Creating The Look
With this project, I was tasked with educating and inspiring changes in the public’s thinking and behavior about body image issues. My campaign aimed to explain what body image issues are (if someone has never heard of this) and condemn any ill acts or practices people may be exercising when it comes to judging others’ bodies. What type of body someone “should have” should not be up to another person’s perception. It’s time for all of us to agree that your body is yours and as long as you’re comfortable with how you look and who you are, no one should make you feel bad about it.
With such a strong message; there needs to be a strong visual attached to it. Something that will have many people remember it for a certain gimmick. But first, we have to do some visual research. This made me think of how others might've approached this topic and give some inspiration if needed. Next, was moodboarding which I knew I wanted my ad to include as many people as possible (different races, genders, hair textures, etc.) I wanted this ad to be able to include everyone!
As mentioned before, I wanted my campaign to have a gimmick. If that would be it references a meme or to a social media platform (which studies have shown to contribute to body image issues and depression.) With the ideas there I went onto sketches and ADLOBS.
Visual Research and Moodboard
Early Sketches and ADLOBS
The first ADLOB I had in mind was to have a wild posting of Instagram-inspired graphics that show different body types and sizes. The posters would show the same message, "How You Look Is ENOUGH!" and "Love Yourself"
The second ADLOB would be how in media many celebrities use Photoshop in order to make their bodies look a certain way. These posters would be followed by, "Don't Compare to Unrealistic Standards!"
The third ADLOB would be a person's mind taking their body to court, and the judge would be Instagram. This one also had a variation where it was a person just taking Instagram to court but...mehh
Sketches
ADLOB 1
ADLOB 2
ADLOB 3
Sketches and ADLOBs
I believed that the second ADLOB wasn't impactful enough and the third ADLOB was a half-baked idea. I also was reminded that I had to incorporate a fact into the campaign. The first ADLOB would've been easy to fit a slogan and was the best option: but it needed more to it. Something that would be really different. That's when I thought about having these ads cut out in the middle so a person would be able to put their face inside of it. However, this conflicted with the criteria that it had to be a wild posting somewhere along a wall.
The Solution
This sucked, I had a cool idea but ran into a conflict. This is when I thought about including a mirror with the postings. A mirror would eliminate the problem of not including everyone, it would be something very different, and people would be able to take a mirror selfie and then post it online!
Render of My Original Design
I forgot to mention this project had to be printed out and ready to be shown in class. So with the vision in mind, I went onto Amazon and bought some mirror sheets. These sheets would be pasted onto my poster so that when my classmates would walk up to it, they'll feel what I wanted to capture from this ad... The mirror sheets didn't work. They weren't big enough to take over the page and they weren't MIRRORS!! They were more like shiny warped sheets. So I made a trip to IKEA to find some lightweight actual mirrors!
The Execution
I found the perfect mirrors and attached them to a canvas I had laying around. It did what I wanted; that being to have the class in awe but it wasn't for the message. It was mainly because I brought a mirror to class. Everyone was so surprised and never thought this would ever be an option for a project. When it came time to critique my project I got a lot of great ideas.
Printed Out Campaign
Revisions
One which I included in my revision was the idea to have the wild posting consist of 3 boards rather than 2. That way I could show my fact on one page, have my "imagery" on another, then my call to action and slogan on the last. Another idea was to make the QR code into a heart to save space and have it look better. And the last idea was the make the mirror its own board because why not! Overall, I loved this project and wish it had come to life!
Revised Campaign