Day Today #2

Today was the second day of our newspaper headlines project. I wanted to focus on a subject a little more serious than curry, so I managed to pick out one about a man who has been sentenced to death by lethal injection. So yeah, just a bit more serious than curry.

The man is to be excecuted on the 15th of September for murdering his boss. The very short article explains that the man has reached out to President Obama, hoping he will intervene and get his sentence changed.

The death penalty and it's existence in the modern world has been part of heated debates for a long time. It's something I find very interesting. I have in the past talked at length about it, and the part it plays in justice systems around the world. I figured because of my interest in it, that this article would be a good one to work on.

I made a mind map as soon as I had read the article and began jotting down thoughts and feelings that I personally felt about the death penalty.

At this stage all I wanted to do was get as many words down on paper as possible. I tend to scribble down words rather than sentences, this helps me when I refer back to notes later in the development process. I think this is because I attach certain connotations to words whether negative or positive, and the feeling I have in that moment in which I jot them down stays with me and I remember why I wanted to write it in the first place. These singular words usually make their way into sentences in the later stages of the process.

I began thinking about what materials I could use to project my feeling towards the subject.

I love working with typefaces and text on Photoshop, so I used this urge and photographed the image (mugshot) of the man sentenced to death and got it up on the iMac.

Working with text on top of images, I have came to realise how important composition is. I can spend hours on one poster adjusting one single line of text, the kerning, the spacing, point size etc. All the time spent is worth the outcome, usually...

I really enjoyed tackling this subject - albeit individually - and figuring out my own personal views on a subject.

Although, I do realise that these past 2 days and the pieces I have made haven't had much research behind them. This is something I will focus on more tomorrow, Thursday and Friday.

The image below is what I came up with!