Initially i played around with the idea of producing a series of short animations in collaboration with an animation student from the university, which could then be used throughout social media etc, however this idea just wasn't really that interesting to myself as a designer.
As previously mentioned, i run the clothing brand The Prawn Shop, which sells t-shirts with designs focusing on current issues which matter to myself such as feminism, consent, equality and diversity to a growing audience of predominantly 18-24 year old females, due to the fact that all the designs are very socially driven i thought of the idea of producing a range of t-shirts, to be sold on the website, which focus on sexual harassment and violence, in a way which gives the power back to the women.
The t-shirts will be designed with the intent of showing women who have been affected by sexual harassment and abuse that they are not alone, and that they are powerful and that it does get better.
When thinking about the actual design of the t-shirts, i thought that it would be interesting to have messages from women who have been affected by the above within the design.
As previously collected during the research stage, a number of women shared with me their experiences with sexual harassment and abuse, however i don't think it would be appropriate to incorporate details of peoples abuse within the designs however i still wanted real experiences to be used within the design.
I posted on The Prawn Shop's twitter and instagram account asking any women who have been affected by sexual harassment and abuse to send me the thing they would like to say to the person/people who have done those things to them.
The idea behind this was to not only produce designs with real life experiences, but also to give these women a platform to show how strong they are and in result hopefully help other women who have been affected by similar issues.
I received many responses, some of which can be seen below, it was also very interesting to see how many people thanked my for wanting to do this project, and involve real experiences within the designs, it provided myself with reassurance that this concept is going to make somewhat of difference, to at lease one person.
As i was going through all of the responses, i was looking for ones which provoked design ideas for me straight away.
5 responses really stood out to me, both in the fact that i was already producing design concepts and because of the different emotions each response communicated, some showed anger, others growth from the situation, i thought it was necessary and appropriate to show a range of emotions towards sexual harassment and abuse as there is no one way to feel, all experiences and reactions are valid, and to show that you are not alone no matter how you feel about this situation; there is always someone who has gone through something similar, and feels a similar way to yourself.
As some of the responses out of the 5 i chose were quite long, i picked out a sentence rather than using the whole thing as it was going to be used on a t-shirt. I contacted the women who shared with me their responses and asked them how they would feel about the t-shirt being named after them, as a way to show the inspiration behind the design and to push the human aspect of the design, making each tee more personal and showing a community of strong women, not victims. All of the women who gave me the quotes were really excited about having a t-shirt named after them and so i was granted permission.
Below are the 5 responses which are going to be used on 5 t-shirts.
"I am stronger than you could even imagine" - Lily
"Your filthy secret is mine too" - Karol
"Your dirt made me blossom in to an even prettier flower" - Holly
"I am not yours to take" - Masie
"My innocence and my happiness were not yours to have" - Grog
As well as producing a series of 5 t-shirts, i will photograph the range of tees in an appropriate way to further the message, to be used across social media and on The Prawn Shop Website.
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