FINISHED THE THING (a rant?)

We had the crit of our final stickers today and I am so happy with most of the feedback I'd been given, a lot of it was really constructive and a few people suggested that the designs could have been made even simpler through not using so many black lines, which got me thinking about the the way my designs were structured and how I could improve on this in the future. 

I did also get some feedback that said maybe I could have not included the thigh gap on the strong females sticker like I did, so it would be more inclusive to plus sized women. At first this upset me as I'm a very open and equal minded person and it hurts me to think that any of my illustrations might have made anyone feel alienated or excluded. But then I got to thinking about my reasons for choosing to represent the woman's bum how I did, and I realised that I needed to consider that I had given it some thought, it wasn't a snap desicion, or made to only show slimmer figures or tell only smaller women that they're strong. When I'm coming up with ideas about what the piece will represent  I am also thinking about how it will be constructed and what composition and elements make for the best image overall. Whilst admittedly I could have not given the bum a thigh gap, my intention by adding the gap was to make it more obvious what the viewer was seeing by highlighting the shape and outline of the bum and showing some of the background colour through the gap. So that you could see that this was a 3D thing that didn't only exsist on this sticker. I chose to do this for the same reason I also chose to add cellulite marks on the bum and upper thighs, to give it some dimension and depth, and so that those viewing it might find it more easy to identify it as what it is, to make for a more relatable and immediate illustration. My sticker at its base form was supposed to encourage women as a whole that they are strong as hell, in this I gave no mention to which ethnicity, height, weight, age, sexuality or anything else those women should be, I simply wanted anyone who identifies as a woman to know that they are strong, but if someone has taken from that that it excludes plus size women then I apologise, and maybe in future I need to consider that. 

Successes of this brief:

• Learning how to properly use Ai (I will for sure be using it again)
• Getting to grips with making a colour palette to add effect to a project and sticking to it
• I feel I've made something that a lot of people can relate to and identify with and would hopefully make a little change to someones day
• I think I've learnt a bit more about simplifying shapes and ideas to their base form, at least a bit more than I did before. I also am starting to appreciate the beauty of a simplistic design.
• I talked about something I'm passionate about and I realised I had A LOT to say about it! Need to do this more often

Failings or room for improvement in this brief:

• I still probably over complicate things more than necessary 
• I find it very hard to only stick to two colours but can see how much better it makes everything look in the long run!
• I could have maybe decided firmly on one or other of my stickers earlier on and then developed just one further until I had something a little more refined or simplified?