Project Outline
Growing up as a multiracial individual, I have personally experienced the various issues that come with not looking or being the same as those around me. This is why I have decided to go forward with a campaign which aims to empower the group of youth (ages 12-19) who may struggle with their cultural and racial identity and to educate them on how they are capable of reaching success just like any other. This will be done through the depiction of (a) success and self-acceptance journey/s from an ethnic minority representative. The campaign hopes to Show the need for the inner love and confidence in our differences rather than focussing on the related negative issues of racism, colourism, etc.
Research
Similar Campaigns:
The Unite Against Hate campaign, @uniteagainsthate_dvb202 on Instagram, is of major inspiration as it depicts a more direct approach in educating people on the effects of racial and cultural injustice. It also has a similar aesthetic style which encapsulates and art & craft feel. This will be incorporated in my campaign to attract a younger audience and make their 'journey' through acceptance feel more personal.
The #MAGANDANGMORENEX campaign by Asia Jackson is more of a content/ research inspiration rather than aesthetic. It takes a more positive spin on racial or cultural difference by promoting the acceptance and love of diversity, which is what I also aim to do. However, through research on existing campaigns, I have found that this positive take surrounding acceptance is a lot harder to find in a general sense in comparison to the plethora of campaigns out there that fight against racial injustice. Hence, the reason for the creation of my campaign.
Australia’s Diversity
The 2016 Census revealed 300 languages spoken in our homes, over 100 religions and more than 300 different ancestries
“Nearly half of all Australians were either born overseas or had at least one parent who was born overseas”
“Australians now come from nearly 200 countries, and represent more than 300 ethnic ancestries”
2.8% of the population identifed as Indigenous in 2016
(ABS, 2016)
This research proves that there is in fact an audience in Australia that could benefit from embracing their culture more.
Cultural Identity and Wellbeing
Having a higher regard for one’s cultural background as a central component of their personal identity has shown a positive effect on individuals’ daily wellbeing (Renshaw, 2019).
It is also said that when students have teachers of similar cultural backgrounds, they tend to achieve greater academic success as they feel are more understood and any negative racial bias is eliminated (Altugan, 2015). This supports the statement by the Australian Research Alliance to children and Youth that better cultural engagement can improve academic performance (Renshaw, 2019).
Identifying and being engaged with culture has a positive affect on psychological health for children and young people from minority groups (Renshaw, 2019).
Strong cultural identity can also lower the risk of anti-social behaviour, such as the underage consumption of alcohol (Renshaw, 2019).
Racial Discrimination in Australia
The Australian Institute of Family Studies states that 31% of teenagers who spoke a language other than English at home and 34% of Indigenous teens reported racial discrimination between the ages of 12 and 17, compared to 19% of all teens (Evans-Whipp, 2021 & Jeyaratnam, 2018). This means the Target Market for my campaign is prevalent.
Aesthetic Inspiration
Storyboard
Visual Strategies & Design Principles
In regards to Visual Strategies, a Liner storyline in the form of a personal Quest/ Journey was employed (Buckland, 2020). This is exemplified in the first (bottom) six posts which primarily outline the issue that the campaign wishes to combat. It also helps place a sense of motivation to excel through the rest of the 'journey' created by the campaign. The next segment depicts a visual manifestation/ mood board that is suggestively created by the persona established in the first segment. To the right of this is the three post panel entailing the inner thoughts that an individual of the target market may experience, conveyed through the lighter 'dreamy' coloured background. Smaller text was also used here to imply 'inner subconscious thoughts' which people usually are too afraid to say aloud. Above this, the persona sees herself stepping through the '5 e's to embracing your cultural identity' (inspired by NGS, 2020) and then finally reaches the end of celebration! Various Design Principles were also used in the creation process of the campaign posts including the Gestalt principle of continuity which was used in the path of the text in all the '5 e's' posts as well as the dashed lines which outline the photos (Skottun et al., 2021). This is again, to convey an organic handmade feel which links back to the idea of the campaign being a personal journey. Other Design Principles used to create the desired aesthetic involve Colour and Line. More explicitly, a neutral/ beige colour palette was used to mimic scrapbooking paper tones whilst handwritten fonts were used to achieve a more authentic and personal feel. Digital Illustration was used in the development of the infographic present in the story highlight; however, the rest of the campaign takes on a collage and simplistic photography style to help further pursue the organic scrapbooking aesthetic.
Documentation & Mediums
ARTISTIC MEDIUMS: Mixed Medium/ Collage, Digital Illustration & Photography
Though over 50+ photos were taken in experimentation, these are a few examples of how varying concepts were tested to achieve the best image that would convey the relevant messages necessary. For instance, experimentation with the photos of the male model found that the left facing poses were most suitable in the collage context as the direction leads the viewer to the middle of the post through the Gestalt theory of Continuity.
The persona experiencing each of the 5 steps was originally meant to be in the format of an Instagram Story throughout a Highlight. However, this felt a bit disconnected from the rest of the campaign, seeing it is the main narrative component of the campaign. The darker brown colour also seemed a bit too dark for the more positive and light hearted message that was intended which is why more lighter colours were substituted in for the final version. Similarly with the logo, a darker brown provided a better background for the lighter text to pop in comparison to the lighter background iterations and the warped text post which is not highly legible. The brain heart post was simply not aligned with many other posts within the campaign so the graphic was just implemented in the beginning of the later mentioned Highlight along with the logo.
From in-person feedback, it was noted that the cartoon style was not only a bit too young for the target audience but somewhat clashed with the realistic photography components. This is why the '5 e's' steps were changed to the final variation (refer to campaign outcome below).
In developing the infographic for a 1 x 3 vertical post, I realised that the details were too small to notice from the account page overview. After making an enlarged version, feedback about the disconnection of the infographic across the three posts was made. This idea was then morphed into an Instagram Story format to be easier on the consumer interface experience .
Software & Technology
Through the process of developing and designing this campaign, various software and technologies were utilized. For example, an iPhone 12 mini was used to photograph all images used within the campaign whilst an HP Laptop was used to edit and create all posts. Adobe Photoshop was used to edit the photography components used in posts. More specifically, to remove backgrounds to create an art & craft feel. Adobe Capture was also used to implement hand drawn elements such as the flags used in the "5 e's to embracing culture" sequence as well as the footsteps in the Story infographic. Lastly, Adobe InDesign 2021 was used to assemble all posts in the campaign.
The Campaign
Reflection
Through the development and design process of Project Diversilove, many opportunities and disadvantages came to light. Firstly, I found that my execution of the scrapbook/ handmade art & craft aesthetic worked well holistically to convey the message of a personal experience to better relate to the young target audience. In saying that, the visual narrative aspect could possibly have been lost, outside of the overall campaign structure. The decision to not name the model/ persona was intentional so as to allow viewers to mentally insert themselves in the current scenario; still, confusion of the specific individual linear storyline could have been more obvious if another direction was taken. The campaign did still manage to successfully utilize different aspects of Instagram’s functions such as regular posts, carousel posts and stories/ highlights. This helped to build a more interactive and varied user experience as viewers physically have to scroll through posts if they choose to see more. These carousel posts also effectively aid in reducing the number of overall posts, to not overwhelm users when they first view the campaign account. Another thing the campaign could have executed better would be the incorporation of varying design principles, despite the organic nature of the style. For example, the rule of thirds could have been used in the design of the scrapbook posts and the carousel posts. Regarding the actual development process, the overall campaign could have benefited from the use of higher quality technology such as professional camera equipment as opposed to an iPhone camera. Nevertheless, due to my time schedule and readily available materials, this was not an option this time around. If the campaign had the opportunity for further development in future, it would also highly benefit from animated elements which would help to really bring the persona and overall campaign to life to better engage viewers. Later feedback of the campaign found that the overall message of the campaign was not present in some individual posts that spread across multiple squares. This is because the user would hypothetically see the posts individually in their feeds or explore page, making the content of the post unclear. Since time restrictions prevented the adjustment of these posts which would impact the rest of the campaign structure, it is necessary to not that in future, the campaign would be reconstructed in a way where more content covers each individual post to better convey messaging. Finally, the course of creating this campaign not only taught me the importance of time management and planning in relation to social media content but enlightened me on how design principles intertwine with structures of visual strategies, more specifically different narrative styles. Thus, this acquired knowledge will be useful to my future endeavours as a designer as it has assisted in better understanding design from the user/ consumer’s perspective.
References
Mood Board Images:
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/496099715215405993/
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/496099715215405948/
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/496099715215405987/
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/496099715215406001/
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/496099715215459807/
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/496099715215491921/
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/496099715215482044/
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/496099715215523292/
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/496099715215482047/
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/596164069435371471/
(2022). Pinterest; Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/193654852716585712/
Research:
Altugan. (2015). The Relationship Between Cultural Identity and Learning. Procedia, Social and Behavioral Sciences, 186, 1159–1162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.161
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). (2016). Main Features - Cultural Diversity. Abs.gov.au; c=AU; o=Commonwealth of Australia; ou=Australian Bureau of Statistics. https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/2024.0Main%20Features22016
Buckland. (2020). Narrative and Narration : Analyzing Cinematic Storytelling. Columbia University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/buck18143.6?seq=4
Evans-Whipp, T., The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, & Australian Institute if Family Studies. (2021). Teenagers’ experiences of discrimination: Snapshot Series - Issue 1 | Growing Up in Australia. Growingupinaustralia.gov.au. https://growingupinaustralia.gov.au/research-findings/snapshots/discriminationJackson. (2008). Gestalt-A Learning Theory for Graphic Design Education. The International Journal of Art & Design Education, 27(1), 63–69. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-8070.2008.00558.x
Jackson. (2008). Gestalt-A Learning Theory for Graphic Design Education. The International Journal of Art & Design Education, 27(1), 63–69. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-8070.2008.00558.x
Jeyaratnam, E. (2018, November 27). Twelve charts on race and racism in Australia. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/twelve-charts-on-race-and-racism-in-australia-105961
National Geographic Society (NGS). (2022). Cultural Identity. Nationalgeographic.org. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/topics/resource-library-cultural-identity/?q=&page=1&per_page=25
Renshaw, L. (2019). A Positive Sense of Identity and Culture Defining and measuring progress for children and young people in Australia -a literature and scoping review on developing better indicators Prepared for the Australian Government Department of Social Services. https://www.aracy.org.au/publications-resources/command/download_file/id/397/filename/Full_report_-_A_Positive_Sense_of_Identity_and_Culture.pdf
Credits:
Created with images by Ekkachai - "White crumpled paper texture background. Clean white paper. Top view." • Rawpixel.com - "People Friendship Togetherness Huddle Team Unity Concept" • Alp Peker - " two young women of different skin color, ethnicity and culture hugging laughing and smiling" • twinsterphoto - "One student being bullied and talked behind back while other students gossiping about her in park - social and school bully concept."