Health Communication Posters – Final

Moving onto the final artwork of this project, I have chosen to stick to the design with a mosquito looking forward at the viewer.

There are some minor tweaks introduced to reduce the amount of words in the body text as it seems kind of chunky which viewers might not want to read it, adjusting the position of the body text, changing the size and position of the title text at the top of the poster as well. Adding a drop shadow to the words in red at the top also helped to push the punchline forward, making it clearer and more impactful. This was because when we did a black and white mockup I realised that the red and the grey behind it were similar in tonal value, despite the difference in colors.

After printing, I traced and cut out silver reflective paper to stick over the eyes of the mosquito as suggested previously. This helps to enhance the context of the mosquito targeting the viewers and makes the poster more interesting as majority of it was in monochrome. Silver also gave it a touch of mystery and seductiveness, on top of the mirror effect intended.

I also decided to mount it on a black foamboard that I bought and mounted manually instead of mounting it on a white one done by the printing shop as my entire design is in black. Although looking from the front, it would not be obvious, it ultimately affects the overall harmony of the poster physically, thus I feel that a black foam board would be a lot more suitable for this poster. Below shows a recap of the previous design, followed by my final design and the physical poster itself!

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Recap on previous design
final-print
Final Artwork
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Physical poster

 

Health Communication Posters – Process

After researching for health communication poster examples and coming up with some slogans, it’s time to start experimenting with some compositions and layouts of the poster, as well as deciding what content to put in. Some key points to note from the assignment brief include:

  • Graphic-driven
  • Slogan with the word “Zika”
  • Preventive measures

I decided to go for a clean and simple look for the poster, as I feel that it will look more professional that way, and is easy to understand, not complicated and also clear and concise. Here are some of the compositions that I played with.

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Concept 1-1
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Concept 1-2
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Concept 1-3
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Concept 1-4

Among these for concept 1, my favourite will still be 1-1 with everything centralised. This has a symmetrical overall composition and goes well with what I want – very clean and simple. The mosquito is the biggest, catching the attention of viewers, followed by the word “ZIKA” in red and big which gives the context of the poster, followed by the rest of the caption “THE THREAT IS REAL”, then a small paragraph talking about the worsening situation of Zika as well as the preventive measures as required on the assignment brief.

 

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Concept 2-1
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Concept 2-2
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Concept 2-3

Concept 2 uses the photo of a baby with microcephaly as that is the main concern regarding Zika, since most victims actually recover with no other concerns, except that expectant mothers who are infected have a chance of their baby having microcephaly – a disorder with abnormally small head of the baby. Hence, I decided to address this issue more than anything else. The picture shows the baby crying (to tug on the heartstrings and conscience of viewers) and a pair of hands cupping the baby’s head to emphasize the small size. It is then coupled with smaller text that describes the danger and possibility of microcephaly, followed by preventive measures.

Some feedback I got from the sharing session included:

  • Concept 1 did not even look like any threat
  • Try having the mosquito facing the viewers to make them feel the threat
  • Reflecting the audience into the eyes of the mosquito?
  • Concept 2 what’s the point of cupping the head, why not the hands do something like overturning pails to prevent the danger?

Along the way of doing this project there were also random ideas that came to my head:

  • newspaper collage of Zika-related news as a background for the poster
  • warning strips / cordon
  • smashed mosquito
  • dented object to represent deformed head
  • price tag on hospital bed (ikea kind of signboard?)

 

Then, I moved on to coming up with other designs and compositions.

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Concept 3

For this concept, I only came up with one design to find out the feedback of the idea before focusing on how it can be arranged. This is a very concept from everything else that I had. I wanted to come up with something different from everything that I have seen, to make a poster that looks cheerful on the first look and feels more contradicting to the original intended message. I decided to go abstract and using illustrations style, to use balloons to represent children, with a smaller, dented one to represent a child with microcephaly. The colors are all pastel to give a comfortable and cheerful tone to it, with the balloons all flying up high in the sky to show how kids have a bright future ahead of them, everything is very high spirited etc. The dented balloon is then lower, making it obvious that this “child” is less fortunate and might even have a shorter life than other children. I then use the came color for the slogan and the dented balloon to put in the context and also lead the eye.

Nonetheless, this was not well understood, and some feedback included that the color palette made everything hard to see, the overall mood feels too much like a party and not suitable for this case.

 

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Concept 4-1
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Concept 4-2
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Concept 4-3
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Concept 4-4
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Concept 4-5

For concept 4, it is spun off concept 1, where I decided to follow the feedback by using the image of a mosquito facing the viewer to heighten the threat. It is also the concept that I am likely to stick to. 4-1 is the original one that was created, followed by the rest to experiment and play with various compositions. Initially, I couldn’t find a high res photo that was clear and scary enough to be appropriate for use, and thought of doing an illustration manually. Nonetheless, what makes a mosquito actually look scary is the amount of details on it. An illustration would make it look cartoon-like and the effect of threat would definitely not be there. After searching for a long time, I came across an image that seemed suitable. I decided to make it black and white to give the feeling that it is very solemn and serious, further enhancing the idea of threat. Although it is not an Aedes mosquito, it cannot be told as after close examining, an Aedes mosquito’s striped legs only has the stripes across the joints and lower parts of the legs, which cannot be seen in the poster. I decided to put the eyes near the middle of the poster to catch the attention of viewers, and also the slogan in red to make it pop. The content of the paragraph is the same as concept 1, just playing with the alignment and arrangement. I was also told that the text should be on the left, where the mouth of the mosquito acts as a line that directs the vision downwards. 4-3 to 4-5 are mainly playing around with the captions to see what kind of effects I can get from different effects and fonts, sizes, etc. Ultimately, I am still most pleased with 4-2. It is almost the same as 4-1, but paying more attention to the text and the alignment of the captions. It fits into what I wanted all along, something that is clean, simple, clear and concise and has an impact, rather than throwing in all kinds of ideas and experiments which to me makes it look very messy and unpolished, be it the visual outcome or the thoughts thrown into it. Somehow, I feel that having a simple and clean design emphasizes the clarity and effort of thoughts behind organising the entire layout, rather than the lack of it by choosing the easier way out. One other additional touch that I am considering to do is to make the eyes reflective to allow the viewers to see themselves as the next targets.

Lastly, there seems to be some unofficial changes to the assignment brief just for the record to remind myself, that there is no longer a need for the word “Zika”and preventive measures to be included in the poster. Nonetheless, I would most likely stick to the original requirements of the assignment as a challenge to myself, and also because I believe that is the “correct” way of working in this field, to try my best to adhere to the requirements and needs of my client! 😀