FAKE NEWS

For my final project at West Suffolk College, I wanted to cover the major problem with Fake News in our new digital social media world and highlight how easy it is to make up fake news for views, clicks and online attention. I have fond memories of this project. I remember having so much fun with figuring out different ways that I can portray this message and make people aware of how much fake news is currently on social media.

Above shows an example of one of the many screen prints which I created in this project. Screen printing and lino printing were two mediums which I heavily focused on in this process. After researching both techniques, I was very inspired and felt both mediums would only positively enhance my outcomes.

In hindsight, I wish I made my own newspaper instead of using an existing newspaper. I could have taken an existing newspaper and copied everything, but only edited one line, to act like a small Easter egg in the design. For example, "This entire article is completely bollocks and I made it all up for monetary gain. Enjoy!".

Initial Collage Text

Above shows exactly 20 different collage designs which I created. This was such a fun experiment, and it is clear to see that I enjoyed is by the vast amount which I created. This concept involved me flicking through a newspaper, and trying to find key words which would fit well as a fake news article (much like some people would do if they were trying to make up fake news for clicks and views on social media). The key words which I was trying to find was strong adjectives and words which have shocking and heavy connotations. Some examples of key words which I found include cancer, sex, porn, cannabis, lesbian, drugs etc. I also tried to find popular names, which would also help to catch the eye of many readers. These are people who are large celebrities, ranging from having a positive reputation, such as Raheem Sterling and Lewis Hamilton, and other people who I would personally say have a negative connotation to the majority, including Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Some are very shocking and very offensive, such as "New Zealand attacks was 'great banter' says MPs". The shock factor is very important at showing the extent that some nasty people will go to get clicks and views on an article, even if what they are saying is actually fake news.

Some have much more comical connotations, such as "Trump has sex with his daughter: 'small knob'". This is also quite relevant because there has, in the past, been some rumours about how Trump speaks about his daughter Ivanka in a very disturbing and inappropriate manner. Where Trump said that if Ivanka wasn't his daughter, he would be dating her in a interview in 2006. I also created another collage design based on this topic, which says, "Trumps little dick 'not doing enough' says Ivanka Trump. This shows how people on social media who create fake news for clicks and monetary gain use true information, such as what Trump said in the interview, and twist it in a intense manner, ignoring any morals which they should have.

The placement of each individual word also took lots of consideration and experimenting with potential outcomes. As I created lots of different shocking headlines, I felt it was only appropriate to experiment with a range of different proportions. This was beneficial for a variety of different reasons. For example, as a designer, it is important to constantly experiment. To try and create something new and exciting. To push yourself to learn something new. This is significantly more important for a young student designer, which I was at the time of creating this project.

One piece which includes interesting placement of type is the piece stating, "Trump admits 9/11 and Pentagon terrorism attack in New York to be fake". Shocking and horrific, I know. I decided to align the text right, which stands out against the majority of other placement styles which I have used in this experimentation, which mostly are quite randomly placed, in a neat fashion.

Continuous Line Drawing

Continuous line drawing has always been one of my favourite drawing techniques to experiment with, so it only felt right to revisit it in this project. I took key words/themes from the collage designs which I previously created and drew something related to that. For example, for the statement, "Trump found dead by hanging in the White House", I felt it was appropriate to use an image of a noose and Trump looking sad.

I was, and still am, extremely proud of these designs. The amount of detail added to these illustrations works significantly well at allowing the design to look super realistic. This was difficult to achieve, especially as I could not remove my pen from the paper.

I found the process of illustrating the babies significantly challenging. It was very difficult to make it obvious that the baby was crying. I do remember my first few attempts looking like a small demon instead of a crying child. Thankfully, after lots of trial and error, I was able to create a design which I was proud of and that I could develop into a final piece.

I also found it significantly challenging to illustrate Donald Trump for different reasons. Trump's facial features are not as extreme as the babies, so in that aspect, it wasn't as difficult. However, due to Trump being a celebrity and having a worldwide, recognisable face, it was important that I got the proportions correct so the illustration looked like Donald Trump. Otherwise, it would just look like an illustration of a random man, in turn decreasing the professionalism of the design and the credibility of the project purpose.

Screen printing & Lino printing

As mentioned previously in this post, screen printing and lino printing are two examples mediums which I heavily experimented with in this project. I created a variety of different outcomes, ranging in techniques and approaches.

Above shows the two lino prints which I created for the statement, "May jailed and given £23m fine after shooting three police men". For this approach, I felt it was appropriate to use handcuffs due to the connotations handcuffs have with an arrest. The illustration of the pair of handcuffs was very successful and realistic, so I decided to use this as a stencil for a lino print. The collage is somewhat difficult to read with the lino print over it, however that would be easy to amend digitally. For the design on the right, I decided to add circles of tissue paper on print to add texture to the design. This does not add or show any meaning which I am trying to portray with the purpose of this project, so I did not develop this further. In hindsight, I should have only used red tissue paper and ignored the green tissue paper. The red tissue paper could symbolise blood, which is coming from the three police officers which Theresa May allegedly shot.

Above shows two different lino prints which I created using the statement, "Kids at UK school plea for porn lessons and entertainment". These designs turned out significantly successful and provide a great shock factor, which I was aiming to achieve with this project. With the first design, I created a simple lino print design, removing all of the ink off of the plate, allowing the background to be fully white.

With the design on the right, I took a more creative route. I removed the ink inside of the illustration, so when it prints, the background will reveal to be white. Then, around the outside of the illustration, I created swirls with the ink, creating a unique texture of the design. This allows the design to be more artistic, as well as allowing the illustration in the middle to be more bold and visible, which was a problem with my previous print about Theresa May.

Above shows an example of a screen print and a lino print which I created, again using the statement "Kids at UK school plea for porn lessons and entertainment". The design on the left is one of my favourite pieces in this entire project. The leaking on the link above the head and by the neck was no intentional, and initially I was frustrated that this happened, however after reflection, I felt that the smudge complemented the design.

Above shows an example of a screen print and a lino print which I created using the statement, "Ronaldo kicked six dark families for 'fun'...". The design on the right shows the lino print which I created. I did not fully remove the ink off of the plate, leaving a grey textured background to compliment the design.

The design on the right is another screen print design which I created. I inverted the original design, which adds a sinister, dark atmosphere to the design, which fits well with the theme of fake news. I printed a red arrow which shows someone clicking on this shocking headline, subtlety implying that people create fake news articles for the purpose of clicks, views and monetary gain, and implying that people should be wary of what they read online.

Scrunched Newspaper Background

When analysing my lino print and screen prints, I knew that I was proud of the pieces which I created, however I knew something was missing. The design looked impressive, however I did not feel that it looked complete. I felt like this could have been due to the plain, white boring background, maybe encouraging the design to feel almost empty and like something was not quite right.

If I am being honest, I don't know what happened to this concept. Regrettably, after creating the design, I did not take it any further, and I fail to understand why. I remember being quite proud of this concept. The scrunched paper created lots of texture and it is quite interesting to look at. It would make for a great background, and I do not understand why I didn't take it further. This project does stand out in my head as one where I experimented with frequently, so maybe it sadly got lost in the pile.

In hindsight, I wish I used this textured design as a background for me to screen print on. It would have been interesting to see how the print actually applied, due to it being such a bumpy and moving surface.

Four Final Outcomes

Above shows the final wooden pieces which I created for this project. I was very proud of these design outcomes and thought the concept of placing these designs on wood helped them appear more exciting and unique. This was important, particularly because the work was then displayed at West Suffolk College, next to lots of other design student's work.

This concept originated because I initially intended for these designs to be placed on cardboard, however when I printed the design on the card board, the visual aspect was very much lacking. Because fake news is a huge issue, I thought it would be a good concept to place the design on cardboard because it reminds me of what people would bring to protests. Passionate people bring designs on card board to protests to show their passion and put their point across about a serious matter.

As cardboard did not work, I decided to place the design on wood, which worked significantly better. The edges of the wood is snapped, which has a hidden message. The snapped wood shows urgency about getting this point across. Instead of neatly cutting the wood, it was quickly snapped to show the urgency to speak about fake news which is fooling lots of people, ranging in age and gender.

I was very proud of this project and the sheer amount of different experimentations and possible routes which I explored. Shown above is just a slim example of what I created over the time frame of 6 weeks. This project was a great way to end my journey at West Suffolk College.