analysis/evaluation

At the end of this project, I decided to turn my final posters into designs for cushions - and I'm pleased with both of these outcomes as I feel that they show the right message I've been trying to get across about Royal memorabilia.

For the posters, I printed the images of the Royals and Elvis and then stencilled the words over the top. I decided to use stencil for the text of my posters for various reasons...

1) using paint on the stencil meant that the image underneath the text could still be seen, which would have been obscured if I had printed the text using a computer

2) the paint through the stencil leaked slightly, but I think this aided the statement of the poster, and reflected influences of the Sex Pistols album cover and anarchy

3) this was also helped by using type that I had made rather than an existing typeface, which would have made the posters look too formal, losing it's meaning

4) I also positioned the text over the images so that none of their eyes were completely covered

5) as for the images, they are all in black and white for a sense of unity, as well as to make the red text stand out

6) the images are only of their heads to reflect the postcards I found at the beginning of the project

7) I have put them in the order of Prince William, Prince Charles and then the Queen as that is the order of succession

Potential Final Outcome

Poster Ideas

Experimenting

Thoughts so far...

At the start of this project I wanted to look at the nation's obsession with the Royal Family and how they are portrayed in the media as well as on memorabilia (particularly the postcards of them). I was thinking mainly about how Royal memorabilia is simply playful and a tourist attraction, and how I could begin to mock ideas of taste by creating memorabilia that no one would want to buy. This whole idea comes from a bin that my Grandparents have that commemorates Charles' and Diana's wedding in 1981.

As part of this idea, I thought humour would be important, and so I got interested in the more satirical views of the Royal Family, shown mainly in the media, but by artists and designers as well. I wanted to create my own satire in relation to Royal memorabilia. At first I thought of simply recreating memorabilia, but more outrageous than existing souvenirs, using humour to question the nation's obsession with the Royal Family.

So.

Whilst keeping Royal memorabilia in mind, I've decided to go back to basics and think about the portrayal of images of the Royal Family in it's current state. And I think I've missed something key; the Queen's image has become perhaps one of the most iconic of the 20th and 21st centuries - her face is everywhere. What will happen when she stops being our monarch? The whole image of the Royal family will change. Not only that, but I think attitudes to the Royal Family will naturally change too - considering that the Queen has been the monarch for almost three generations. For my campaign, I want to look at this in more depth - and I had the idea to centre the campaign imagining Charles being King. I think this is relevant at the moment particularly because of the news coverage of Prince William's and Kate Middleton's engagement - as their wedding will create their public image as a couple - an image that I think will be very different from Charles and Camilla. So for my campaign, I'm going to start by experimenting with images of Charles in place of the Queen and see how that goes...

As if 'King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla' on our commemorative plates will be as iconic as Liz.

This plate commemorates the wedding of

God Save the Queen

I think I'm more interested in satire surrounding the Royal Family than the Royal Family itself - and it seems a lot of artists have had similar ideas.

 Heres a link I've found to some 

UNOFFICIAL ROYAL PORTRAITS. 

I also had a look at some of Alison Jackson's work - she satirises the famous by taking photos of their look-a-likes in awkward situations.

This photo was particularly controversial as it explored the speculations that, before their deaths, Diana and Dodi Al Fayad were expecting a baby.

"I wanted to see if people really cared whether she was real or not. So I sort of depicted this as a fantasy that existed in the public mind at the time -- which is really powerful. . . . We were all thinking: Is Diana in love with Dodi? Does she want to marry Dodi? Was she pregnant with Dodi's baby? . . . Would the monarchy have tolerated that?"