Penguin: Idea Generation

In order to start generating ideas I decided to brainstorm potential ideas and word associations that related to the book in order to develop some more ideas/concepts.

Initial Brainstorm:

• Illustrations:
• brain 
• newspaper 
• handshake 
• name tag (businessmen) 
• typography 
• serif
• sans serif 
• display/big 
• Break grid
• Engaging 
• inviting 
• non alienating 
• colour 
• black and white 
• red (power)
• green (parliament) 
• blue (government) 
• left wing 
• shelf impact 
• stand out 
• young audience 
• powerful
• harsh 
• disobedient 
• class
• hierarchy 
• democracy vs power 
• mp's and private business 
• in each others pocket 
• back pocket - illustration 
• new wave
• modern 
• shared mentality 
• keep for the few 
• secrecy 
• exclusivity 
• elite 
• greed 
• money 
• status 

The sections highlighter are those I feel could be explored more when starting to design the cover and develop a concept. I want to focus mainly on typography as many existing covers feature related illustrations and I would like the cover to stand out of a shelf and differ in order to attract a new audience such as younger people or those of different political opinions, as the brief encourages challenging the status quo and what has already been done. 

Penguin: Visual Research

In order to start idea generation I started by looking at existing cover designs, both of which are very similar. Figure 1 shows a cover focused on the idea that The Establishment want to keep the power and wealth amongst the few at the top by stealing it from those of a lower class. The use of a serif type throughout adds authenticity to the book, however this is more effective in figure 2 as the use of gold within the cover and the illustration create a more playful, humours impression which distracts from the official nature of the serif typeface. The illustration (see figure 1) creates a less daunting impression on potential readers, making the cover appeal to a wider audience no matter their political view point. In comparison the illustration used in figure 2 creates more of an element of mystery, referencing the old boys club nature of the old establishment which is shrouded in mystery.  Both covers feature muted colours in order to showcase the serious nature of the book, as although the use of illustrations add humour and mystery they compliment the content of the book without undermining the message. They copy layout within both covers is very similar and simple, centre aligned, which is easy to read within the store environment as all the information is central to the illustration, giving the covers good shelf impact. This is something I want experiment with to see if an alternative system will allow for a greater shelf impact. Furthermore I plan to use a mixture of serif and sand serif typefaces in order to evaluate which is most successful within the cover, focusing on typographic experimentations to avoid repeating similar designs to those below.

Figure 1

Figure 2

The Establishment - Owen Jones Interview

Huff Post (2014). Owen Jones talks to Mehdi Hasan about The Establishment. (video) Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pKDlttxuBo (Accessed 29 Oct. 2018)

The Establishment:
Institutions and ideas that come from the ideas of a very few people banded together by a series of mentalities. Universal suffrage, those in power feared the have nots having power to take away the power of the haves, the establishment avoids this happening, bound together by a set of mentalities.
The new establishment is about shared interests and agendas, not about where you come from but what you believe. More about who you know, who helps who, who has power and shared economic interest and what binds them together.

Overton window right wing concept,
Everything within is seen as common sense, mainstream and everything outside is seen as extreme, Overton window shifted from 70s onwards so everything that was once extreme became mainstream and vice versa. New Overton Window says state is a bad thing however in practice not the case, it just exist to support the establishment. The Establishment is an unaccountable power, but democracy needs to be extended to every area of society. Threat to democracy from above, all unaccountable power must be democratised.

The Establishment is a society in which wealth and power is concentrated by a few, whats good for those at the top is good for everyone. Politicians tied to private elite keeps them from solely representing the constituents, which establishes the establishment as politicians serve there own interests by tying there political decisions with private businesses.

Readdress the balance between the establishment and the rest society.

Throughout this interview Jones discusses the key elements of The Establishment, he explains what he means by the term establishment and how it effect society and the was democracy works today. This gave me an interesting insight into the book as hearing Jones explain his points stated within the book made them easier to understand and digest.

Penguin: Brief Analysis

Penguin Random House Book Cover Competition:
Books:
Wonder by R.J. Palaco (Children's) 

Intro:

My name is August.

I won’t describe what I look like.

Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.

With the nature of friendship, tenacity, fear and, most importantly, kindness at its heart Wonder explores fundamental truths about how people behave and how they should behave. 

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Intro:
'When he hears her favourite Beatles song, Toru Watanabe recalls his first love Naoko, the girlfriend of his best friend Kizuki. Immediately he is transported back almost twenty years to his student days in Tokyo, adrift in a world of uneasy friendships, casual sex, passion, loss and desire – to a time when an impetuous young woman called Midori marched into his life and he had to choose between the future and the past.'

Chosen Book:

The Establishment by Owen Jones (Adult non-fiction)
Intro :
Behind our democracy lurks a powerful but unaccountable network of people who wield massive power and reap huge profits in the process. In exposing this shadowy and complex system that dominates our lives, Owen Jones sets out on a journey into the heart of our Establishment, from the lobbies of Westminster to the newsrooms, boardrooms and trading rooms of Fleet Street and the City. Exposing the revolving doors that link these worlds, and the vested interests that bind them together, Jones shows how, in claiming to work on our behalf, the people at the top are doing precisely the opposite. In fact, they represent the biggest threat to our democracy today - and it is time they were challenged.

The Brief:
'Published just before the 2015 general election, the arguments and vision put forward by Owen Jones in this book continue to play an important part of the political discussion and debate today. Part historical overview, part deconstruction of the way Britain is managed, the cover design should reframe the book to continue to build its reach over the next ten years. It should aim to appeal to a new audience who are not only interested in understanding the spectrum of political ideas but also want to challenge the status quo.  At the same time, it should feel fresh, accessible and an important read whatever your political persuasion.'  

Upon reading the brief the key areas to consider are that the cover needs to apply to those interested in politics do matter who they support, but also to interest those who may not no much about politics but are interested in change and challenging the norm. However a key element with this will be balancing the need for the cover to look fresh and interesting but also important, maintaining the link to the content inside. 

What are the judges looking for:

• have an imaginative concept
• be an original interpretation of the brief
• be competently executed with strong use of typography
• appeal to the broadest possible audience for the book
• show a good understanding of the marketplace
• have a point of difference from other books that it will be competing against in the market
• be able to sit on the shelves of a supermarket or ebook store as easily as it sits on those of more traditional bookshops 

OUGD603: Statement of Intent

Over the course of third year I want to develop my portfolio around branding and packaging and editorial. During summer I completed work experience at Very which was interesting to learn about the role of an in-house designer, however it made me realise I definitely want to work in a studio rather than as a design for a company, as I prefer to work on different briefs/themes rather for a certain aesthetic. 

I currently have some packaging and branding within my portfolio however I feel these areas could be pushed further in order to create work at a higher standard. Furthermore I have produced some publications in the past but also feel like this could be developed to a higher standard as I did this within my creative report for PPP in level 5. Another aim for level 6 is to document my final outcomes to a higher standard as I feel this is something which has let me down in the past.

Research is a key element to within my work as I feel I work best when I have a reason for the decisions I make. Furthermore research drives my idea generation process as the more knowledge I have about a topic the better I can develop my ideas. I plan to draw on the research methods I've used in the past, articles, book and personal experience in order to develop my research throughout the year.  In relation to my practical skills I plan to focus on branding, packaging and editorial as these are my strongest areas. I feel I can my editorial skills further as this is an area of design I enjoy but didn't focus as much on in level 5 as my a lot of my projects where branding and campaign based.

Throughout the year I plan to reflect on what goes well and what needs more work/ is not as successful so these issues can be addressed as and when they arrive rather than at the end of a brief or module which will be documented on my blog. I also plan to critically evaluate my work through the design process in order to develop the best outcome within the time scale. In order to help with self-evaluation, I also plan to gain peer feedback and tutor feedback as frequently as possible as I find discussing my work with other the most helpful way of developing my work as you get different ideas and opinions that help you see and solve problems that you might have missed otherwise.

Project management:
Time Planning (before Christmas) 

• MON, TUE, WED - COP
• THURS - Studio Practice 
• FRI - PPP
• SAT - Studio Practice/ PPP
• SUN - Catch up 

Briefs:

I plan to undertake 3 smaller briefs up until christmas 

• Nest Submission 
• Penguin - The Establishment by Owen Jones 
• Creative Advertising Collaboration 

OUGD603: Module Briefing

Studio Practice - 60 credits
Submission Deadline: 7/05/2019 by 15:00 Room 136

Brief Considerations:

• Creative 
• Social 
• Ethical 
• Commercial 

Aims:

• Quality outcomes, physical or mock up - depending on outcome which ever allows for a higher quality outcome to be produced
• Independent and professionalism 
• Draw on knowledge from first and second year, bring in different ways of working and appropriate outcomes, focus on current interests.
• revisit old briefs if appropriate 

Learning Outcomes:
6A3:
Understand and demonstrate coherent and detailed subject knowledge and professional competences.
Informed by research into current relevant areas within graphic design.

6B3:
Assessed against self written briefs. Briefs need to be thorougher, clear of intensions, research, content, audience.
Bring together knowledge, understanding, skills set, all elements come together and make sense.
Critical awareness, doing things for a reason, are things appropriate?

6C3:
Blogging/design boards, combining visual and written techniques.
Presenting: don't start with negatives, critically evaluate when blogging, be positive.
Not every project has to be challenging, be interesting and engaging

6C4:
Professional skill: controlling what goes out, competition briefs, take ownership
Demonstrate thinking behind research, problem solving within thinking and research
How visual quality and problem analysis go together
Think and evaluate things without going through practical process, discuss and think about solutions

6D3:
Review each brief at the end of completion due to working independently, have confidence to self evaluate.
Record reasoned argument based on decisions, showcase decision making process
Have an awareness of what your doing - DOCUMENT ALWAYS

Context:
Build work into portfolio that demonstrates your ability to plan, research, produce, and present a substantial, innovate and informed body of work.

Brief:
An initial statement of intent which clearly identifies and articulates:

• Themes, subject matter
• Research methodologies
• Practical development 
• Contextual and theoretical references 
• Approaches to documenting 
• Reflection and Evaluation 
• Project management 

Part 1:

Design Practice

Written briefs, competitions etc. 

Part 2:

Project Journal 

Support of design practice - blog
Showing development, evaluation, research etc.
Summative evaluation of project
Evidence documentation

Have Bibliography as part of submission:
What have you read that has informed your body of work

Evidence:
Project Journal:

• Blog, label correctly and easily 

Design Context Blog:

• Research and publication 

Design Development and Solutions:

• demonstrating your ability to respond to a substantial design problem

Ongoing and Summative Evaluation:

• Ongoing evidence of formative and summative evaluation 

Ten Briefs:

• Competition brief 
• Live brief - client work 
• Collaboration - Internal 
• Collaboration - External (collaboration could be work done on placement)  
• Research Led - comes from researching something that interested in (can be big issue or something fun e.g. climate change or trainers) 

Tell A Lie: Evaluation

Overall this brief was very interesting we got to explore the power of graphic design in a fun and engaging manner by trying to convince others of a lie. The group collaboration throughout this project went really well as everyone was involved in the idea generation and development process. This allowed the designs to be produced quickly to maximise engagement with the signup sheets. The week-long time frame for this brief initially seemed difficult as we needed enough time for people to engage. However due to the successful group dynamic of this collaboration, the final outcome was produced quickly and easily, allowing for a few days for interaction. However throughout the brief many students within the university became aware of the brief making people cautious to sign up to new workshop or events posted around the university. This limited the engagement we received however we gathered some sign-ups which indicated the designs where successfully authentic and represented those that would naturally be seen around the university. Ethical considerations where made and all those who signed up and provided student email address were contacted and informed that the workshop created was fake and that there personal details/email wouldn't be used for anything. Overall this brief was very enjoyable as it was interesting to use my design skills for a less traditional application.

Tell A Lie: Contacting Sign ups

Once we had presented our idea and gained a number of responses we contacted each person who had signed up to explain that there was no workshop and that the poster had been part of a social experiment and also apologies for any inconvenience. This was important as we put a date on the sign up sheets so we didn't want anyone to turn up and be disappointed.

Tell A Lie: Presentation

Tell A Lie: Engagement

In order to identify if the posters have been successful we pared them with a sign up sheet in order to identify those interested, this also meant we could contact them to inform them that the workshop wasn't real and was part of a course brief. We posted a number of posters/sign up sheets around university (see figures 1-2) in common areas such as by the water fountains and inside the canteen. Over two days we got a number of sign ups, more people may have signed up if the posters where up longer as we heard a number of students talking. Furthermore a lot of students became aware of potentially fake poster being put up as part of this brief which may have also limited responses as people where more cautious than normal. However overall the posters where a success and allowed us to tell a lie convincingly, upon reflection other ideas may have been more successful such as free print tokens as that requires a faster reaction from students.

Tell A Lie Brief: Poster development

In order to generate more ideas we decided as a group to create a poster for the event based on the information we had previously discussed, so that we could pick successful aspects of each design to create a poster that would fit in within the university environment and look like an event that would be held at Belgrave (see figures 1-3). From this I started by looking at posters around the university to identify key features, however most posters besides those created by the student union tended to be inspired by the specific event rather than a consistent theme. This lead me to take inspiration from the format of an Instagram post (see figure 4) however these initial experiments didn't work as it was difficult to fit the information within the format in a way that would be easily visible/readable at a passing glance. Therefor I chose take the square aspect of the Instagram photo and the general shape to create a more abstract representation (see figures 5-6). Throughout the process of designing I came up with the name Pints & Posts as I was finding it difficult to work with 'do it for the gram' so decided to experiment with this name and propose it to the group when developing the posters. I also took inspiration from event posters created for Belgrave in the past to create a more eye catching design (see figures 7-8). The colours used throughout these experimentations have been inspired by the Instagram logo. Emma also created posters using the Pints & Posts name inspired by the Instagram layout as with the new name it was easier to implement, during the group discussion we decided to go with Emma's design based on Instagram (see figures 9-10) as it would stand out more to encourage people to sign up. We also created a sign up sheet based on existing ones in uni to pare with the posters in order to track peoples engagement. 

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

Tell a Lie - Research and Considerations

Rational:

In a digital age we are taking advantage of the prevalence of social media in society by creating a workshop to entice students to grow their social media presence. 

What so we need to achieve:

create a convincing event which appeals to students and gets them to sign up 

Research:

• Problem:
• There is too much importance placed on social media - too much time aimlessly on social media 
• in 2017 the average person spent 135 mins a day on social media up from 126 minutes from 2016 
• Audience 
• Students
• Pit falls: 
• is it believable
• is something uni would actually do 
• no-one might sign up

Output:

• Posters 
• Sign up Sheets
• Facebook Event 

How is it being recored:

Number of sign ups 

Research:

Primary Research:

In order to see the extent of our focus on social media I looked at my own screen time for the day which shows I spent 2hr 6mins on my phone per day with being spent 43 mins on social media. This was interesting to find out as I didn't think I spent that much time of social media such as Instagram and Facebook, which shows how accustom we've become to social media and just aimlessly scrolling through our phones. 

Secondary Research:
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic 
The average person will spend nearly two hours (approximately 116 minutes) on social media everyday, which translates to a total of 5 years and 4 months spent over a lifetime. This compared to the amount of time spent actually socialising within the average persons lifetime which is 1 year and 3 months highlights the prevalence of social media in todays society. When broken down, time spent on social media differs across each platform. YouTube comes in first, consuming over 40 minutes of a person's day (i.e. 1 year and 10 months in a lifetime). Facebook users will spend an average of 35 minutes a day, totalling 1 year and 7 months in a lifetime (some statistics include Facebook, Facebook-owned Instagram, and Facebook Messenger for total time spent on Facebook). Snapchat and Instagram come in next with 25 minutes and 15 minutes spent per day, respectively.

https://www.disruptiveadvertising.com/social-media/be-in-the-know-2018-social-media-statistics-you-should-know/
32% of all Internet users are on Instagram with 59% of internet users between the ages of 18 and 29 using Instagram and 33% of internet users between the ages of 30 and 49 using Instagram. The total number of monthly active users on Instagram is 800 million with 500 milling actively using the app each day with, on average 95 million photos uploaded each day, up 70 million from last year. 

Tell A Lie: Planning Event

After discussing our initial ideas we decided to develop the idea of creating a workshop of how to be a social media influencer, so as a group we brainstormed how the event would work to develop information that could be used on the posters and sign up sheets.
Event Planning:
Name: 

• Do it for the gram
• Insider Info 
• Social Success
• Instant Insta 

Location: Belgrave
Time: TBC
Information: 

• Lacking follows see how we can help 
• Exclusive workshop guiding you how to boost your social media presence 
• How the algorithm works
• Getting the right audience 
• Find your theme 
• Editing photos 

Requirements: Email your best Instagram post at
Enticements: Free drinks

Tell A Lie Brief - Idea Generation

Group Discussion Ideas:

• Fake Social Media course 
• Poor Internet - sign up for boosted internet 
• Free printing in uni - tokens for free printing 
• Glastonbury Priority - codes for students to get priority 
• Fake Student president or candidate 
• talk by ft winners of love Island - Danni and Jack 
• Free plant sale
• Junk Yard - Opening Competition 
• Fancy Dress day - pj day for course free drink for best costume/ free printing
• Redesign the students uni merch 
• Tell truth instead of lie - present things that are true as a lie 
• Fake new Nest launch 

Fancy Dress Day:

• come in fancy dress for the day and winner gets free printing for the year in theme of Halloween 
• Outcome:
• Posters 
• Facebook Group 
• Email 

Fake Social Media course 

• combine with Love Island Jack and Dani 
• grow your Instagram workshop 
• get your work out there 
• how to be seen by potential employers 
• Catered around design work
• Outcomes:
• sign up sheets 
• email
• Poster 
• Facebook Group 
• LAU graphics instagram stories 
• Get alumni involved  
• Polly Vadaz tips from the best 
• Eve Warren 
• Mystery Guest