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.

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. 

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. 

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%. 

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.

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. 

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. 

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

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

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.

• 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

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.

• Kanye West

• Oprah Winfrey

• Jane Fonda

• Caitlyn Jenner

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.

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”.

• 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'

• “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

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