DO NOT FEED THE PIGEONS

Sign ideas - I want to explore the idea of pests in the sayings "DON'T FEED THE BIRDS." Because if you feed the birds, more will pop up, kill off other wildlife, and make a mess of the place.

The same idea can be applied to superstores. "Feeding" superstores (shopping at them) will result in more superstores popping up, in the form of competition or chains, and they kill small businesses while giving you bad service and polluting the environment with junk mail.

No more baked beans

I decided to not even go further with the baked beans ideas anymore. It wasn't working and it was looking more stupid than persuasive. The idea of glamourising baked beans seemed like a good idea for a while, but it was getting a bit troublesome for me to illustrate because sometimes I was saying that I was saying small business deliver high quality goods (which they do!)

So while arguing with myself I found my anti superstore ideas were a lot stronger, so I'll continue to evolve those concepts instead.

I *heart* NZ Parody

Got some great feedback today from my peers and lecturers. My I heart NZ one was okay, but it would be a lot stronger if I put it into its context, so I'm going to embroider it and make it look like a tag, or something...

Now to put it on some test fabric!

Baked Beans

I thought of an idea with my baked beans. To put them on a golden spoon with some nice satin texture in the background. Satin has always given me a fancy vibe, and well, the golden spoon is rich I guess? I'll try it with a normal fancy spoon too, and see how it goes...

Golden spoon does imply the best of food too, apparently: http://www.floridatrend.com/golden-spoons/awards

-Trying it without the golden spoon first (lame photoshop skills away!):

Parody? I love NZ

One of my 3 colored mockups will probably parody "I love NZ" merchandise. I find these quite ironic when they're made in China...

I really should have taken a picture of something that occured to me when I was in Aussie. Outside a souvenir shop were all of these plush kangaroos and koalas, dumped into a box labeled "made in China, X (some number) pcs." Had a good laugh there.

Metaphor and Irony

I really like certain forms of rhetoric such as metaphor and irony. I did some examples in my workbook and people found the metaphor and the irony ones the most successful.

I have about 12 ideas in my workbook but the best ones were anti-superstores.

Dumb Ads

These ads are annoying. Honestly, who serves cat food on fancy bowls like that? Is it saying I don't love my cat because I don't feed it Fancy Feast? It's just cat food!

(My cat hates Fancy Feast anyway)

Overly Cliche Things to Avoid

Keeping in mind with my topic I'm going to steer away from

-Uncle Sam/James Montgomery Flagg references
-Andy Warhol
-Barack Obama "Hope"

Choosing Superstores

I originally wanted to work on the social media issue, but after hearing the debate in studio I decided to go with superstores. I've done a lot of research on the topic:

http://www.mytwodollars.com/2007/01/02/shopping-small-versus-big-mom-and-pop-vs-big-box-stores/

http://drrichswier.com/2014/05/14/the-big-box-effect-how-superstores-create-unsung-benefits-for-main-street-by-max-borders/

http://www.enz.org/new-zealand-supermarket-shopping-guide.html

https://www.bimco.org/Education/Seascapes/Sea_View/2008_09_01_Superstores_recognise_shipping_benefits.aspx

http://www.informedesign.org/Rs_detail/rsId/2674

http://www.mensxp.com/special-features/today/11038-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-of-bigbox-retail-stores.html

http://www.samizdata.net/2003/10/why-supermarkets-are-good-and/

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-small-local-businesses-2159.html

http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/nfte-uk/the-importance-of-entrepreneurship-in-small-businesses/the-importance-and-benefits-of-small-businesses-today.html#axzz37xckX0ol

When looking for imagery, I found a lot of wal-mart parodies. I have had no luck finding work that supports superstores... I see the pros and cons of each side of the spectrum, but I will take my poster from a consumer's point of view.

Topics

I'm not keen on doing the voting one but I like the social media/superstores options. For social media, I want to see if I can inform and persuade people about the effects of cyberbullying. For superstores, I think I'm going pro superstores because it seems more interesting to argue why superstores are better.

Guess I got to decide between the two.