Graphic Design: Final Major Project
Visually these pieces are pretty similar (they're both focused on medicine and packaging), but conceptually they are very different. for this reason I'm focusing more on the visual aspects of the pieces than the concepts as neither relate the closely to my project or inspire much thought surrounding my line of enquiry. I'm more interested in the information and success of the packaging. I think the Damien Hirst Pharmacy piece is very useful for this because you can tell what your eye is drawn to when looking at a large range of packaging.
DARREN CULLEN
DAMIEN HIRST
Darren Cullen is a very satirical artist who's art often comments on consumerism and politics in the UK. these works are a sarcastic take on on medicinal consumer culture and our willingness to follow warnings and instructions if they look official. In terms of concept this piece is not particularly useful to me and I honestly find Cullens work to be pretty wanky. What I'm taking from this piece is the success of self made documents. The labels often go unread but this is where Cullen hides his message and its this that I want to re create in my work. Sure it won't jump out at you but those that look closer will receive the greatest benefits from the piece.
Even though Damien Hirst's work I find to be much more pretentious, I actually connect with the concept more. The medicines are laid out in the cabinet to fix ailments from head to toe. The use of drugs is a comment on altering perceptions and short lived cures which I find conceptually interesting that both artists have a seemingly negative or suspicious view on modern medicine. The thing I connect with is the personification of the medicine, often it is reduced to symptoms dosage and side effects but I want to connect it to emotions and relationships which was inspired by this piece. The thing I found most useful was the visual communication, I used it as a tool to look at and see what packages I was drawn to in order to emulate this in my own work.
