Rational

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.