Pro-public schools.
Through my posters I am
discussing how excessive money invested in private school education is a poison
to children’s’ minds. It causes social and academic pressure to fester,
encourages unrealistic expectations and can have negative lasting effects for the
child involved.
I aimed to elicit wehi in the
viewer by provoking fear. The narrative that inspired this design was a parent
looking through a child’s book, only to find a plea for help in the pages. This
stimulates the viewer to think about what is really going on in the mind of
their child.
The rhetorical devices employed
are primarily metaphor and dynamism. Initially, I was working with a huge
number of symbols; so I have cut this number down to make the message have more
weight, so it isn’t diluted by confusion. The snake is tempting the child to
strive for the money, but the child is aware that it will cause harm, and
solely wants to learn, hence the child reading. The snake is a symbol from the
Christian Bible (which the majority of private schools identify with) of
temptation and poison. It creates perspective within the image as it’s coming
towards you. The seed has the money sign formed on its hull, representing the
idea of money planted in the child’s mind. Gorse is well known in NZ for
causing harm if touched, so out of the money seed grows the gorse root and
stem. Dynamism is created through the diagonal lines of the snake and it’s
tongue, and the plant growing back towards the snake, referring to the endless
cycle of pressure for the child. The diagonal is enforced by the strapline
being in the bottom right corner. The tone of the poster is dark and disturbed,
enforced by the monotone colours contrasting, with the angry voice from the
child shown by large and capital lettered type that also looks handwritten. The
reason I have kept it relatively sparse is to fit in with the childish feel,
and to show that the child torn between wanting peace of mind and being
engrossed by the poison of money.
Using the ihi of the aesthetic of
a child’s schoolbook, metaphor and intense type, I can successfully elicit wehi
of fear from the viewer, and challenge them to think about what the negative
effects of going to a private school can cause.
Pro-public schools
Through my posters I am discussing how excessive money invested in private school education is a poison to children. It causes social and academic pressure to fester, encourages unrealistic expectations and can have negative lasting effects for the child involved.
The wehi that I have evoked from the audience is disgust, with many viewers of my poster making exclamations of revulsion from the food, which is baby food with letters cut out of pasta placed on top. The spoons are placed so they feel like they are coming towards you, as if someone is about to force feed you. The tight composition of the poster creates a sense of pressure. Pathos is used to make the audience feel sick by looking at the colour of the ‘money’ spoon. Other devices employed are juxtaposition of the difference in quality of spoons, referencing the idiom “born with a silver spoon in the mouth”, combined with metonymy through the difference in colour of the food. Also used is dynamism and movement, with the line and angle of the spoons drawing your eye down and around the rim of the plate to the headline. The voice and tone is forceful, shown by the bold and all capital type, directed to challenge the parents to think about how they are metaphorically poisoning their child if they decide to send them to a private school. The logo used instead of a strapline shows an immediate call to action, telling the parents to send their children to public schools.
Using the ihi of photographic exploration of food and devices of metonymy, movement and juxtaposition, I have drawn wehi of disgust from the viewer, provoking them to think about the negative consequences of private school education.
