My Take on the Obama Hope Poster

From looking at and taking inspiration from the Obama 'Hope' poster for his 2008 campaign, I used one of my own photographs taken outside of The American Embassy to create a similar image to use to promote the band. Originally, I planned to use the image for the front cover of the album, however, on second thoughts I felt that it would be inappropriate to use on the album itself as I would have to follow the style as a theme. This presented two problems; the idea isn't completely original as it was influenced by the work of Shepard Fairey, and so I would like the majority of my work on the print production to be original ideas coming from myself. Secondly, if using this style with the bold colours throughout the album, I feel that it would be too busy and would attract attention from the audience in the wrong way by being too loud and garish. Baring this in mind, the image of the businessman Photoshopped in the style of the Obama poster could work well as an additional poster/insert that would be part of the album, but not the covers itself.

Original photograph of the actor used for editing in Photoshop

Finished version of Obama style poster to be used as an insert/extra

Below are all of the steps used in creating the image in Photoshop:

Further Ideas for Print Production

Jim Fitzpatrick's iconic poster of Che Guevara

When thinking of alternative ideas for the front cover of my print production I decided to brainstorm ideas revolving around politics instead of the splitscreen ideas that I'd previously thought of. This lead me to the Obama 'Hope' poster for his 2008 campaign, made by the notorious street artist Shepard Fairey. Fairey first became known for his series of stickers featuring the wrestler 'Andre the Giant' with the slogan' which developed into the 'Obey Giant' campaign, with the aim to inspire curiosity and cause the masses to question their relationship with their surroundings. The Obey Giant website says: "The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker". The website then goes on to seemingly contradict itself, suggesting that the sticker is simply humorous when spotted amongst the urban environment to those who are aware of Obey, and that to search for meaning in the sticker is to burden oneself. Fairey was well known in the underground art scene and was gaining recognition in public, however, he gained widespread attention in 2008 when he produced the 'Hope' poster for the Barack Obama presidential campaign. The poster consists of a stylized stencil of Obama in red, beige and blue with the word 'hope' (or 'progress'/'change' on other versions). The pace at which the poster became the face of the campaign was akin to the popularity of the poster of Che Guevara made by Jim Fitzpatrick.

Shepard Fairey designed Obama presidential poster

The style of the Obama poster would work well for the front cover of the album due to its political connotations and iconic style. When looking at my version, the audience would immediately be able to identify the idea behind the poster, as it is heavily connected to politics, particularly the American Government. This works in my favour due to the nature of the track and the referencing of President Carter's speech, as well as the style of the music video; politics and social equality are intrinsically linked. The use of colour is extremely bold, which makes the poster eye catching. This is a desirable trait when designing and producing an album cover/poster because capturing audiences attention is the primary aim of advertising and marketing. Furthermore, the poster acts as propaganda, again fitting with the themes of the music video and the track; propaganda is a form of communication aimed towards influencing the attitude of the community toward some cause or petition by only representing one side of the argument. The album covers and poster could act as propaganda, only it will be propaganda used to raise issues regarding social equality.

 If I were to use the style of the poster I would simply Photoshop one of my own photographs in a similar style, making sure that my version would alter from the original in order to conjure a sense of originality and creativity in my own work. Additionally, I could replace the word 'hope' for the bands name 'Fold' in order to promote the band, adding the album name below the main text. When considering this idea, I realised that if I used this technique on the front cover I would have to replicate the effect, or a similar effect, across the rest of the album. Using this sort of stencil style across the album would most probably be slightly overpowering to look at, thus the Obama style poster would only work for one panel. Considering this, I may use the idea for the magazine advert/poster as the original design worked as a poster; therefore my version could also be used effectively as a poster. This would also allow me to use a theme for the album covers that works more as a series rather than one individual image. 

The original Obama poster has been subject to many imitations and parodies, including the poster that Fairey himself altered in order to offer his support to the Occupy Wall Street campaign and the We Are The 99%. This version (above) features the Guy Fawkes mask that has become widely renown amongst political protest groups, in particular the group of hackers who go by the name 'Anonymous', as well as alterations to the presidents badge to bear the slogans 'WE ARE THE 99%' and 'OCCUPY WALL ST.'. Furthermore, this version also added a line of text, saying 'we are the' in addition to the original 'hope'. This adaptation to the poster is a further asset to my print production due to the fact that it endorses the fight against social inequality, the same issue that we hope to raise and challenge in the music video. Additionally, I noted the 'Anonymous' group and the film "V For Vendetta" as intertextual references for the music video, and so the poster is an extension of these references. The 'We Are The 99%' slogan is another aspect that we had hoped to capture in the music video, with one side of the splitscreen representing the 99% and the other representing the richest 1%. I had also considered including these figures in my print production to further increase the idea of binary opposition/conflict between social classes. If I decide to use the Obama poster idea, hopefully the audience will also be able to make the connection, and identify with, the adaptation for the 'Occupy Wall St.' campaign  as it would be beneficial to the advertising and marketing of the album, as well as successfully conveying meaning. 

I would use either of these images in Photoshop to achieve the Obama poster style, however, I feel that the photograph of the businessman character would be most successful as it has more colour to provide contrast. Furthermore, the 1% (of which the businessman character represents) is the target for the rest of society in terms of social inequality, and so it would make more sense to use this photograph on the front cover rather than the image of the protester character. Additionally, either photograph would be easy to use in Photoshop as the background is relatively easy to remove and both are well lit and from similar distances.  

These are some possible font ideas for use on the print production, with a possible name for the album title. I've chosen to look at reasonably bold and American looking fonts in order to fit in with the theme of the track and music video. The bolder and hard edged fonts with easy readability work best for the album cover, as the audience will be able to understand the text quickly and the text itself will be eye catching.

Target Audience Profile for the Music Video/Print Production

Audience Profile for A2 Music Video/Print Production