Respect for Animals

After initial enthusiasm, I found this quite a difficult brief to get into. Partly due to the time spent on the Penguin project but also because the more I researched and investigated the area, the more I realised just how far every angle had been covered. It became apparent that as a designer you were in danger of simply recycling old shock concepts or plays on the fashion world.

My initial thinking explored ways of humanising the animals involved, to play on people's guilt and sensitivities. I remembered seeing Ogilvy & Mather's family tree design for the WWF at the D&AD Awards 2007. The family tree was such a clever visual device with which to get across our cruelty and flippant attitude towards animals. I searched for something similar but the best I could come up with was the idea of using the old family habit of chalking up growing children's heights on the door frame.

I also explored the idea of using our cat as a mascot/talisman. The concept here was to present a more positive attack on the fur trade - an approach that I feel has hitherto been under-utilised. I think that the development of a central anti-fur character could be quite rich in possibilities, particularly if pitched at a formative younger audience.

However, the brief indicated that the target audience was to be fashion-savvy 18 to 30 year-olds - it was time to think again.

My mind went back to the D&AD show and Shackleton's 'Sudoku/TV/Football' campaign for Save the Children. I decided to make a similar play by super-imposing the grotesque under-belly of the fur trade over the glamorous outward image.

I think the design pitches itself firmly at the target audience and there is a degree of sophistication about the concept. However, I recognise that it is fairly conventional in approach and I could, given time, have explored alternative methods of attack.

Furthermore, the content of the fake classifieds could be a little more considered - more research here could possibly have yielded more powerful results.

The placement of this poster will be critical. The audience needs time to dwell to realise the layers of meaning at work. It therefore limits its application. It is also possible that I don't have the opacity of the overlayed adverts quite right - they could perhaps be turned up a little more.

Given time, I could also have explored the possibilities of physically layering the elements of the poster, perhaps using perspex, so that the audience could move between them.