Essay: Sainsburys Wine

"If you look at a bottle of Sainsbury's wine, the way it's packaged is actually very clever," says Simon Wright from Greenwich Design, an agency which has worked on supermarket own-label designs. "Rather than have the name of the supermarket all over it, you have to look pretty far down the label before you get to a line saying it's made from grapes 'selected for Sainsbury's'."

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/feb/04/rise-of-the-own-brand

Context of Practice - Lecture: What is Research?

'Process is more important than outcome. When the outcome drives the process we will only ever go to where we've already been. If process drives outcome we may not know where we're going, but we will know we want to be there.' - Incomplete Manifesto for growth - Bruce Mau Design 1998

Steve Johnson - Where Good Ideas Come From

We need to think about research as interconnected.

Werner Gaede -Vom Wort zum bild. Stimulated Approach.

This is a conscious or subconscious search for inspiration from an external repertoire: in the surroundings, media, in discussion, libraries, etc... The main concern here is the development of analogies and associative approaches, which are then further developed into individual solutions.

Intuitive Approach

This is the development of though process, which is primarily based on internalised perceptions and knowledge, that is to say an internal repertoire. This type of though process may occur spontaneously

The process of research is driven by questions... How? Why? What if? Research starts with a question.

Types of Research 

Primary Research

Developed and collected for a specific end use. Usually generated to help solve a specific problem.

Secondary Research

Published or recorded data that has already been collected for some other purpose other than the current study.

The analysis of research that has been collected at an earlier time (for reasons unrelated to the current project)

Quantitive Research

Deals with facts and figures. It is empirical, and can be compared.

Qualitative Research 

Its not about facts and figures, its peoples emotions feelings etc... Cant be measured the same way as quantitive.

What is information?

Any communication or representation of knowledge such as facts, data, or opinions any medium or form including textual, numerical, graphic, cartographic, narrative or audio visual form. Information is what we do with the data.

Context of Practice - Essay: Supermarkets are tricking shoppers into buying their brands

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2307538/Which-says-supermarkets-trick-shoppers-buying-brand-products-copying-household-names.html

An interesting article I came across on This Is Money. Supermarkets have been redesigning their own brand packaging to look similar to the main brands. Customers have bought the own brand products as a mistake thinking that they were the real deal. Using similar design allows the customer to fill in the gaps and link it to the official brand. The supermarkets are piggybacking on the well known brands using the trust and reliability that the brand have built up with consumers. This means that Tesco, for example, doesn't have to put in extra resources to create a trusted product.

I found it quite interesting how people complained that they had been misled or lied to, when actually they just haven't read the packaging. This really supports the argument that package design is key when it comes to sales. People only bought the product because it looked like head and shoulders etc... They don't read the information but rather look at the aesthetic as a whole and link certain design factors to the brand.

John Noble from Which?, said: ‘Our research shows that consumers are more likely to buy own-label products if they look like brands. This is another interesting point. Why do people buy non branded products that look like brands? Is it because the design is nicer, more thought through. People like to buy products which have a visually pleasing aspect. Or perhaps it is the stigma that comes with buying non brands, if a product is cheaper the design tends to be cheaper - it reflects the product. People connote a cheaper product with less money and if someone is buying a cheaper product it implies they may not be able to afford the 'better' brands. This is not to say this is true but perhaps would explain why people buy the cheaper mock brand - it looks more like a brand and removes this stigma that comes with buying value products. Alternatively they may just not pay attention to what they are buying and they just don't notice the difference.

Essay: Supermarkets discover shoppers hate excess packaging as waste campaign gathers force - Independent

An independent news story I have found interesting and applicable to my essay in relation to sustainability and the environment.

Supermarkets have detected considerable annoyance among their customers about excessive packaging, as The Independent's campaign against waste gathers support from politicians and stores.

Research by three of the country's biggest chains, Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's, has found people are irritated at having to throw away so much plastic and cardboard after a shopping trip.

Speaking on packaging, Tesco said a concern for the environment had come through loud and clear in polling. "The thing that emerges from the research is that our customers say: 'Yes, we would like to do more if we can. Just help us to do more'," a spokesman said.

Sainsbury's has passed The Independent an internet survey of 1,922 customers in November which found widespread opposition to packaging. Some 77 per cent said they were trying to reduce food and packaging waste.

Shoppers were asked to respond to the statement: "I have actively tried to reduce the amount of household waste (from food and packaging) we produce in the last year." Some 33 per cent strongly agreed and 44 per cent agreed slightly that they were taking action. In another question, respondents were asked whether they made sure their products and packaging were environmentally friendly and could be recycled or composted. A majority, 57 per cent, agreed they did so. Twenty per cent of consumers said they had decided not to buy something at all because it was difficult to discard.
Women were slightly more likely than men to be cutting down on packaging while people living in the South-west were the most concerned about the environment. The Independent's Campaign Against Waste has been wide-ranging - and successful. We have highlighted the absurdity of over-packaged goods, exemplified by the shrink-wrapped swede we found on sale in Morrison's. A front page questioned why everyday goods, from toothpaste to carrots, are swathed in plastic or cardboard destined for landfill. We showed how other European states were cutting waste: the Belgian deposit scheme for plastic and glass bottles; the in-store recycling bins in Germany; and the habit of Greeks of buying olive oil in large cans rather than small bottles. Our coverage of the thousands of tonnes of British waste shipped 6,000 miles to China was raised in the Commons. At Defra question time on Thursday, MPs demanded to know from the Government why so much waste was being taken somewhere it caused illness and pollution among under-protected workers.

MPs also wanted to know what pressure was being applied to the grocery chains to take action.

Meanwhile hundreds of Independent readers have sent us examples of over-packaged products, which we have featured daily. At the last count, the tally of e-mails in the two weeks of the campaign stood at 1,215.

In their attempt to become greener, stores have announced action on packaging. In the starkest example, Asda, Britain's third biggest supermarket, said it wanted to do away with almost all packaging on fresh fruit and vegetables. Plastic will be removed from 60 lines of fresh produce such as swedes, broccoli, carrots and mushrooms at two stores in the North-west in a trial. Only perishable items such as strawberries will remain in punnets.

Tesco, the biggest supermarket, is planning a move in the next few months. Writing in The Independent, its chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy, said the company was approaching the problem of packaging. "The solutions will not be easy, and some may take time," he wrote. "But we have started a conversation with our customers through our community plan, and we know they want us to help them to do more. And so we will."
Attacks on snacks

* Claire Symonds e-mailed to ask: "Why do Walkers only ever half fill their bags of crisps."

Responding, Walkers said: "It is essential that all of the crisps go straight to the bottom of the bag when they are being packed so that nothing interferes with the seal. To ensure this happens the bag must be a certain size. If a crisp were to catch in the seal, the bag would not close properly."

* Reader Pete Ruddick raised an example of unnecessary packaging he found in Tesco on Aigburth Road, Liverpool, this week - a pack of three Galaxy chocolate eggs. "They were in a plastic pack but each egg was also individually wrapped," Mr Ruddick said. "There is absolutely no need for health reasons to wrap these individually, so why do it? The packaging for all three eggs is almost certainly as much as is used to wrap the whole pack." We put his complaint to Masterfoods, makers of Galaxy. It said it "constantly evaluated" the environmental impact of packaging and used 65 per cent recycled paper. It maintained it was right to wrap the eggs individually inside their plastic pack. "This encourages sharing, portion control and discourages over-consumption," a spokesman said.

Context of Practice - Essay: Packards 8 Hidden Needs

After speaking to Richard he said to begin researching into Packards 8 Hidden Needs. Remembering back to the lecture on consumerism this seemed like a good idea. 

Emotional security
We all start out as fragile emotional beings and very few of us achieve deep emotional security, so we all keep seeking it.

Adverts play to this when they promise comfort, happiness and banishing of bad feelings. They may also play on the security aspect, emphasizing home, permanence and safety.

Reassurance of worth
In a connected world we can lose sense of who we are and what we are worth. We thus seek reassurance that we are adding value and deserve our place in society.

Adverts play to this when they promise that if you buy products you will be doing the right thing, for example in saving the environment or helping others. Charities of course play to this all the time, praising you for helping those less fortunate (and maybe who are worth less). Celebrities are also used when they effectively say 'you will be admired and valued like me'.

Ego gratification
Ego gratification is related to worth in that they are both about the sense of identity, but this is perhaps a little more base, where we a need for praise and our egos to be 'stroked'. For example, when we do something at work we want to be congratulated and praised, much as we needed to be valued and praised as a child.

Adverts play to this when they praise us for buying products (perhaps ahead of time) or include praise of a sympathetic character (with whom we identify). 

Creative outlets
We all like creating and making things, and even a simple assembly process as with Lego toys can bring much pleasure. Many jobs have little creative content, leaving this need unfulfilled. We thus seek creative opportunity in other parts of our life.

Adverts offer creativity when they sell objects where we can be creative, from food ingredients to clothes. They may also touch our creative needs by being creative in the presentation they use.

Love objects
Children and adults want both to love and be loved. Children have dolls and teddy bears, but what do adults have? They have one another, their cars, their pets and gadgets. They need something to love and if they do not have something they will buy or make one.

Adverts offer to take us back to childhood with child-like personalities. They sell us things to love and things for our loved ones (including our pets).

Sense of power
When we are in control we a sense of ability to choose and perhaps power over others. When we can direct others we move up the social order and so are, theoretically at least, safer. Big cars, chunky tools, solid houses and old banks all make us feel safe and, when we own or use them, powerful.

Adverts thus emphasize the solidity and reliability of the products they sell. They insinuate how buying will put you in charge. They imply that you are in control when you decide to make that purchase.

Roots
Our roots are a key part of our sense of identity. Where we come from, our heritage, our family, our nation are important for that feeling of who we are. We identify with our old school, our college, where we were brought up, our country, our employer, our religion. All are important, and the longer we stay in one place and the longer ago it happened, the more important it is for us.

And yet we live mobile lives, flitting from place to place, job to job and even marriage to marriage. We seek roots but in seeking to satisfy other needs we make ourselves rootless.

Adverts emphasize family, nation, team and whatever else they can use to anchor you and hence you to them. They show that if you are American then they are American too. They make 'old fashioned' trendy by calling it 'traditional'.

Immortality
Perhaps the biggest fear we have is of death. Or maybe not death but of ceasing, of becoming nothing. We likewise seek to create meaning in our lives so we may live beyond death. We have children, write books, build companies and more. We also seek to cheat age, striving to look younger when perhaps we should grow older more gracefully.

Adverts play to this with age-defying products and spry older people playing and enjoying life. They use young people to help us avoid thinking about death and encourage us to recapture a lost youth.

I have found revisiting these extremely interesting especially when looking at the psychological side to consumer behaviour. When I write my essay I want to look at both the psychological elements as well as the physical and try to find links between how they correlate.

Context of Practice - Lecture: Censorship

Ansel Adams, Aspens - manipulates photos in a dark room to change your perseption in them.

Stalin with and without Trotsky. He didnt suit his political purpose so was removed from the photographs.

9.11 adverts done in an ironic anti capitalist way. Making light of the situation.

Kate Winslet in cover of GQ Magazine with legs elongated in photoshop. They forgot to enhance the mirrored image of her so it was obvious.

Newspaper combining war images to create a new image which suits their story better.

Robert Capa, Death of a Loyalist Soldier (1936) a persona invented.


Simulacrum is a representation or imitation of a person or thing.

Ken Jarecke, Iraqi Soldier, 1991 - It was seen as far too graphic for a morning newspaper. But then it was argued what is the news for if its not to show the truth.


Censor -
 1. A person authorised to examine films, letters or publications in order to ban or cut anything considered obscene or objectionable.

2. To ban or cut portions of (a film, letter or publication)

Oliviero Toscani, United Colors of Benetton.

Balthus, The Golden Years , 1945
Therese Dreaming, 1938
Does it have less reality and truth to it because it is a painting.

Edouard Manet (1832 -1883) Dejeuner sur l'Herbe 1863 recreated by Andy Earl, Bow Wow Wow record cover 1980.

Amy Adler - The Folly of Defining 'Serious' Art
- 'an irreconcilable conflict between legal rules and artistic practice'

The Miller Test, 1973
Asks 3 questions to determine what should be labelled as obscene.

Obscenity Law
'To Protect art whilst prohibiting trash'

Sally Mann, Immediate Family 1984 - 1992

Tierney Gearon, Untitled 2001

'A revolting exhibition of perversion under the guise of art' - News of the World

Context of Practice - Lecture: Globalisation, Sustainability and the Media

Globalisation
Socialist
(Globalization) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones. It can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together.

Capitalist
The elimination of state -enforced restrictions on exchanges across borders and the increasingly integrated and complex global system of production and exchange that has emerged as a result.

Covering a wide range of distinct political, economic, and cultural trends, the term “globalization” has quickly become one of the most fashionable buzzwords of contemporary political and academic debate. In popular discourse, globalization often functions as little more than a synonym for one or more of the following phenomena: the pursuit of classical liberal (or “free market”) policies in the world economy (“economic liberalization”), the growing dominance of western (or even American) forms of political, economic, and cultural life (“westernization” or “Americanization”), the proliferation of new information technologies (the “Internet Revolution”), as well as the notion that humanity stands at the threshold of realizing one single unified community in which major sources of social conflict have vanished (“global integration”).  

 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

McDonaldization - George Ritzer

The expanse of the social economy. Describes the wide ranging sociocultural processes by which the principles of the fast food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of american society as well as the rest of the world.

A Mc World with Mc Jobs and Mc Citizens

McLuhan - Global Village, written in the 60's believed we would turn into a globalised tribe all connected.

Centripetal forces - bringing the world together in uniform global society

Centrifugal forces - Tearing the world apart in tribal wars

Lots of problems with a globalised world. in a globalised community what happens to tradition and identity. But more importantly if countries and nations states loose their ability to control what will happen. 

It is an new form of imperialism and a form of taking control. In the past you had to invade using armies etc... But now its much more sophisticated and subtle, creating global imperialism. 

One of the main causes is the media. media conglomerates operate as oligopolies. 80% control the whole media, most products.

US media power can be thought of as a new form of imperialism
-local cultures destroyed in this process and new forms of cultural dependency shaped, mirroring old school colonialism
-schiller - dominance of us driven commercial media forces US model of broadcasting onto the rest of the world but also inculcates US style consumerism in societies that cant afford it.

Big Brother - created by the same company but franchised out all over the world. 

Media presents an image which implies how to be successful but it has very real consequences. A current trend in india is dying skin white, people buy it because of being surrounded by images telling them how to be successful.

Chomsky and Herman - Propaganda Model - 5 basic filters:

- Ownership

Rupert Murdoch owns News of the World, The Sun, The Sunday Times, The TImes, NY Post, BSkyB, Fox TV and much much more....

They lead a huge campaign against the Labour party and backed Tony Blair who won it. They backed him as they were going to relax the monopoly laws on media.

- Sourcing

If you are a journalist you need to present a sanitised idea of the world or else you are out of a job. You get banned kicked out etc.. people won't want to be interviewed by you if you don't write what they want.

- Funding

- Anti Ideologies

reproduce stereotypes of the world to appeal to mass audience. It makes things seem black and white and this creates a 'us and them' idea whilst also cementing the idea that our world views are correct.

- Flak

An organised group of people who lobby against certain ideas about the world.

Al Gore (2006) 'An Inconvenient Truth'

The film won loads of awards and became influential. 

Groups lobbied this because they realised what would happen if they believed it, their companies would not work.

Context of Practice - Essay: Package Design Characteristics

Before I write my essay I will write down different elements and characteristics that I notice affecting buyers decision. This will help me by having a list to refer to when I write my essay. I will add to this post as I go.

Persona
Having a person or face to a brand. People connect on an emotional level when a person is linked to the product. It makes you think it is hand made and personal not mass produced.

Shape and Material
When all the products are the same having a unique and memorable shape makes you stand out from the rest on the shelf. If it is different people will want to pick it up and look at it. Equally the material used appeals to the tactile sense. People are more likely to buy a product if the material it is produced in feels like better quality as they then believe the product too will be better quality.

Window into the Product
If the product has part of the design which is transparent so they can see through to the product this breaks down the barrier. People feel more comfortable and safe buying that product because they can see what it looks like, they do not feel like they are taking such a risk on a new product.

Hand Rendered Elements
Anything that looks hand done: drawings, paintings and illustrations - even if they have been digitally created people like design which has a humanistic element because it again, links it to a person.

Context of Practice - Lecture: Ethics - What is Good?

Plato and Aristotle made the purpose of ethics central to their Philosophy.

First things First
First things First A manifesto which had the best interest in creativity. In short it argues that visual communicators and creatives were wasting their talents by taking jobs that contribute little to the world. Jobs such as Advertising Toothpastes and Cigarettes etc... It is in no was anti consumerist but a call of arms. The aim of it was to use your talents to improve the world and not waste them on menial tasks. The journal was republished in Adbusters (2000), A very anti capitalist publication. In the republication a lot of it was changed.

All the products were changed into items which were charged with an ethical dilemma. So if you are using your skills to advertise credit cards then you are encouraging people to get into dept. You support and implicitly endorse an environment which is changing the way citizen consumers think and interact with each other.

The first manifesto's point is to put your talents to use. However the second one has twisted it by saying that designing for a capitalist society is wrong and feeds into it.

A meme is an idea central to every advert. It rhymes with dream. They tend to be a catchphrase, a concept or tune or belief -  something which gets stuck in your head and then passed from brain to brain. They argue that memes should be used in a warfare against the capitalist culture.

Victor Papanek - 'Most things are designed not for the needs of the people but for the needs of manufactures to sell to people'


How do we determine what is good?

- Subjective Relativism
There are no universal moral norms of right and wrong. All people decide right and wrong for themselves. It is up to the individual to decide for themselves. Although this works on a small scale but on a society scale it would turn to chaos.

- Cultural Relativism
The ethical theory that whats right or wrong depends on place and/or time. But problems begin to occur when you apply your cultural values to other cultures and humanity as a whole.

- Divine Command Theory
Good actions are aligned with the will of God, bad actions are contray to the will of God. The holy book helps make the decisions. However it causes issues when all ethics are layed out for you by the God.


Kant
Katianism - Deontological Ethics. Kant's philosophy was all based around the theory of Duty.  People wills should be based on moral rules, Therefore its important that our actions are based on appropriate moral rules. So we must think about what actions affect wider society. To determine our actions we must use the categorical imperative.

Categorical Imperative:
1. Act only from moral rules that you can at the same time universalise it.

2. Act so that you always treat both yourself and other people as ends in themselves and never as means to an end.

John Stuart Mill - Utilitarianism, Consequentialist Ethics
An action is right to the extent that it increases the total happiness of the affects parties. An action is wrong to the extent that decreases the total happiness of the affected parties. Happiness may have many definitions such as as: advantage, benefit, good or pleasure.

Social Contract Theory - Thomas Hobbes and Rousseau
An agreement between individuals held together by common interest. Avoids society degenerating onto the 'state of nature' or 'war of all against all' (Hobbes) "Morality consists in a set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another, that rational people will agree to accept, for their mutual benefit, on the condition that other follow those rules as well.

Toolbox of Moral Ethics Theories.
Whether presented with problems that are easy or difficult to solve, the four workable ethical theories,
-Katianism
-Act Utilitarianism
-Rule Utilitarianism
-Social Contract Theory
could provide us with possible solutions to many of the problems raised by the ' First Things First' manifesto.

S.M.A.R.T

Specific  - Details exactly what needs to be done.

Measurable - Achievements can be measured in terms of units or specific success criteria.

Achievable - That resources, scope and scale are within your capabilities and capacity.

Realistic - The objectives are possible to attain which is important for your motivation.

Time Bound - The period of time, target dates, schedule or time table is clearly defined.


My Current Responsive Briefs:

Sprung Records
- Finish cutting out business cards
- Look into how to make a stamp
- Create Phone Poster
- Blog about making Business cards
- T-shirts?
- Finish Poster

J20
- Scan in water colours
- Experiment with acrylics
- Research Competitors
- Research Watercolour in advertising

Feathr
- Look at other designs
- Research theory into mood
- Blue China - Tells a Story

Context of Practice - Essay: 10 Strategies for Successful Packaging

Seeing as I have now pretty much clarified my question I decided I would begin to research into what makes packaging successful in supermarkets when there is so much choice. Below is an article published on Creative Blog which I have found quite interesting.


Leading brand consultancy Elmwood offers 10 essential pieces of advice for making your brand designs fly off the shelves...

There's an old saying: "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink." This is a perfect packaging metaphor, because the fundamental truth is that the final purchasing decision is made at the shelf edge in store. Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that advertising and sales promotion is what drives the customer's decision-making process and, as a result, this is the area that usually commands the greatest amount of deliberation and debate.

The truth is, no matter how much time and money your marketing team spends on promoting your product or how much effort your sales team puts into getting your product listed in the key retail outlets, if your pack fails to deliver at point of sale because it doesn't look good then all that investment spent elsewhere is largely wasted.

So how do we make the most of all that advertising and promotional work? How do we get people reaching out for our pack on the shelves? Read on for our ten strategies for success...

1. Make your product stand out
First of all, we have to recognise that our products are competing for a few short seconds of attention. In any one supermarket there are around 40,000 different products on display and the average shopper spends no more than an hour in store during their weekly shop. So you'd need to register more than 10 products per second if you were to see every product! The first and most important rule, therefore, is to get your product noticed - it must stand out rather than blend in.

2. Break with convention
Next time you go shopping, take a look at the humble OXO pack and see how something so small fights above its weight. Similarly, think about breaking the rules of a category. Innocent is perhaps an often and overused example but still a great one. When it launched into the highly colourful category of soft drinks, it went with a very white pack as opposed to the category norm of using pictures of fruit with similarly vibrant fruity graphics. Finally, shape is the first thing the human eye recognises, so unique packaging shapes are a great way to help your product stand out - think Perrier and Toilet Duck.

3. Products with purpose
We are seeing a consumer backlash against big corporate fat cats and a growing desire to support real brands with real beliefs and values. What this means is that brands big and small need to have a clear purpose beyond price and demonstrate that they are good corporate citizens. Take the bottled water market, for example, which has recently come under fire from government ministers for being environmentally and socially unethical. Bottled water is shipped around the world, adding to the issue of climate change, when most of us could make do with tap water, especially when so many people in countries such as Africa go without. Cue Thirsty Planet, a new water brand that provides free drinking water for an African child for life, when you purchase just one multi-pack of the water.

4. Add personality
Building on the idea of leveraging a brand's authenticity, the next step is to bring packs to life with a strong personality (what we call 'authentic attitude'). In short, think about language and imagery that helps to tell an engaging story rather than just being matter of fact. Filthy is a new brand of highly indulgent chilled chocolate desserts and its name gives consumers permission to be unashamedly naughty.

5. Feel-good factor
We live in a frightening world, a world of anxiety fuelled by the media's exposure of terrorism, food scares, global warming, child abuse and abduction. An antidote for this is to make people smile and/or remind us of the time when life appeared to be safer. Anything you can do to make your designs resonate with today's anxious consumer will give you an advantage. Competitors may well copy your product specification, but it's much more difficult to copy how your brand makes a customer feel. So packs that bring a smile to faces, like our own new tea brand Make Mine a Builders, complete with builder's cleavage on the 'bottom' of the pack, are the order of the day.

6. Keep it simple
With so much to say about health, nutrition, cooking or usage instructions on your products and yet a desire to cut back on the amount of packaging, the key is to keep things simple. Going back to the principle of 'standout', make sure you don't compromise legibility by overcomplicating packs with too many messages. In a one-second world, less is definitely more.

7. Tiered branding
The own-brand strategy we developed with Coles supermarket in Australia designed to ensure that their stores provide customers with products that meet their everyday needs in every way. The new own brand hierarchy involves three distinct tiers: cheapest on display, mid tier and premium tier. The mid-tier proposition, "You'll love Coles...", is based on the principle that consumers will love Coles products because they make their lives easier. Coles will help them eat better, save money, save time and reduce waste. An important element of the new offer is the use of a product advocate - real customers and colleagues who appear on the packs to highlight the key benefits of the product and give reasons to buy.

8. The cost of transport
Retailers and consumers are ever more obsessed with the green agenda. There's nothing new about recycling, but there are a number of new dimensions to green packaging that relate to transport. In simple terms, the challenge is to 'ship less air'. In other words, you need to make sure your packaging is as minimal as possible because the more products you can get on a pallet, the less trucks will need to be on the road. As well as saving on CO2 emissions, these measures also save on transport costs.

9. Speed to shelf
If there are 40,000 different packs in a store then every second counts in the delivery and stocking process. Just think how many man-hours per day you would save by making your outer shipping case also your 'display on shelf' case. If you can save a retailer just 10 seconds per pack in its time to decant from warehouse to shelf, you will also certainly gain grace and favour too.

10. Protect yourself
If you have a good product at a good price, the competition will try to mimic your success, so make sure you register and patent everything you possibly can. And if you've followed the strategies on these pages, you will almost certainly have protectable equity in your packaging.

Context of Practice - Lecture: Consumerism

The Consumer Dream which makes us happy and content but docile at the same time. The system that we live in works as a force of social control.

Sigmund Freud 

New theory of human nature. He is the father of psycho-analysis, a theory which is still a modern discipline today. We only understand a small percentage of our make up and how we act in certain ways. one of Freud's contentions is that in our core we have very basic animal drives, this is all stored in the ID which contains the animalistic desires which are repressed and never thought about but Freud argues that these drive everything we do - actions, thoughts etc... 

Civilisation and its Discontents (1930) freud argued that there is a fundamental tension between civilisation and the individual. As a hangover from our evolution we retain a very violent and sexual instincts which are part of our makeup but we cant act on in our civilised society. The human instincts are incompatible with the well being of the community. We are constantly frustrated and we can never realise the actions which we want to act upon. We displace these desires onto other things and this is where consumerism comes in. If these instinctual desires are acted upon then you become happy and content, you feel like you are living. 

WW1 mass destruction on a large scale. This was a vindication for freud as it clarified his forming theories. This is what happens when you suppress peoples natural instincts. 

Edmund Bernays

He channeled the ideas of Freud into a discipline known as public relations. He was employed to work in the war as a propagandist. What he realised was that if you could find a way to attach some sort of instinctual meaning to otherwise unrelated consumer products - you could make people want them and desire them and even need them. If we can find a way to make people feel that their instinctual desires have been met when they buy something it would not only fulfil their desires but create a demand. 

One of his first early successes was working with cigarette companies to try and get over the social taboo of women smoking. It was not considered to be a feminine thing to do for cultured young women. He organised a PR stunt in 1929 Easter Day Parade. He paid all the women in the parade to take out a cigarette, light it and start smoking. He also contacted the newspaper and told them that it was a suffragette . smoking then increased because women linked smoking to being free and independent as the suffragettes were (even though they weren't). He managed to attach instinctual desires such as being free and independent to something completely irrelevant such as cigarettes.

His company began the use of celebrity endorsements as celebrities are seen as a symbol of success. By linking a product with a celebrity means you link the product with the fame and success. Politicians and Government began to take notice and use PR also.

At the same time as Public Relations began to grow the method of Fordism is beginning to grow. It is a way of making things on the production line, instead of everyone working on everything people were set to work on one small area which would fit into the bigger picture. So instead of making a car they would make little bits of cars. This speeded up productivity and also meant people didn't know all the trade secrets so that they remained the monopoly. It also meant that the rate productivity went up allowed the company to pay individuals more money. Which meant they could have a disposable income which played into the idea of consumerism. 

However there is a limited number of things you could buy, once a family has brought a car they don't need to buy another car. So Branding comes in which tries to give each product an identity which removes the mass production image and creates a more personal product to which people buy into. 

Bernays was one of the first people to sell cars and cement the idea of buying the car being more to do with your sexual potency rather than the benefits of the car.

Brands move away from the things themselves but sell the life style. So we shift from a need culture to a desire culture. People begin to link them self with the things they consume. 

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The Hidden Persuaders - Vance Packard - 8 common techniques which work on an unconscious level where companies use to create a desire for their product:

- selling emotional security

- selling reassurance of worth

- selling ego-gratification

- selling creative outlets

- selling love objects

- selling a sense of power 

- selling a sense of roots

- selling immortality 

Emotional Security - Fridge/Freezer - actually waste more food because you buy more food to store but it goes out of date and you end up chucking it. But you are buying into the security of knowledge knowing you have food at home. 

Creative outlets - Aunt Jemima's pancake mix -  you had to add the egg yourself but people bought it because they were sold the idea that they were being creative and cooking.

Selling a sense of Power -  masculinity sold through a car. 

It give you an identity that perhaps you do not have in the real world.

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Walter Lippmann

A new elite is needed to manage the bewildered herd 'manufacturing consent' The idea of consumerism is represented as a way to mass control the masses. The government began to deregulate markets and introduced larger shops. People were given the illusion of being happy whilst actually they were docile. 

October 24th 1929 - Wall Street Crash it was the first time where the political class realised that if you let the business' do what they want then it will destroy society. It lead to the great depression.

Roosevelt and the 'New Deal' (1933-36)

-Put monopoly controls on the market.

-Put large taxes on the highest earning business' which then got redistributed amongst the poorest people. 

New Yorks World Fair

What happened on the back of Roosevelt's new deal meant that people like Edward Bernays were annoyed and they started a giant PR exercise - the New Yorks World Fair. It was meant to be a celebration of everything great about America and everything that makes it unique and free. The message shown throughout - what makes America great is how much you can buy if you want to. You are an independent individual who can buy what ever you want. Buy into this product - consumerism is freeing you and your participation in it is helping America to lead the world into the future. Big business really knows whats good for the country rather than politicians. 

- Consumerism is an ideological project.

- We believe that through consumption our desires can be met.

- The legacy of Bernays Public Relations can be felt in all aspects of 21st Century Society. 

Context of Practice - Essay (Study Task 03): Tutorial About Essay Idea

The essay question that I had planned and showed was:

'To what extent does package design affect sales'

What I want to focus on is how package design increases or decreases sales in supermarkets. It has always interested me why people by certain products over others; in a supermarket all the pasta is the same but what makes you pick pasta A over pasta B - The packaging does. With this in mind I wanted to write my essay on what it is that sells the product through the design.

The feedback I got was that it was a good simple question which opened up a lot of possibilities. Richard said to perhaps establish the 6 or 7 characteristics or aspects of successful packaging. The essay would then become a guide explaining how to make successful packaging.

My practical piece could either be an unsuccessful packaging made successful using the guide I had written in my essay or the other way around -  a successful package stripped back into the 6 or 7 key characteristics. It could even be using the 6 or 7 rules and branding something which wouldn't be brought like a stone or something.

My first step will be to research into successful packaging and analysis what makes it successful and try to define some key aspects. I want to define the main aspects which subconsciously attract people to the product.

My essay question will be:

"Outline and explain the key characteristics of package design in supermarkets crucial for success"

The Designer That I Am - Study Task 2: Triangulation

The First things First 1964 Manifesto begins by arguing that the creatives in the world have been brought up under the impression that advertising techniques are the most lucrative and effective means of using their talents. They argue that using these techniques along side talent contributes nothing to society "By far the greatest effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity".

I've decided to look at this Axe mens shower gel advert as it shows both the positives and negatives within advertising whilst questioning the socio-political factors that emerge. In the 2000's version of the First Things First manifesto they strongly argue that the designers behind the advertisements are completely responsible and even support the effect of the message on the masses. "Designers who devote their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development are supporting, and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that it is changing the very way citizen-consumers speak, think, feel, respond and interact." (2000, First Things First) This quote implies that the audience is docile and unable to form their own views and opinions about products featured in adverts. To say that advertisements have such a strong grip on the general public to the extent that it changes the way they think and interact is ludicrous. Firstly, it is insulting to public as it is insinuating that the designers are above the masses. It implies they have an outside view, watching advertising destroy the world whilst not being affected by it themselves. Secondly it clearly isn't true, if adverts such as the one above were able to change the general public then Axe would have an 100% success rate and other products would cease to exist.

Although the majority of people don't take things at face value and know that the advert isn't going to come true if they use Axe, there is a certain level of innocence. People unconsciously buy into the life style and image sold in the advert with the hope that even a small element of their life will change. Advertisers rely on this innocence to be able to manipulate the viewers unconscious feelings. "We imagine that we engage directly with the content of the magazine, the Tv commercial, the pasta sauce, or perfume, but the content is always mediated by design and its design that helps direct how we perceive it and how it makes us feel." (First Things First - Revisited - Rick Poynor) It is true that we are aware of design and its supposed affects on us contrary to the 2000's First Things First. However as Rick Poynor argues we acknowledge the direct content of the advert but it is meditated to us through design. This design, on a deeper level, affects how we feel although this feeling may sway our purchasing decisions it certainly doesn't change the way we speak, interact and respond.

"If thinking individuals have a responsibility to withstand the proliferating technologies of persuasion, then the designer, as a skilled manipulator of those technologies, carries a double responsibility."

Context of Practice: Making Connections

Deconstruction - Derrida created deconstruction as a mean of questioning these binary oppositions. He challenges the reality of the modes it is not just black and white. Deconstruction is just a mode of thinking.


'Design, Writing, Research' - Lupton and Miller, 1996:

Ellen Lupton explores aspects and methods of deconstruction and how it had an impact on Graphic Design Practice.

She discussing reality and representation. The reality of the real world is more important that the world of images etc...

'Derrida asserted that an intellectual system(or episteme) built on the opposition between reality and representation has, in fact, depended on representation to build itself.'

One of the oppositions that factors significantly in Derrida's discussion is that of speech/writing where speech is privileged over writing - "speech draws on interior consciousness, but writing is dead and abstract."
 - Greek Philosophers didn't write anything down as it was seen as inferior to word.

"If writing is but a copy of spoken language, typography is a mode of representation ever farther removed from primal source of meaning in the mind of the author."

Speech/writing - writing/typography - seeing/reading

"Design and typography work at the edges of writing, determining the shape and style of letters, the spaces between them and their placement on the page. Typography, from its position at the margins of communication, has moved away from speech."

Allen Hori, typography challenges the traditional opposition between seeing and reading by treating the surface as both theoretical content and sensual form, as both text and texture. Rather than deliver information directly, Hori's poster expects the reader to work to uncover its message."

He argues there is no hierarchy or opposites but everything is balanced. This is what she argues with Typography that it allows us to appreciate different types.

House of leaves By Mark Danielewsky the book is layout is a mix of the story from two different people it encourages a dual way of reading.

Pastiche by Fredric Jameson - is appropriating styles from the past. A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, or music that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. He is a marxist so everything he writes has a Marxist tint. We become detached from history because the designs are regurgitated and then are known as designs today.

What are other examples of 'Pastiche' In graphic design can you think of?

Soap and Glory

Supreme

The Great Gatsby

Kath Kidston

Forming a Research Question:

What is the general theme? (editiorial, branding, typography, advertising, new media, print making)
Branding - Packaging

What are the current/contextual/historical issues of the general theme? 
Placement, material, shops - supermarkets compared to high end shops. Is it on offer? etc...

What do I want to know or be able to do in regard to this theme? From this into a question that implies a conclusion.. what, how , to what extent?
I want to be able to create packaging that stands out and sells.

How does this relate to my (increasingly specialist) Practice?
I have an interest in package design, and knowing the theory behind it would help my practice.

To what extent does package design and package placement affect sales?

Context of Practice - Lecture Four: Cities and Film

George Simmel asked to lecture on the role of the life in the city but instead reverses the idea and writes about the effect of the city on the individual. This is also the time where Freud writes about psycho-analysis. The resistance of the individual to being levelled, swallowed up in the social technological mechanism. Lewis Hine 1932 photo shows an individual building a skyscraper, all the rules of the city had to be learnt even crossing the roads.

Louis Sullivan the creator of the modern skyscraper.

An idea that the taller building represents upward mobility showing that the sky is the limit.

The city is a melting pot for immigration. A detached view of the city.

Charles Scheeler was an advertising photographer for Ford. He photographs the plant in a modernistic way which shows the factory as a collection of shapes rather than a plant. Fordism - mechanised labour relations, the factory is so repetitive that the person becomes part of that routine. This is shown in Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" film. The worker becomes the means of production.

Stock market crash of 1929. Factories close and unemployment goes up dramatically. This leads to the Great Depression.

Walter Benjamin - adopted the concept of the urban observer as an analytical tool and as a lifestyle as seen in his writings. He looks at the cafe society in particular and the relationship of the body with the city.

Daido Moriyama exposes himself to the city life where he would not usually be. The photos are disjointed and have an underlying tone of a dark threat. A chase is seen throughout the photos and it looks like he is pursuing something but at the same time nothing.

Automat (1927) Loneliness, A before and an After in the story which is left to our imagination

Sophie Calle Suite Venitienne (1980) - She follows and stalks people just taking photos of them and then looses them. She followed one man to Venice.

Leads to the Detective (1980) she wants to provide a photographic evidence of existence. his photos and notes on her are displayed next to her notes of being followed. She leads him around the city.

911 Bombings - "Here is New York"  a book of images taken by everyone of the event. No names were put with the photos and it was a collection from not just photographers but people caught up in the event.

Weegee (Arthur Felig) pursued the darker side of the city and documented the murders and crashes. His book the Naked City looks at his Crisis Photography.

Lorca di Corcia - Heads: People caught on the street deep in thought by photos being triggered by a wire that they stand on. A light would flash on them and catch them on camera.

Joel Meyerowitz - He gives no direction on where to look in the photos.

Context of Practice: First things First

Instead of using the talent to promote more useful and worthwhile causes we use it for everyday essentials that perhaps don't need the design. It is set out to not destroy advertisement but its a reversal of priorities. There are too many advertisements these days they are just noise.

2000 is a broader reflection of the creative industries it is not just graphic designers like in 1964. They are trying to introduce it into schools so that when designers enter the real world they wouldn't fall into the trap. The first one was only published in the Guardian where as the 2000 was published in a lot broader range of magazines to get the attention of students and the people reading.

The 1964 is written as a dialogue to spark a debate and interest. Compared to the 2000 one which is more of an emergency to create a change. "Consumerism is running uncontested; it must be challenged by others perspectives expressed, in part, through the visual languages and resources of design." in the 2000 manifesto compared to the previous "We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible. Nor do we want to take any of the fun out of life."

A much more ethical charge to the second manifesto .... coffee, cigarettes etc..

Ken Garland saw that America was abusing the right of advertising and were a head of us. He could see Britain going the same way. Britain had a lot of prosperity after the war, there was a sudden rise of consumerism as people began to have disposable income. It was never intended as a manifesto, which is what it has become seen as. He had it as a discussion to get people talking and thinking.

How deep rooted the problem is. We only learn about the commercial function of design.

A necessary part of the economy.

Underlying political system not in question.

The design decisions

Footnote 1 summary: The design should have a 'spirit' and should have a reason to be there other than selling. Released by Designers who were already campaigning for this cause. This just reiterated their own belief.

Footnote 2 summary: They weren't commercial designers so weren't making a stand but continuing their design style. Preaching to the crowd. Presenting a school of thought which previously existed as an innovative and new way of thinking. They as designers are in a situation where they can do what they want and not worry about the next pay check.

Footnote 3 summary: Look at the tools of Advertising as evil when actually they are the same tools that Graphic Design uses.

Footnote 4 summary: Who is to say what graphic design is!? why is the museum booklet graphic design and the dog food packaging not?

Footnote 5 summary: Hyperthermic needle theory - suggestion that they are a passive audience. They should be seen as people not a passive audience.

Footnote 6 summary: What if we withdrew from this space? If Designers decided not to design then it would be unpleasant. What is wrong with good design? surely we are better in a world where everything is designed nicely.

Web Theory - Marshall McLuhan: Tetrad

In Laws of Media (1988), McLuhan summarized his ideas about media in a concise tetrad of media effects. The tetrad is a means of examining the effects on society of any technology (i.e., any medium) by dividing its effects into four categories and displaying them simultaneously. McLuhan designed the tetrad as a pedagogical tool, phrasing his laws as questions with which to consider any medium:

What does the medium enhance?
What does the medium make obsolete?
What does the medium retrieve that had been obsolesced earlier?
What does the medium flip into when pushed to extremes?

The laws of the tetrad exist simultaneously, not successively or chronologically, and allow the questioner to explore the "grammar and syntax" of the "language" of media. McLuhan departs from his mentor Harold Innis in suggesting that a medium "overheats", or reverses into an opposing form, when taken to its extreme.

Visually, a tetrad can be depicted as four diamonds forming an X, with the name of a medium in the centre. The two diamonds on the left of a tetrad are the Enhancement and Retrieval qualities of the medium, both Figure qualities. The two diamonds on the right of a tetrad are the Obsolescence andReversal qualities, both Ground qualities.

A blank tetrad diagram

Using the example of radio:
Enhancement (figure): What the medium amplifies or intensifies. Radio amplifies news and music via sound.
Obsolescence (ground): What the medium drives out of prominence. Radio reduces the importance of print and the visual.
Retrieval (figure): What the medium recovers which was previously lost. Radio returns the spoken word to the forefront.
Reversal (ground): What the medium does when pushed to its limits. Acoustic radio flips into audio-visual TV.
Figure and ground


McLuhan adapted the Gestalt psychology idea of a figure and a ground, which underpins the meaning of "The medium is the message." He used this concept to explain how a form of communications technology, the medium or figure, necessarily operates through its context, or ground.

McLuhan believed that in order to grasp fully the effect of a new technology, one must examine figure (medium) and ground (context) together, since neither is completely intelligible without the other. McLuhan argued that we must study media in their historical context, particularly in relation to the technologies that preceded them. The present environment, itself made up of the effects of previous technologies, gives rise to new technologies, which, in their turn, further affect society and individuals.

All technologies have embedded within them their own assumptions about time and space. The message which the medium conveys can only be understood if the medium and the environment in which the medium is used—and which, simultaneously, it effectively creates—are analysed together. He believed that an examination of the figure-ground relationship can offer a critical commentary on culture and society.

Context of Practice - Lecture Three: Identity

Phrenology is a pseudoscience primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules.

Physiognomy is the assessment of a person's character or personality from his or her outer appearance, especially the face. 

The closer to the vertical your brow, chin and nose is then the more intelligent you are. It is used to legitimise racism with stereotypical facial features.

Cesare Lombroso founder of Positivist Criminology - the notion that criminal tendencies are inherited. 

Chris Ofili, Holy Virgin Mary 1996
Huge uproar at the audacity that the Virgin mary may have been black.

Pre Modern Identity - personal identity is stable - defined by long standing roles. 
Institutions determined identity for example church, marriage etc... You are stuck in your identity. If you are a farm worker then you work for the land gentry, If you are a housewife you are entered into a patriarchy society.

Modern Identity - modern societies begin to offer a wider range of social roles. The immergance of modern identities. In the 19th and early 20th Century. Charles Baudelaire - The painter of Modern Life (1863) He introduces the concept of 'flaneur' our translation of that is the gentleman-stroller. Ending in 'eur'  showing its a mans world, he never writes about a female version.  

Veblen - ' Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure'  Being obvious with your spending, showing wealth and your class. Having a MAC showing wealth that you can afford one.

Simmel - Trickle down theory is an economic phenomenon whereby low-income groups benefit indirectly from the accumulation of wealth of those having higher incomes; that is, the income is said to "trickle down" from the rich to the poor. This phenomenon happens as a result of economic growth. For example, the rich make investments to enhance their wealth, and those investments can generate new jobs. In sociology the trickle-down effect defines the process by which the lower class emulates the lifestyle of the upper class in an effort to elevate its status.  We notice what they are wearing and mimic them  so that we also seem rich, they then change their outfits and we follow.

It is now thought to be a bubble up theory. For example poorer people having ripped jeans out of necessity, Then designer brands creating ripped jeans.

Post Modern Identity - 'Discourse Analysis' Identity is constructed out of the discourse culturally available to us.

Possible Discourses - age, class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality.

Humphrey Spender/ Mass Observation, Worktown Project 1937. Posh Londoners who decide to document life. They go to Bolton. They don't need to work, they can just go and observe peoples lives it shows how wealthy they are. 

Interior of the pub the guy is not saying hello he is warning them to leave. 

A screen showing of A midsummers nights dream could be seen that actually they arent that cultured by the amount of empty seats.

Two Children look like they are playing but it is actually chicken feet - implying playing with leftovers from last nights dinner, not many toys etc...

Martin Parr, Ascot

The lower class pretending to fit in with the upper class.

The Designer That I Am - Study Task 01: Symbolic Interactionist Theories of Identity

Today we went through the reading which we were set last week. It looked at both Sheldon Strykers Identity Theory in 1980 and George J. McCall and J. L. Simmons Theory of Identity.

Strykers view focused more on how the 'self' is changed by the environment in which it is immersed, "culture and social structure designate many of the identities held by the individuals". Where as McCall and Simmons theory see's the identity as improvised and created by the individual in order to realise and achieve their various goals and plans.

Strykers theory works around the concept that everything is dictated by an external structure. A structure which is created out of lots of different connected sections. The structures can be rigid or flexible, depending on the group of people depends on the leeway which the individual has in the character role. "...individuals designate themselves as objects in relation to their location in structural positions" The identity of the individual is objective allowing them to view the situation without seeing themselves in it. By making themselves an object they can have a better gage of how others in the group behave and then mimic this behaviour until it becomes habitual. By seeing others conform and receive extrinsic rewards for such behaviour it reinforces the type of behaviour expected and the individual then adopts a complimentary role.

On the other hand McCall and Simmons theory of identity is more subjective. You create the role for the place in society that you want to be in. "Role identity constitutes an imaginative view of oneself in a position, often a rather idealised view of oneself." A portion of this idealised view has links to the social structure and positioning as well as a fragment in the individuals imagination. Although they confirm the role they have chosen in their head they also need confirmation from other individuals for it to feel like a legitimate role. Even though they need a level of approval from individuals, they value self criticism as more important. They allow for a lack of approval from others and use several coping mechanisms which allows them to keep preforming their chosen role.

Both these theories can be related to graphic design in different ways. A Design can, like an individual, change its identity around different people to attract the most people. Certain characteristics attract one group of people which would not apply to another group, however just like a person can fit in with more than one social group so can a design. Different design aspects will appear prominent to different people, for example a child's toy could seem fun and exciting to the child but at the same time the parent could view it more as an educational product. The graphic design allows different things to stand out to the right people.

When Designing you should design for who the buyer aspires to be rather than who they are. They would only buy a product to enhance themselves to their 'ideal self' if they were not already there. This is much like McCall and Simmons theory where the individual creates a role which allows them to play the idealised idea of them self. They would buy the product to live up to their imaginative role. This really constructs an artificial identity which people would buy into.

Context of Practice - Lecture One: The Gaze and The Media

Hans Memling 'Vanity' 1485
Because she is looking at herself it gives others permission to also look at her. Our permission to gave only really has power when she doesn't gaze back.

Alexandre Cabanel 'Birth of Venus' 1863
No eye contact, reclining pose. We can look uninterupted at the woman

"You give her a mirror in her hand and call it vanity, so you can also look at her"

Titans Venus of Urbino 1538
Puts you in the position of a peeping tom. Seeing her in a private moment but with permission shown by her facial expression.

Manets' 'Olympia' 1863
more direct look saying I know you are there. The hand is direct and firm rather than the previously passive hand. She is a prostitute the flowers and bangles are a gift from customers. She challenges your gaze.

Manets' Bar at the Folies Bergeres 1882
Hands are saying I'm ready to serve you. The angle of the mirror is inaccurate, you wouldn't see the front and back of her but this is done so you see the viewer in the top right. A much looser brush style painting.

"if a body can be seen as an object then it can be disposed like one"

The Seven Year Itch (1955) - Marilyn wasn't shown as a whole woman but was shown as different parts e.g feet walking... The woman is an accessory to the plot of the man.

Context of Practice - Year Evaluation

The CoP module has been useful because it has given me a basic understanding of the conceptual side behind graphics. The study tasks have helped to reinforce concepts such as semiotics and certain connotations and denotations behind an image or piece of graphics.

I have developed skills in being able to research something fully before deciding on an appropriate method of production. This really helped the practical side of CoP to work well, as I knew all of my content before I began thinking about production methods. It also meant that I researched into production methods before trying to create them. When I chose the ration book I fully studied it and tried to mimic key features and design decisions which I felt were important.

A certain strength in my work would be the thorough research and time that I put into getting the final outcome as accurate as I can. I am really proud with the physical outcome I have produced. The tasks set through out the year have helped me to get used to doing extra research if I don't understand anything this paid dividends in my essay and practical work. As I then fully understood everything before I began creating it.

One weakness in my work is the essay referencing. I wasn't able to get books out before the holiday nor was I able to get any out back home so I had to fully rely on the internet. This is a lesson I have definitely learnt now: get books out well in advance. I feel my essay would have been a lot stronger if I had more substantial sources backing up the different arguments.

Writing the essay helped to bring everything I had learnt together, however I really struggled to find the right kind of references. Next year I will fully read around the subject before writing the essay, this will help me not make the same mistakes as this year. Although the essay wasn't the best it could be I felt it gave me an interesting starting point for my practical publication project. The aim of my book was to show a range of propaganda with a bit of a description or talk about them and the posters aims. My research translated very nicely into content, although for this project I had to research more specifically into propaganda posters and the meaning behind them, but whilst doing this I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it interesting.