Message: Luckier than you know. Toilet Roll Typography.
There is so much stuff going on around us now that it’s easy to be negative. I asked my parents for some emotions that they perceive our area is about. Panic, Denial, Confusion, Anxious were but a few. When called out about giving no ‘positive’ emotions they actually thought a bit more about our context.
It could be worse, we live in a nice area. It’s not densely populated, it’s easy to look after ourselves. We are Glad, Optimistic, Fortunate. Lucky.
Wouldn’t it be good to show that we have green grass we can admire in our garden. The sun is shinning and we are all ok.
I knew that I wanted to use toilet paper as my medium for this week’s brief. It’s a big thing right now and it make’s a lot of people upset. Rest assured that no toilet paper was actually wasted during this week. Sarah made me think about the context of material selection. I couldn’t think of another material to use that would give my message the context that it deserved.
What do I actually want to say?
There are so many negative emotions flying around in these trying times. I want to give these emotions form. I also want to put across the point that there are also many positive emotions that we could be feeling if we just got past all of the bad thoughts and actually identified what we are lucky to have. Enter my typographic toilet roll and it’s uses.
After the interview with my parents, I took the negative emotions that they came up with, as well as some of my own and then more from this weeks local news stories. Boy thats a negative roll of toilet paper. It may seem that way at first, all you have to do is see further and get past the negativity. only the exterior part of the roll is negative, about 5 sheets.
The text is thinner and less noticeable but you can totally see it when you look. All of the little things that we look for are there, our success our luckiness and our upcoming victories. There are happy emotions that seem small and fleeting right now but they always underpin what we do and look for as human beings.
How am I going to use this bog roll then?
Well first off, flush that negative stuff and get it out of your system, wipe it away.
Now spread out the good vibes. Unroll your new found (but always there) positivity onto the things you’re lucky to have.
Could be that you live with your parents currently, not ideal but they’re super supportive even when they have no idea what’s going on.
Could be that you have a great space to work from home. It’s a little small but it’s my amazing office that has everything I could ever need.
Feeling down. I know someone that will always give me soft amazing cuddles and comfort me whenever I need it.
Grab a roll of bog roll for yourself and get tagging. (Probably should wait until all of this COVID-19 business blows over though…)
Development
I wasn’t happy with this week’s outcome as it didn’t seem to have a definitive end product. I loved the toilet paper idea but I wasn’t totally sold on the execution. What can I do instead? It was a Thursday night and I was huddled over my desk as usual. I hear a strange noise coming from the street so I do to investigate. All of my neighbours are outside their houses clapping and cheering for the NHS. An immense feeling of pride stirred within me and I got inspired. I wanted to use the sound of a clap. A clap that fills me with pride.
First I recorded a couple of claps and turned them into a soundwave. The soundwave turned out to be high at the beginning and low at the end. I then rolled out my trusty toilet paper into the shape of this soundwave.
From here I traced the shape of the toilet roll but kept everything uniform. I extended this theme to create the word pride using the ‘toilet roll style’ (Gone full circle from the typography from the beginning of the week!).
I wanted the colour palette to be very black and white. There are no mixed feelings. We are all proud of our key workers and NHS staff all over the UK and locally. I wanted there to be a mixed set of posters that could be splashed around the streets to show our black and white pride. The more space these cover the better. A single clap alone is not enough, all us proud people clap together now. Ready 1…2…3.
It became apparent that the material is lost after the poster designing process so I decided to create these mock ups. The posters are made of toilet roll and posted to the wall. The design is supposed to instil pride amongst viewers and passively remind them to stay at home.
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