me and my designer.

I wanted to share some information about my graphic designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville. She is a woman of great achievments through out her career. She is known for her feminists ways and what she has done for the female community. After reading interviews about her, I got inspired by her strong voice and knowledge she has as design. In an interview with Broad Recognition: A Feminist Magazine at Yale. Interviewer Jessica Svendsen interviewed de Bretteville and asked she if she thought that typefaces could represent gender and if certain typefaces are more masculine/feminine then others. Her response, "I think a better way to desribe a typeface would be to talk about its decorative aspects, basic structure, figure/field, how each element related to another element, how they can be different or the same. I think there is a whole range to talk about formanl aspects of anything you look at with out haveing to knee-jerk back into gender stereotypes." Her comments from this question led me to my typeface choice for my posters. I am using Gotham. I kept looking at it thinking that if you really have to classify it in a gender I would say that it goes both ways. 


My title: "It's Not About the Me, It's About the We."
 A big part of what I am trying to represent is not a to make my poster look feminine but what it means to be feminist. She was asked if there was a distinction between a female designer and a feminist designer? She reponded in saying that a female designer talks for herself and a feminist designer represent women as a whole.  I feel that I can sum up what she says, but read it for yourself below. Her ending statement inspired my title when she states that being a feminists is not about me as a woman , but about all woman and representing women as whole. 

Imagery: I think her design is bold and uses type in an overall simple way that's to the point. I imagined if I were her  walking around Vanderslice trying to find inspration. I found a light ficture that had one bulb burnt out and then two lit up. After already pretty much having my title down, I thought about how that represented the me and the we. I want the poster to look like it was designed by me, and inspired by her. I think that is the fine line within this project. I also knew ran into a bright yellow door, that reminded me of one of her posters in how it was bold in color and pretty simple with the type.  

Bretteville's poster

Bretteville's magazine cover

Bretteville's poster

PHOTOGRAPHS

 

 



MY POSTERS

 

 

 

 Certain posters of her inprired my choice with color, imagery, and text. I want to portray her and what I have learned from looking at her work. 
These are the two ideas from my my first round that got pushed to the 2nd. I hope that each are represent my ideas conceptually but that the viewer has to take time with them and the image. 
-with the lights so far have been the most obvisously conceptually with my title/concept. The one bulb is out so it is the "me" whereas the other two are lit, so that is the "we" but they are lit up, full of engery, like a group. I found this light in Vanderslice by the Epperson Auditorium underneath the steps by the restrooms...
-for the door it is just the simple fact that Bretteville opened doors for women. She unlocked the pathway for feminist designers and for women in general. Her goal is not only to focus on feminist designers with her work, but to care about women in general. Thinking about women who don't have anything, and figuring out what really keeps women from seeing/reaching their full potential.