COP3 - Evaluation

What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

I feel that this module has really helped me to inject theory into my practice more so than any other previous cop projects. I think by putting a lot of research into specific theories has really helped me gain a greater understanding of, and in turn allowed me to create a practical response which is a legitimate response from a general design point of view, but also from a theoretical understanding. I have been able to gather various sources which have been both theoretical and visual in order to produce a synthesised appropriate response.  The research skills also give me a better understanding of targeting an audience specifcally and also create something that was an appropriate format. My practical was appropriate in the fact that is could exist realistically as a branding template for a business, but also  uses methods which I investigated and found throughout my written element.

I think my writing skills have improved dramatically naturally, as a dissertation is a next step up from any previous pieces of writing I have produced before. I feel like my researching methods and planning around writing was something that was new to me at first, but something which has probably improved and increased the most throughout this module. I now feel confident in researching particular subjects and analysing, using various theories and other writers views along with triangulation methods to create a finished piece of writing which i'm happy with.

What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I think the fact that the practical element was based sorely on theory was something that I have never really worked with so intensely before. I felt that, in order to show true synthesis in the work, it was important to show that I understood the theories which I had investigated enough to be able to use them within my own work. 

As i was essentially creating propaganda through branding, this was putting myself out of my comfort zone which I feel changed the style of my design a lot so that it would make sense and fit the theory. At first i found this difficult as designers are always naturally trying to design for designers and to what you think looks good. However, by basing your design purely from theory, this allowed me to, in a way, forget more about the design visuals to an extent, in order to let the theory sorely inform the design. This is certainly something I have never done before, and therefore this method of design and production was important throughout the project and to my practice in general.

I also feel that by taking part in more primary research throughout the written element also helped inform both my written response and then in turn my practical response. I think its important to get hands on with your subject, and although this was hard for me to do with the kinds of things I was researching, I think by doing a lot of initial theoretical and visual research in turn helped me create something that was well formed and synergised.

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?


I would be the first to admit that theoretical writing isn't necessarily my strong point, and this is die to the fact that I'm a designer and therefore spend most of my days designing. However, I feel that by choosing a subject that interested me personally, this helped me have the ambition to go out and research in depth around the subjects and theories related to them. This in turn not only made my writing stronger, but also helped inform my practical. 

I think that my practical side is a lot stronger than the written element itself, and obviously I will capitalise on this in the future by trying to constantly improve my design skills. I do feel however, that now I have created a synergised project between theory and design, I can now develop this further into trying to inject this kind of theory into my everyday design and looking at things more from a theoretical point of view rather than constantly determining something through visuals. I think this style of research will really help strengthen the concept and application of the practical work. 

My organisation skills have definitely improved throughout this project. I realised early on that I needed to get my self organised for this as it was important for me to try and bring the standard of my written work up to the same standard as my practical. I feel I did this by constantly keeping track of my research, quotes and references through using my blog and constantly annotating the quotes to how they could fit within the piece of writing itself. I carried this level of organisation from the written side through to the practical, in making sure that I knew exactly what products needed to be research, developed and created and keeping track of this through my blog also. 

What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?


I feel that, although my practical is pretty extensive, I could of improved this by giving myself slightly more time to create the physical products. As I wanted to really show the concept of the theory into practice through a variety of products, I didn't leave myself enough time to create everything that I would of wanted to. Although I am happy with the DIY Propaganda Pack and the Brand Guidelines booklet, Propaganda Posters etc.. I probably would have liked to create something digital that worked, such as a website, and also more physical elements. I'll improve this by making sure that my timetable leaves more room for craft and making towards the end of the project.

I also think that my blogging could of been a little better. As throughout the written side of the project, I was using blog posts to keep track of references and quotes and annotations which was good for me, but not necessarily good for an outsider looking at it and trying to see my documentation. I feel the documentation of my practical is a littler easier to understand, but my research could of been organised for view within blogger a little bit better.


Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?


1. Extend on Primary research in order to gain a greater first hand experience on the subject.  

2. Leave more time towards the end of the project for printing and crafting purposes, and also plan the list of products into a calendar in order to get more done systematically. 

3. I would try to display the development and organisation of my research for the written element of the project, as although the blog posts were extremely useful for me personally, they may not read well for  people not aware of the project looking in. 

4. I wish I would of got more feedback on the practical side of the project before submission. This could of been achieved through a self-initiated crit, instead of rely on just the one-on-one tutor tutorials. Although this was really useful, its always good to get various peoples views. 

5. I would like my product to be used for something. Although it is specifically for Greenpeace, I would love to actually try this experiment to see if these kind of Branding and Marketing techniques would work on a small business in help gaining a bigger reputation. This maybe something that I could develop by using an existing business that would be happy for me to help re-brand them in this was, as an experiment for myself and them in order to try and gain more attention and a bigger success.


How would you grade yourself in the following areas;

(5 - excellent //  1 - poor)

Attendance: 5
Punctuality: 5
Motivation: 4
Commitment: 4
Quantity of work: 4
Quality of work: 4
Commitment to the group: 5

COP3 - Practical - Final Submission Boards (Digital)

Submission Boards for COP3 Practical - Via Issuu

COP3 - Practical - Rationale

Concept

For the practical side of the Context of Practice module, I decided to create a re-brand of leading independent campaigning organisation, Greenpeace. Greenpeace is an International non-governmental, environmental organisation, which focuses on trying to solve world-wide issues such as global warming, deforestation, toxic pollution and anti-nuclear issues. The main goal for bringing the theory into practice was to create a synergized body of work, which directly related some of the techniques that are being investigated throughout the theoretical piece of writing and inject them into something that directly related to my personal practice.

To do this, I first had to figure out what the investigation was proving, and how this related to my practice in particular. The dissertation title is as follows; ‘An investigation into the branding techniques, marketing strategies and business structure of Nazi Germany in comparison with those of the McDonalds Corporation’. However, the central driving force of the dissertation is to bring to light a particular set of branding and advertising techniques that hegemonic institutions use in order to obtain global dominance.

Theory
These techniques that are discussed are based around various themes that are linked together. The first set of themes are based around a theory put forward by Vance Packard called ‘The 8 Hidden Needs’. The investigation constantly refers to a set of human ‘hidden desires’ and how both the advertising world has targeted these hidden desires in order to gain financial profit.

These methods of selling to our hidden desires are as follows, included with an example of how each one has been previously used;

Packards Hidden Desires


Selling a reassurance of worth. For example, selling soap products to house workers by fostering their ‘ worth of esteem’ directing the advertising away from the feeling that housework is an unappreciated chore.

Selling ego-gratification. For example, the vanity press that prints a person’s book for them, if they cover the publishing costs. Although nobody actually reads the books the authors walk away with a thriving sense of importance.

Selling creative outlets. For example, gardening products that are targeted at older women and all men as a way to replace the ‘growing’ of a child with the ‘growing’ of a garden.

Selling sense of power. For example, selling new cars to men as a way of reviving their sense of power, playing on the fact that their old one does not deliver.

Selling sense of roots. For example, associating bread with ‘the good old days’, which by implication were warm, friendly and homely.

Selling immortality. For example, selling life insurance to men through the perception of their influence. Apparently men willing to accept their physical death but cannot accept their obliteration.

Application

Religious Elements

It was found in the theoretical piece of writing that the compared institutions had a conscious religious quality to the primary ‘logo’ of the brand which helped create a cult-like aspect to the institution. By having this visual quality in my brand, the institution appear to be their own religion, which in turn makes the followers of that religion feel stronger, linking to a selling them a sense of power and a sense of immortality.

Trade Characters

Both institutions discussed rely or relied on a trade character to carry the brand and to put a friendly face on a sometimes inhumane movment or business. By having these trade characters, wether real-life or fictional, it means that the business has a leading figure to look up to. This character needs to directly relate to the target audience. By using the leader of Greenpeace, Kumi Naidoo as a ‘Trade Character’ this instills a sense of power within the Greenpeace community. By depecting him as strong, this gives them a sense of security, in that they are safe under this movement.

Selling Creative Outlets
Selling a Reassurance of Worth

Selling Creative Outlers to the mass is a good way to target their subconcious in a way which makes them productive for the cause. By including Stickers, Stencils and Posters within the DIY Propaganda pack means that their reassurance of worth within the community is instilled through their pysical contribution.

Selling Ego-Gratification
The copy of the campaign is written in a way which makes the individual feel individually targeted and praised. Using this technique of subconsciously targeting the individual’s ego means that it is gratified through the propaganda and therefore his place within the movement is emphasised.

COP 3 - Practical - Photoshoot

Photoshoot

I booked out the studio to take some shots of some of the final pieces. I wasn't 100 precent happy with the crating of final pieces themselves and I wasn't 100 percent happy with the studio lighting. I played around for ages trying to  get these to look right and I managed to get a few good images in the end to show the product in context but I could probably do with shooting these again.

Green Stock 

All in all, these images are okay after editing, but I would preferably like to take more. I was playing around with background colours but decided that to give the overally look of the brand off it was probably the most effective to use the bright green stock to photograph the work on top of.

Members Magazine

The Members Magazine is something that is included in the DIY propaganda pack. It's a 20 page small (A5) booklet which encourages members of the mass public to divulge in activist activity and support the cause. Targeting the subconscious using specific techniques, the wording and imagery within the magazine will hopefully be successful is causing these actions. The type is quite powerful and forceful, but also empowering to the individual.

Brand Guidelines

The Brand Guidelines book is hardback and around A5 in size. It is around 50 pages and is the essential guide to the process and development of the brand and how it should be applied. This is there as a reference in the future if  the brand was to be developed or if things were created within the brand, such as propaganda. It is a set of strict guidelines which includes. here are some examples of spreads within the book, showing brand application. 

DIY Pack

The DIY Pack is housed inside a card box which is roughly (a5) in size. The box is durable enough to hold the contents, but cheap enough to be able to produce on mass scale. the idea is that the box should be able to be posted out and posted through members letterbox's once they have purchased. This suggests why the box is shapes in this way and also the material it is made from. 

Stencils & Stickers

As well as propaganda posters inside the box there are a variety of other little bits of products which help hit on 'selling creative outlets' to the masses. Through the physical aspect of creating stencils and applying stickers is hopefully where the sense of worth within the members might be solidified as well.

COP3 - Practical - Brand Guidelines Final

Brand Guidelines 

I've been working on gathering all the branding material to date that I've been working on and trying to collate it into a systematic brand guideline booklet. This is not only for one of the final products, but also to help me gain an idea of where I'm at with progressing the brand. This is the booklet as it stands.

Layout

This is the basic grid layout that the book will sit in. Each DPS will be consistent throughout the book as it is brand guidelines, it needs to be regimental. As you can see over on the left is where the body copy will do along with the sub title. Across the top will be titles and categories and pages numbers. The remaining space on the page will hold the relevant design or image where appropriate.

Logo / Colour Scheme

The Logo and Colour scheme is displayed over a variety of different DPS's. The logo is included with usages and mi-uses to make sure that the brand is always used in the correct way. In the top image, you can see how the logo has also been displayed in it's universal variations, with various different languages. 

For the colour scheme, this is displayed using the exact colour codes which makes sure that the green is always consistent, along with tints and variants of black, white and grey. 

Copy / Leader

There are selected spreads which emphasise the use of the logo within the copy (as shown in the 'We're taking over' slogan) as well as ways in which the leader is always shown in a positive and dominant light.This is shown through examples of copy and image. 

Propaganda

Examples of Propaganda are explained along with a rationale. The imagery must be stroking and the photography must be black and white, on top of the white and green solid colour scheme. This will help keep the imagery within the Propaganda striking but also always consistent. 

Web  / App

The Web and Social Media application elements are displayed throughout the double side pages. I displayed them in a way which was interesting enough to look at whilst also explaining the layout and process behind the app and website. As you can see on the application page, The large scale Iphone Diagrams help get an idea of how the app functions, whereas the scrolling website is displayed with the individual screens in a vertical format through the MacBook Mock-up. 

Placards / DIY Box

Again, I used these Diagrams of the DIY Propaganda box as well as the Protest Placards to help give a clearer idea of how they will function is reality. The branding system has been applied to the protest placards and this is shown in context on the opposite page. For the DIY box, the diagrams help show what the box will look like and how it will house the materials inside. On the reverse page of this will be a diagram which shows and explains all the different products that will be included inside the box. 

Stationary

The mocked-up stationary helps show how the core of the brand can be used for professional purposes. 

Uniforms

The uniforms are integral to the brand, both the official and the publics uniforms are shown and explained in context. This will help the brand maintain it's forceful image through the 'sea of green' that is created by the uniforms. 

Various other Applications

Throughout the 50-page document, there are carious other brand applications that are shown and explained. Here shows the transport vehicle brand application as well as the group hand-signals. The book is ready now to get sent off the print and production.

COP3 - Practical - Iphone App

Iphone App

I've been working on some design elements that will make up the Iphone Application for the Greenpeace Organisation. I felt that an App was vital to the re-brand, as it's a way to integrate the brand within the modern day masses. Social Media and Smart Phones are integral to the everyday life of the public so by creating an Iphone app, this means that the Greenpeace brand can be constantly with a person - sending push notifications straight to their phone and resulting in a beep or buzz in their pocket, making them respond quickly.

Visual Style 

The general visual style of the Application will be seamless with the style of the Iphone Interface. The use of Helvetica is prominent both in the Iphone interface and also the Greenpeace Brand Campaign meaning that the design is seamless from one product to another. You can see from these diagrams that the buttons, sliders and icons are always following the green and greyscale colourscheme. The background picks up this light grey colour which relates to the standard Iphone interface, but also applies with the Greenpeace brand colour scheme. 

Profile Page / Group Interaction 

As you can see form these closer Screenshots of an example profile page, this will follow a similar structure to other Social Media sites, such as Facebook or Twitter. The profile page contains a profile image which is contained within a circle. This profile image must confide to the upload rules. It must be passport photo in style - straight on which helps reassure the sense of strength and regimental unified existence within the groups. Everybody looks the same. The image must also be converted into Black and white in colour and can be modified to add pop colour, using the coded green. 

As you can see form the bottom screenshot, You can sync the Greenpeace Application to other social media website and pick out friends from your contacts and other profiles which can help gain a larger number of members on board with Greenpeace. 

Calendar & Events 

By having an in-built calendar within the Greenpeace Application, this means that any Greenpeace related events, particularly rallies, can be kept track on by each individual. This will make sure that the attendance to each event is maximum, resulting in a outward appearance of strength. When looking closely at the event pages you can see that at the bottom is the date, how many people are attending and liked the event, followed by comments on the event. These are linked back to a yearly calendar. 

Instant Messaging 

The instant messaging platform that is built-in within the application means that member of Greenpeace can become friends depending on their location which makes it easier and more efficient when organising events and taking part in activist activities. 

Statistics

Stats within the app help the user show which pieces of media are 'trending' and getting the most attention online. This will mean that they can keep up to date with all the leading articles and shared pieces of media. As you can see, the colour scheme within the statistics viewer relates directly to the Greenpeace brand. 

Greenpeace Stream

Realted to the statistics, The Greenpeace Stream is the place where all the latest news is segregated into different sections of media. Image, Video, Articles, Etc. The screenshots help show how the media is displayed in a scrolling Motion, followed by what an individual vide article looks like. As you can see, everything fits in with the general theme of the Greenpeace Application. 

Promotions 

Promotions for products could be snet through the application. Here you can see an example of using the T-shirts and the DIY Propaganda Pack as a sales promotion through the App. 

COP3 - Practical - Vehicles, Hand Signals, Guerilla Advertising

Vehicles 

Vehicles

The brand can be applied to vehicles to help promote the message while on the move. The Primary Logo and the simple to the point quote, in the corperate typeface means that the brand is solid. The wording is confident and dominant, which is the ethos of the brand. This means that it appeals to a potentially malleable demographic.

Guerilla Advertising 

Guerilla Advertising might be a new way of connecting with the chosen audience. By integrating the brand into everyday society, this may be a way of connecting instantly with a new demographic. 

Hand Signals



Hand Symbols are important to the Greenpeace brand. It’s a way that the leader can connect with the masses. The ‘Gardhaba’ is a religious translation to ‘Our Leader’ and this is used as a mutual gesture to help build confidence, courage and openess within the group. Traditionally the symbol means to overcome obsticles.