Series Campaign - Ideas

The assignment I've been working on now is a campaign based on the idea created for my persuasive poster (try yoga!). My strongest idea focuses on the activity of yoga. By putting feet and hand prints on the mat with a label of whichever pose those prints correspond with, those that purchase the mat already have an idea about how to do a specific pose. The idea is similar to dance mats that show the user how and where to move his or her (or their) feet.

For the project to be successful, I'll need to follow this idea through to actual production and use. I might be able to screenprint the feet/hand prints on a solid-colored yoga mat, but getting a photo of it in a yoga studio or being used might be a little more difficult. I will also need to design a tag with information about how yoga will help the user - maybe some specific information about the pose - and some sort of graphic that would hang above/around the display of mats.

Final: Persuasive Poster

This is the final poster I submitted for critique last Thursday, the 21st. It is 24"x36" (the maximum size for the assignment).

The line weight in the illustration is much nicer than my first draft. It's more organic and human, which helps viewers better identify with it. I feel really satisfied with how it looks (and it's also great to learn how to do something new). I am concerned about how the knee and the (right) arm overlap. I added a little mark to indicate some depth in the body, but now should I add another mark behind/under the leg to indicate the arm extension? I tried that, but then it didn't look... right. Maybe I didn't shape it well enough. I think in the future I would actually bring the arm in front of the leg (which makes the pose slightly more difficult, but still practical) to eliminate this issue.

Some of my classmates commented on the awkward placement and alignment of the two text blocks. The main text could better align with the curvature of the back, which might make it easier to read. In its current form, it's choppy and the flow isn't as smooth as it could be. If I corrected that for a future version, it could add a stronger sense of being organic.

The subtext (by the knee) should probably be smaller and closer to the body. I was trying to frame the whole image, but with the full bleed of the illustration, perhaps the framing is effective in the way I was intending it. I want to continue to include the pose name somehow, so that if this poster were to convince someone - they would have a beginning "in" to the practice. For the next assignment (a series campaign for the same theme), including the name might not be necessary as it would be more about "what to do" and less about "how to do" (image vs. text).

Other Sources of (Gridded) Inspiration

These images were photographed from magazines to help inspire various grid systems for future projects.

Ad Campaign: Got Milk?

These ads (and others) are available at WhyMilk.com.

Yoga: Factual Information

Wear and Care, by Catherine Guthrie

In 2003, nearly 14 million Americans visited a doctor complaining of a bum shoulder. Joint instability is one of the most common ailments. Others include impingements, rotator cuff tears, and arthritis.

But there's another factor at play—the natural structure of the joint. "Shoulders are designed for mobility, not stability," says Roger Cole, Ph.D., an Iyengar-certified teacher in Del Mar, California, who teaches workshops on shoulder safety. The mobility allows for an astonishing range of motion compared to that in the hips—if you have healthy shoulders you can move your arms forward, back, across the body, and in 360-degree circles. But the relatively loose joint relies on a delicate web of soft tissue to hold it together, which makes it more vulnerable to injury. (The soft tissue includes ligaments, which connect bone to bone; tendons, which attach muscle to bone; and muscles, which move and stabilize the bones.)

The best way to stay out of a sling? Be diligent in your quest for proper alignment and build balanced strength around the joint to create stability.

The first step in understanding correct shoulder alignment is to start simply, by exploring Tadasana (Mountain Pose) and Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Salute).

Sweet Slumber, by Nora Isaacs

Insomnia—the inability to get to sleep or to sleep soundly—can be either temporary or chronic, lasting a few days to weeks. It affects a whopping 54 percent of adults in the United States at one time or another, and insomnia that lasts more than six weeks may affect from 10 to 15 percent of adults at some point during their lives. To get a decent night's sleep, many Americans are turning to pills. Last year in the United States, about 42 million sleeping pill prescriptions were filled, an increase of 60 percent since the year 2000.

"Sleeping pills are not always a cure; they treat the symptom but not the underlying problem," explains Sat Bir Khalsa, a Kundalini Yoga teacher who's also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a neuroscientist at the Division of Sleep Medicine of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Beneath the symptoms of insomnia are the anxiety, fatigue, and stress that our increasingly fast-paced world seems to be creating. These days, who hasn't worked long hours without taking a break, binged on too much caffeine, or left the cell phone on 24-7?

"There is very good evidence that people with chronic insomnia have elevated levels of arousal in general," Khalsa says. "And some insomniacs have higher levels right before they go to sleep." But Khalsa, who is studying how a form of Kundalini Yoga breathing called Shabad Kriya helps people with insomnia, offers good news: "Treating the arousal should treat the insomnia." By creating a routine of soothing rituals, you can bring your nervous system back into balance and transform your sleep patterns for good.

Poster in Process

Still working, still evolving...

Why didn't someone warn me?

Since the persuasive poster had a minimum size of 12"x19", I thought: let's go all out! I made mine 3'x4'. Well, I went to print it today, and... it's kind of embarrassingly huge. I bet I have the biggest poster in class tomorrow.

My poster is really lacking... something. I hope I can figure it out in critique tomorrow.

Parivritta Parsvakonasana

This is my progress on the poster so far. I'm trying to keep it simple, but it's seems too simple. I'm not sure what I'll do with it from this point. I need to print it (full size: 3'x4') for class on Tuesday morning. It'll help to have it physically in front of me. The text might be too large. The lines of the illustration might be too thick.

In any case, I do like that I am getting better with Illustrator (used to create the pose outline).

Side note: The name of the pose is spelled incorrectly in this preview image. The correct spelling is in the title of this post.

Assignment Notes

Here are some of my sketches for upcoming assignments.

For my persuasive poster I've decided to take a pro-yoga stance (in response to "Knees and Backs"). I'd like to use a photograph instead of illustrating the yoga poses, so I need to find a model. I also need to determine size and consider the proportions of my image(s) and text on my page. I have lots of things to think about!

Today I also got a good start on my website design, but I'm not sure it's working exactly the way I envisioned. I'm not sure what sort of screen resolution to use (are people still viewing websites with 800x600 proportions? because I'm certainly not), so I wonder if my design is too small for most computer screens. It will help to actually get some content on the page, too, I suppose. It's being built specifically for my class, so I need to highlight those assignments... and seeing as how it's only the third week of class, we don't have a lot of finished work yet.

Anyway, you can find my website-in-progress here, at http://amy-berg.com.

Why Things Suck / Persuasive Poster

For the next assignment, I have to pick one of 33 things that suck according to Wired and develop a persuasive poster the offers a solution or more information. Basically, I just need to get a public audience to think more critically about the problem (as described in the project outline).

I'm working up a few ideas for class tomorrow (which I'll scan and post here), but some of the subjects I find most intriguing are Knees and Backs (yoga? correct posture? vitamins?), Science (evolution? education?), and Tomatoes (farmers' markets? home gardening? how to identify ripeness?).

The poster will be produced in black and white (though using colored paper has been approved) and it must be larger than 12"x19" - which is great, because I haven't produced any posters larger than 11"x17". It'll be great to see my work on a larger scale!

Book Review: Individual Powerpoint Slides

The download for the book review PowerPoint file doesn't seem to be working correctly (for Mac). In lieu of that, here are my individual slides:

Book Review Presentation

So, PowerPoint is okay. My classmates did some cool things that might be worth figuring out how to do if I ever have to use the program again. In any case, here is my final presentation. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to comment!

Click Here to Download and View