The inspiration for my graphic design project was self-love. I wanted to create a magazine advertisement that promoted body positivity which will hopefully encourage all women to love their bodies. Growing up, I rarely saw images of women who looked like me. I am African American, with a really thick natural afro, and a curvy/plus size hourglass figure. I grew up primarily seeing images of petite Caucasian women with straight blonde hair and blue eyes. These women are just as gorgeous to me now as they were when I was growing up, but there is a standard in our society that this is the only type of beauty that should be accepted. I chose to include a picture of Serena Williams in my design project because she is one of the women I remember relating to when I was growing up and thinking to myself, she looks just like me. I chose the picture of the woman holding the tape measure up to her waist, because women often feel they have to be a certain size to be considered attractive. I specifically wanted this picture to be in black and white to evoke emotion and bring awareness. Countless women compare themselves to other women and end up hating the bodies they were blessed with naturally. I wanted the two body positivity pictures to not only be in color, but with added vibrance, to show that all women’s bodies should be celebrated and appreciated—from athletic body types to full figured and every other body type in between. I feel the added color to these images will influence my audience to see beauty in different body types and realize that all women should be confident. Overall, my design process was simple yet challenging. I didn’t want to create one image where the 3 images became fluid. I wanted to keep them separate and let each image stand on its own and be powerful. I received really great feedback from my peers. They advised me that I should center the text, change the font color, add a border, and include a picture of an ethnic woman. I thought all of their advice was great and could really enhance my project, so I implemented those changes into my final draft. I’d like to give credit to each of the website where I found the images. Each of these images are licensed to use under a free-to-remix license.
Kiara Orr's Blog 