What is the Design Concept?

Struggling a little to develop a solid design concept so shall follow the steps given by Andy in class to help me get my head around it.

FUNCTION:

The propaganda images are about the darker side of gambing. How the lure of gambling, its addictive nature, is dangerous and consuming, leading to very serious problems for individuals within society. I intent to persuade through use of aversive stimulation, conveying the consuming and addvicture nature of gambling to my viewers, through paralleling the fall into addiction with a dark, monsterous fantasy world.

BEHAVIOUR:

The style I feel best suits this message would be a combination of realistic photos, with use of manipulation, and digital art techniques, such as digital painting. This would help to depict the dark fantasy world combined with the real gambling world. The visual narrative strategy I aim to use is 'direct narrative' to covey a clear message to the viewer.

STRUCTURE:

I aim to have various consistent elements to my images, through use of similar layout. The appearence would be more realistic than abstract but will have elements of the surreal to depict the fantasy world. The colour palette would make use of fairly dark colours; dark blues, greens, puprles, reds...perhaps with some clear whites or yellows in areas I wish to grab attention, in particular white for font. The font would be consistent throughout all images, it would likely be thick and bold to grab attention, and to jump out from the rest of the image, possibly Franklin Gothic Heavy. The media would likely work best in A3/poster size.

Just a bit of fun...

Just a very quick work in photoshop for a bit of fun :)

Image elements were taken from Google Images and I don't own them.

Artist Statement

In regards to the economy, gambling, whilst having the potential of being an enjoyable, fun activity, has presented many individuals within society with very serious problems through its addictive and financially consuming nature. Exposure to gambling, in particular poker machines, is so wide spread and accessible in the community that it is no surprise that the number and seriousness of the problems are so high. It will be my intent in this project to try to decrease gambling addiction by stopping the luring process. I aim to achieve this through persuading my audience against the threat of problem gambling through depicting just how easy it is to become addicted. I will try to convey this message through such persuasion tools as 'promise' and 'threat,' to inspire the responders to change their habits or to convey to them the serious consequences of their actions.

Finding an Artist Statement...

There are two main ideas for attacking the gambling issue that I'm thinking over currently.

1.)

The first is the idea that gambling is such a big problem primarily because it is so accessible within the community.

"N.S.W. has about half the number of machines and they are available so easily. Many of the people I see who have a problem with their gambling just tell me how hard it is not to go and have a social drink and be confronted with the very machine that has been causing them so many problems.That's an understandable finding, given the influx of the machines in the community and perhaps there needs to be a lot of thought given to the issue of how freely available they should be by the government because we are seeing signs that they are significantly contributing to the problems."

Taken from a transcript of the 7.30 Report "Australia's Gambling explosion"

The very fact machines are made so available, that one would not need to travel far to find these machines increases the number of people exposed frequently to the problem and then makes the task of quiting the addiction all the more difficult. The question is should so many machines be available when they equate to so many problems?

"The hard question though -- how to fix the problem, and how to get State governments to tighten regulations when they themselves are the beneficiaries of the billions of dollars that are collected in taxes."

Taken from a transcript of the 7.30 Report "Australia's Gambling explosion"

Only loose idea I have to this so far is the concept of people being "hunted" or "hounded" by these machines, that there everywhere ( on streets, in houses etc.) And you wonder why there is a problem. It would be aimed more at the government/council/ local community as a whole rather than individuals at risk of being affected by gambling...with the message that they have let this 'plague of machines' enter into their community and that perhaps something should be done about it. Hopefully it would express we shouldn't just scoff at people would have a problem and dismiss its as easy for them to "toughen up" and quit...when we're allowing so many temptations to be put in their path, can they still be solely to blame?

2.)

My second idea was aimed more at the individual with the idea that they are at risk of being addicted and shouldn't allow themselves to get to that far into the problem. I was thinking about gambling as 'game playing', which made me think of young children playing make believe...entering a world which isn't real where anything they want to believe can come true. In a way I thought this was similar to problem gamblers...how they've trick themselves into believe that by spending more money they'll win more money, that they're not creating problems in their life, and that they don't in fact have a problem. They too need to come back to reality. Don't get lost in the game. This message wouldn't be aimed at ruling out gambling, it would be aimed at playing the game responsibly and sensibly. It would follow the idea of a problem gambler entering a dangerous fantasy world (think Pans Labyrinth style.) It would aim to make people aware of the consquences of gambling and hopefully warn them against getting too involved.

Images related to gambling

Just a collection of images related to gambling, not just propaganda...any symbols, concepts or ideas that are associated and reflect any ideas or issues within gambling, just for inspiration to help generate some thoughts :) I do NOT own any of these images and they can be found through the related links given.

Common objects/symbols associated with gambling: dice, poker machines, poker chips, cards, symbols of cards, scratchies, the colours green, red and black, money (notes and coins).

(sourced from here.)

(sourced from here.)

Image by forAcause

image by Metinakin

Image by JipJive

image by Lordofroses

Have been looking at the idea of a scratchie ticket...how I could maybe create an image similar or even possibly make a scratchie as a form of propaganda, letting the deeper meaning of the message be 'scratched' to be revealed. Something like that...might be too hard to make a scratchie ticket...and also don't have a message really yet.

Other ideas that have come up are using cards, or poker machine/rolette wheels and changing the symbols to change the message, or focusing on the human side...and maybe photoshop create a house out of gambling associated images (cards, dice etc.) to reflect how gambling can affect the home and the people with in it....still just rough ideas at this point.

Issues to Consider

Unfortunately still unsure of what issue I wish to follow, so have been doing a bit of research on a few. I need to find something controversial which I am also hopefully fairly passionate about. I've been looking into the following issues but have no quite settled on any one in particular :S

• Abortion Rights
• Domestic Violence
• Gambling
• Population - Populate or Perish
• Suicide
• Teenage Pregnancy
• Women's Rights

One of these that I thought was a bit different was "Gambling" which I'd say could come under the 'economy' heading as it results in both financial gain and loss for individuals, groups and companies.

"While approximately 80% of High School students report having gambled for money during the past year, 4-8% of adolescents presently have a serious gambling problem with another 10-14% of adolescents at-risk for developing a serious gambling problem. Yet, for most parents and teens, gambling is viewed as an innocuous behaviour with few negative consequences."

(Information from Youth Gambling website.)

Whilst a fair amount of information is aimed against gambling there are also arguments to promote the benefits of gambling. The following companies are for or against gambling:

PRO
American Greyhound Track Operators Association
National Congress of American Indians
CON
International Centre for Youth Gambling Problems and High-Risk Behaviors
National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling

An online article I read recently titled "Legacy of Luck" (found here) which discuss the politic and economic dependence some places have on gambling and the money it brings in.

"Many people view gambling—and legalized gambling in particular—as little more than harmless personal entertainment. Not everyone agrees, of course. In fact, “governments become addicted to gambling every bit as much as people do,” says one opponent. How big a problem is legalized gambling?"

The following pie chart comes from the Tasmanian Gambling Prevalence Study in 2005. This company's aim is to determine the prevalence of people experience gambling-related problems or at risk of experiencing such problems:

The graph shows that whilst a high percentage (70.80%) are NOT at risk they are still taking part in gambling activities, and gambling being a potential addictive activity would mean that any users could be at risk if they increased their interest in gambling.

The arguments that are PRO gambling discuss its economy benefits to society and those against discuss the many risks and problems related to the addictive properties of gambling. I however feel more passionate about the arguments against gambling, specifically in the problems associated with the effects on youth, either directly through their own addiction or when family members have problems and the financial strains related.