard body.
So I came up with a new idea: why don’t I make a magazine dedicated to debate body shaming?
In my magazine, there is no comparison between different bodies, only positive encouragement for all bodies.
I can collect the projects and products of the body positive brand, and arrange them into my body campaign magazine, which is equivalent to a list. Through my works, people can learn more about the efforts that brands and agencies have made and gain power from them.
This is also based on the situation of corona, it is difficult to find a model to take photos or find a factory to make real objects. To make a magazine, I need a lot of in-depth research and graphic design which are no real obstacle for me.
Based on the examples presented by tutor in class, I drew this The Creative Journey in combination with my learning proposal.
Then I made a plan to study for three months in the summer vacation and thought about what I needed to do.
During the planning process, I found myself still stuck without a clear idea of what I needed to do next and what I ultimately wanted to make, so I emailed my tutor Cai asked for some help.
During tutorial, Cai’s words really helped me a lot. She pointed out that my plan was clear, but she could not see “ME”.
I should ask myself more: What kind of person am I? What do I interest? Instead of completely separating project from life.
It really inspired me a lot. I always regard project as just homework, and even think about what kind of research the teacher would like me to do, so I don’t have much motivation or even some pressure.
Next, I will seriously consider how to connect myself with the topic of Body Shaming to make my work more personal.
I want to address the problem of Chinese women who have been criticized from the
perspective of Oriental aesthetics and patriarchal society tends to objectify
themselves and harms emotional well-being.
After research, I narrow down the field where everyone would be affected that
body-shaming also through the use of advertisements.
I want to make a beauty advertising campaign and my main question is “How to
change the body dissatisfaction of Chinese women influenced by mainstream
advertisements through graphic design?”
WHY
I chose this theme because of my own experience. When I was growing up in China,
people around me always judge my figure, including friends and family. These
external criticisms caused me inner anxiety. I try to eat less, keep fit, to reach others’
perfect standards.
When I came to UK, no one ever judged my appearance, people in the school are
also free to wear what they want. I realized that I had been bound by the
“standards” imposed on me for a long time.
I found that there are also some advertisements for body shaming outside of China, like “The Perfect ‘Body'” in an ad by Victoria lingerie, but the photo that accompanied the slogan sparked social media outrage. People challenge beauty standards in their own way, like change the slogan “Are you beach body ready?” to #each bodys ready.
I hope to find Chinese women’s own way to fight the standard of perfection, at the
same time to help Chinese women build self-love and confidence.
HOW
Because of corona, it was difficult for me to find models to shoot their bodies, so I
decided to look for materials from magazines and websites in the advertisements
and redesign them.
First of all, I chose Chinese young women around 18-24 years old who on average
consumption level and being influenced by advertising as my target audience. I’m
going to look for some controversial advertisements and interview my stakeholders
by questionnaire about how they feel when they see them and find out why they’re
offended.
Secondly, by collating their feedback, I can understand what my stakeholders need
and what I need to do for them.
Thirdly, determine the form of my work, such as photography or graphic design.
After finishing the preliminary conception of the work, I will show it to my target
audience and got some feedback for improvement.
WHAT IF
It’s easier to change a woman’s own attitude than to change someone else’s
perception.
If my work can help women realize the attractiveness of different bodies, it can help
female build up their confidence and break the shackles of the male-dominated
society that objectifies women.
When we can’t change the eyes of the judge, it is important to build self-love and try
to not let negative comments bother you, both for myself and my stakeholder.
The reason why I choose
the topic global
warming is I have seen some news
about recently Antarctic temperature rises which leads to negative impacts on
biology and the environment. Every time I hear news of environmental
degradation, it breaks my heart, so I
wanted to make some changes that would have a real positive impact on life.
I
think many people see protecting the environment as a duty, I want to change it
into a lifestyle.
I
set the stakeholders as young people between 18-30 years old in China who love to
share on social networks.
I
choose China because compared with the western developed countries, China
generally has not begun to pay attention to the issue of environmental
protection. Moreover, I have a better understanding of Chinese people’s living
habits and it is more convenient for me to interview specific audiences. I
choose young people of a similar generation to me because they are more willing
to accept and learn new things.
My
research area is about a big concept “zero waste”, which means
how to minimize waste in daily life.
My first step is look at my trash, and understand what it is, then I found I have 3 main sources of trash: Food packaging, Product
packaging and Clothing waste. Then I made a questionnaire and interviewed
30 young people in between 20 and 30 years old about what is their main waste
sources, got almost the same results.
I
wanted to design a new product to replace the consumables, when I decided the topic
was to protect the environment. After this research I realized that if I designed,
produced and sold some new eco-friendly products, which also cause unnecessary
waste. The most fundamental solution is to reduce the consumption of goods and
reduce the waste of packaging which means we will not produce any trash.
There
are already many tutorials on the Internet about how to DIY household products
like beeswax or soap. I think the key difference is motivation, how to make
people willing to do it and share the experiences and influence more people
around them Which can make the balance between the economic, social and
environmental aspects of our lives.
Social networks are influencing people’s lives potentially, and many young
people want to express themselves through Instagram, such as vegetarianism or
love of fitness, there are kind of modern trends. I want zero waste
lifestyle to become a new trend like them, people are willing to do this and
post on social networks to achieve the goal of change.
Different
social platforms will attract users of different ages and preferences. After my
research, I chose a social platform called REDBOOK in China, which is mainly
used by women. It mainly shares lifestyle, including cooking, dressing, beauty
makeup and fitness.
I also found an NGO
called ZERO WASTE EUROPE which work on a wide range of projects and policy
areas with the single objective of advancing the zero waste future for Europe. I
sent an email to the office to apply for the design related volunteers, hoping
to carry out some cooperation. No reply has been received yet due to corona
situation.
In 1987, the Brundtland Report introduced the now-widely-used term “sustainable development”: «Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs».
In the report, he pointed out the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental and social factors.
We need to find the balance between the economic, social and environmental
aspects of our lives.
I think a lot of green products are just new consumerism
in the guise of environmental gimmicks.
Some people regard environmental protection as a trend
and buy some eco-friendly products but do not use them, which also causes unnecessary
waste.
I believe the best way to solve this problem is to change
people’s lifestyles that helps people learning how to make products by themselves.
If we can make it, we don’t need to pay for the package which means we won’t
produce any trash.
Even if making your own soap or beeswax wrap isn’t
difficult, most people still don’t have the motivation to get started.
Depending on how modern people like to socialize through entertainment, a more social form should be adopted to make people willing to learn about DIY products.
Making tools can be given as gifts to friends, going to
workshops together can also replace barbecue parties.
If you take the first step, you have the opportunity to
change the way you live.
Doing little things, little change in day-to-day life has a long-term positive impact.
My first step is look at my trash, and understand what it is, then I found I have 3 main sources of trash：
1.Food packaging
Every single thing in fridge was packaged in plastic.
2.Product packaging
Most goods are wrapped in plastic, such as toothpaste, cosmetics, skin care products and so on.
3.Clothing waste
Every season because of the fashion trend to buy new clothes, many old clothes can still be worn out.
Then I made a questionnaire and interviewed 30 young people in between 20 and 30 years old about what is their main waste sources, got almost the same results.
I find it is interesting, because most people have been
able to use shopping bags instead of disposable plastic bags, water bottles
instead of disposable water bottles, garbage classification to protect the
environment, but ignore the fact that we also produce a lot of plastic waste in
daily life.
Through this research, I realized I should do something to change people’s lifestyles that letting people live more sustainably rather than design a new product to generate new resource consumption.
Along the way, I found a big concept named “zero waste” online, some people and companies have made some efforts in this regard.
Like a UK shop named Zéro offers a simple alternative to excessive single-use packaging consumption with a wide range of ready-to-go bulk items.
https://www.thezeroshop.com/
I also found an NGO called ZERO WASTE EUROPE which work on a wide range of projects and policy areas with the single objective of advancing the zero waste future for Europe. This holistic approach enables us to effectively influence European policy and the grass-roots implementation of zero waste projects.
https://zerowasteeurope.eu/
I sent an email to the office to apply for the design related volunteers, hoping to carry out some cooperation. No reply has been received yet due to corona situation.
Through tutorial, David confirmed my preliminary ideas and helped me sort them out.
According to the change I want is reducing
climate change, I decided to design a product to protect the environment.
David pointed out that I should design
better products in various aspects, so that people are willing to use them for
a long time to replace consumables.
There are four key points:
1.METARIAL: More eco-friendly and biodegradable materials
2.AREA: Decided specific stakeholder: like toys for kids, kitchen ware…
3.BEHAVE: Through people get used to using the product to protect the environment potentially
4.COMPANY: Look for companies that are exploring the field of eco-friendly materials
The most important thing I’m going to do is
making people joy of using the product, which means I need to make it
high-quality and is desirable to buy it.
At first, I wanted to make some changes that would have a real positive impact on life, which made me decide to focus on global warming.
This is because I have seen some news recently about Antarctic temperature rises above 20C for first time on record which leads to huge ecological problems .
Such as the walrus scaling steep cliffs, then falling to their death:
Weird ‘watermelon snow’ pics show Antarctic turning red:
Human always ignore the impact of their own behavior and think that it is not a big deal, things like drive their private cars once more or disposable plastic waste.
I haven’t done much research yet, but I have a preliminary idea like repackage a product that causes global warming. People will aware of the specific dangers of not properly handling products when they use it.
Then I want to link packaging to specific changes which is a kind of warning like picture on a cigarette pack about lung cancer.
The biggest risk I faced is to find a way to present it, I wanted to do it a little bit more artistically.
