During summer i read Promiscuities by Naomi Wolf, a book which explores women's sexual coming-of-age from the perspective of women crossing the threshold of adolescence in 1970's San Fransisco. Within the first few chapters of the book i came across a passage which inspired the idea for a project, it read 'Their slender but quite ordinary bodies were contorted this way and that in hapless calisthenics. And i wondered: are they there because they are having fun? How can they be having fun if there are no boys with them? what is fun about this for them-for big girls? i knew this imagery was 'sexy', though it did not look to me like 'sex.' But i could not see what was in it for women. I still recall those bodies in all their postures, like a human alphabet, presented week by week on cheap newsprint on the street corners of my hometown.' This passage immediately got me thinking about designing a type face made up of women's bodies, contouring in to the letters of the alphabet, like Wolf saw.
Within Promiscuities Wolf accounts the way in which women's bodies were used to entice and advertise, as she mentions a sign, which stood about twelve feet high, advertised her. It was made in the shape of her body. Perched on the sign's immense neon breasts were two red lights that blinked comically on and off. The use of a nude, or near enough nude female form being used to sell products isn't a thing of the past, and it didn't begin in the 70's, Pearl Tabacco featured a naked women on their packaging back in 1871, and within todays society it's still just as prevalent.
Sex, or rather the use of women's sexualities to sell products, is as relevant today as it was in the 70's, however female sexuality being utilised to spread awareness/object to it's very nature isn't as common. From looking in to the negative, degrading ways in which women's bodies are used, and thought he idea of creating a typeface based on Wolf's observation of women in the 70's i've developed the concept for the below brief.
A typographic sign made up of hyper-sexualised hand drawn letterforms depicting the female form. The sign will read 'it's all society is, the repressed sex drives of men, the objectification of women, their paranoia, the posturing, the macho stances, the beauty standard, it's all just one charade masking a never ending hard on' - Trevor D. Richardson. The typographic poster will aim to communicate the idea that women's sexuality can be and has been used to sell anything, or promote anything, even if the very nature of the product is arguing against it's self.
I can't really think of a better way to say this, but the main message i want to communicate is that maybe people will look at 'it', take notice of 'it' (whatever it may be) if it has tits on it, and i believe the above quote by Richardson fits perfectly for this brief, i came across it some time ago and it feels like the right fit for the overall message, perhaps within development it will be cut down so it isn't so long, however we will see.
No comments:
Post a Comment