As part of my Creativity in Context assignment, I followed on from my Casio ad campaign and produced a still life editorial featuring a selection of drinks.
I chose these specific drinks for the series because they each have an added characteristic, this characteristic being that the drink has a history of medicinal values or that the drink had a psychological or physical effect on its consumer.
I also chose these drinks as they are widely consumed across the world by people who believe the drink helps them to feel better or energised when in fact, each drink also has many negative
effects associated with it.
The idea was to create a 19th century styled, home made apothecary scenario for each image and each image would be styled in association with the drinks history and characteristic.
Coca Cola has a very long history in which it took on many different flavours and ingredients, in its early stages it was considered a patent medicine that people believed would give you a general feel good factor. It was available from many chemists and consumed largely at what used to be known as soda fountains.
To this day people still believe coke has this same effect and often find themselves craving a coke when feeling under the weather or claiming flat coke is good for an upset stomach.
Absinthe is a very well known controversial alcoholic drink that has that little something extra, when getting drunk maybe just isn't enough and you need to go to that next level. Containing the chemical compound Thujone meant that the drink had a psychedelic effect on the consumer.
Because of the sinister/scientific nature of the drink I wanted to show its creation through a laboratory type process, I also added the Van Gogh painting on the wall to reference the drinks popularity amongst the bohemian culture of France and many artists based there. Van Gogh was a very well known drinker of Absinthe.
Red Bull was the first drink of its kind to be consumed in such large volumes in this country, I chose it as part of the series because energy drinks are a huge market in todays society and used for obvious reasons. I also chose Red Bull because of the strap line "gives you wings". I thought that it could create an exciting concept for the style and theme of my image, I decided to create a workshop styled set in which it would appear the workman had a desire to fly and was attempting to build wings.
The feathers and string give reference to the story of Icarus and the image on the wall is an illustration showing a man with wings, surrounded by scale marking and measurements for design.
The final image of the series is Indian Tonic Water which was one of the first ever treatments used for malaria. The drink contains Quinine which causes an effect on the blood platelets and is used today to ease the effects of cramp, eczema and other common illnesses.
Possibly my favourite image from the series, the composition is working great as it leads your eye through the key features of the frame. I used the anatomical illustration with the thermometer to reference the medicinal value of the drink and as your eye is drawn through from the glass, the bottle and the lamp. You see the chalk board in the background which shows the molecular structure for Quinine which is the key ingredient in the Tonic water.
I would like to say a huge thank you to Sophie Youle for working as my stylist on this project and helping me to develop each set to great effect. Sophie is a Visual Comunications student studying in Bournemouth, more of Sophie's work can be found online at sophieyoule.co.uk
