As the idea evolves..

At the moment, my primary visual idea is to use cartoon personifications of India, Japan, China and The United States weilding power/dominance over Australia because of trade/economies (but not really being too bothered about us).


So far to represent each country I have come up with:

India: Currently I've got a Hindu Goddess (Kali) and I'm fairly sure I don't want to use this image, as whilst it looks good and is very recognizable as being "Indian", it's too religious when I'm trying to make a political, economic statement -- not to mention the Goddess represents death and destruction and I feel this could make my message misinterpreted. Whatever figure I eventually choose needs to have a face and I want to use the Indian flag colours (Orange, White and Green) with the character in some way.

Japan: Samurai warrior with Japanese Flag influence.

China: Red "Chinese" dragon with yellow stars on it somewhere.

United States of America: Uncle Sam -- but I'm not sure about this either as it's a symbol for the military rather than a distinct cultural/symbolic representation of the nation.

(((Maybe I could simply do each country represented as a single hand? E.G. have bits of the flag or cultural bracelets/rings with iconography etc.. making each hand recognizable)))

Australia: Kangaroo/The shape of the country/Green & Gold etc.



IDEAS FROM THIS:

• The 4 countries as puppeteers of the "Australia" character; who is dangling helplessly beneath them looking deminished/forgotten. The trading partners would be completely ignoring the puppet below and talking to each other instead.
• The 4 countries dragging Australia along behind them; as above but without the puppets.
• The 4 countries (possibly heads of state?) sitting around in luxury (think big armchairs, smoking jackets and glasses of expensive liqueur -- although this sounds a little too "James Bond villain") being waited on by Australia, who is shelving up trade items like coal instead of drinks, but still generally being ignored by the big states. Maybe in the background there's a "resources bag" that has a "wont last forever/running out.." sort of hint to it.
• For a pamphlet: featuring Australia as the geographic shape, accompanied by the caricatures of Japan, India, China and the US on each seperate panel with the words (e.g. only) "Ordered By: USA" "Sold To/Shipped In: India" "Bought In: Japan" "Made In: China".. the last panel could be just the country by itself, or with a kangaroo or whatever character I use to represent Australia in the poster/card/etc. standing next to the country, pulling out empty pockets and the words say "Owned By?"

Most of my other compositional ideas revolve around the four trading partners; Australia ignored/ powerless and some sort of tag line that asks a direct question/makes a cold threatening statement/induces reflection.

On my idea evolution...

As I investigate different visual languages, experiment with styles and generate the aforementioned ideas for representing my issue, I've found that the message and the central idea itself has started to alter. My design concept/statement states that my theme is: Australia relies too heavily on global trading & this is going to cause problems in the long term.

At the moment, the majority of my image ideas have been more orientated towards representing the idea that in the big picture, Australia is controlled by/depends on our trading partners but they don't need us to anywhere near the same extent. This is definitely a viable economic argument which I can push as propaganda in images, but it isn't what I said I was aiming for.

I do feel fairly strongly about the image ideas I've come up with so far, so I don't want to do a back flip and change them too drastically just so I can strictly stick to the "Global Trade: Doomed" message --- but perhaps I can work on ways of incorporating trade and a need for long term solutions to a sustainable economy into my ideas.