"O"hio

A Change of Plans

Originally, I had an extremely strong sense of direction with this assignment but I knew that the actual execution of it would hinder the creative direction. About halfway through the creation and development stage of this project I realized that some of my original ideas were completely unfeasible. At this point, the project is complete and talking about my original “game plan” is a moot point.

“Why Ohio?”

I chose to make an adaptation of the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song “Ohio” as a reflection upon past and present issues dealing particularly with war and free speech. The song itself was written after the events that took place at Kent State University in 1970 where the National Guard opened fire on a group of student protesters resulting in the death of four people. The song itself does a great job at capturing the mood of a generation that faced similar issues that we are facing today. I wanted to capture both an era and an event in a concrete visual text that wasn’t too ambiguous.

Execution

Power Point 2007 - The first problem that I encountered was having to adjust to the “new” PowerPoint. Having practically mastering the 2003 edition over the years, I will be the first to say that it is completely different than its predecessor. This both helped and hindered me as the learning curve slowed my progress however I was able to do certain things with this version that were never available on the 2003 version.

The “O” – My original plan was to have a giant “O” that had a series of images imbedded in it and the “Ohio” lyrics directly in the center. Unfortunately technology hindered me from doing so however this gave birth to new ideas and executions. The “O” is separated into four sections to represent the four victims of the Kent State Massacre. Within these sections are four triangles with the initials of each victim. It must be understood that these are meant to be delta symbols. Each victim has their initials inside the delta because the delta symbol represents change which is exactly what the four students who died that day were protesting. The rainbow color of the “O” is representative of the “tie dye” t-shirts that became so popular during that era. Visually it captures one’s eye immediately. Finally, on the outside of the inner ring and the outside of the outer ring are Kent State’s school colors (Gold and Blue). This may be slightly difficult to see because of the color of the “O” itself but it is just a little something I wanted to add in.

Inside the “O” – Inside the “O” is the verse to “Ohio” by CSNY which are partitioned by the Pulitzer-Prize winning photo of the Kent State Massacre. The photo is the center piece of the entire visual which I made sure to do in order to capture that moment in time that will never be forgotten. Textually I played with certain key words in the song to add a certain kinesthesia to the entire project. Specifically, I put “FOUR DEAD” in an Impact font to resemble the font used in the newspaper headlines.

Background – Originally I planned to not have a background and let the “O” to exist in white space however I began thinking of a collage or quilt-like pattern with a series of images in the background that would reflect the Vietnam War era. You will notice the Vietnam Flag, American Flag, a picture of two of the victims, Vietnam pictures, the state of Ohio, etc. I really like what I did here however I may consider adjusting each image to make it smaller to allow for more images.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I am very happy with my adaptation of “Ohio.” The flow of this work from the epicenter outwards was my purpose and I feel as if I achieved my goal of doing so. It almost looks like it was made the week after the shootings and posted in a newspaper or had a poster made out of it. Nonetheless, this is an event that should never be forgotten. With times like these, we must not let history repeat itself.