OUGD503 - Collaborative - Initial research

After noting down our preliminary ideas on mind maps, we started looking further into cultures that we felt were misinterpreted and would work best for the brief. These can be seen below:

North Korea
Known within the media as having a controlling dictatorship government, we wanted to look past this and at how the people of North Korea see themselves compared to the outside world. We felt the correct representation of North Korea should be portrayed within this Monotype brief. Because of this, we looked at the different perceptions of the country within our research. 

SNASK
Swedish design agency SNASK noticed how North Korea is portrayed with anger and hate. They write on Behance about their hope for the country to abolish its dictatorship for democracy. The Love campaign they have created incorporates this using a simple repeated logo.

Koryo Collective
These three Yorkshire photographers captured a side of North Korea unseen by most of the world. This portrayal of such a misrepresented culture captured the attention of many people around the country and so the project was shown within an exhibition.

As we wanted to learn more about how North Korea can be misrepresented, we decided to get in contact with Koryo to ask about their visit. Anna exchanged emails with one of the three photographers so we were able to ask them a number of questions to help with the research for our project.

North Korean Typography

I wanted to look at how typography is often used within North Korea. Because of this I researched imagery, posters and photographs of type taken in the region to inform this idea. What I found were designs that were unique, colourful and often illustrated however there was often still strong use of type throughout.

Red was common within designs and is often found at the bottom of the illustrative posters.

Tattoos
Although they are becoming ever accepted in todays culture, it is interesting to see how in many traditions tattoos are frowned upon. They are also often seen differently depending on who wears them, what they show/represent and where they are placed on a person. Researching this culture will give us a better understanding of the perceptions people have on tattoos.

Kenco Ad
This 2014 advertisement was created to introduce the public to the coffee vs gang campaign in the hope that it will lead younger people away from the gang culture of Honduras. The design team used cleaver illustrations that animated on the body's of people throughout the ad. Although this advertisement brought awareness to the horrendous crime rate and gang activity in Honduras, it focused on the tattoos, again portraying them as a bad thing to have.



Skindeep Homeboys
Photographer Steven Burton has developed a project where he takes fully tattooed ex gang members, ignored by society because of the negative connotations and their past and photoshop's the tattoos off their body. He describes this process as 'liberating them from the judgement cast by society based on their unfamiliar, and therefore intimidatory appearance'. This idea shows how there are often misconceptions about those who have tattoos, with the public often perceiving them as being bad people whilst it can often be further from the truth.

Zombie Boy video

An ad for a tattoo concealer shows fully tattooed, Rick Genest wiping away the cream to reveal his tattoos. This is similar to the project by skindeep and shows how how people shouldn't be judged for their tattoos as are the same as everyone else beneath. This is a concept that could work well as a bass for our project.