Bear with me...my ideas are split into three categories and each category has three variations. All ideas are based around the concept of political scandals*. Ready?
A. Presidents or Magicians?--I want to relate a president and their scandal to a famous magician and their notable tricks/ gag.
Ex.Nixon wasn't charged for the Watergate crimes and Harry Houdini was a great escape artist. The central design could be Nixon either about to escape, or already out of a straitjacket. If he already escaped, the 'v for victory' gesture would be featured.
B. Famous Quotes: Madlibs- Turn famous political quotes into a game of Madlibs.
Ex. "I did not have sexual relations with that _________." (insert a noun into that blank space)
C. Famous Quotes: Hangman-To state it plainly: deciding to run for public office is kind of like setting yourself up for death. Every word you say can be used against you. Hangman is a visual representation of that.
Ex. "I Want To _e P_es_ _e_t"
2. Branded for Life
A. Target- Graphic B/W image of a president or pants with bold, red bulls-eye over the thing that got politicians in trouble.
Example: A person wearing dress pants pictured from belly button down, bulls-eye over crotch. This could represent Anthony Weiner.
B. Masked by Scandal-Person in a suit who is standing as if ashamed, but instead of wearing a paper bag over his or her head, they wear a mask of the symbol of their crime.
Example: Rod Blagojevich wearing a mask in the shape of a dollar bill.
C. Tagged: Name That Politician- Person in suit wearing a "Hello My Name Is" name tag with their scandal in place of their name.
Example: Hello, My Name is Watergate.
ALTERNATIVE-- Graphic B/W portrait of a politician with a red bar that bears the name of their scandal across their eyes.
Example: Nixon's face with "Watergate" in the red.
3. (Untitled)
A. Airing of Dirty Laundry- Clothes line of scandal symbols in lieu of clothes (paper money, boxers, badly graded papers etc.)
B. Parade of scandal symbols in balloon form. Macy's Thanksgiving Day style. The balloons would be colorful and on the bottom part of the plate.
C. Spinning a Yarn- It means to tell a story with exaggerated detail. So in the distance, a generic (or maybe specific) politician would be pictured, open mouthed. The yarn would flow out of their mouth, as if they were throwing it up, and would come forward more...gathering in the foreground.
*I understand that the scandals I list as examples generally involve sex and that's not kosher for dinnerware. Whatever I end up choosing, I know to keep it family friendly.
nice ideas here. the challenge is to find something that works as a complete thought with limited placement. For example, I like the idea of President, or Illusionist?/Games as commentary, it's smart. The example may be too literal, like the idea better than the execution. But the real question…what else, besides Nixon? I think there is something interesting in the Madlibs idea. Are we saying its all BS and they just say what we want? Or that its all generic? interesting and visual. Hangman gets too specific, not enough surfaces to do this well. The branded idea si OK, I think i'd like it better if you coulees come up with a strong series of things that get all politicians in trouble and use them. bush's mouth got him trouble, but lots of others did too. Same for sex. Money. corruption, etc. Laundry starts to just that and should be explored. Very smart, nice range of thinking.
ReplyDeletewho says sex isn't kosher for dinnerware!?
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of politics as games. I think this could be very entertaining, especially the mad libs one.
ReplyDelete