With a finalized project statement and narrowed audience-space, I am feeling better about moving into the visualization stages of this project.
Modern Sexism: an animated awareness campaign highlighting the absurdity of sexism for women in the service industry.
Aesthetics. Forms. Graphic styles. What is the best way to highlight how frustrating and ridiculous modern sexism has become?
Using graphic styles from 1950s -1960s advertisements — taking inspiration from their classic styles in addition to using modern testimonials will highlight examples of modern sexism, and show just how subtle, normalized, and absurd sexism is and has become in our modern age. By showing this contrast via vintage graphic styles and modern examples and testimonials, the audience will become more conscious and self aware of sexism in their own lives and work places, and be able to laugh or feel connected to other women and their own experiences of modern sexism.
I think the idea of using 1950’s era advertisement styles will be affective because of its distinct style of illustration (neutral warm backgrounds, photorealism, bright illustrations) as well as the aggressively outdated titles and captions. Using this style as well as tone of voice, with modern examples and characters allows for an absurdist approach and a sense of humor to be expressed in the piece.
Regarding primary research, I have reached out to Dr. Nicole Mayo for a formal interview regarding modern sexism, and have also reached out to Anna Lindners but she has been traveling and unable to meet recently. I also created and sent out a survey regarding sexism in the service industry itself to multiple women I know who are actively employed in a restaurant or similar service-like profession.
So far, survey has been fruitful in terms of confirming my already hypothesized beliefs of sexism and harassment from both the customer side as well as co-workers/managers. However, something that did surprise me was that the women who experienced these instances did not comprehend initially that the interaction was sexist until afterwards upon reflection/sharing the experience with another.
The very act of speaking about the issue allowed these women to comprehend and process the sexist act. I think that’s really powerful. Making people feel seen, feel heard, feel not alone in their experiences. It allows them to heal. If I can just make a few more women feel not as alone or even be able to laugh about an experience that once brought them pain, this project would be a success.
I am still collecting insights from both the survey and am planning to select one of my survey participants to interview formally for the final revised project brief. Visual and initial form making processes have begun via mood board and image search exploration.
