Identity Analysis

My design for the Us vs. Them assignment was titled the Shades of Shoshanna. I used a photograph of myself, and tools in Illustrator to complete this on November 5^th, 2013. It was a digital version of six different artboards, each of an illustrated version of myself, with different coloring of my hair on each. The specific subject in this piece is the hair colors that I’ve done and the variety that I’ve dyed it. While I focused on that for the most part, I also had a secondary subject of qualities of myself that you can’t tell just by looking at me. I wanted to show that there are many different shades, or qualities, that I express.

I used elements of type, photo, illustration, and color to illustrate my piece. Over the complete design of the six artboards, they are integrative towards each other, each comparing a difference of myself with another difference of myself. Though, within each composition, I feel they are geometric with the type on the poster easy to read and making sense in its position. The portrait is centered for the most part and easy on the eyes, with only slight wavy coloring of different tints of gray in the background. The focus is clearly placed on my hair and the type that coordinates with that color

            This piece of mine has to do with my hair style, and how I feel it is a large part of my identify and what people know about me. I bring other people’s opinions and what my close friends and family have told me about myself in the text of the project, while bringing my experiences of dying my hair many, many colors to this piece. I feel most people, besides a few, had focused on their heritage or religion, but I think I had a different focus, similar to a classmate who’s focus was on facial hair in his family, which was on my individual self and appearance. I feel my work was very simple, which I am happy but not completely satisfied with. I think the critique about animating the faces in each more would make it appear different enough. I wanted a very simple and straightforward approach, with little distractions in my piece.

            I think the designer who used the most similar approach to my work was Andy Warhol. Both of us have used repeating portraits, posterized and colorized photos. The events through my life of dying my hair different colors had shaped the approach I took. I wanted to appear as the same girl, but with changing hair in each picture. I wanted people to see the qualities that are brought out with different hair colors, and that people may see me as a different type of girl during each time of my life, but ultimately I am the same. I feel the final was strong, but I agree with one of the classmates that maybe I could’ve combined them all into one image, although it would have to be quite large to be able to see all the type included. I was happy with the aesthetic and what my intent for the design was.