Decadence

Our first live brief was handed to us in the last week of my first year at university. It was quite a thrill, but somewhat nerve-wracking knowing that we would have to make sure the standard of quality was at its very best and that we would have to be impeccable with our timing and organisational skills.

We were asked to create an A1 poster for the Cheltenham Science Festival 2010 with the theme for the festival being 'Decadence'. I had no idea at first what this word even truly meant and when I went to research into the meaning I found myself being confused even more. This caused a bit of an issue at first when trying to come up with ideas, but after a good sit down with my sketchbook and pen I started to understand.

The final idea that was chosen focused on the decadence of one's self. How the human race have so many needs and demands to fuel their luxurious lives that we are slowly destroying our planet. I saw the final piece as having two sides to decadence; one being luxurious and rich, the other being the decline and deterioration of the earth thanks to our own lifestyles.

 

This was the final image that we went with - a luxurious hand trying to support the deteriorating earth. Originally the image had a smaller flame but I was told that it looked too small and resembled the Olympic torch more than anything. Also I tried the image with smoke instead of flames to show that the earth had already been scorched, but that meant the message of the image would change. It would have said that we'd already damaged the earth instead of in the process of doing so. In the end the above image won and although I'm not entirely pleased with the overall look I'm pleased what was managed in the time-space we had considering my skills at the time were fairly limited.

Title; The Path To Global Destruction.

Collaboration with Louise Ball.