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Neil Kinnock is a member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom and former leader of the Labour party from 1983-1992. He was the leader of the opposition and lost two general elections. Although he was not a public figure before his career in politics, he is worth mentioning when discussing the importance of likeability and strong public image when in that sort of industry. Opinion polls prior to the 1992 election showed that Labour would win with no parties having overall majority, as Britain was going into a second recession in just one decade during the appointment of John Mayer.

Although the power was in his hands and he was so close to winning the election for his party, pressure was starting to build after a failed NHS campaign. In attempts to reinvent himself after being labelled the boring and safe option, Ninnock held a political convention - the ‘Sheffield Rally’ just eight days ahead of the election. It was American-like and almost theatrical, and Ninnock was described as “an evangelical preacher” shouting  "We're all right!" three times to the crowd. The public and the media didn’t take well to this and labelled Kinnock overly-emotional and a triumphalist. Ultimately, Mayer, leader of Conservative Party, outshone his opponent as Kinnock hid in his shadows, he won with 42% of the vote for his party while Kinnock only won his party 30%.

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Nigel Farage is a former politician, member of the European Parliament and leader of the UK Independence Party, which he then resigned from to launch The Brexit Party, later renamed to Reform UK. He is currently a presenter for GB News. Farage is known for his eurosceptic views and involvement in the lead up to Brexit in 2020. Other things Farage has controversial opinions about are the gender pay gap, stating that women are “worth far less”, and his regular use of racial and xenophobic slurs towards immigrants in the UK.

The former politician and presenter returned to the spotlight during the announcement of 2023’s ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ line up. He was allegedly paid £1.5 million to go on, more than double of any other participant that year. While he did get some level of hate and hardship from both viewers and other contestants, he came third place out of ten in the public votes. It is widely speculated that Farage’s plan all along was to improve the public's opinion of him in hopes for a return to politics. He has since revealed that the main reason he wanted to come onto the show was to change public perception, but his ulterior motive, if there is one, is unknown.

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On the deadline of our first checkpoint, we laid our proposals out on the table and walked around the table, writing down feedback for one and other.

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The first check point was in week 13, where we had to present a project proposal and received peer feedback.

My general project idea is about politicians becoming celebrities and vice versa, and where we can draw the line. There are cases of this where it has worked, and times where it has been weaponized and the person has had ill intent. Politicians should be most well known for their contributions towards bettering the country, not because they have a likeable personality.

I have made a term for these people, and named my project proposal magazine after it - 'Celebrititions'. I made a zine with cartoon like digital drawings (Procreate) of 6 politician/celebrities and wrote a paragraph to round off my research about each. I also made my own font to run with the cartoon, playful element.

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I had a look at some projects I had made previously as I have worked around politics before. The two projects that I chose were ‘Hand And Eye’ from my first year of IVM and ‘God Save Our Nation’ that was a self initiated project at the end of my second year.‘Hand And Eye’ felt relevant as I went to a research trip to the Houses of Parliament during the project and made some drawings in and around Westminster that I can work with again.

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‘God Save Our Nation’ was a series of satire posters about the Kings Coronation during the cost of living crisis in 2023. It felt relevant to this project because I’d like to use satire again in this project potentially, but it also had some great contextual research about the royal family and it’s interesting to me to unpack whether they lean towards politicians or celebrities more.

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I attended a jelly printing workshop where I made prints of a middle finger stencil cut out of paper and a scrunched up piece of paper.

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I also experimented with a relief print using carbon transfer paper.

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I made a mind map during my first peer and tutor discussion after the brief and made notes of conversations I had during that session about my ideas and also some of my own thoughts after the brief session.

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Another workshop I attended was working with how to cut and manipulate paper to make a book/zine/pamphlet. This will help me with my project proposal as I am thinking of creating a book/magazine to present my research and enquiry stage.

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I was also encouraged to look at the Private Eye Magazine who make digs at world leading politicians from all over the world and on all political sides. They make punchy, easy jokes which are easy to understand and aren't anything too serious or complex, which is the kind of light hearted but also contextual references I want to include in my final work. Above are some of my favourite covers from recent years.

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I think what you are trying to communicate is very clear

I would take the illustrations further, maybe illustrate what they have done instead of just profile pics?

Is there a link between celebrities + politics

Are you making a book? A game?

Why did you pick these politicians in particular?

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What am I trying to find out or express?

Where can you draw the line between a celebrity or politician

Why do politicians use the public eye to gain popularity

Why is this harmful

Have there been any good examples of this

Why does this project feel important or necessary?

Good entertainment or doing something funny doesnt make someone a good leader

If a politicians political views doesn’t make them popular as it were, its probably best that it stays that way

Who or what might this project be for?

Young people - most chronically online, are about to or just have gained a right to vote, often don't have a strong political opinion as of yet

Where could the outcomes of this project be located, where would you like it to be found?

Leaflets in schools, youth clubs, public spaces

Posters in the london underground, on buses or bus stop, billboards

Online - social media presence is key

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Donald Trump was the 45th president of the United States of America from 2017-2021. Years earlier, he took over a real estate company after his parents in 1971, which provided rental housing for white middle class families in the outer boroughs of New York. After a series of business failures he co-produced and hosted ‘The Apprentice’.

Throughout the years, he had made a name for himself and was known in the States for his controversial political opinions. A slogan he has attached to his name and commercialised is ‘Make America Great Again’ commonly referred to as ‘MAGA’.

During his time as President, he pushed for the construction of a wall along the Mexican border, ordered a travel ban on multiple Muslim-majority countries and weakened environmental protection. He reacted very slowly to the covid-19 pandemic which led to delayed action and a rise in positive tests. After losing the presidential election in 2020 to Joe Biden, he has continued as the leader of the Republican Party and has racked up dozens of felony counts over the last few years ageing back decades from all over the USA.

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From co-hosting a talent show to one of Poland’s most trusted Politicians, Szymon Holownia has worked his way up to becoming a national treasure. In his personal life, he is a Roman Catholic and was in the Dominican order twice. Before turning to politics, he was a journalist and TV personality, most known for co-hosting Poland’s Got Talent with Marcin Prokop. He hosted for 12 seasons and was a fan favourite.

In 2019, he shocked the nation and announced his candidacy for the 2020 presidential election, receiving the 100,000 necessary signatures and winning 13.9% of total votes. He came third out of eleven candidates but was not supported by parties in Sejm.

He founded his own party later that year called Poland 2050, which is now part of the Third Way Coalition, also established by himself. Poland 2050 won 14% of total votes and 7.2% of votes in Sejm in the 2023 parliamentary elections, earning them third place. After the election, Holownia was voted the Marshal of Sejm after winning over half of the votes. He is a politician that the people of Poland and other members of the Polish government have put their trust in, perhaps for his already established likeability before his involvement in politics.

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Voldomyr Zelenskyy , formerly a comedian and actor, is currently serving as the sixth president of Ukraine since 2019. Ironically enough, in 2015, before Zelenskyy turned to politics, he played as the President of Ukraine in a tv show called ‘Servant of the People’. His character was a history teacher who won the general election as a result of a video that went viral of his ranting about the corruptedUkrainian government. Four years later, his character came to life. Kvartal 95 studio, the production company of the ‘Servant of the People’, registered a new political party in 2018 named after the show, and although Zelenskyy originally had no plans of entering politics, he eventually became the leader of the party and announced his candidacy for  the next general election, just four months before it, and ultimately won.

Zelenskyy is known as the President of his people and is generally loved and praised by his country, particularly for his dedication and commitment to serving his country throughout the Russian Invasion.

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Former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock was scrutinised in the media in 2021 for breaking lockdown rules. While having the responsibility of regulating and promoting social distancing, wearing masks, etc. to keep COVID-19 infection rates as low as possible, a video of him kissing a colleague surfaced the internet. The public was offended by not only the health Secretary cheating on his wife, but also breaking all rules of social distancing that he has been preaching for the entire pandemic. Even before this, he was criticised for his delayed reaction to the pandemic, alongside the prime minister at the time Boris Johnson, which cost thousands of lives across the country. Ultimately, Hancock had no choice but to resign.

Hancock returned to the limelight a year later, announced on 2022’s Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’. Payed less than a third than Farage who would appear on the show a year later, Hancock still took home £400,000. He regained popularity amongst the viewers and came third on public votes on the show, despite a petition with over 40,000 signatures being written to remove him from the show. Fellow contestant and journalist Charlene White said that she feared that she would lose her job if she was too friendly towards him on the show, having known the nation disliked him.

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After a solid baseline of research, I could start thinking about ways I could make my project become a reality. In my feedback, it was suggested to me that I could perhaps make a game of some sort, whether that be digital or more of a traditional board game. I started to think about how I could pick apart some of my favourite board games and turn them into my own. I had just spent the Christmas break playing some of my favourite board games with my family, so I started to think about which games and rules I might choose.

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I made notes on three of my person favourite board games and their rules, which I will mix together and pull ideas from in my own game.

Monopoly - Invest in property, bid and earn money, good and bad places to stand on (lose money, go to jail, pay for landing on someone else's property, buy your own property and invest more into it, chance or community chest) last to bankrupt wins

Snakes and ladders - Roll dice and move up or down the board, first to make it to 100th place wins

Ludo - Each player has 4 pieces, they roll a 6 on the dice to come out, all 4 pieces need go around the map and land in the middle for the player to win, if someone lands on the same position as you, they knock your piece out and you go back to the start

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Each player starts with $1,000,000

If you land on the same square as another player, you knock them out and they go back to the start

You can pay $200,000 to roll again if you don't like the outcome of your roll

If you land on the bottom of a ladder, climb up, if you land at the head of a snake, slide down

You can pay $300,000 to freeze another player for one round, but this must be implemented during your go and implemented in their next round

If you roll a 6, you roll again, if you roll a 6 twice however, you pay a fee of $200,000

You must continue rolling the dice and moving back down the board towards the end, until you roll the correct number to take you to exactly square 100 at the end

If you land on a square with a '?' on it, you must pull a mystery card

If you land on a square with a '!' on it, you receive an immunity card which you can use at any point in the game to roll the dice again if you don't like the outcome of your roll or if someone lands on your square

If you land on a square with a dice on it, you must roll the gamble dice

If you land on a politician and someone is playing with their corresponding piece, pay them $100,000

If you run out of money and cannot pay a fee, go back to the start, give all of the money you have left back and claim your starting fee of $1,000,000 again

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As the first section of our second checkpoint, 'Your Practice, In Practice', I took part in a book binding workshop. I first experimented with classic book binding techniques, the saddle stitch and Japanese stab bind. I used plain coloured paper to do these. I then moved onto using my digital drawings which I printed out, and made another book with those using the Japanese stab bind method.

I will use this further on in my project when designing and assembling my instruction manual.

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I needed to start thinking of ways I could provide context to the board game with references to politics, so I made a pack of 12 mystery cards that players must pull out random if they land on certain squares throughout the map

Cancel Culture - You have been cancelled! Move back five spaces and work on fixing your public image

General Election - The upcoming General Election is taking up all your time, skip your go on the next round

Reality TV show - You've been invited to be a contestant in a reality TV show! Roll the dice, if you roll an even number, you've won and can collect 500 PWR, if you roll an odd number you've lost, move back three spaces and pay 200 PWR

Press Conference - Your most recent press conference backfired and you embarrassed yourself ahead of the General Election. Roll the dice and pay the number you roll x 50 PWR

Tax avoidance - You avoided paying your taxes again this year! Collect 300 PWR

Petition - A petition has over 5,000 signatures to get you out of parliament. Pay each player 50 PWR to encourage them to support you in keeping your job

Old Tweets - Some of your old tweets have been resurfaced from years ago. Move back three spaces and work on fixing your public image

Pandemic - Oops! You made the wrong call on a spreading virus which costs thousands of live, no biggie. Move back the number of spaces you just rolled on the dice

Opinion polls - Your party received majority of votes on an opinion poll ahead of the election, but don't celebrate just yet! Roll the mystery dice and see how lucky you really are

Inheritance - Your parents have retired and have moved the family business down to you! Collect 200 PWR

Christmas Party - You're in charge of buying cheese and wine for this years Christmas party, pay the bank 100 PWR

Propaganda - A bus you hired as a part of your campaign is driving around the city and spreading misinformation. You've lost credibility, pay the bank 100 PWR

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I don't have a budget set or any funding externally towards this project, so I am on a budget. I work part time during my studies as a college receptionist so I had money to spend if needed, but I wanted to keep this project as budget friendly as possible. I sent myself a maximum target of £100 and made a table of material costs for this project.

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I chose each 'celebrititions' most iconic outfit to paint onto their playing piece

Trump - navy suit, white shirt, red tie, tanned skin. Colours of USA flag and a very common outfit choice of his, also well known for his unnatural tan

Kinnock - black suit, white shirt, grey tie, red rose. Outfit worn during Sheffield Rally, arguably the most significant part of his career which contributed heavily to his failure of winning his second general election as leader of the Labour Party

Farage - khaki shirt, red trousers. Outfit of contestants in 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here', of which he is the highest paid contestant to date

Zelenskyy - khaki top and khaki jumper. Often wore simple, camo clothing during his public speeches particularly at the start of the Russian invasion, feels more human than a shirt and tie and references the soldiers fighting for Ukraine

Hancock - grey suit, white shirt, pink tie. A combination he wears often and similar to what he was wearing in video of him having an affair and simultaneously breaking lockdown rules during the COVID pandemic, which ultimately left him no choice but to resign

Holownia - white shirt, black trousers, no tie. He often doesn't wear a tie during campaign shoots and public speeches, along with Donald Tusk, another leftist politician in Poland and current Prime Minister, perhaps to seem one with the nation and come across as more relatable

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I started out by making 100 squares using the four colours in my palette and a black graphic outline to section each square off

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I then added the numbers to my board, also using my chosen colours with a black outline. This was the same font I had made for the project proposal

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The last step was to start populating my board in reference to the game rules I had established. After this it was time to order the print of my board.

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I started to think about how to make the pieces you can play with, and while I considered making minature sculptures of each politician, I thought it would be more fun to make sculptures of things symbolic to each 'celebrition'.

Red cap - reference to Trumps MAGA hat

Microphone - reference to Holowna being host of talent show

Bicycle - reference to Zelenskyy in intro of 'Servant Of The People'

Face mask - reference to Hancock breaking COVID regulation rules

Red rose - reference to Kinnock as leader of Labour Party for two consecutive elections

Yellow star - reference to the EU flag and Farage as one of Brexit's avid supporters

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As I started developing the game, I decided I didn't want to make the game too complicated, so decided to make the playing pieces the actual politicians, rather than a symbol as I had initially planned, because I didn't want to get people confused and thought it illustrated the idea of the politicians racing to the top better.

To do this, I took the six 'celebritions' from my proposal and made a mood board of what kind of colours and style of outfit that they wear and made a digital plan for how each playing piece may look. I then ordered wooden peg dolls on amazon and painted them.

This was the only part of the design process where I decided not to stick to my main colour palette because I felt it was important to make the colours accurate to what the 'celebrititions' actually wear.

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Plain white board

One illustration in the middle

Monochromatic

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Useful website for board game production and technical info

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Useful website for board game production and technical info

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A Complete Range of Board Game Materials for All Your Components

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Top quality custom board game materials with unparalleled quality at unbeatable prices!

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Hasbro and Monopoly's success and popularity comes for a number of reasons, a great one being because of its various editions that adapt to different audiences or are released on anniversaries, world events, etc. This is something that I could take forward to Celebrititions, by releasing different editions from other parts of the world, as this one is based on solely on public figures based in Western Society. I could also release editions for different countries exclusively, in their language and with Celebrititions from that country.

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Although I was not able to attend the exhibition, I managed to drop my work off to the curation team and see the exhibition coming together, to soak in as much of the opportunity as I could. I arranged with the curation team to pick my work up after the exhibition and take it back to LCC so that I could keep on working on it.

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After speaking to my tutor, I was starting to think of new ways to adapt and be more creative with my games. The artist above was suggested by my tutor for me to research as she illustrates board games inspired by Georgian and Victorian board games, which were "often used to promote the propaganda and acceptable behaviour of the day."

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Georgian and victorian board games

Artist - Anna Walsh

A series of games - same concept, different layout

Explore unconventional visuals

Go to cartoon museum!!!!!

Who else can you use? Who else is a 'celebritition'

Think of some board games where you lie, maybe you could think about how you can adapt that into your own games

Private Eye Magazine

Hannah Hoch

Barbara Kruger at Serpentine Gallery

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Georgian And Victorian Board Games: The Liman Collection

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Georgian And Victorian Board Games: The Liman Collection

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I took particular interest in this book and it was a huge turning point in my project, it started to inspire me to focus more into Western society and take a step back from a purely social and political focus. I started to consider how these politicians live, the countries they represent and how they sit within the context of their countries history.

I started to think about how I could make a board map of a 'Celebritition Island' where the politicians are dotted around various small islands, each which represent their country and its culture. I loved the pretty and scenic style of the Victorian and Georgian board games, mixed with the chaos of the politicians fighting to the top, which fuel the satire and humour that runs throughout the project.

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I had a total of 6 celebrititions at the point of the gallery exhibition, but when tweaking and getting to later stages with my project, I decided to add a few more so there was a wider variety and representation, I started to look at some celebritities that dabbled in politics, as my current 6 were all predominantly politicians. I also wanted some more diverse characters as the 6 I had so far were all white old men, this step was important for when the players of the game were picking their playing piece as this gave them more of an opportunity to find someone they like or resonate with. The 4 I came up with were:

Kanye West

Oprah Winfrey

Jane Fonda

Caitlyn Jenner

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Former olympian and reality star Caitlyn Jenner announced her run for the Governor of California in 2021. She announced her run on April 23rd 2021, where she explained that California “requires a fighter who isn't afraid to do what is right'' Jenner won a gold medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in the decathlon competition in Montreal and was part of one of the world’s most popular reality TV shows "Keeping Up with the Kardashians". The platform that Jenner had built up over the years had real potential to have given David Newson a run for his money. However, despite labelling herself a “proven winner”, she came 13th place, coming out with only 1% of the vote. If successful, Jenner would have made history as the first transgender Governor of California.

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Commonly introduced as stage name ‘Ye’, Kanye West is a musician, designer and businessman (and aspiring politician). On the 4th July 2020, West revealed that he would be running for president on social media platform X (commonly and formerly known as Twitter). That election he won 66,641 votes in the 12 states he had ballot access in, receiving an average of 0.32%. Earlier this year he revealed to paparazzi that he will yet again be running in the 2024 presidential election, mentioning that Milo Yiannopoulos, a British far right political commentator, and live streamer ‘Sneako’ is working on his campaign.

Ye also took to Twitter and asked his followers to guess what Trump’s response was when the rapper asked him to be his “running mate” in the upcoming presidential election. The rapper has faced backlash over the years when continuously showing his support towards the far right politician. The two have unexpectedly become friends over the years, with Ye first publicising his support to the former president when wearing a MAGA hat during his lunch with him at the White House to reportedly discuss prison reform and other issues. He stated that wearing the ‘Make America Great Again’ hat made him “feel like superman”.

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Hollywood actress Jane Fonda was a huge supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s and in opposition to the Vietnam War. During her time spent in France she was faced with many leftist French individuals that did not believe in war; During her time in Europe she also attended an anti-Vietnam War conference in the Netherlands. She took her activism back to the United States where she worked closely with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). The New York Times labelled her a “major patron” for the organisation.

More recently, she has expressed support towards Women's rights and LGBTQ+ rights, but most strongly delved into environmental damage and climate change. In 2015 she spoke out against Barack Obama’s damaging Petroleum exploration in the Arctic and in 2019 was arrested 3 times while protesting against climate change outside of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.

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Oprah Winfrey is often described as one of the most influential people of our age. ‘The Oprah Winfrey Show’ has been used as a platform for social and political activism for various issues, particularly children's rights. She was voted by Life Magazine as the most influential black person and most influential woman of her generation. One of the most striking campaigns the talk show host was a part of was during the presidential elections in 2008, with economists estimating that she won over one million votes for Barack Obama and the democrats. Her support for the former president goes back as far as 2006, where she appeared on Larry King Live and advised the audience to  "take all your energy, and put it in Barack Obama". She interviewed him a month later, which caused his book to reach number one on Amazon and the New York Times bestsellers list. When Obama officially became a candidate for the presidential elections in 2008, Winfrey decided not to interview him or any other candidates for the fact that she would struggle to remain objective.

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After adding four more characters to the game, I had to choose an iconic or relevant outfit for each of their playing pieces

Jane Fonda - Long red coat, as worn on the day of her arrest

Caitlyn Jenner - White top and white blazer, worn on the announcement of her running for governor of California

Kanye West - All black outfit, worn by West often during his time collaborating with Balenciaga

Oprah Winfrey - link to her appearance in the movie 'The Colour Purple'

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I knew I was planning on redesigning the layout of by board to make it more fun, so I wanted to visit the Museum of Games and Gaming but it was no longer open to the public, so I started looking at what else I could look at to pick out some inspiration before getting started. I found this ancient board game shown in the British History Museum and it inspired me to look at old traditional board games from centuries ago.

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I found an article by the Victoria and Albert Museum about vintage board games. The one that stood out to me most and gave me an idea for my own board game, was The Cottage of Content or Right Road and Wrong Ways (1848). I really liked the idea of having different paths you can take to get to the end of the map, kind of like how celebrities and politicians have their own weird ways of getting to the 'top' with fame and power. This would also create a more engaging and fun game for the players, as they can choose what they want to do with the game and where they want to take their 'Celebritition.'

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I visited the Cartoon Museum and found some cartoons that were related to politics and used humour to make political statements or to make a reference to something, and that was exactly what I was trying to achieve in my project. It was a really good way to fuel my ideas and give me some inspiration ahead of deciding on what my final piece may look like.

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Laid out in the cartoon museum was a playing mat for children with figures dotted around the road, and I felt really inspired by this weirdly, as it looked so similar to the kind of thing I was imagining my game board to look like while people were playing.

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I visited Orcs Nest, a board game shop and looked around for board games with a map/road like layout. I found two board games that looked like battle like games, and took a photo of the back of them which showed the map, as a point of reference for when I am designing my own board

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I designed the shape of my playing pieces on blender to get a feel of how they would look when painted all the various colours. Unfortunately I cannot 3D print in seperate colours so I ordered wooden playing pieces that same shape on Amazon and painted them myself.

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This idea is far more playful than the grid, with your first idea I could see straight away what I was looking at but this makes me want to stop and take it in

Start making this as soon as you can so that you can make tweaks and ensure each element flows nicely

The money you're going to design, is it a coin or note? Is it its own currency? Think about the relationship between money and power also

Will the person on the bank note be one of the characters or will it be an 11th character?

Try to find the balance between making it playful and imaginative but also set out rules and an instruction manual etc. so that it works as a real game

You can make a box for it to sit next to in the exhibition to show that its a real game that people can play

As you design the board consider if the text works better on the board or on cards

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I had two ideas for my final layout of my board. The first was a path leading up to somewhere, like in 'The Cottage of Content or Right Road and Wrong Ways', a vintage board game I am heavily inspired by.

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The second idea was a map, where the players move throughout different destinations and at the end reach the parliament where they win the general election. This is the layout I have decided to go forward with, and although I was at first going to make my own map, as seen in my initial sketch, I decided to loosely follows the real map as shown on google maps of the Houses of Parliament in Westminster and the area around it

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I decided to go for Westminster as the base of my game, as a lot of my research and initial ideas sprung from British Politics, but similar to Monopoly, my game has the potential to exist in other countries with different map layouts and Parliament buildings.

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As seen on Google Maps

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I watched two documetaries/videos on Youtube about Monopoly and its rise to fame and made notes on parts I found most interesting and which could link to my project

“America’s game” - something people play on Christmas, brings out their competitive side, high intensity, causes arguments, people get accused of cheating

“It was supposed to be a critique of capitalism but it turned out to be a celebration of it” - it was originally created to educate America about the danger of capitalism

Monopoly's history reaches back to the early 20th century and was allegedly used to smuggle money and maps to POWs during World War II

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RUTHLESS: MONOPOLY'S SECRET HISTORY | Chapter One | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | PBS

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Today Monopoly is a global sensation, existing in 114 countries and in 47 different languages

It is a common misconception that when it was originally sold to Parker Brothers originally and straight away became a best seller, but the games history is actually far more complicated

Elisabeth Magie invented the game in 1903 as a teaching tool to teach people about the danger of monopoly

By the 1920s, in the height of the Great Depression, Charles Darrow discovered the game and made his own version which he then sold to Parker Brothers

Sadly, Darrow has been labelled the creator of the game and has benefited from all the success, with very few knowing Magie was the true inventor. She did try to speak up about this and spread the truth and explain that Darrow’s version of the game is the exact opposite of what she intended to promote, but was not successful and was forgotten after her death in 1948

As Monopoly became a best seller for Darrow and the Parker Bros, Anti-monopoly, was introduced, a rival game that labelled Monopoly as the ‘bust the trust game’

In the 1970s, Ralph Anspach, the creator of Anti-Monopoly sued Parker Bros for the rights to make his game and won, and it was then that Magie's story was finally told

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The surprising history behind the board game "Monopoly"

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I made a digital sketch of the Houses of Parliament to illustrate where the end of the board is and placed it over the map of Westminster that I sketched. I used Procreate for this. After this I was struggling with how to bring it all together and fill up the game board some more as it looked too simple, so I looked back at the board games that I was taking inspo from to give me some more ideas.

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As I started piecing the map together and layering on top of it, I realised that it was far too graphic and blocky compared to my other illustrations and nothing was blending together seamlessly. I spoke to my tutor and he suggested that rather than digital maps I could look at traditional maps which have far more detail and character and work from one of those instead.

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I found this map of Westminster area in London and thought it was the perfect photo to build my final board map from.

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My first sketch was too overwhelming and I felt as though it would be too busy so I simplified it slightly.

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Once I was happy with the basic outline of the map I could start populating and adjusting the map with all of the rest of the illustrations

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I adjusted the colours to be slightly brighter and added in my illustrations. The navy points are places where the players can choose to start and the red square by the Houses of Parliament is where you need to get to to win. In the shorter routes I added more mystery card and mystery dice squares to make it harder for the players to get through successfully. I labelled some of the buildings in reference to the Celebrititions, such as the USA Embassy for all the American players, ITV Studios in reference to I'm A Celebrity that Hancock and Farage went on and the COVID Vaccination centre in reference to Hancock also.

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I designed the front of a box and made a mock up of it to visualise how my board game would look if it was sold.

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I had to design money for my game, for my first design I took inspiration from the American one dollar bill, but simplified it like other board games usually do. My currency is Power (PWR) which symbolises the ties to capitalism and power and money hungry celebrities and politicians who my game revolves around. I thought the final outcome looked too much like game money to me and I wanted something slightly more refined and realistic, so I looked at the British bank note which is far more detailed, and also looked at three artists that have reworked British bank notes themselves.

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My bank notes are for the currency Power (PWR) to symbolise how the more power and money people have, the quicker and easier they can get to wherever they want. I made a digital sketch of King Charles II's crown because I noticed that it was featured in the real bank notes. I also adjusted the hue of my Houses of Parliament sketch on Procreate to make a slightly more orange and a green version. I made a badge with a P in it also to represent my currency (PWR). I started putting all the elements together and played around with textures, fonts and placements until I found something I was happy with. Although I couldn't download the actual Bank of England font as it is a commercial font and I would have to pay for it, I tried to find traditional, lombardic fonts that gave the same feel. The fonts I chose were Snell Roundhand and Bodoni 72 Smallcaps. As all of my other digital work, I worked on Procreate and Photoshop predominantly for this process.

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I used the outline of my board map as a background of the bank note to add some texture to the note

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Final design

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Final Design

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I made some more digital sketches for my mystery cards to make them more visual, and I also used some of the drawings on my board map. I made a note below of what the images reference.

Tweet from 2014 - cancel culture

Face mask - COVID 19

Akubra Snowy River Hat - I'm A Celebrity

Brexit Bus - Political Propoganda

Cheese, wine and grapes - Upper Class Christmas Party

White House - United States of America

Podium - Neil Kinnock's Sheffield Rally

Calculator - Tax Evasion

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I made 10 mystery card designs and sent them to MOO Printing to be professionally printed for my game

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I made the front of the cards all of the same designs so that the players of the game do not know which card they are going to pull

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I made two dice out of clay and painted one as a typical dice and the other as my 'mystery dice'. I considered 3D printing these dice but I liked that it was not a perfect cube which meant that it would roll on certain sides more than others, because it was nice symbolism for some people getting a better chance at life than others, and how the fame and money can put the characters in the game to advantages or sometimes even disadvantages.

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Your illustrations are far more successful than the map, you can look at traditional maps from the 1960s to up the quality of your redesign

Making something a little bit more inbetween monopoly money and real money may be a good idea

A coin would be a nice idea, there’s something special about coins knowing that they last and will still be around in hundreds of years

Your box packaging reminds me of Jehovah Witness posters, where various animals and humans live together and life looks perfect

All of the characters work well together, its quite humorous because you would never see all of those people in the same room

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I found the following information for retro maps and decided to follow it for my own to make it look as realistic as possible

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I looked at three artists who have reworked bank notes with ties to British politics and culture. I had already designed some notes for my game, but they looked too simple and far too much like every other game money. I looked at Chris Radcliffe (my tutor) who illustrated a bank note relating to the lack of bank holiday for Meghan and Prince Harry's wedding, Harper Bizarre who reworked an existing note and labelled Britain "the Land of Mope and Tory", and Pen Mendoça who designed the first ever British bank note featuring ethnic minorities.