Exercise 45 - Symbols

What: The brief of this exercise was to demonstrate an understanding of symbols and symbolism which could be used to illustrate a concepts.
Where: Everywhere – I have been thinking about this a lot
When: All day
How: First of all I had to do was to jot down some notes on what I thought would be a suitable list symbols for the following concepts avoiding clichés

Growth – Building being raised indicating financial growth. A sapling or field of shoots indicating the start of botanical growth. A macro photograph of a shoot as it just bursts through the soil.

Excess – Glasshouse crammed full with a giant banana tree.

A large display of different coloured sweets and chocolates, something like the old fashioned sweetshop displays or on a market stall.

Collection of expensive cars together with their owner.

Crime – Especially after the recent events in London, broken windows come to mind. Vandalism, mugging, fighting in the streets.

Stacks on money beside bags of white powder.

A gun with some bullets beside it, a smoking gun?

Silence – A Victorian statue on a gravestone – statue looking downward in sorrow. These are usually found on children’s  graves or on war graves.

I did think about a hand or finger over the mouth, but I am concerned that could now be a cliché, it certainly was the first thing to spring to mind.

Poverty – First thing that comes to mind in the slums of Glasgow, so I thought about a poor child in the street.

A beggar stilling outside a large chain store or chain restaurant.

I found this quite a provoking exercise as it allowed me to exercise my mind allowing me to think up, note and sometime discard symbols for the concepts. I enjoyed this exercise as it did allow me the freedom to exercise my mind although it was at times difficult to decide if an symbol I had thought of was a cliché or not.