Day In The Life 2

15 roughs and feedback

In response to the first task, I have developed some ideas into 15 roughs for three potential illustrations to go with the article 'Apple, Facebook pay female employees to freeze eggs'. 

I made a list of key words before starting my roughs, consisting of:

• freezing
• eggs
• workplace
• maternity
• pregnancy
• time 
• constriction
• mother
• success 
• baby
• baby cash

A lot of my ideas developed from using a combination of these words, almost in a sort of 'catchphrase' style to communicate with the reader, without coming across as being biased or having an opinion on the article.

An example of this is taking two of the most important words, 'eggs' and 'freezing' and playing around with different concepts; drawing things I associate with freezing like wooly hats and scarves, snow and ice cube trays. Also with eggs; the concept of physical eggs, mothers microscopic eggs , egg and spoon races and mothers eggs being fertilised. I tried to look for analogies in the text that I could emphasise and illustrate, an example of this is 'baby cash', so I thought I could show this via a diagrammatic illustration of IVF treatment, with pound signs emerging from the fluid being injected into the mothers egg.

For my colour way I chose white, pink and blue. As well as the colours complimenting each other, pastel shades of pink and blue are commonly associated with the sex of new born babies, pink representing girls and blue representing boys. As well as a deeper blue being used for the Facebook logo, and varying shades of each colour being able to create depth.

We were put into groups of four for a peer review session on our rough drawings. Whilst our work was being reviewed, we weren't allowed to speak to our group but instead we were to let them interpret our work, also they were the ones that would choose the three roughs that would become final illustrations to go alongside the editorial piece.

My group gave me some positive feedback, commenting on how the colour scheme presents my ideas effectively about maternity, and how it communicates without a biased opinion to a wide audience, in particular targeting females.

Their favourite rough from each category included the women in a business suit carrying a brief case in one hand, and a baby carrier in the other (square format), they liked the idea of the male and female sections of the fridge for the portrait format, but they also liked the eggs wearing wooly hats due to the play on the concept. The last decision was a little difficult due to my best ideas being presented within the landscape format, but they thought the great egg race tied was the most effective idea, and also it would tie in well and work as a set with the other two images.

I will take time this week to perfect and refine the three images that have been chosen, and I may consider trying to enhance my illustrations by using photoshop to give a more professional finish.