"We seek to be the voice for those creatures who have no voice. We speak for their future. We seek to apply the wealth of our talents, knowledge, and passion to make the world wealthier in life, in spirit, and in the living wonder of nature." (Quote taken from, https://www.worldwildlife.org/about)
This is a refreshing ideology that should be adopted by more individuals, it is evident that we heavily rely on the natural environment, without it, we would be unable to sustain our living requirements. The worlds natural resources is key to our survival, therefore it is imperative that nature is both respected and valued. However, I believe that man possesses a potent arrogance that is certainly naive and short-sighted, this arrogance refers to the ideology that we are the 'dominant' species and that nothing can destroy us. This is an exceedingly ignorant perception to possess when you compare us to natural disasters, when hurricanes and tsunami's (for example) occur, those individuals nearby are as fragile as a piece of glass.
Our consumerist tendencies have resulted in the disregard of the importance of the natural environment, as technology and factory production have advanced so have our materialistic obsessions. Our ability to produce a large variety of new products has resulted in a consumerist haze which seemingly blocks us from the negatives associated with our environments current state. Understandably, accepting that we have done wrong in regards to the environment isn't desirable, however it is necessary if we are to reverse the damages that have been already instigated. Unfortunately, it seems that some individuals do not wish to except that the environment is suffering and as a result carry on in their consumerist bubble.
Therefore to counteract this it seems that sustainable and environmental conservation organisations such as the WWF have created advertisements and campaigns to convey the urgency of our environmental situation. The posters created by the WWF are exquisite pieces of work that are both exceedingly aesthetic and interesting to view, as they visually depict their messages.
As an upcoming Art and Design graduate, I found observing the diverse range of posters online extremely interesting, representational tendencies combined with surreal visuals and heartbreaking fact, have resulted in a diverse range of posters and advertisement campaigns deliberately designed to make the viewer look twice. The posters created by the WWF are extremely clever as they inject reality and convey it in such a way that it will certainly attract viewers of alternative age ranges, thus displaying their message to a larger percentage of people.
Below are a few of my favourite examples of WWF posters, campaigns and advertisements...
1)
(http://blogs.wwf.org.uk/wild-life/gallery/wwf-posters/)
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(http://blogs.wwf.org.uk/wild-life/gallery/wwf-posters/)
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11)
Each of these posters display unique visuals that are designed to both shock and intrigue in a hope that viewers will begin to see that our environment and all its animal inhabitants are suffering as a result of our actions. It is unnecessary for us to kill animals for fashion, a tigers coat looks far more magnificent on the tiger than it does on a person, the ivory from the tusks of elephants look far more beautiful and ornate on the elephant than it does in those small statues people buy as a memoir for their time abroad. Poachers and our wish to purchase unnecessary products have led to the suffering of animals without any real reason, Poster 8, depicts the poaching and killing of animals unnecessarily perfectly. The poster replaces a tiger cub with a young child dressed in a tiger costume, with a gun pointing at the child, this puts it into perspective so that viewers observing the posters can ask themselves...would they want their baby to be murdered so brutally and unnecessarily? I guarantee you the answer would be that they wouldn't...so what gives us the right to do it to other animals and their babies? The answer is is that we have no right to do it, especially for the pitiful excuse of using animals within fashion.
The WWF is a brilliant organisation that is relentlessly working to improve our environmental situation, it is fighting to protect endangered species whilst attempting to eliminate any threats to the animal kingdom and nature in general. With the work they are undertaking I am sure to blog about them again later in this blog, as they continue to fight to save our environment.
My Ideas for WWF Posters
After researching and viewing some of WWF's posters, I decided to set myself a challenge to create a new set of posters for WWF, initial written ideas have been detailed below.
- Jungle Book - the animals lying on the floor cowering and struggling, as moggly is stood over them with a shotgun.
- Difference between reality and fantasy - Page split in half, on the left is someone standing facing the Amazon rainforest with their eyes closed fantasizing about it being lush and beautiful, on the right is the same person standing with their eyes open shocked at the deforestation. (Left is labelled at the top 'Fantasy', Right is labelled at the top 'Reality').
I will continue to add to these concepts by physically drawing the posters, they will be inserted into this blog post when they are completed.
