[ssf] flyer design: some comments + some concerns of my own

Chris Malins chrismalins at gmail.com
Wed Jan 26 16:04:30 GMT 2005


I think Dave has some valid concerns. I think that the question of 
tilting at windmills is not a key one; I suspect that if people 
attracted to the event don't have tellys they will be able to appreciate 
the point Dan is making quite as well as those who do; I can't see them 
being put off because they aren't normally attached to the goggle box.

Regarding the 'counter-cultural' flavour of the design, I agree that 
there is a degree to which this is more accessible to younger people; 
the second draft for example uses '/'s as dividers which is a formalism 
associable with computing and the internet generation. However there is 
a case that raising awareness among young people who have the time to 
contribute to this type of movement is crucial, and that if we are to 
capture the interest of a media saturated youth we need these sort of 
clever advertising style images. I actually think that in the world of 
increasingly sophisticated advertising images the flavour of this design 
is not particularly counter-cultural, it is to an extent in the 
main-stream, although again in the relatively young subsection of it.

I think better than bickering over whether an image is exclusivist 
towards certain demographics would be to present varied poster images 
for the campaign where people feel it to be necessary. Personally I 
think that the strength of the SF movement should be an ability to 
transcend the desperate branding inherent in the output of many existing 
resistant political movements and embrace a variety of people. We 
shouldn't exclude the people Dave mentions, but nor should we allow 
ourselves to embrace Mozaz's more working class than thou tendencies and 
limit the people we are appealing to.

Moving on, I have thought a little more about the design, and have some 
new concerns of my own on a practical level. I suspect that this imagery 
is not that well suited to photocopying, I don't know whether Dan has 
tried printing these, or what process you intend, but I would normally 
be cautious of images which are predominantly in the dark grey area. In 
particular, the Sheffield Social forum logo which is already a little 
obscure, I would expect to be incomprehensible if photocopied. Maybe 
turn up the contrast on the image, are you using Photoshop? If so there 
is a tool I forget the name of which will gently brighten areas and can 
be useful to improve contrasts.

Chris



deave thompson wrote:
> Hello, all
> Despite Dan’s hard work on the design, personally I am
> not too keen on the flyer, even though the idea of the
> meeting is great and I look forward to hearing about
> the various campigns, iniataives, etc. I like the idea
> of making it a form of a social event as well: at the
> Green Party meeting last week with Caroline Lucas,
> they had tea coffee and cakes and many people stayed
> behind to talk, plan, etc. 
> 
> I think to a certain extent, the flyer is tilting at
> windmills though; many of the people who will be
> attracted to the event won’t have  telly, or are
> already much to busy to watch it. I also think while
> not being too PC, if we sent it to for instance:
> Sheffield Mental Health Action Group, for whom T.V is
> often a lifeline, they would not be too happy. 
> 
> More significantly, While i think, aesthetically it is
> a great design, I could show you leaflets I wrote ten
> years ago during the CJA period which look very much
> like the radical chic/protest culture that the leaflet
> exhibits and which I now feel was largely
> unproductive.  To me, the leaflet highlights the 
> ‘spectacular’ approach of the emerging SF’s. There’s a
> danger that it becomes a politics of ‘activism’ that
> attracts a certain type of person: often young, fit,
> able, educated and middleclass, it is often abstract
> and means little to the man/woman in the street.
> Parties, protests, art and culture, the bedrock of
> this approach are good things in themselves, but I
> also think it is diligent hard work on more mundane
> things like welfare,housing, even the lack of public
> toilets in Sheffield that will allow us to grow and
> gain respect and yes, the great work we are planning
> to do in Burngreave.
> 
> Having said that however, if we must use the poster,
> due to time, popular support, etc, I prefer the first
> draft, , the second sounds a bit over the top and has
> more emphasis on thecounter-culture in the text. I
> also wonder if instead of all the pictures of wanton
> vandalism(joke), just have one, and then we could have
> some images of positive things that are
> proposed/happened in Sheffield, perhaps a photo of our
> launch, the lantern parade, a picture of burngeave,
> etc. 
> 
> I hope I am not nit picking over something as basic as
> a leaflet, but how we are represented is important as
> it will reflect who is attracted to our new movement
> and how diverse it is. Further, as I have often
> suggested constructive debate and criticism is
> esssential if we are to move forward, as is of course
> praise and positive support, so well done Dan for
> doing the flyer..  
> 
> regards
> 
> dave t
> 
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