mollykellondart

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Final Evaluation

This project has taught me a great deal about the Civil Rights movement as well as the brave and heroic characters involved in the protests and educational events. It has changed the way I view the world, for the better, and will stay with me for the rest of my life. Throughout this editorial, my aim was to highlight the powerful and emotional lyrics that made up the song ‘Mississippi Goddam’ and break them down so the reader has time to process the meanings without the fast pace of the original song.

The blue was chosen, after multiple trials, as I felt it was the best colour to represent peace and also be a gender and race neutral colour. This colour is used sparingly throughout to highlight the language I personally felt hit the hardest and stuck in my mind. By using a colour to highlight this, the eye is drawn across the page and visually links each spread in a new way.

The lyrics change scale and position throughout the spreads to differentiate each page and keep the reader interested. The more impact I felt from the lyrics, the less information is on the page to allow the reader to focus purely on the words. This also allows the book to change pace in terms of reading and creates an interesting flow.

In terms of imagery, photographs and my own illustrations were used throughout. I felt the texture of the charcoal drawings really complimented the clean cut typography and, still being black and white, didn’t take away from the pop of blue. As the illustrations brought in a sense of human touch, I allowed for the images to be arranged in a contemporary way to contrast with the classic style portraits.

The front cover is simplistic to allow for all the detail to come pouring out once the book is opened. Simply printed the title in white on a blue cover, same tone as the feature blue throughout. There is also no contents page or page numbers as I wanted this piece to give the impression of no order or structure. I wanted the book to feel as though it could be picked up and opened to any page and make sense; teaching and informing. Also, as the lyrics are broken up and hold more intensity this way, if opened randomly, whatever lyric you read still holds the same emotion and power without much context.

Time management for this project has been well planned and successfully stuck to. Although finding my chosen context was a little challenging in the early stages, the project took the necessary turns to landing on strong proposal. Through critical evaluations and experimentations, this route then became more developed and refined.

As a complimentary piece, which came after being inspired by screen printing trials, the posters were a very fun and experimental addition to showcase some of my favourite illustrations as well as the most memorable lyrics for me, personally. I feel they work well alongside the editorial and show the core message of my project in another context. I also created a walk through video of my editorial piece, printed and to scale, to help best showcase my final piece in digital format. The audio is a live recording of Nina Simone performing the song ‘Mississippi Goddam’ and explains herself, in the first minute, the importance and inspiration of the song. This ties the video together perfectly and reiterates my message.

Whilst always ensuring my work and outcomes were sensitive to the tragic events that inspired the song ‘Mississippi Goddam’, I included a ‘Foreword’ and ‘Acknowledgement’ page to bookend the editorial and make sure the victims were named and honoured, as this work was not just an FMP, but a way to celebrate the song and message. I want to make it clear that this project started off as a university task, but ended up being something very close to my heart. If this editorial effects just one person, as it has for me, it would be a project well executed.

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This is a video walk through of my editorial to show its scale and style in real time, as well as showing how the colours printed. The audio overlaid is a live performance of the song ‘Mississippi Goddam’ and for the first minute Nina Simone talks about the song herself which works really well with the video.

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Imagery of Simone

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Perfect source for high quality imagery of Nina Simone.

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Strong and emotional performance by Nina Simone of Backlash Blues which is another iconic song based on a poem. The powerful lyrics of “Backlash Blues” are from a poem by Langston Hughes, one of the last protest poems Hughes wrote before his death in 1967. The backlash refers to a rise in racist acts and hate crimes by white people committed in reaction to the US civil rights movement.

There are many meanings and opportunities for analysis in these lyrics which is key for creating a feel and theme to work with. Finding the meaning allows me to also visualise the emotion woven into the lyrics through typography and let the words on the page communicate successfully.

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This short and effective HIV/AIDS animation keeps the message of U=U clear and raises awareness of the current status of the virus within the world of today. I liked the style of the animation and the minimal movements and shapes allowed the viewer to focus more on the content and the words, allowing the  message to transfer efficiently. 

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Rusting Trials

I also wanted to experiment with objects decaying slowly and thought about rust and how it slowly takes over and ruins a metal object, causing it to no longer work and resulting in it being thrown away. I found a key that was in my room and was covered in rust which I found really interesting to photograph, so I bought some pieces of metal and submerged them in water to watch each day and take note of any changes I see.

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Trailing colours based on meaning

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Looking into colour connotations in relation to American politics. Is blue the right colour? Does it promote the wrong message?

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Printed Trial

Good opportunity to see minor errors and solve any printing issues with colour/quality/scale.

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After the crit, the idea of looking into more colour options was brought to my attention. This choice is very important and crucial for the look and theme of this editorial, so I need to do plenty of research into graphic work from that time period to establish a set of colours to trial which have relevant connotations.