Tag Archives: varoom

Illustration for Designers: Varoom (Process)

Research:

I wanted to tackle the theme of style and how fast fashion is purely toxic. There was 2 main topic I wanted to address in my magazine: Human Rights and Environmental Pollution.

The textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of clean water globally, after agriculture. These dyes used to dye our textiles are incredibly toxic. In China, the factory of the world, it is estimated that 70%  of the rivers and lakes are contaminated by the 2.5 billion gallons of wastewater produced by the textile industry.

In addition, not only is the working environment for the garment workers horrid, they are paid the bare minimum. workers are forced to meet an insane quota per day. if they are unable to hit the quota, they would have to work extra hours and are not allowed to go for toilet breaks or drink. In fact, many are being conned of a decent wage and are then forced to slave away in the factories. Furthermore, the Rana Plaza disaster highlight how unsafe their working environment is.

target audience:

sketches:

I separated my sketches into three categories:

Top: shopaholic behaviour of consumers

Middle: the human rights of the worker

Bottom: environmental pollution derived from the fast fashion industry.

I decided to work further on these two thumbnails further: the shoes of shopaholic surrounded by bags, depicting the excessive consumption of fast fashion. the bags will be slowly melting to a puddle of toxic colours depicting rivers polluted by the textile industry.

the structure of the skirt is illustrated with cactus to show how beautiful yet painful it is for the workers.

the body of a young model will be covered by the worker’s hand. this shows the hands behind the laborious production of fast fashion and how horrid their working conditions are.

refined sketches and mood boards:

in the end, I decided to work on the second idea, as it has a stronger and more impactful concept. some of the pointers I received was that:

  • the blindfolds reminded the audience of bird box and that added connotation will not help in the work. remove the blindfolds and maybe have bras or a huge logo covering her face.
  • can think of using tattoos or branding od the brand logos on to the skin
  • the migrant worker’s hand should be used more effectively to lead the viewer’s eyes

final draft: