Worst Job Ever- Final Critique (McBratney)

The title of the project I've been working on for the Worst Job Ever assignment is No Lifeguard on Duty.  I chose this title because when I was at work as a lifeguard I never really wanted to be there for my job, I just wanted to relax on the beach.  For this project, I used Photoshop and my own photography.

This design project was made to be printed in poster format.  The subject of the project is my worst job ever - which was as a lifeguard at the Evanston beaches.  I was a lifeguard for two summers in high school.  Though it sounds like a great job because you get to spend the whole summer getting paid to be at the beach, it turned out to be not as glamorous as I imagined.

The first composition is geometric following the rule of thirds. It is broken into three sections - the sand, the rough water/lifeguard chair and the text.  The text at the top of the image mimics the text on the lifeguard chair creating a uniform style which is visually pleasing.  The simplicity of the text allows the image to remain prominent.

The second composition is deconstructive.  It is deconstructive because the phrases that represent Lake Michigan are stylized to look like waves and are overlapped and the buoy is collaged from a photograph.

The third composition is integrative.  The repetition of the photograph of the feet and clear comparison between the two images gives it an integrative structure.  The text is subservient to the images, but supports them nonetheless.

I chose my job as a lifeguard for the subject of this project because it was my first full-time summer job and was overall the worst experience I have had at a job.  My brothers have both been working at the beach for over five years and they love it.  As soon as I was old enough to become a lifeguard my older brother pressured me into becoming one.  It is a sort of right of passage in my family so I didn't really have a choice.  The training was a nightmare (3 weeks of intense physical training and certifications with an ex-military officer) and almost all of my co-workers were arrogant and annoyingly preppy.  They all hung out together and it was not a clique I wanted to join.  My managers were all power hungry and lazy. To top it all off I could never escape from the sand - it was always in my house, my car, my bed, my purse, my hair and everywhere in between.  Sand became one of my pet peeves and was ridiculously one of the main reasons that I didn't go back for a third summer.  I no longer wanted to be forced to spend time at the beach, I wanted to go to the beach to relax on my days off.

Throughout my time working on the project, I tried to keep a theme of the irony that being at the beach all day is supposed to be relaxing but it was the opposite when my job was to be at the beach.  I tend to gravitate towards compositions that are simple and rely on one strong element.  Leonardo Da Vinci once said "Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication".  While this quote is very old, it still applies to modern design.  I always try to strip my work down to the simplest composition that I can have while still conveying my message.  I believe that the three designs that I did for this project successfully convey my message.