Based on previous research into visually representing the issue of greenwashing in a clear way, I began to sketch ideas of how I could boldly display greenwashing on the front cover. These ideas are also upon consideration of how I need to reach the audience to clearly give them an understanding of the concept of greenwashing, and to draw in attention with some bold and purposeful design choices.
I have some sketches here influenced by visual research into representing greenwashing. The contrast between natural forms like leaves, and pollution or manmade structures, aims to be clear from these examples. Often a green overlay coming from a paintbrush, drags over an environmentalist cover with nature which blocks out evidence of pollution.
The top-left concept shows that there has already been a green cover over the word ‘green’ with trees and a soft typeface, and that paintbrush is about to cover the term ‘washing’ as well. The brickwork surrounding it is an appropriate texture to show a harsh manmade surface whilst not distracting from the focus of the page. The option below it on the left is a similar choice but bringing the paint over both words together.
Further to the right above there is an environmentalist message cover up the mark of oil with a hazardous warning. This shows a graphically design poster or flyer, which is appropriate for reaching a graphic design audience, beginning to communicate how the field of graphic design is relevant. The use of an oil mark, and a page curl, are however devices I use to visualise the issue of greenwashing further into the magazine pages. I don’t want to be too repetitive with the visuals used.
The example in the lower-centre of the page above shows greenwashing over a person rather than over text, how the shape of a capitalist holding money is greenwashed over to show a tree with a lower branch. This is directly inspired by some other examples that showed greenwashing manifesting in painting over cooling towers with smoke, to form trees.
I continued with very rough ideas, contained within a portrait sheet area, considering that the name of the magazine would be placed at the top of the page. Similar concepts of green paint being used as a cover are experimented with, understanding that this kind of visualisation can be key to helping people quickly understand the concept of greenwashing. Different ways of presenting this are considered. To the bottom-right of the page above, I consider using a leaf covering over money in someone’s hand, as a way that would be more different from what I have already used in the spreads, and which may be more appropriate for a close-up focus to add some depth, rather than painting over a flat surface. I consider then placing a poster of some kind behind this to keep it linked to graphic design. The hand pinching a lead and money behind it intends to show that evoking green nature is used to cover up financial interests. The use of a human feature also makes it clear that greenwashing is a deliberate human act.
Pursuing the above-mentioned concept with a hand pinching a leaf and money, I find the image above to serve as a reference first for creating an illustration of the hand. This was chosen for its natural-seeming hand position to hold a leaf between the thumb and index finger, as needed.
I start with the vector-style illustration process of using the pen tool to create recognisable shapes, and then combine them with layering shapes to start to bring together the illustrated features. I use a near-skin tone colour palette here, but this is not intended to be the final colour choice. The intention was to select a colour once the shapes are created.
Continuing to pay attention to the subtle small shapes which form the hand, I continue to add to the illustration. I use subtly progressively darker shades in accordance with the parts of the fingers that are not well-lit.
I was dissatisfied with how some of the shapes of the illustration were coming through, not seeming natural and fitting to capturing the form of the original photo. I looked back to the original photo and applied posturize to it. I found that this made clearer the key shapes that I could pay close attention to guide how I approach the illustration.
In response to the edited reference photo, I decreased the size of the large shaded area at the side of the thumb, wrist and lower forearm. I also changed the shape of the shading of the three fingertips beneath the thumb, as I had been struggling to make this seem natural and found the lines in that area were distracting. These changes improved the appearance of the illustration. I also added lighter highlights around the side of the knuckle and upper side of the thumb, also roughly in line with the brighter spots of the reference image.
With this I also considered the colour and started with shades of red for the basic communication that the person is a negative force, and its contrast with the colour green which should be applied to the front cover in communication of greenwashing.
To start to bring out the consequences of human action, a kind of pollution which greenwashing serves to cover up, I decide to bring landfill into the illustration. This should be a recognisably negative image, making clear a consequence of pollution that people have direct involvement in.
I carefully blend the pollution into the hand in a double exposure effect which I have become familiar with in the past. Since it is important to keep the features of the hand visible to be understood as a person which is holding something, I expose the landfill more lower down on the illustration past the back of the wrist.
I decide to experiment with different colours. I gained useful feedback that the red colour is too similar to a skin tone, reminding one of a badly sunburnt hand. I take on that feedback and decide to try out a different approach, further away from a skin tone. I found however that most colour alternatives were too distracting. I didn’t want to arbitrarily make a strong colour choice for the hand, as viewers may be misdirected by this to wonder why a certain colour has been applied.
I settle on a greyscale colouration for the hand illustration. I found this doesn’t distract like other colour choices, for either seeming random or seeming close but not natural as a skin tone. The grey tones also fit in well with the image of landfill, making it clearer. This is also a safe choice in considering that it is important this colour sits well with the colours that will surround it; certainly no colours will clash with or be overpowered by the monochrome.
I also added some subtle shading with a soft brush to add a little depth and tone down the strong edges of each shape forming the illustration – whilst still maintaining the simple illustration style. I also shaded over the lines of the thumb, as I have found these to be a distraction as I edited with the image – they seem unnatural and an unnecessary detail.
I next move onto the aspect of the leaf that the hand will be holding. After looking through a lot of options, I settle on this. The perfectly flat face of the leaf will be good to work with, as a leaf at an angle may be limited in how it could pair with flat money and a flat background. I chose this leaf for its clean shape, well-defined lines and clearly large size, large enough to cover up a bank note. Of course I can place the shape at any size needed, but a leaf that viewers know to be small, displayed as a much larger object, could be noticeable and therefore negatively distracting for some audiences.
Paying close attention to the reference image, I use the pen tool to fill in the wider parts of the lines leading to the centre, and then I carefully used a small sized brush tool to fill in the more narrow lines. Sticking to the shape of the reference image was important in achieving a natural leaf appearance with still a simple vector style illustration which matches the style of the hand. I used a bright green, the same shade I have used for green paint in parts of the editorial design within the cover, to keep some consistency with the design choices and clearly link the green of the leaf with greenwashing.
I used a light brush to add some shading to the illustration around the centre of each leaf, and I used the pen tool to pick out some darker areas of the leaf to fill in. These make the leaf a more effective, realistic illustration without becoming unfittingly complex.
The concept continues, to have a leaf covering up some cash, representing the misdirection of greenwashing to get people to pay attention to a company’s surface-level concern for environmentalism whilst obscuring their continued harm which can be understood as profit-motivated. I obtain a public domain 100 dollar bill. The green American currency fits best with green colouration, and appears to be very iconic and applicable to many large companies which can be accused of greenwashing, being American. The 100 dollar bill in particular was selected to suggest there is a lot of money in corporate greenwashing – just using 1 dollar bills would not support this notion.
I decide not to pursue a full ground-up illustration of a dollar bill since this needs to be quickly recognised as money, and the design of money has to be more complex and specific than that of a human hand or leaf. The design has been heavily edited with brightness modified, and using a cut-out filter to achieve a limited range of colour not dissimilar to a vector style used for the illustrated parts. The dollar bill is duplicated and carefully rotated to create a fan of cash, a classic way of exposing how much money is there, also associated with playing cards.
To be a strong contrast with the colour green of the leaf, I apply a dark red to the bank notes. I selected the colour not to be too dark to make the features of the note indistinguishable, but enough to bring negative associations with the colour. I also toned down the cut-out filter to make the right eye of Benjamin Franklin on the 100 dollar bill visible again, as missing an eye off his face would be a distraction if visible past the shape of the leaf.
Starting to combine the illustrations, the leaf is large as needed to cover over the money, but small enough to expose enough of the details to be recognised as money. It’s certainly larger than what people may associate with the standard leaf, but visual research indicates that plenty of leaves can be this size and larger.
I also tried removing the landfill double exposure effect from the hand illustration, as I feared this was becoming too complex. However, the shapes of the hand’s vector style exposed don’t seem to tone down the complexity of the image very much over all, and the illustration loses out on the display of the harm of human-caused pollution.
With the landfill double exposure applied again, I cut out the tip of the thumb from the hand and bring it forward to the front to cover over the money and leaf, holding them in place with a pinch as intended. The resulting illustration matches what it needs to show, the green leaf standing in for a green covering over corporate environmental harm driven by financial interests. With the illustration in place, the next step is to apply it to a magazine cover design.
Luke Whatley Design BA (Top-Up) 
