Brief:
For this project the assignment was to pick a couple, either real or fictional, and depict their relationship and character through visual elements. Though we couldn't represent the characters directly with portraits or figures, visual elements had to be representational and clearly bring across aspects of their relationship
Research and background :
I chose to depict the relationship between Emma Woodhouse and Harriet Smith from the Jane Austen novel "Emma". From the beginning I wanted to get across how unbalance their relationship was and I thought to do so by using a crown to represent Emma who was essentially the "queen" of their town and hled all of the power in their relationship. I then chose a plain bonnet to represent Harriet, the crown is laying ontop of the bonnet to illustrate how Emma imposes her will on Harriet and how she has little to no power.
Changing elements:
After the initial sketches is became apparent that there needed to be a physical separation between the two icons so as not to confuse the two as one singular element. So I then tried out the idea of using scales and positioning it in different ways. But I decided in the end the idea of scales was a little too cliché so my next idea was use a spoon and a sugar cube as sort of the "scale". My reasoning for this was because Emma up until this point has had a perfect and privileged life she was born with a "silver spoon" which the spoon is supposed to represent and the sugar cube is to represent the sweet easygoing life and the crown being at the top to show their imbalance.
Conclusion:
In the end I decided to out Harriet's bonnet on a handkerchief and sort of hang it over the edge so it looked to be falling to show how she doesn't really "belong" and the plate is meant to ground the images.