Sign 4

The brief for this project was to illustrate a headline which we had chosen in advance.

"You'll be happier without hope- the beneits of positive thinking have been overrated"

The article states that 'there are two basic attitudes to adversity' and that pessimism may not be as bad as we are brought up to believe.  She tries to back up her opinion by referring to a survey which suggest that people who were given bad news with the benefit of certainty were happier than people who were given hope of a possible good news/outcome.

I wanted to illustrate these 'two types of people' in a way that matched/suggested the writer's opinions.  I decided to play with the idea of 'glass half full' and 'glass half empty'. 

rough1 - 'HELP! My glass is overflowing!' (The Super-Optimist)

rough2 - 'My glass is only half full'

In the review, it was pointed out that rough1 conveys the headline in a more immediate way.  I think this is true, and something I had not thought of because I was trying to convey the whole article.  I felt that rough2 shows why the writer believes 'positive thinking have been overrated'.  The man in rough2 is shown as an optimist because he is seeing a glass half full, but he is not happy because he hopes and expects more.  We also agreed that rough2 looks better.

'My glass is only half full'

'No, it's half empty because the other half is in my stomach'

the pessimistic optimist and the opportunistic pessimist

In the final illustration, I am happy that I could illustrate both ways of thinking and the reasons why the writer believes they have been over- or under- rated.  (The pessimist is able to concentrate on the present situation)

However, I really shoul have stuck with rough1 as the brief does ask for an illustration of the headline, not the whole article.  The deadlines were tight and I wasn't thinking very clearly.