Elle Powell

The Villain Project

For my final major project, I wanted to investigate villains and take a closer look on how they have changed through the years and some of the things that make each villain unique and different. One of the ways I was looking at villains was to see how villains have changed through the years, with features such as crimes, motives, reasons and fashion. With this research I found that villains can range from child friendly villains whose motives can be a basic need for power and control and sometimes just to be simply evil, without any reason or explanation (Disney villains and cartoon villains). Then, you have the darker side and realistic villains which can have very dark or disturbing motives and have realistic reasoning such as revenge to drive them to crimes that they commit (the Joker, Dracula). I have taken a closer look at certain well-known villains such as the Joker to try and understand why they have become so famous. In my research I investigated nature vs nurture to understand the psychology of human behaviour. One thing I discovered was that our upbringing can have a massive impact on how we grow and develop and even how we see the world and interact with each other. Our nature can have a huge impact because in many situations, it doesn’t seem to matter how good an upbringing is as an individual they can still become distant and anti-social. You therefore can have psychological issues and be from any background and have the potential to become a villain. So, I believe when we are young, we see the world as good vs evil through the eyes of heroes and villains. When we grow up and are older, we must decide, our own morals. Whether we are considered good or bad is sometimes decided by people round us, as each one of us has our own views and opinions. For my final designs I intend to make each outfit look different from each other to show the audience how villains can be different to each other. This has been achieved through colour, going from bright colours and interesting shapes to darker colours with more formal shapes. For my final piece I will make the most unique outfit out of my designs. This will include dyeing material in bright colors and sewing details on such as ruffles, pleats and images on the garments.