Design Principles - Final Project
Chan Wan Qing / 0350928 / BA of Design (HONS) in Creative Media
Design Principles
Final Project
VISUAL ANALYSIS [40%]
In this project, we are required to pick a design artwork based on the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) and write a visual analysis about it. After that, we have to produce an own-designed artwork based on the goal.
United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG)
SDG 16 – PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTION
The 16th goal for United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) is Peace, Justice and Strong Institution. According to United Nations, this goal promotes peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. In simple form, SDG 16 calls for peaceful and inclusive societies based on respect for human rights, protection of the most vulnerable, the rule of law and good governance at all levels. It also envisions transparent, effective and accountable institutions. SDG 16 aims to improve people's lives by reducing violence, improving access to justice, and promoting effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions. The reason I chose this goal is because SDG 16 refers to the problems or issues surrounding us in everyday lives, it’s issues that are very closed to us such as corruption, violent conflicts, crimes, abuse and so on. The achievement of SDG 16 is crucial for sustainable development, as peace, justice, and strong institutions are essential for reducing poverty, promoting equality, and protecting the environment. The goal is interdependent with the other 16 SDGs and requires cooperation and collaboration across sectors and stakeholders to achieve its targets.
This is a poster via 17FOR17, a poster campaign, developed by Chora Connection in collaboration with 17 Danish designers with the purpose of creating broad awareness of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Denmark. This poster is for the 16th SDG, ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’ interpreted by Mervyn Kurlansky in the year of 2016.
From the poster, we can see the word ‘PEACE’ is the main object that first comes to our eyes. We can also see a person is holding a balancing stick and walking on a rope towards the other end of the rope. The background of the poster is painted in bright yellow colour, which has the meanings of happiness, hope, energy and spontaneity. On the right bottom, the designer displayed little explanation about the poster, ‘No. 16 of the UN sustainable development goals: peace, justice and strong institution’ and information the designer herself including her name, the year of the poster and a link.
The designer used elements such as lines in this poster. For example, the rope. In this design, the line of the rope is able to indicate direction of the person walking. The line is presented in a tilted position with different weights, from heavier weight, where the person is standing to a less weight that continuous to the edge. This created a feeling where the line with less weight is the ending of the rope. The end of the line with less weight also indicates that there are more spaces. Besides, the word ‘PEACE’ is presented in thick font, from my understanding, the designer wants to emphasize peace in this poster as the focal point, and the thick font helps to grab the audiences’ attention towards the particular part which brings the main message of this poster. The person holding the balancing stick is another focal point of this poster. The line of the balancing stick is slightly curved, like it is holding the weight of the word ‘PEACE’.
In my opinion, the designer has stressed on the use of spaces in this poster. The use of space refers to how designer arrange and organize the elements within a composition to create a sense of balance, hierarchy, and visual interest. The designer has created visual hierarchy by the sizes of the elements. The word ‘PEACE’ is given more space to draw the viewer's eye and convey a sense of importance. The proportion of negative spaces in the upper part are able to give a sense of relaxation to the audiences by separating and distinguishing the main elements within the lower composition. This can be useful in creating visual interest and making elements easier to understand. This creates a visual interest and making elements with the meanings of the goal easier to understand. By leaving negative space around the key elements, the designer can make them stand out and draw the viewer's eye. The designer also applied contrast on the colour of the poster. The black objects are emphasised in the bright yellow background through the principle of contrast. The background, yellow colour brings the meaning of hope and energy, this can represent that how we hope to achieve this goal. The objects are in black which is associated with strength, authority, and power, can symbolise that we need strength, power to reach this goal.
I find this poster is conveying the message of the relationship between peace, justice and the role of strong institution. The person, portraying the strong institution, shows that it is important to promote justice, which is symbolised by the balancing stick, in the society. We have to find an equilibrium point while using it, just as we should find a point where justice can be justified. ‘Justice is the first virtue of social institutions.’ In this society, it is hard for us to achieved justice when the systems are corrupted and this leads to unfairness and destroy the peace in the society. The ‘PEACE’ on the balancing stick can portray a meaning of the relationship between justice and peace that are interconnected. If justice is achieved, peace will be among the people. The connection between peace and justice is intrinsic. The relationship between peace and justice highlights the importance of creating peaceful conditions that support the delivery of justice, as well as the need for justice to sustain peace and prevent conflict and violence. The person walking on the rope symbolises that it is difficult to achieved this goal. However, it is not an impossible mission if only we can do our responsibilities and be strong and fight till the end.
Design Work
Visual References
After choosing the goal of peace, justice and strong institution, I tried to search for some inspiration from the Internet. Initially, I could not find much posters about this goal, therefore, I decided to look into this goal and choose a focus out of the topics in this goal.
From this infographic, I decided to focus on the topic of corruption. I think corruption is a common thing that keeps happening in the world. Although quite a lot of people is aware of this issue, but most of the times, we keep ourselves quiet or we do not know how to overcome this issue. Sometimes, corruption is covered off because of the lack of transparency of institutions. Therefore, I wanted to create awareness of fighting corruption through this poster.
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These are some inspirations I had found from the Internet. At first, I wanted to use the concept of sarcastic cartoon. But I also thought of creating two different styles according to the references.
Idea Inspiration and Description
Ideation 1
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In the final design, I wanted to show how people is working hard to earn money but at the same time, the politicians are receiving money from corruption. Corruption of institutions can have a significant negative impact on justice by undermining the rule of law, compromising access to justice and perpetuating inequality. Just as SDG 16, it is important to strengthen transparency, accountability, and the rule of law, and to promote good governance practices at all levels in order to build a justice system that is fair and accessible to all. In this design, I used various symbols of money in different countries such as Ringgit Malaysia, Dollar, Euro and more to represent the issue of corruption in all countries around the world. The quote, ‘I care about the people, and by the people, I mean… myself’ represents the selfish personality of those who receive corruption.
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