Imitating Barbara Kruger

The artist I chose to recreate was Barbara Kruger. I really liked the whole style of her artwork and decided that I wanted to make my own. I haven't used the exact font that she used, and my image is hand-drawn and then eddied using Photoshop, but I tried to do it in the same style as her, with the bold red writing and a black and white image underneath. 

I then added the Arms Around The Child logo to the bottom with the information you need if you want to donate via text.

Intial Ideas

We had to design 4 initial posters that were inspired by our chosen artist. I have only designed three, and I really liked two of mine but I'm definitely not going to use my third one.
The artist I chose to use was Barbara Kruger, who's art mostly consists of a black and white image, with a phrase or word over the top, usually in red and in a bold font like 'Helvetica'.

These were my three initial designs. The two I liked are the two that have been painted. I wanted to still do it in the style of Barbara Kruger, and keep the image mostly black and white, with just the red writing over the top. Out of the two, the one I like the most is the one that has the world in black and white, with the red writing over the top. 

I think I like this one the most because it is the most basic out of the tree, but it is still effective and gets the point that I was trying to make across. I am planning to go on and develop this one. 

Ethical Designers

Background

Barbara Kruger is a 69 year old American artist, born in Newark, New Jersey. Her art in mostly black and white, and has red wording over the top, often in the 'Futura Bold Oblique' or 'Helvetica Ultra Condensed' fonts. The wording usually has 'you','I','We' or 'they' and address issues to do with power, identity and sexuality. Kruger has often been labeled as a feminist postmodern artist, along with the likes of Jenny Holzer and Cindy Sherman. 

Art

This is a piece of Barbara Kruger's artwork. It's easy to see that it is her artwork, because almost if not all of her artwork consists of black, white and red. The black and white image by itself would be quite plain, but by putting the block red text over the top, she's made the image a lot more powerful and bold. The image is two tone, you have one fairly normal looking black and white side, and then you have a side which looks quite reversed and negative. With the words 'Your body is a battleground', it makes me think of an actual battleground. It reminds me of this because the negative side of the image looks a bit like night vision, which you associate with battlegrounds.

She uses actual photographs in her art, which I think makes it more real and makes you take it more seriously. The photographs have been edited to make them black and white, and I think that the right amount of imagery has been used. If they had used more I don't think the pictures would have had the same effect that they do on people, because they would just be overloaded with pictures and writing. 

The first thing you look at on the pictures is the block red text, and once you have read that you then look at the image behind it. I think that this hierarchy is good because the writing has powerful words and phrases that relate to the images in some kind of way, so if you were to look at the image first it wouldn't make as much sense. 

I think Barbara used computer programmes like Illustrator and photoshop to create and edit the image. I think the most successful piece of the image is the writing, because I think it really helps to convey the message that she wants to get across, but I think one of the reasons that it is so successful is because it is paired with the black and white image behind it, because the image itself is relevant to the writing, but they way in which it has been edited and the fact that it only consists of black and white just makes the whole piece look so much better. 

"I have no complaints, except for the world." - Barbara Kruger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO_4frg7efQ

Arms Around the Child

'Arms Around the Child' is a charity  dedicated to helping vulnerable and used children around the world, in their own words they are trying to 'stop the war against children'. Founded in January 2012 by Leigh Blake, the majority of their work takes place in third world countries, like parts of Africa and the Middle East, however they do try to help children all around the world. 
Leigh Blake was inspired to start the charity after meeting Jackie Branfield, who runs the 'Bobbi Bear' organisation in South Africa, and who dedicates her life to rescuing children who have been victims of child sexual abuse, and also after meeting Mum Carol who fosters and supports over 1200 children who are living in parentless households. She provides food parcels, blankets, school uniforms, toiletries and anything else the children may need to survive. 


The charity has both a twitter and a Facebook page, where they post links and updates about up and coming events and fundraisers. On their twitter page, they mostly link their followers to auctions that are giving people the chance to bid on things like singing lessons with Florence & the Machine. By having these social media pages they are connecting with a much wider, much more diverse audience, meaning that they stand more of a chance of getting more donations and people coming to events, and are really just getting their name out there and raising more awareness. They have over 1000 followers on Twitter and almost 2000 likes on Facebook. 

http://armsaroundthechild.org  - This is a link to the organisations website. There is a lot more information on their website, including maps that show you where in the world that there are branches that are helping children. They also show worldwide statistics, stating the numbers and percentages of children that are suffering or living in poverty and the numbers are very shocking. 

Photoshop Animations

10 Facts

- Unicorns were mentioned in the bible
-Pound for pound, the average car is cheaper than a hamburger.
-NASA Scientists claim that in 20 years they'll know whether we're alone in the universe or not.
-Pigs can learn how to play video games
-Cows have best friends and become anxious if they get separated.
-Only 10% of the population is left handed.
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