OUGD501 | STUDY TASK 5 | STRUCTURING AN ESSAY

Suggested research question: 

"Why do graphic designers choose Apple over Microsoft, and what effect does this have on design?"

Which Academic Sources will you reference?

OLINS, W. (2003). Wally Olins on brand. London, Thames & Hudson.

KLEIN, N., JHALLY, S., ALPER, L., GARNER, K., MONAHAN, T., & KLEIN, N. (2003). No logo brands, globalization, resistance. [Northampton, Mass.], Media Education Foundation.

LASN, K. (2000). Culture jam: how to reverse America's suicidal consumer binge, and why we must. New York, Quill.

PACKARD, V. (1957). The hidden persuaders. New York, D. McKay Co.

QUART, A. (2003). Branded: the buying and selling of teenagers. Cambridge, MA : Perseus Pub.

What graphic design will you analyse? 

I will look at the apple logo/branding to see how its achieved such a trust with consumers, and how customers feel they can rely on apple, rather than windows. 

Essay map:

Microsoft vs Apple - Why do designers choose Apple? Are they taken in by consumer culture just like everyone else, or does Apple truly enhance your design abilities? 

Print is dead - Now that everyone has been convinced they need a computer to create good design, what has happened to print? More and more people are turning away from the traditional methods of design and are moving with the advancements in technology.

Branding strategy - How does Apple retain its customers? How does its brand make people feel that apple is a reliable and trustworthy company? What makes people want to buy an Apple product?

Consumerism - Society has now formed around the consumer self, and how we all feel we must buy to feel self worth. 

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OUGD501 | STUDY TASK 4 | ESTABLISHING REQUIREMENTS OF YOUR PRACTICAL INVESTIGATION

What is your research question? 

"Why do designers pick Apple over Microsoft, and what are the effects on design?"

Do you have a hypothesis? 

In my essay I'm going to discuss how designers usually prefer to go with Apple over Microsoft, and how this effects design. I'll be focusing on how "print is dead" with the rise in technology, how Apples brand strategy and the idea of the consumer self has constructed the design industry we see today.

What are the contexts of your research interests?

I would like to look into brand strategy, and how brands create a trust between the consumer. I also would like to focus on consumerism its self, and how people crave the latest new item. This fits in well with my chosen question, as many designers want the latest technology or apple device.

Sources of primary research:

Questionnaires, Facebook posts and Twitter polls.

Sources of secondary research:

Hidden Persuaders, On Brand, Branded, No Logo, Culture Jam

How will your practical work link to your written work? 

For my practical work I am going to design a re-brand for Linux, an operating system that isn't very well known. This will link into my themes of branding and consumers wanting a brand that they know and trust.

What methods will you use to research, develop, create and test your work?

I will be using primary and secondary research methods that include looking at online resources, books, magazines and asking classmates. I will develop my work through a series of drafts and revisions and create it based upon the feedback I have been given. To test my work I will ask my classmates and others not interested in graphic design to give me feedback.

Provide a proposed timeline for your work to completion: 

2nd November - 23rd November: Begin research and start off the essay

23rd November - Christmas: Finish essay as much as possible, start to plan practical work

Christmas - 11th January: Have final draft ready for Turn it in submission

11th January onwards: Make final revisions for essay, complete practical work

OUGD501 | STUDY TASK 3 | ESTABLISHING A RESEARCH QUESTION

Suggested research question:

For my research question, I'd like to concentrate on consumerism and the way it affects us, and us as designers. I'd like to focus on technology, and the idea of elitism within society. Another focus would be to talk about this in the design industry, with traditional print techniques becoming redundant and technology taking over - is all design the essentially same? Is it just churned out to make the consumer happy?

Which of the module resources does this question relate to? 

- 'New Media Interactive Advertising vs. Traditional advertising'
-  Baudrillard - The consumer society

Which academic sources are available on this topic?

- Wally Olins - On Brand
-  Naoimi Klein - No Logo
- Branded - Alissa Quart

How could the research question be investigated through practice?

I'd like to create something that shows that print still has value. Possibly a bespoke publication or poster that is very intricate and uses many different methods of printing to create. I'd like to show that if something is one of a kind, or traditional, it can still have value and appreciated. I could also create a run of 10 posters, for example, all using a different method to create - showing that even though they're the same poster, the different ways of making have a different character and in return, different resolution.

Peer feedback:

Good idea. Maybe you could focus on one aspect of the question rather than having it quite jumbled? Try to stick to one part so the essay and practical research is more concise.

OUGD501 | STUDY TASK 2 | PARODY AND PASTICHE

A pastiche is a piece of visual art, music, theater or literature that has taken characteristics from other pieces and appropriates them to fit a certain context, which celebrates the styles and uses them appropriately, unlike a parody which mocks the work it imitates.

Linda Hucheon states that parody helps us consider how design relates to the outside world. She claims that parody is a political issue, not a mindless cannibalization of styles. She believes that within postmodernism, parody and pastiche are one and the same. Since postmodernism was a reaction to modernity, it could be classed as a pastiche, but it is also a parody, since it rejects the ideas put forward by modernism. Hucheon claims that postmodernism will never be its own being, that it needs historical context to exist "it is incorporated and modified, given new life and meaning." (Hucheon, L, 1989).

Jameson believes that parody and pastiche are not equal to each other. Pastiche is a blank parody. The past is always a representation of what we think it is, rather than the truth. "No original has ever existed." (Jameson, F, 1991). Jameson is very blunt with his writing, and very critical of the idea of pastiche." Pastiche, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language." (Jameson, F, 1991).

The two philosophers both have a very different view of what parody and pastiche is. An example of this would be the Stranger and Stranger branding. They cultivate a lot of different aspects of culture and periods of time and create branding that mimics that of a certain aesthetic. Jameson would call this a parody, as Stranger and Stranger are effectively appropriating these styles for their own use, though Hucheon would say that they have created a pastiche of all the styles.

OUGD501 | STUDY TASK 1 | DESIGN & AUTHORSHIP

Massimo Vignelli is a one of the most famous modernist designers in the industry. He developed his own way of working, so much so that he made the Vignelli Canon, a guide to modernist design. Auteur theory states that you can understand works of design through the characteristics of the designer, for example, the technical expertise, style and consistent interior meaning. As Vignelli is a modernist designer, this Auteur theory should not apply to his work - as modernists believe that the function of the design should come before any aesthetic is even considered, meaning that Vignelli's work should not be attached to him, it should clearly display the message of the design and that's that. There should be nothing to "understand", as it's already there on the page.

"Once the author is removed, the claim to decipher a text is quite futile" (Bates, R. 1977) The removal of the author, or in this case, the designer, is the main message in The Death of the Author. It's the idea that something only has one meaning (the authors) is a fallacy. The meaning is created by the readers at the point at which the writing is received, not when written. This idea attacks modernism, as it allows the reader to create their own meaning of the design, rather than accept the design that the designer has created. "A text's unity lies not in its origin, but in it's destination" (Bates, R, 1977) . This text encourages you to challenge the dominant approach of the world, and reject the idea that anything has a fixed meaning. For a modernist designer such as Vignelli, this is problematic because his work is only supposed to have one meaning - the meaning that he gave to it. The text goes on to say "To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text" (Bates, R, 1977). Vignelli's work is so popular, and as his work is well known, it's easy to give his design a designer, much like giving text an author. It limits the design, and makes it about himself rather than the viewer, which goes against what is said in The Death of the Author. It perpetuates the idea of a structural hierarchy in society, where the intelligent are more superior. The intelligent are the "author" in this society, and if you don't understand the "proper" message of Vignelli's work, you must be stupid and unworthy.

This hierarchy is a misconception of society, as the more intelligent should not be based on the meaning they accept. "In a communist society, there are no painters but at most people who engage in painting among other activities" (Marx, K, 1846). The idea that society determines who is successful is truly damaging, and the Auteur theory promotes this. It states that the meaning of something can be found by looking at the author, but once you remove the author, you're free to give it meaning yourself. Auteur theory is debunked because trying to figure out who someone is, or what they mean cannot be done, as they themselves are made up from the society they live in. From this, we can determine that nothing is original, "This author is a modern figure, a product of our society" (Bates, R, 1977).

OUGD401 - Practical Rationale

For my practical, I decided to create a body positive campaign that would be relatable to a large audience. I wanted both men and women to associate with this campaign, because as I found within my research, over 80% of young adults has body confidence issues. I created a campaign for thebodypositive.org, an organisation that helps people accept their body, and love themselves. I thought that this was a fitting organisaiton because all of the work they do focusses on the same message as my campaign.

I felt that this campaign was suitable for this module because throughout my essay, the main issue with advertising is the way people are portrayed. They are seen as almost unattainable, and give off the wrong ideals for both men and women, with the way that they look and act. It’s problematic within today’s society, because people will strive to become these people, subconsciously or not, because they are told that anything below this is sub-par. If you don’t buy this product, or look like this, you won’t be successful. You won’t have any friends. You won’t be happy. I wanted to create this campaign, and I thought it was appropriate, because these messages affect everyone. Both men, women, adults and children are all found to have body confidence issues, and it’s important that we teach self love and respect.

The messages portrayed throughout my campaign were gender neutral (apart from one - how to get a bikini body), and I tried to aim the messages to as large an audience as I could. There are a few that are aimed at a specific audience, such as “healthy is a good thing”, aimed at people who suffer from eating disorders, as “healthy” often has negative connotations. To them, it indicates that they have put on weight, and are losing the self image that they would prefer. I want to remind them that healthy means you are alive, you’re living, and you should love your body for all that it does for you.

I also created a Twitter page for this campaign and created a hashtag associated with it - #iloveme, because everyone should love themselves and not feel bad about it. Some people may see this hashtag and think that it’s vain and self-indulgent, but is there really anything wrong with that? I feel that the most important person in your life is you, and you’re the only person that can look after yourself properly. This campaign is about accepting yourself for who you are, your flaws and what you don’t like are a part of you, and learning to love them will create so much positivity in peoples lives, rather than comparing to unrealistic body ideas set by the media.

OUGD401 - Practical Printed

Once I had all of my designs ready it was time to print them. I printed the posters and flyers on matte stock, and the rest on regular thick off white stock. I'm really pleased with how they have turned out, they're very colourful and vibrant and I can see them working and standing out in places like waiting rooms. 

Unfortunately some of the cards didn't print out exactly double sided, so the logo of thebodypositive was cut off. If this was a real campaign the budget would be much higher and things like this would be avoided. I also had an idea of creating a vinyl sticker to place over mirrors in changing rooms that have some motivational quotes from this campaign but sadly I didn't have the money or time to produce that. 

Overall I'm happy with how my project has progressed and I've produced something that I was passionate about and interested in. 

OUGD401 - Practical Collateral

After creating the posters, flyers and cards I decided to mock-up some collateral for the campaign. This includes bus/shelter ads, a badge mock and sticker mock up which I didn't have time to produce physically. I also mocked up a twitter page for the actual campaign, that would tweet positivity to everyone on twitter for as long as the campaign runs, and also answer any questions about the campaign. 

OUGD401 - Practical Posters

Once the cards and flyers were created, I started to focus on the posters. These would be the main part of the campaign, the messages that would be up in schools, universities, even in the workplace. Doctors or hospital waiting rooms and gyms are all suitable places for this campaign to be positioned. 

My posters carry these messages:

"Healthy is a good thing" - aimed at people who may have eating disorders, as healthy sometimes carries negative connotations (if they've gained weight), and can see it as someone inadvertently calling them fat. 

"Stop comparing, start enjoying" - this can be aimed at anyone. Everyone compares themselves to other people, and its important to focus on your own body. This makes a clear link with advertising too, because many people compare themselves to what they see in adverts and set themselves unrealistic body goals. This is a really important message, because when people can't get they bodies to look the same as what they see on tv, or in a magazine it can be very problematic for them.

"Scales are for fish" - This message is aimed at anyone who weighs themselves regularly. If they are looking to gain or lose weight, they should forget what the scales say, and go off if they are happy with the way that they look. 

I wanted to create these posters with positive, light colours that reflect enlightenment and self belief. These posters work well together as a set, and also match with the previous designs that I've created. 

OUGD401 - Practical Cards

Once I had a style for my designs, I started working on some small business card size cards, that can be placed anywhere. They're really cheap to produce because they're so small. Each one has a nice message on, and could really just brighten someones day. These could be left on tables, given out to people on the street or secretly placed in someones bag once they'd bought something e.g. clothes or food. Its all about self acceptance. 
My 3 card designs contain the phrases:

Side 1 - How to get a biniki body:
Side 2 - put a bikini on your body! - be body positive!

Side 1 - Turn that frown :-(
Side 2 - Upside down! :-) - be body positive!

Side 1 - love yourself
Side 2 - Be you(tiful) - be body positive! 

OUGD401 - Idea Development

After looking into guerrilla marketing, I decided that this campaign should be accessible to everyone. I'm going to produce leaflets, posters, flyers, stickers, badges, large ads and hopefully more. I want to create a campaign that will stick in peoples minds, even with a minimal design. 

This campaign would ideally be a national campaign, in all the big cities and towns. Information leaflets and flyers would be situated in gyms, doctors offices and cafe's. It's important to ensure that everyone is aware of this campaign, as the target audience is very large. 

I started with creating the A5 flyers. I wanted them to be colourful and inviting. I looked into some statistics that relate to body confidence, and found that 33% of children say they often worry about the way they look and appearance is the largest cause of bullying in schools. 83% of adults do not feel confident about their body, and 31% of 25-34 year olds say the way they look has stopped them going for a job. 

Source: http://www.berealcampaign.co.uk/

These statistics are frankly outrageous, and something needs to be done. Although the facts are important, I don't want to bring any negativity into my campaign. I would like to focus on the positive, that way no one can be distracted, or form a link with the negativity of these statistics. 

I experimented with block colour for the flyers to begin:

I felt like this was too bold and not very friendly. I liked the layout and the minimal design, so I tried a gradient background instead: 

After creating something that I think is suitable, I went on researching body positive quotes (that don't shame any body type and can be aimed at both men and women), I created 4 more flyers in different colours: 

I'm happy with this style for my campaign. Theres something distinct about the flyers, they work well together but they each carry their own message. 

OUGD401 - Practical Body Positive Research

To begin my research, I looked at thebodypositive.org website thoroughly, to make sure I create something that is suitable for them. 

"The Body Positive teaches people how to overcome conflicts with their bodies so they can lead happier, more productive lives. We are dedicated to inspiring youth and adults to value their health, unique beauty, and identity so they can use their vital resources of time, energy, and intellect to make positive changes in their own lives and in the world."

From this I have deduced my target audience is young people and adults, not limited to gender. They are a positive organisation, that want to spark a change in peoples lives. Their website many pictures of people smiling and enjoying themselves, which is reassuring to anyone that visits it. They have published a book that teaches self love and appreciation, and have an online campaign called ThisIsBeauty. 

http://thisisbeauty.org/

As they already have a campaign that focuses on imagery, I would like to create something that is text based, not linking anything to healthy eating, going to the gym, dieting, etc. I would like to inspire and motivate, through just words. I want this campaign to be bold and captivating, making people want to change their attitude towards themselves through a statement as simple as "i love me". 

I have looked into similar campaigns and motivational posters here:









From looking at these posters, its striking how they all feature just text. A minimal design such as these is effective, because the message is plain and simple. This is the direction I want to take my campaign. 

OUGD401 Practical Primary Research

To get a better understanding of my target audience, I conducted some primary research to see what people thought about these adverts. Since I am creating a body positive campaign, I asked people how they felt about current adverts:

I made one suitable for males and females, and the majority of people said that these adverts did not make themselves feel good about their body. This supports my campaign and shows that there is a need for a body positivity attitude within society. 

OUGD401 - Practical Tutorial Idea Change

After I had a tutorial and showed my current design work, I got the feeling that my work wasn't really suitable for this project. It should be more about advertising and the portrayal of women, and a publication doesn't really meet the requirements. I decided to change my idea again. I looked back at my essay and my initial research, and found that body image in advertising is one of the biggest problems. Both men and women have unrealistic body ideals because of the way advertisements are produced. Everywhere we turn, theres something telling us theres something wrong with how we look. We're given something to compare ourselves to every day, and I would like to base my practical on this. I have decided to create an ad campaign for thebodypositive.org, an organisation that teaches people how to over come conflicts with their bodies. 

http://thebodypositive.org/index.html

I think that their brand could do with more exposure, and although they are doing really well and have reached a lot of people, I would like to create a campaign that enforces this brand and gives them a wider audience.

OUGD401 - Practical Textures

To develop my book I wanted to make my own textures for it, so I could make them bespoke to my project. I used some brusho to create this, and I feel like these could be versatile and useful within my project: 

OUGD401 - Practical Further Development

I decided that my book needed something else, some textures or colour to bring it to life. I looked online and found some interesting water-colour textures (which I will re-create myself) and added them to my book to see what they looked like and how it worked. I added this to my front cover and I feel like it's made it more eye catching and bold. 

I like this as it adds a distressed feel to the book and the cross could also represent womens right to vote, which was a big step in womens rights. I added some more textures to some of the pages, and I liked the effect they had on the overall tone on my book:

I would like my book to have a narrative, as these are only my preliminary designs I don't have much to work with, but as I plan to create my own textures for this book I will create them to fit my work. I want the book to become more distressed as you go through it, representing the anger women are feeling as these types of adverts are still being produced. 

OUGD401 - Practical Development

I started off my booklet with a minimal design, using a mixture of bold and regular sans serif font roboto. I think this is effective because its very contemporary and hard hitting. I designed a rough front cover describing what the booklet was about, and a short sentence on page 1 describing what in a bit more detail what the content of the book was.

After that, I designed the general layout for my pages. I wanted them to all look the same, because this represents the continuous stereotyping of women and how adverts portray them still to this day. I wanted to continue the minimal theme throughout, and possibly add some colour accents or textures later on. 

I made the quote the main factor of the design, with the year it was from in large at the bottom, representing a page number. On the next page I had the information and background about the advert and the decade on, explaining to the reader how women were portrayed in this time. I had a similar layout on my other spreads for the other years:

I'm happy with my designs but I feel like something is missing from them, it looks too plain and minimal for the book to be effective in the way that I want. 

OUGD401 - Practical Research

Before I started to make my booklet, I researched into existing ones to get an idea of style and aesthetic: 











These booklets have made me realise that I want a more minimal, hard hitting book. I want it to be very raw, to reflect the struggle that women have encountered throughout the years with being stereotyped and degraded through these adverts. As it is still happening today, I want the booklet to have the same theme throughout, representing the fact that this has been a problem for a number of years. 

OUGD401 - Practical Idea Changed

After considering the feedback from the crit, I've decided to change my idea from a poster series to an informative booklet. I feel this would work better, because I can also include information in the booklet about  the time, rather than just a short quote. 

I have also looked for quotes similar to the 1950s quote I found, but it was hard to find something similar to that, that actually describes the time. I decided to change this idea too, instead of having large quotes about the time, I would have taglines from popular adverts, and then a description of the decade and how women were portrayed. I decided to look at some popular adverts from each decade and see what the adverts were like:

1950s:







1960s:








1970s:






1980s:






1990s:





2000s:





2010s: