OUGD501 Practical - Femlash Article (Studio Brief One)

I just found this article about lesbian character deaths (specifically Lexa from The 100), and there is one paragraph that has really stuck with me. This is below.

"Now, this might seem excessive to many, to have such an adverse reaction to the death of a fictional character, but there a few things to keep in mind. First, mental illness, particularly anxiety, depression, substance abuse disorders, and suicide are higher among queer people than among heterosexuals, with these higher rates correlated with discrimination. Second, these fans often follow their shows with a passion rarely seen outside of the most dedicated of sports fans, but instead of wearing body paint to a match in frigid temperatures, they are writing, drawing, and dressing in costume.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, one must put themselves into their shoes. Imagine, if you will, a world where people like you are less than 4% of the characters on screen. Now take those characters and imagine half of them are villains. Of those that are left, half are killed. Another large percentage are left heart-broken or damaged. In an article from three years ago, the Guardian made a claim that only four LGBT characters have had happy endings in the last 19 years worth of movies. People like you never get a happy ending. Repeat this message year after year and you might start to understand how this could affect the LGBT community."

—	Femslash Crisis: The 100  https://geekthropology.net/2016/03/04/femslash-crisis-the-100/

OUGD501 Practical - Synthesis (Studio Brief One)

My essay discusses a lot of different topics such as feminism, homophobia and sexuality as a whole. Within my practical work, I am going to try to get across the point that the creative industry does have an affect on sexuality and vice versa, which is what my essay set out to prove. To do this, I am going to create a publication that proves this in one specific minority. I have chosen to base my practical work on the lesbian community, as it was recently hit very hard when a lesbian character died in a tv show. My publication is going to be very conceptual to prove this.

I'm going to create a very boring publication that showcases all of the lesbian deaths in television shows, which will symbolise that the lesbian community is bored of lesbian characters constantly being killed off. Within my publication, it will list all of the lesbian characters that have died, and also contrast it with the lesbian characters that survived and had happy endings.

These two articles are the main basis of my content, which I will credit within the actual publication.

http://www.autostraddle.com/all-26-lesbian-and-bisexual-tv-characters-who-got-happy-endings-331601/
http://www.autostraddle.com/all-65-dead-lesbian-and-bisexual-characters-on-tv-and-how-they-died-312315/

The publication will have to be bound in a specific way to show off the contrast further. I am thinking either a perfect bind or a coptic/open spine bind.

OUGD501 Practical - Research into Publication Design (Studio Brief One)

To get an idea of how to lay out my publication, I am going to do some research into designs that already exist. My own publication is going to be solely text, so for this reason I am going to try to find some publications that are in a similar style.

This publication is very text heavy, but is made interesting by the different type sizes and thicknesses. This is something that could definitely work for my own publication, however I don't particularly want my publication to be interesting to look at, as the whole concept is that it's boring to look at as it symbolises that it's boring that all lesbian characters are killed off.

http://www.itsnicethat.com/news/graphic-designers-surveyed-results-150116

This is another publication that I found. This one does use images, however the type is very interesting as it is typeset beautifully and there is a high focus on negative space. This is something that I will have to focus on myself as I want each page to look very clean and easy to read/follow.

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/designbolaget-140116

This particular publication has given me an idea for my own, as I think the left hand page looks a lot like noise on a television screen. This is something that could really make my own publication stand out, however this would have to be at the very beginning as it would entice the reader in, only for them to be disappointed with the content - something I am keen to do.

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/clement-le-tulle-neyret-graphic-design

OUGD501 Practical - Idea Generation (Studio Brief One)

My essay covers the following topics:

- The Sexual Revolution
- Feminism
- Homophobia
- The Government
- The Male Gaze
- Post Feminism
- The contemporary Sexual Revolution
- Taboo
- Sexualisation of the nipple
- Sex shops

These are all possible routes I could go down.
The main ideas I have at the moment are as follows:
- Rebrand the sex shop 'Nice 'n' Naughty'
- Publication on Feminism
- Publication on homophobia

I think the idea I am liking the most at the moment is the idea of creating a publication based on homophobia within the creative industry, as it is something that is very relevant in current day. A TV show called The 100 has recently killed off one of the lesbian characters, which completely shocked the whole LGBT community, and there has been many news articles and blogposts about it. It's not so much the fact that Lexa was killed off, but it was how she died. It is obviously not the first time a lesbian character has been killed off, which makes the whole death even worse.