For my major project, I thought it would be important to research an already existing campaign focusing on the same problem I want to highlight in my project. The problem is discriminating dogs basing only on their breed and breed-specific legislations. I found this beautiful photo campaign I decided to look into and the campaign is called "Not a bully".
Pictures for this campaign have been taken by a photographer Douglas Sonders, who decided to create a campaign like this one, because of his own experiences with people discriminating his dog, who is a Pit Bull.
The idea behind the photoshoot was to create heartwarming portraits of dogs (Pit Bulls and Pit Bull mixes) who have been through rough time and have every reason to hate life and everything about it, however they still are enthusiastic dogs wagging their tails. They are not aggressive, they are not bullies.
In this picture, I can see a Pit Bull on a gray background. There is a text displayed on the top, and it says "Porter is not a bully" and text at the bottom, showing that Porter has been through a lot, but he is not a monster. I think, what really makes this picture stand out is the red accents and the contrast between the text and the background. I really like how in the word "not" there is a dog's paw instead of an "o", it is smart and makes the photograph more interesting. I feel like using only a few colors or making something important stand out by adding contrasting colors against each other, could be a good action I could take, when creating my final project.
This is another example of a picture from this campaign, however this one seem a lot softer to me. By softer, I mean that I do not feel like this image is catching the eye as much, but it is also less aggressive in general. I think it has a great balance, because because of the atmosphere in the picture, I get the idea that this dog is calm. I also really like the expression the dog has, it seems to be scared but not angry or aggressive. I like how this portrait looks like, because it shows that even big dogs, who may look scary to some people, get scared or are vulnerable.
This picture is somewhere in between the first and the second picture. It is not as vibrant and screaming as the first one, however it does have a red accent, which makes it sharper than the second picture. I think it is a great balance and I also really like the gradient in the background. I think it is really good that it is darker on top, because it creates more contrast with the white text and lighter on the bottom creates more contrast with the dark dog.
I generally think these are very successful portraits, that show the dog's positive qualities. I think they work really well as a social campaign and I am definitely going to incorporate the contrast element in my project to highlight things. I think with my animation I could add some text to give informative background information on breed-specific legislation for example. I think information could only add to my story and make it more real to the audience. I am also still considering the colors my animation should be in, and I have an idea of making it in grayish colors with only some colorful accents, I am still not completely sure about it though. I am glad I researched this Not A Bully campaign, because it gave me an idea of how different colors can be used to highlight information or how to make the picture balanced or soft.
Interesting research - again well considered and throughout about in terms of its success as a campaign and the images, layout and design worked - well done
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