SB1: Research (Niege Borges: Dancing Plague of 1518)

Niege Borges is an illustrator who created a series of posters illustrating famous dances in movies such as dances from Pulp Ficiton, Chicago and Singin' in the Rain. She was inspired by the Dancing Plague of 1518 in France started by a lady named Frau Troffea. She also stated how her illustrations were somehow a memorial to Troffea.

Her illustrations are simplistic line drawings of the people demonstrating the movement, showing the key moves of the dances. They also only include one or two colours and certain part of their bodies are filled in to give them dimension and will be more prominent on the page.

Thoughts & Reflections:

I think that Borges illustrations are really effective in highlighting the dance moves, making them instantly recognisable to the audience with minimal text needed (also because they were from famous movies, they were probably easily recognisable in the first place already). Also, it was effective how she used a minimal colour palette as well which compliments the illustrations. Furthermore, she used line drawings to showcase the movements which also makes it easy for the audience to recognise and understand the design as it's not clouded by unnecessary details, rather only showing the important aspects of the design.

Reflecting back on my own design, I think this links nicely to Helena's suggestion to focus on certain part of the the body used for the movements. Maybe I could try and only show those body parts but still manage to have a solid silhouette which aids to the overall form of the design. However, I need to make sure that it makes sense - as the audience will probably not know the song that the moves are for (and I don't necessary need to explain it, as the main point of the map is to learn the moves, rather than the song).