NEST
Challenge: As my graduation design project, I hope the theme can serve as a warning to people and provoke reflection on current society issues. Therefore, through a series of conceptual designs, I utilize the social system of bees and the concept of matriarchal society to create a series of designs reflecting a dystopian society in which future humans might become ruled by dictators.
Solution: This project explores the matrilineal social system of bees consisting of queen bees, worker bees, and drones. The dystopian concept of the project will appear in the form of animation, magazines, merchandise, and posters. My project aims to use graphics and text to reflect the uprisings and riots of modern society, which are caused by the repression of the masses and free will by powerful authoritarian regimes.
Procreate
Illustrator
After Effects
Premiere Pro
When you think of bees, what comes to mind? Hardworking, unity, busy, nectar, stingers... Bees are insects that give people a positive impression, and we often praise their hard-working appearance. However, have you ever realized that the lifestyle of bees is so precise and perfect that it is terrifying? They never rest or play, but always work to ensure the safety and continuation of the entire hive until they are exhausted and die alone.
Each bee is mechanical, like a robot, and diligently completes its mission without complaining or being lazy. Just like their hexagonal hive structure, everything is perfectly precise like a machine, and upon careful consideration, this kind of perfection is chilling. The behavior of bees seems to reflect the possibility of the future of human society.
After browsing through a lot of materials and inspiration, I started designing characters and clothing in Procreate. I made many attempts to blend various elements together, reflecting the mechanical and serious sense of a dystopian world, as well as a futuristic feel.
I wanted the three characters to have consistency, so the drawing style is consistent, using smooth lines and the same color palette. I also considered how to reflect the characteristics and personalities of the three characters in their appearance. For example, the queen's nobility and arrogance, the worker bee's strength and orderliness, and the drone's cowardice and weakness.
QUEEN
WORKER
DRONE
My final logo design is a combination of a hexagon and a triangle. The hexagon emphasizes the theme of a beehive, while the sharp edges and symmetrical design give the entire logo a serious and cool visual effect. The logo also embodies the characteristics of a large organization, which is characterized by a strict and rigorous style.
For the font, I chose Megavolt, which has a sharp and angular style with a futuristic feel that fits my theme. To ensure that the text complements the logo and is easy to read, I also made certain modifications and adjustments to the font.
The overall design of the zine also incorporates yellow and black as the main color scheme, matching the style of the entire project. The zine uses a variety of design elements, including photos, illustrations, graphics, and text. Through the combination of visuals and text, the content of the zine also explains the core and story of the entire project, and the cover design of the zine is composed of hexagonal patterns resembling bee hive, implying that the content of the entire zine is confined within the dystopian bee society.
The poster series also uses the main colour scheme of yellow and black. In order to correspond with the theme of the entire project, the three posters correspond to the concepts of control, brainwashing, and despair in three dystopian societies. The design style of the posters is strong and bold, directly satirizing and exposing the cruelty of the dystopian world. The posters combine text, photos, and illustrations, and are presented in both dynamic and still form, making each theme clearer and easier to understand, and visually more innovative and attractive.
I took the production style of my animation from the rough hand-drawn sketch style of animated MV. Because I believe this style can well demonstrate the chaos and repression of a dystopian world. The animation uses characters that I designed and the project's color scheme, with strong contrasts in color. This is a tragic animation with a bad ending. The entire animation has no dialogue, also reflecting the oppression within the nest.
Starting from the perspective of a worker bee, the animation depicts the boring and tedious life inside the NEST, as well as the queen dictator's oppression of the people. It also shows that in a society controlled by a dictator, no one can escape, and the desire for freedom and longing will only draw the dictator's attention and be crushed. Within the NEST, the queen's authority cannot be challenged, and no one is allowed to be above it.
