Sunday 25 March 2018
Visual investigation: Issue research
Using a number of websites and articles I was able to collate the research and organise it under the headings to then make it easier to understand.
Issue
Air pollution in London has reached the legal limit for the whole of 2018 less than a month into the year, prompting calls for the government to “get a grip and show they’re serious about protecting health”.
The law requires that the hourly measurement of toxic nitrogen dioxide (NO2) must not exceed 200 micrograms per cubic metre more than 18 times in a whole year.
When the levels are thi sbad, the government's Daily Air Quality Index recommends that even the healthy mebers of the public 'reduce physicl exertion, particularly outdoors.
The Royal College of Physicians estimates that outdoor air pollution is a contributing factor in around 40,000 deaths per year.
Long-term exposure to air pollution can cause cancer, asthma, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and dementia. There are also links that it may even be damaging your mental health.
"Children living in highly polluted areas are four times more likely to have reduced lung function in adulthood. Improving air quality for children has been shown to halt and reverse this effect."
Causes
Some of the localised pollution contained high levels of particles from wood burning fires, but no where near as much damage is coming from fires as it is cars.
Diesel cars. Diesel cars are much worse than petrol cars as modern diesel cars are only just meeting the standards that they should have been meeting 10 years ago.
Diesel vehicales are respnsible for 90 percent of toxic nitrogen oxides coming from roads, and the Government has confirmed that all petrol and diesel cars will be banned in 2040.
Improvements
It has improved since last year due to the action taken by the mayor of London, who introduced cleaner buses on routes through pollution black spots and charges to stop 'dirty' vehicles in central London.
The most effective policy that has been introduced is the charging zones, as it has been shown to deter dirty cars from urban centres.
The Mayor of London has also received a comprehensive funding settlement formt he government, worth more than £5bn, which includes measures to deliver compliance with the air quality limits.
Issue
Air pollution in London has reached the legal limit for the whole of 2018 less than a month into the year, prompting calls for the government to “get a grip and show they’re serious about protecting health”.
The law requires that the hourly measurement of toxic nitrogen dioxide (NO2) must not exceed 200 micrograms per cubic metre more than 18 times in a whole year.
When the levels are thi sbad, the government's Daily Air Quality Index recommends that even the healthy mebers of the public 'reduce physicl exertion, particularly outdoors.
The Royal College of Physicians estimates that outdoor air pollution is a contributing factor in around 40,000 deaths per year.
Long-term exposure to air pollution can cause cancer, asthma, stroke, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and dementia. There are also links that it may even be damaging your mental health.
"Children living in highly polluted areas are four times more likely to have reduced lung function in adulthood. Improving air quality for children has been shown to halt and reverse this effect."
Causes
Some of the localised pollution contained high levels of particles from wood burning fires, but no where near as much damage is coming from fires as it is cars.
Diesel cars. Diesel cars are much worse than petrol cars as modern diesel cars are only just meeting the standards that they should have been meeting 10 years ago.
Diesel vehicales are respnsible for 90 percent of toxic nitrogen oxides coming from roads, and the Government has confirmed that all petrol and diesel cars will be banned in 2040.
Improvements
It has improved since last year due to the action taken by the mayor of London, who introduced cleaner buses on routes through pollution black spots and charges to stop 'dirty' vehicles in central London.
The most effective policy that has been introduced is the charging zones, as it has been shown to deter dirty cars from urban centres.
The Mayor of London has also received a comprehensive funding settlement formt he government, worth more than £5bn, which includes measures to deliver compliance with the air quality limits.
Saturday 24 March 2018
Visual Investigation: Topic research
Having decided on the idea of presenting some of the topics that are being discussed currently in the House of Commons between each of the parties, I started by researching the current topics for each of them. In order to link to the critical writing, the design style of the posters will be based on the design strategies discussed and make sure that the style matches the brand guidelines of each of the parties.
Green Party
Figure 1 shows the home screen of the Green Parties website, highlighting in a short nutshell the latest topics of discussions that they are having as a party.
Green Party
 |
| fig. 1 |
31st January 2018
'Green Party: Spiralling cost of nuclear final nail in Trident coffin'
- called on the Government to scrap nuclear weapons for good after Government figures revealed the costs rose by £575.5 million in 12 months
- Johnathan Bartley (co-leader of the Green Party) said the Government's failure to deliver the weapons on time or in the budget "reveals the lie behind its claims to be economically competent"
- Bartley made the call in response to a National Audit Office report which found the Ministry of Defence's equipment Plan for 2017 to have a spending shortfall of between £4bn and £20bn ( The National Audit Ofice states that the MoD's Equipment plan 2017-2027 is not affordable)
- "The spiralling cost of nuclear should be the final nail in the Trient coffin. It is unacceptable that the Government is set up to spend an estimated £575.5 million more on nuclear weapons it will never use, while inflicting cuts on an NHS and public services already in crisis. The fact the Government cannot deliver these weapons on time or in budget reveals the lie behind its claims to be economically competent. It's time Trident was scrapped for good."
30th January 2018
'Green Party responds to London hitting annual air pollution limit'
- The Green Party has called on the Government to take action on air pollution after news Brixton Road in London reached the limit for the whole of 2018
- Bartley: "The fact we're not even out of January and London's filthy air has already hit the yearly pollution limit is damning. The Government's failure to tackle this public health emergency is just one of the cracks in its new green veneer"."
- "we all have the right to trust the air we breathe yet air pollution is cutting lives short and triggering asthma in our children"
- If the Government is serious about tackling this crisis it must bring forward the ban on petrol and diesel cars, introduce a targeted scrappage scheme, invest in public transport and expand clean air zones across the country."
The pollution issue has stood out to me more as it is something that is effecting an area that I regularly visit. I will continue research into this issue so that a campaign can then be developed.
Critical Writing: Study Task 05
In order to start with an essay strucrture I collated all of the research i had done and began to group it into relevant sections that could build up paragraphs.
Essay research
·
Support for
progressive politics is far more visible in the creative community than
pro-Conservative messages are
·
Surveys reveal
that not all creative people are left-leaning
·
On
April 20, just two days after the snap UK election was called, a poll went up on Design Week. It asked: “General Election 2017: how will
designers vote?” Of
those that responded (less than 1% of all UK designers, if you go by the Design
Council’s 2010 estimate of the size of the industry), nearly half – 46% – intended
to vote Labour. Collectively with the Lib Dems and the Greens, progressives
made up 66% of the responses. Granted, only 574 took the poll, but that overlap
in the Venn diagram of designers, Design Week readers and poll-takers suggests
that yes, the industry at large does consider itself politically leftist. But
maybe the more interesting statistic to come out of the poll was that almost a
fifth of these respondents said they’d be voting Conservative.
·
Supermundane
released a downloadable ‘Open your eyes to the Tory lies’ poster series which
would have been seen by a large number of people, heavily influenced by the
design work of this design practice
·
Wealth of
anti-Conservative design, but a lack of pro
·
“all graphic
designers, like all creative people, are somehow politically progressive” –
Steven Heller
·
when
right-leaning designers or projects do get media coverage though, it’s usually
negative or loaded with bias against the politics
·
‘Perfect Day’ are
the design agency that did the conservative logo branding, the green tree and
then the union flag tree
·
“I felt ashamed and I felt
guilty,” said Pentagram
partner Marina Willer on Eye’s website, a
week after the UK made its decision to leave the EU, “because I knew that as
designers we could have done so much more to avoid the fiasco of Brexit.” – this
shows the power of graphic design and the messages that can be spread using the
visual impact
·
·
The importance of Branding in Modern Political
Campaigns
·
Using logos came in 2008 with Barack Obama’s first presidential
campaign
·
The ‘O’ resembled a road and gave people the
impression that Obama wanted to ‘lead us into his vision of the future’
·
It was thought to be successful because the logo was
“designed by a political outsider – and it shows” – Pappas MacDonnell
·
Also the poster design by Shepard Fairey had the same
strong appeal for people as the Nike swoosh
COLOUR SCHEMES
Clean New World – Maud Lavin
Emotional attachment
Anyone
who sells things for a living, online or offline, should know, love, and live
these principles:
- Reciprocity – when someone gives us something we
feel compelled to give something back in return
- Commitment & Consistency – people will go to
great lengths to appear consistent in their words and actions, so with a
sign up they are more likely to purchase from you
- Liking – more likely to say yes to a request if
we feel a connection to the person making it, e.g. telling a personal
story, models people like
- Authority – people respond to authority, scientific
research/proof,
- Social Proof – we tend to like things just
because other people do as well, whether we know them or not
- Scarcity – people are highly motivated by the
thought that they might lose out on something, deadlines, out of stock
announcements, limited edition etc. This may be something that politicians
play on to get people to decide to vote for them
The
World Wildlife Fund is a brand known for its controversial and fear-inducing
imagery, a method that shows to be powerful and instantly makes the audience
stop and think about what is being said and alongside a strong visual, the
message will cause the audience to react appropriately to the threats.
Essay structure
Critical Writing: Study Task 04
Identities & Consumption
Jansson-Boyd, Cathrine V. (2010) Consumer Psychology
Jansson-Boyd, Cathrine V. (2010) Consumer Psychology
What is meant by multiple identities?
Due to the different roles people play, they tend to have more than one person within society. This results in multi-dimensional personalities constructed of the many characteristics they possess. The roles in which people play within society are determined by what they do. Job roles, parental roles, volunteering roles etc. all connect to make up each person's self-identity.
Due to the different roles people play, they tend to have more than one person within society. This results in multi-dimensional personalities constructed of the many characteristics they possess. The roles in which people play within society are determined by what they do. Job roles, parental roles, volunteering roles etc. all connect to make up each person's self-identity.
How are identities formed?
The formation of identities start early in life and continue throughout the whole of each person's life. Self-recognition develops around the age of 2 and gradually becomes more complex as they grow older. Human identities are continuously moulded and influenced by parents, siblings, friends, peers, school, societies, or sports clubs they belong to. In adulthood feelings, motivations, political beliefs, religious beliefs, physical appearance, group memberships, age and the material possessions they own, all influence the description they give themselves.
People often overlook that others have more than one identity and this is because humans have a 'basic need to simplify and impose order on the world. Consequently, humans consign others to groups (social categorisation) and compare themselves to others (social comparison) in an attempt to impose order on the worlds as well as distinguishing how people are similar or different to themselves, helping with the process of figuring out who they are.
The formation of identities start early in life and continue throughout the whole of each person's life. Self-recognition develops around the age of 2 and gradually becomes more complex as they grow older. Human identities are continuously moulded and influenced by parents, siblings, friends, peers, school, societies, or sports clubs they belong to. In adulthood feelings, motivations, political beliefs, religious beliefs, physical appearance, group memberships, age and the material possessions they own, all influence the description they give themselves.
People often overlook that others have more than one identity and this is because humans have a 'basic need to simplify and impose order on the world. Consequently, humans consign others to groups (social categorisation) and compare themselves to others (social comparison) in an attempt to impose order on the worlds as well as distinguishing how people are similar or different to themselves, helping with the process of figuring out who they are.
What is social categorisation?
Humans categorise the world around them in relation to themselves. The perception of others is often affected by people's material possessions while classification of objects can be influenced by marketing and advertising. The process of categorising individuals can lead to others becoming depersonalised because the focus is on the groups of people and the type of possessions they own.
Humans categorise the world around them in relation to themselves. The perception of others is often affected by people's material possessions while classification of objects can be influenced by marketing and advertising. The process of categorising individuals can lead to others becoming depersonalised because the focus is on the groups of people and the type of possessions they own.
What is social comparison?
An important source of understanding oneself is through comparisons with other people. Social comparison is about how people learn about themselves by comparing similarities and difference to others. The continuous comparison to others is driven by a need to maintain and sometimes increase positive self-esteem.
Social comparison occurs in two forms, the downward social comparison occurs when we compare ourselves to those who do less well, we appear to do better ourselves and feel superior. There will be times when comparisons cannot be chosen and may end up comparing to someone viewed to be more competent or desirable. This is known as an upward comparison and can have a harmful effect on self-esteem. This comparison often happens when consumers are comparing themselves to 'ideal' media images, something that has been extensively explored in regards to how women rate their own physical attractiveness and the impact upon self-esteem.
An important source of understanding oneself is through comparisons with other people. Social comparison is about how people learn about themselves by comparing similarities and difference to others. The continuous comparison to others is driven by a need to maintain and sometimes increase positive self-esteem.
Social comparison occurs in two forms, the downward social comparison occurs when we compare ourselves to those who do less well, we appear to do better ourselves and feel superior. There will be times when comparisons cannot be chosen and may end up comparing to someone viewed to be more competent or desirable. This is known as an upward comparison and can have a harmful effect on self-esteem. This comparison often happens when consumers are comparing themselves to 'ideal' media images, something that has been extensively explored in regards to how women rate their own physical attractiveness and the impact upon self-esteem.
What is social identity theory?
Social identity theory is a person's sense of who they are, based on their group. Groups give us a sense of social identity, a sense of belonging to the social world. This means that we naturally try to enhance the status of the group to which we belong so that our self-image can be increased.
Social identity theory is a person's sense of who they are, based on their group. Groups give us a sense of social identity, a sense of belonging to the social world. This means that we naturally try to enhance the status of the group to which we belong so that our self-image can be increased.
What is an example of strong brand identification?
Some consumers have a stronger relationship with their preferred brand than other users of a similar product category and this has been linked to the number of product users. Mac was found to be much more likely to be part of consumer's self-concept in comparison to PC. The stronger self-connection to the product was explained by the fact that Macintosh computers are less commonly used and hence make the user think of themselves as a part of a small closely knit community.
Some consumers have a stronger relationship with their preferred brand than other users of a similar product category and this has been linked to the number of product users. Mac was found to be much more likely to be part of consumer's self-concept in comparison to PC. The stronger self-connection to the product was explained by the fact that Macintosh computers are less commonly used and hence make the user think of themselves as a part of a small closely knit community.
What are the negative effects on body image?
Comparing to others through physical appearance or our possessions can have a negative impact as we feel we don't meet the unobtainable, digitally manipulated ideals portrayed by the media. This pressure to be perfect starts at a young age through products such as barbies. Children play with them and see them as a morphed reality to live up to, an unrealistic image which fails to portray the image of the average woman. Therefore as the child develops into adolescence and fails to live up to these ideals they look for ways to alter their appearance in order to try to conform to the media ideals. This destructive cycle makes unreachable targets which leads to poor physical and mental health.
Comparing to others through physical appearance or our possessions can have a negative impact as we feel we don't meet the unobtainable, digitally manipulated ideals portrayed by the media. This pressure to be perfect starts at a young age through products such as barbies. Children play with them and see them as a morphed reality to live up to, an unrealistic image which fails to portray the image of the average woman. Therefore as the child develops into adolescence and fails to live up to these ideals they look for ways to alter their appearance in order to try to conform to the media ideals. This destructive cycle makes unreachable targets which leads to poor physical and mental health.
What is self-discrepancy theory?
This theory seeks to explain why people are unhappy with their physical appearance and there ate three types of self-schema, organised sets of expectations.
Actual self - the way people are at the present point in time
Ideal self - the self we aspire to be, helping us to strive to be our perception of perfect
Ought self - the way we think we should be and prevents us from doing things that don't fit who we want to be
Those with high discrepancies are much more likely to have self-esteem and engage with identity seeking buying behaviour.
This theory seeks to explain why people are unhappy with their physical appearance and there ate three types of self-schema, organised sets of expectations.
Actual self - the way people are at the present point in time
Ideal self - the self we aspire to be, helping us to strive to be our perception of perfect
Ought self - the way we think we should be and prevents us from doing things that don't fit who we want to be
Those with high discrepancies are much more likely to have self-esteem and engage with identity seeking buying behaviour.
Visual investigation: Study Task 06
Writing a brief
Your practical project must be related to and respond to your research question.
Your work must demonstrate that you are able to make sense of and use theoretical research in the development of graphic design work.
Your practical work must be embedded within some kind of graphic design practice.
Your practical work must demonstrate design process - brief analysis - research (visual, contextual, theoretical) - idea generation - idea development - prototypes - further developments - outcomes.
The aim of the CoP modules is to develop contextual and critical awareness in the development of graphic design work/practice. It is not essential that you develop extremely polished finalised outputs rather than demonstrate your process, criticality and creativity.
Ideas
- need to use the design strategies spoke about in essay
- party rebrand
- current issues in parliament
- series of posters for one party, or one per main party on current discussions
- green party needing more publicity
- use the branding and deign guidelines to ensure consistency with identity
I have decided to base the practical on current topics of discussion in parliament and following the branding strategies of each party, produce posters to communicate these discussions.
Research + decisions to be made:
- which discussion topic
- which party/parties
- research into the design guidelines
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