For my most recent brief at University of the Arts London, London College of Communication, I was required to create a pocket-sized 'something' which represents researched information about our elected personnel. The name that I popped out of the envelope was Lord Baden-Powell. This is what I came up with...
After days of extensive research, I understood that Lord Baden-Powell was a member of the British Army and founder of the Scout Movement. Due to this, his sister then ran the Girl Guides Movement. An interesting part of my research, was that Lord Baden-Powell (L. B-P) was arguably a repressed homosexual. I discovered this information primarily from my Grandad, who seems to know something about everything, and then backed up this finding by reading journals, such as 'Lord Baden-Powell' by 'Tim Jeal'. The text quotes that "Baden-Powell was in a position of public trust which made watching, at one remove, almost the only way for him to satisfy his interest" (page 96), "The available evidence point inexorably to the conclusion that Baden-Powell was a repressed homosexual" (page 103). Following this finding, I then decided that I would like to design a Scouts Badge (fabric patch) which celebrates acceptance of everyone's sexuality - thus, an award for 'Love and Humanism'.
Of course I researched existing products to inform myself of composition, colour schemes, size etc. I also looked into Gilbert Baker - the designer and creator of the LGTB Rainbow Flag, and soon discovered the 'Pink Triangle', the second most popular and recognisable symbol for Gay Rights (second to the Rainbow Flag). The Pink Triangle was originally used in Nazi concentration camps as a way of categorising and identifying homosexuals. During this time and for this purpose, the triangle was actually a down-facing pink triangle, and thus has now been reversed to an up-facing triangle, to give the symbol a positive meaning supporting Gay Rights. A Pink Triangle surrounded by a green circle stands for alliance with homosexuals, and a space free from homophobia.
So I knew that my design would have a Pink Triangle, surrounded by a green circle; would contain the phrase "Principle and Practice of Love and Humanism" (later condensed to "Love and Humanism") and also the Scout Movement symbol.
After visiting Lord Baden-Powell House in South Kensington, London, I discovered his signature and also a statue of his appearance. Using this, I illustrated his portrait using a permanent marker and Adobe Illustrator and copied his signature.
After playing around with composition and having the layout that I was happy with, I decided to adjust the colours. I opted for a Khaki colour scheme to reflect Scouts, using earthy tones of green, beige and brows, along with the hot pink shade for the Pink Triangle. In terms of finalising the product, I had hoped to have the badge embroidered. However as I wanted the size to be 5cm x 5cm the company informed me that my design was 'too complicated' and so that size would not be suitable. Also the shades would have to be altered as they couldn't stitch the colours of my original design. As an alternative, I used Heat-Transfer to transfer my design onto canvas fabric re-used from my unwanted tote bag (very Scout-Like/Brownie-like of me!).
Overall I am happy with the design. There are small elements which make it more appropriate to my idea, such as the adaptation I made of the scout emblem (I changed the stars on the fleur-de-lis to Lesbian and Gay symbols) and I feel that the colour scheme worked well as the Pink Triangle advances from the Khaki shades. I am also happy with how the portrait resulted and also the overall composition. I would have liked to have played around with some old fonts that were commonly used during L. B-P's life time and of course would have preferred an embroidered product. However I feel that this piece reflects L. B-P well, as a repressed homosexual Scout-Movement-founder which of course was the purpose of my brief. Oh, and it fits in my pocket at 5cm x 5cm!
