Edward & Vish – we respond together

Vish Dhar Interviewed by Edward Wu (over Zoom)

Edward Wu: Okay. So, hello, my name is Edward and today I’m here with Vish to talk about his PSA atoms for peace doubt the oil so finished first off what inspired you to create this public service announcement.

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Vishvesh Dhar: Yeah, thanks. I’m worried. So my inspiration for this piece came

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Vishvesh Dhar: From the feeling that we as a species needs to think about how we are affecting our environment, first and foremost, and one of the biggest ways that we’re doing that is through

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Vishvesh Dhar: Dumping like carbon dioxide into our air and the biggest sources that is within the energy industry.

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Vishvesh Dhar: So my piece was centered around how do we think about energy and what spaces within energy have the most impact for change, but also

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Vishvesh Dhar: What spaces within energy have a lot of discussion and rhetoric around them. So I decided to focus on the nuclear side of energy and the different connotations that come with that. So the inspiration I had from my piece was

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Vishvesh Dhar: From the hippies movement around the 70s, 60s, 70s, 80s, but then also this at around the same time in the 90s, the

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Vishvesh Dhar: The connotation that nuclear nuclear ization and nuclear energy was dangerous and would be destructive towards humanity.

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Vishvesh Dhar: And while there were some base. There’s some basis to that when it comes to nuclear waste and also the nuclear arms race. I think as an energy source on nuclear has the potential to offset our carbon footprint. The most

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Vishvesh Dhar: So yeah, that was where the inspiration itself came from.

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Edward Wu: Great, so use a lot of different colors in your piece. Can you talk more about the choices.

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Edward Wu: Of this specific color palette.

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Vishvesh Dhar: Yes. So I actually, I actually drew my color palette directly from posters that were that existed in the 70s and 80s. I mean, there were many

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Vishvesh Dhar: album covers and stuff from the 70s and 80s. I used somewhere color palettes, but also just like generally the the hippie kind of vibe and the tones, the more earthy like muted kind of tones that come along with that. That was where I got my coffee pot.

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Vishvesh Dhar: Chose to. Oh, sorry.

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Vishvesh Dhar: Can expand on that I chose to kind

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Vishvesh Dhar: Of put the

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Vishvesh Dhar: The piece in green to kind of convey some sort of like earthly measure and like kind of

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Vishvesh Dhar: Something more natural and something that we trust, where as I put down the oil and read to kind of make you think of maybe like a like a bloodhound something that has more of a negative connotation with it.

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Edward Wu: It’s a lot of contrasting colors. And that’s really interesting. Um, so obviously there’s a lot of movement in your case in animation. So what was the inspiration behind that animation. And why did you choose the specific parts of the Keystone

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Vishvesh Dhar: Yeah, so I decided to I decided to animate the words in this fashion because I wanted to give a sense of like scale to also I wanted to liken it to like a trip like an acid or an LSD trip, something like kind of again drawing from the 70s and 80s hippie movement.

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Vishvesh Dhar: So like that was like most of my inspiration for the movement, but I also wanted to expand and have the most movement on Atoms for Peace.

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Vishvesh Dhar: So that the viewer is most focused on the idea that atoms and nuclear energy itself can be used in a peaceful and productive way, whereas I tried to shrink down the oil and give it less movement.

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Vishvesh Dhar: So that the user is still drawn to it based on the color and its inherent movement, but the users or the viewer is spending more time looking at peace and is focusing more on the message that nuclear can be used in a productive way.

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Edward Wu: Hey, um, so when you design industries. What did you find most challenging about it.

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Vishvesh Dhar: Yeah, I think the most challenging aspect of actually designing this within Illustrator was trying to warp and

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Vishvesh Dhar: Size, the text in a way that was very similar to that of posters from the 70s and 80s and they have very like specific kinds of

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Vishvesh Dhar: waves that travel through the words.

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Vishvesh Dhar: And warping that is happening and

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Vishvesh Dhar: That’s not a usual thing that you do and illustrated with text. So kind of learning how to do that and forming it around the different shapes and the like box constraints that I had with an

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Vishvesh Dhar: Illustrator was probably the most challenging thing and then obviously also within blender. When we had to animate it. I felt like that. Same kind of issue where you had to like figure out how to warp it in certain directions that also road there.

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Edward Wu: So Jesus

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Edward Wu: ways of approaching this message. So what do you consider this piece. How did you arrive and why was this method ultimately chose

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Vishvesh Dhar: Yeah, so

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Vishvesh Dhar: I think I was also considering using a more

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Vishvesh Dhar: A more pictorial representation, instead of one that relied so much on words because I thought that maybe imagery would be the most convenient way to

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Vishvesh Dhar: I don’t know elicit some sort of response from a viewer. But then I thought about like how we have been regarding

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Vishvesh Dhar: Like images, especially as it pertains to like climate change and

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Vishvesh Dhar: And everything within our world. And I think that doing like the same old imagery of like smokestacks and like a nuclear symbol and like all of the other things that are associated with that was a little bit too generic

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Vishvesh Dhar: And especially when it was coming to the idea of adding motion. I thought it would be more consequential to have text that’s kind of jumping out and is forcing the reader to pay or the viewer to pay more attention to the poster because it’s a little bit harder to decode when it’s text.

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Edward Wu: Right. So this is a public service announcement. So how do you see your PSA being used the real world and what sort of applications do you think

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Vishvesh Dhar: So I think my ultimate

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Vishvesh Dhar: My ultimate goal for how I see this being used in the world is like I would want this to be displayed in some sort of way. Maybe through social media outlet

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Vishvesh Dhar: Or some other maybe billboard or something that is able to be animated in order to like kind of

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Vishvesh Dhar: Allow people to reconsider what nuclear is in our world, because I think people have a default feeling that oh I, for some reason, think that nuclear is inherently harmful and it’s

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Vishvesh Dhar: Going to be dangerous, because of nuclear waste, but there has been a lot of scientific breakthroughs in the past couple years that have been held back because of this.

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Vishvesh Dhar: This public notion. So I would want this to be in the face of everyday people so that they really start considering and learning more.

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Edward Wu: Um, so my final question for you is, are there any improvements you would make to design

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Vishvesh Dhar: I think if I wanted to add more to this design. I would want to add more ensuring animations maybe have doubt the oil melt away into some sort of like liquid oil spill, to make the

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Vishvesh Dhar: Movie rethink more about what the implications of using oil on our, on our environment, maybe have it. Then in the next iteration evaporate into some sort of like cloud that blocks the Atoms for Peace to again kind of elicit that response.

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Edward Wu: Rate. Yeah. That’s really cool. So thank you for your time today. And I think this is a really great PSA especially be reference. So the past and the hippie movement combined that I do with energy and conservation. Great. So thank you.

Edward Wu Interviewed by Vish Dhar (over Zoom)

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Vishvesh Dhar: Hi there, I’m Vish and I’m here with Edward to talk about his peace. Imagine being homophobic in 2020

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Vishvesh Dhar: So,

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Vishvesh Dhar: Edward I just wanted to ask what inspired you to create this PSA.

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Edward Wu: Yeah. Um, so, of course, sort of an issue that’s kind of personal to me too.

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Edward Wu: It’s just sort of the rise of homophobia, especially under the Trump administration is something that I think has become very alarming in the past few years.

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Edward Wu: And in the fact that sort of like I think society has progressed a little backwards in terms of sort of sort of marriage equality in that political movement in itself.

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Edward Wu: And recently, looking at the Supreme Court nomination of Amy. Can you bear on to the Supreme Court’s little concerning

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Edward Wu: Noting also the fact that some of the Supreme Court justices are looking back on to the 2015 case that allow gay marriage to be legal in the first place.

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Edward Wu: Is also really concerning how they’re considering reversing that decision. And so, so what I want to create it. This poster.

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Edward Wu: To kind of create a sort of a stigma around being homophobic. The same way that sort of today, it’s no longer acceptable to be racist or sexist, as it was for example in like the 1960s.

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Edward Wu: Per se, so that’s sort of the reason why I wanted to create this poster kind of have like

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Edward Wu: Sort of embarrassing effect and then embarrassing and tones, something like this post or not. So that’s so jarring and in your face.

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Edward Wu: Was and that’s more subtle. It’s no we want to go for. And that’s why I sort of went with this direction with this poster and wanted to talk about the topic of marriage equality in homosexuality in 2020 today.

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Vishvesh Dhar: Awesome. Can you talk more about how the color palette of this piece.

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Vishvesh Dhar: Like drives your message forward as well.

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Edward Wu: So obviously I think I really divided my piece into two big parts. One is first to homophobic part on those letters obviously stand out the most in this poster.

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Edward Wu: And then you kind of sort of see the background where the colors a little more neutral, a little more common peaceful

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Edward Wu: The light baby blue background is something I wanted to keep consistent throughout the background of the voter just sort of that detention isn’t drawn sort of the background, per se.

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Edward Wu: But more towards the word homophobic itself. And in terms of that green I use for the homophobic. I wanted to use some that a little more of a yellow tone to it sort of like disgusting throw up feel to it sort of melting on discussing see we’re kind of look to it.

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Edward Wu: So that’s kind of why I went with that really nasty looking green vs which really helps stand out from the background.

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Edward Wu: And that’s how I decided to use this color palette and then the words. Other words, just imagine being and then in 2020 I decided to call, which was like a simple white because it looks really sleek

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Edward Wu: And I wanted the rest of the poster that doesn’t associate with the homophobic partridges really look clean and I’m glad that being homophobic is the part of disgusting in this piece.

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Vishvesh Dhar: So what was the inspiration behind the animation. Then, and why

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Vishvesh Dhar: Were those specific

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Parts of the piece animated

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Edward Wu: Yeah. So I think when you first look at the poster itself. When the hands are at the bottom of the page, you don’t really see them conducting to the face immediately it kind of just is the men is stare sort of staring at you.

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Edward Wu: And the effect that I wanted to create was sort of like this man just looked at you and realize that you’re homophobic. Oh, and he’s a little disgusted by it. And that’s sort of why the hand slowly rise towards his face.

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Edward Wu: And then gently move downwards again to sort of restart the animation creating. That’s what a progression kind of shows that you really seeing him in person and that he’s reacting firsthand to

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Edward Wu: Just seeing someone that’s homophobic in terms of the words itself homophobe I want them to sort of melt to create this idea that they’re going to be going away. Eventually,

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Edward Wu: I don’t want the word humble but just be like still and static throughout the posters, I felt that will kind of create an uneasy, a sense of, like, why is it still there.

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Edward Wu: If I’m saying, imagine me home in 2020 I think it should have some sort of sense of, it’s going to disappear. It’s going to melt away.

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Edward Wu: Which is why ultimately I went with that melting effect where the words then becomes unreadable to the reader.

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Edward Wu: To sort of imply that as the man is sort of more disgusted and realize two years, you kind of exists with this homophobic feelings, then that sort of feeling goes away because you’re kind of shunned from being that idea publicly

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Vishvesh Dhar: Is I actually had a follow up question on that. And I was curious about the color of the nails on the hand and like, what’s the thought around that was

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Edward Wu: Oh yeah, I think the color of the nails kind of playing on to like gay stereotypes and what like a stereotype okay man may look like of course like the feminine idea of a man painting his nails. And of course, today I think it really defines those non traditional means of masculinity.

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Edward Wu: As something I wanted the viewer to really, it’s, it’s

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Edward Wu: It’s much more subtle. Like, you don’t see those details on his face, anything that does Sonic dramatic makeup no dramatic hair color changes such as that but it’s it’s a lot more subtle where you see that

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Edward Wu: This man, if you’re just looking at it and you’re sort of like have a first hand view and all these details. You’re going to go off. Oh, because a little more feminine than the traditional man and society. And I think that really helps to create

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Edward Wu: A more subtle phone to the post. So, which originally was what I was trying to go for

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Vishvesh Dhar: Um,

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Vishvesh Dhar: What did you end up finding most challenging about creating the actual design of the poster.

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Edward Wu: Yeah, so I think what I found really troubling was sort of trying to integrate the word homophobia into the poster without it being too jarring and

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Edward Wu: Sort of sticking out too much from the poster.

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Edward Wu: I sort of wanted everything to sort of cohesively go together. But at the same time, the viewer can realize that homophobic outfield obviously doesn’t belong there.

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Edward Wu: And I think going through like certain fonts and trying certain angles of how the word was position different effects of the animation and seeing

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Edward Wu: What sort of melting. If I wanted to create from. It was probably the most difficult part just because I felt a lot of things weren’t looking correct or they looked too weird. I didn’t really fit the overall appearance of the poster.

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Vishvesh Dhar: And what alternative methods, did you consider when designing the peace and why did you end up choosing the one that you did.

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Edward Wu: Yeah. So originally when I first started out making this poster. It looks very, very different.

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Edward Wu: To start off the background was actually like the pride flag a gradient of a rainbow.

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Edward Wu: And what I realized that it’s way too, it draws way too much attention to the background, which is why I decided to go with this light be blue. Instead, because I think anyone could realize from the content of the poster is obviously about like gay rights and gay marriage.

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Edward Wu: So I didn’t feel like that really excessiveness of that really highlighted pride flag gradient. The background to be necessary for the poster. So I got rid of that.

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Edward Wu: originally. The man was also a lot smaller. And it wasn’t really the focus on the man himself more so for the words. So imagine being homophobic and 2020 they were all the same size and the poster and they took up the entire space of the poster.

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Edward Wu: And and originally, I thought that was a good idea because then it’s readable, people can see that the emphasis is on the message itself.

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Edward Wu: But I realized I generally need to make the words too big. And what are the message to be clear. So those are sort of the alternative methods. I was considering and just

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Edward Wu: When I was first. It’s kind of the poster. I was like, oh, like on level one to 10 like how get quote unquote gauge, they make the poster.

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Edward Wu: And I tried to make it like a lot more unquote okay then originally

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Edward Wu: I thought I wanted it to. But I ended up like choosing a lot more subtle. As I was saying, because I don’t want it to be. So in your face. I wanted to feel like a sort of like sense of subtle judgment.

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Edward Wu: Something that you don’t see it really physically or verbally and that’s not the only said to you, but you can just sort of sense off the poster itself, which is why I didn’t go with something that’s super loud.

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Vishvesh Dhar: And how do you see this design being used in the real world.

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Edward Wu: Yeah, so obviously I kind of wanted to use that as a contribution to sort of creating a stigma.

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Edward Wu: Around being a homophobe with the same way that being racist and sexist and all acceptable as I was saying before, and I think the best way to really do that is probably through social media and the widespread.

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Edward Wu: Use of this poster up is conveying that fact. And that’s kind of wide eyed go towards like the direct quote of just like stop being homophobic in 2020 more. So imagine being homophobic in 2020 because implies that

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Edward Wu: Homophobia is already going away that it’s already sort of something that people don’t really accept anymore. So it’s imagining still be in that has like a backwards sense to it.

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Edward Wu: So I think I really want to create that sort of sense on social media platform that’s really all about sort of judgment and superficial

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Edward Wu: Appearances because I think if you leave spread that idea and create that sort of pressure on someone and make someone feel that sort of judgment in their pressure from everyone on social media itself. And I think that’s the best way to record to create that stigma on people phobic

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Vishvesh Dhar: And then finally, are there any improvements you would make to the design.

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Edward Wu: Yeah, definitely. So something. Um, I wanted maybe try more on is I think the hands itself like do a great job with like Korean that judgmental effect to it.

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Edward Wu: But as you can see at the bottom of the hands, they’re like blocky and cut off. So maybe sort of creating more of a fade effective the whole entire arm and then maybe even giving him like an actual body and neck.

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Edward Wu: I think would add more to the realism of the poster. And I think also added some sparkles. Would it be an interesting effect for the words, imagine being in in 2020 because I can, as you can see

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Edward Wu: Those words a lot more like sleek classy to have a much more clean font to it.

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Edward Wu: So I think I didn’t sort of sparkles would ask for, like, some Christina fact two words that are associated with the word homophobic.

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Vishvesh Dhar: Okay, well, I love, the love, the poster. I love the message and we’re. Thank you so much.

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Edward Wu: Thank you.