The mood board has been the most fun assignment so far. I always really love propaganda because it’s very bold and in your face, so being able to sift through examples of my favourite pieces was an absolute treat. Each section of the board looks distinct, but they all share traits in how they are designed. They all have bold backgrounds, distinct objects and symbols and strong use of colour, but they all use those in different ways. The WW2 posters look dark, foreboding- while the space race ones look optimistic and hopeful.
I did my best to balance out the amount that were darker with the ones that were glamorous, but I feel like I could have done better. There are too many ones that are Pride, but I can’t really blame myself too hard because Chinese propaganda is more used for conditioning it’s citizens than it is for striking fear into them. It was so worth it so I could get in the poster of Marshal Nie Rongzhen, the military leader they pictured with a horse with a rainbow in the background. It was hilarious.
An unexpected challenge was translation, I really think knowing what each poster says adds to the experience of seeing this blunt propaganda. I thankfully had the help of friends Liza Borissova and Sophia McGill (Cohort 1), who helped translate the Russian and German Posters respectively.
For me this assignment is a 10\10 but in reality it’s probably an 8.