Abby Grimshaw's Ideas

Concept #1: Political Pyramid 

In the United States we segregate our political parties like we segregate our food:
- we "think" we know their "nutritional" value
- we strictly categorize them into separate components
- an equal balance of all would probably be the healthiest choice.

For this idea I want to combine the imagery used for the United States Food Pyramid:

With coordinating infographics that have to do with the population of political parties in the united states, including:

Democrat, Republican, Constitution, Green, Libertarian, American First, Independent. 

This is both an info graphic and geometric solution. 

Concept #2: We the What?

This typographic solution will poke fun at how well Americans truly do know their history. Are we completely educated and knowledgeable on what our rights are? With the incorrect sayings on the outside and the correct on the inside this conceal/reveal aspect will reflect that it does indeed take a little work in order to become knowledgeable on a subject.

May contain play on words such as: we the what?!, bill of knights, and variations on the pledge of allegiance. 

Concept #3: The Family Peacekeeper

This pictographic solution will allow many more dinner table arguments in the United States fairly fought and understood. Family conflicts usually center around opposing political issues ( and usually after a couple of drinks, become very intense). So for your next family meal not only will there be coordinating sets of dinnerware for each member's political preference but just incase a key arguing point when in the midst of discussion, will have key values of their party placed on the inside of their cup. This will allow well informed arguments, for sometimes we all forget what we are really arguing about. Simple clean graphics will accompany this set of dishes that will make you never loose a dinner table argument again.

Tim Hurley's Ideas

My ideas are mainly written out, but following each idea is inspiration imagery for each idea. First off, after going to the Fishs Eddy store, I came to the conclusion that dishware design is more secondary than anything. Designs that were being sold in their store were designed as novelty items and all of the designs catered to everyone, and none of the designs were specific to any target audience or too loud in their subject matter/approach. With that said, I tried coming up with ideas that focused on politics in general and nothing more; by focusing on a broad topic, I would have designs that appealed to anybody walking into the store. In addition to this, I noticed that the majority of the people shopping in the store were a mix of young hip couples, middle age married couples, and single middle age women.

IDEA 1

Politics is all about taking a side, and sticking by that side. People show their support in politics many different ways, but one effective way is through bumper stickers. Everyone who drives behind you sees what you support, advocate, and what you are against. Since politics is always changing, I think that collecting many different bumper sticker designs throughout history (both serious and funny) and mixing and matching them onto cups, bowls, plates, and anything else I can think of would be a unique aesthetic for dishware. These designs would serve as a overview of history, and politics over time, and provides people with something nice to look at, as well as something to look further into. In a way, the dishware becomes the bumper.

IDEA 2

A lot of people enjoy memorizing all of the presidents and being able to recite their names upon looking at a photo. Presidents are iconic figures that everyone knows, and the majority of presidents have very distinct facial features and looks. The surrealist artists used to play a game called Exquisite Corpse, where they would fold the paper in sections, start with the head of a figure, pass it, move onto the body, pass it and so on; at the end you get a totally crazy creature that was created by everyone. I was thinking I could make exquisite corpses of the presidents. I think it would be funny to see Abraham Lincoln's mouth/beard paired up with Bush's eyes/hair. Once the designs are made, people would have fun trying to see if they can recognize who's who, plus they'd look pretty cool regardless of whether you know who's who.

IDEA 3

There are alot of political parties out there. The two main being the republican and democratic, and other minor ones, however I bet you never knew about some parties that might have gotten lost within the mix. Some of these parties along with their symbols are the Pizza party (slice of pizza), the party party (mug of beer), graduation party (a cap and tassel), ice cream party (ice cream cone), dance party (disco ball), tea party (a tea bag), and many more. I am playing on the fact that we have a lot of types of parties that end in the word "party". Since the Democrat party has a donkey and the republican party is a elephant, i gave these types of parties, like the pizza party kids love celebrating in school, an icon similar to that of the democrat/republican party. It would be something that people would find humorous (it's a fresh use of a pun), and they could pick which icon suits themselves the most, or which ever one they think is clever.

IDEA 3

Everyone is familiar with the 10 commandments, and the bill of rights, but are we familiar with the ones passed without the government telling us about? These ones are: The right to have seconds, the right to put the bowl up to your mouth, the right to be messy, the right to lick the plate, the right to split the meal, the right to take the last one, the right to double dip, the right to use your fingers, the right to taking an extra scoop of sugar, the right to play with your food, the right to...etc. I want to come up with copy that speaks to people on the level where they will go "ohhh haha, I do that! This plate/bowl/mug is great!". These are those joke dishes that people bring out time and time again because they saying captures who they are when they eat. I think a play that says, the right to take the last one is funny. These sayings relate to the dish specifically, and would be written in old fashioned style, and made to look like the 10 commandments/bill of rights. These were inspired by the dishes in the store that we based around moments of truth which were mainly type based.

Fishs Eddy Sketches

F.E. Concepts

 

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? 

1. Politics Are A Series of Games

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.

Fishes Eddy

My first concept is to create flatware that refrences the statistics of Occupy Wall Street. Each item would have a circle at 99% full that would stand for the 99% of Americans that represent the middle and working classes, under this would be circles representing subcategories like percent of protestors who are students, mothers, teachers, children, homeless these are just a few, their are a vast range of options.

My second idea is to create mind mapping charts critiquing the education system and the idea of cultural capital. The idea that those born wealthy will always be the most educated and cultured human beings in society because they are given the most options.

My last idea is flatware that asks questions that relate to feminism. Questions that often women ask themselves or ask society that males would never have to ask of themselves. Questions like; Why do Men make more money than Women?

Concepts

-My first concept is a political tug of war, revolving around the tension between contrasting political parties that are still tied to one another.

-Since the theme of politics is such a broad term, my second concept was to explore a visual representation of the most straight forward and important aspect of politics: checks and balances.

-My last concept is about the blending/melding of opposing views to resolve conflict.

My Concepts

My first concept would use the symbolic donkey and elephant as animal crackers "battling" and benefiting themselves while hurting the other, like democrats and republicans do, except my interpretation of battling would be more literal. Animal crackers would add humor and a twist on the usual symbols, but also would go with plates etc. I would imagine different scenarios based off the object used, for example in a cup the elephant would be using the donkey as a stepping stool so when filled the donkeys "underwater" while the elephant can breath.

My second idea is based on the idea that there is one president but the nation's involved. I use the historical symbol of a powdered wig, and put different faces from punk to nerd, in the wig.

Another idea is to portray the levels of communication people go through to get their ideas heard, and the message can get distorted by the people in between the public and president. I would show this through the game telephone telephone.

My final idea is incorporating voting with gambling, because voting is a gamble. You have to trust and believe promises made by the politician you voted for will deliver. I combined a slot machine with voting booth to show this idea.