Week 11-14 //

We spent these weeks discussing the different areas for our last project: branding, propaganda and information graphics, and working on our sketch note or infographic.

Week Ten // Infographics Exercise

This week we spent the class doing an exercise which involved creating infographics with 50 images of a product or object and arranging them into subjects. I did two which were categorized into Style and Colour.

The hand-out we were given was from Madison magazine and was an article about a group of teenagers who broke into a couple of celebrities homes and stole various of their possessions with the aid of the technology and social media.

 

This case is now being made into a movie by Sofia Coppola and is set to be released next year.
What stood out to me was the power that people have with social media in today's age and when the power gets into the wrong hands it can go wrong. I also found it really interesting how the leader of the group, Nick Prugo, was the only one to get a Jail sentence. In the article it states that this case demonstrates  the level of confusion we have between celebrity and non-celebrity and that the defining line between them and us is blurred. What I think of this statement is that it should be that way. Celebrities are just people like you and me and glorifying them like they are Gods doesn't help anyone. Also, if the people hadn't been stolen from weren't celebrities, would it be that publicized in the media?

Week 9 //

This week we started the new brief by looking at the three different areas of design: Propaganda, Branding and Information Graphics. We compared their methodologies.

Brand Promotion //

purpose/function - To get people to engage with or buy their product, to increase demand, to promote information, to differentiate the product, to build brand equity, to stabilize sales and to offset competitors marketing efforts.

motivation - to create a rapport with customers, familiarization, to build image, increase sales and profit.

style and medium - print, web, TV, radio, outdoor advertising, direct marketing, experiential marketing, style depends on the brand, consistent throughout different medias.

effectiveness - Persuades people, generates vocabulary for society, incorporates into the everyday, easily identifiable names.

dissemination - generates behavioral change in the target audience, creates a fan mentality, creates loyalty in the audience, sense of belonging to a club

Propaganda //

purpose/function - To convince selling an alternative view or a call to action

motivation - To promote political/social agendas decreasing resistance and gaining attention to encourage participation via motivation rather than force.

style and medium - Varies depending on era. From print to online to TV. Powerful exaggerations of reality, deceptive to the truth, delivered as a movement.

effectiveness - Generally very effective, people respond to powerful imagery, creates peer pressure to conform, usually from trusted sources.

dissemination - Viral social media, inciting movements of the mass. In the past, word of mouth, posters and TV commercials.

Information Design //
purpose/function - present complex information in an easily digested form. Sometimes an instant comprehension. Helps to see patterns in data so assists in using research effectively.

motivation - transmit knowledge and difficult information that would be hard to understand as a regular document. The need to analyse gathered information and deduce meaning.

style and medium - print and online, visually attractive, extremely tight design, often with symbols and arranged as a metaphor often with images and illustrations.

effectiveness - a much better way to transmit information like annual revenues, scientific data and the results of research

dissemination - Annual Reports, websites, magazines about scientific research

Week 8 //

The second group of people presented their project.