Presentation cop 2

lecture notes

The history production distribution 
Language is something that is agreed
Will all use type although that doesn't mean we want everyone to be typography 
Typography as a visual for that takes consideration 
Type is something that has allowed us see our history 
Type allowed us to physically identity a language, I. E hiroglifs/ ancient Hebrew  from around 7000bc driven by trade 
Only later in language it became descriptive 
Type is speech made visual 
Even within Europe complex set of different languages and alphabets 

3200bc mesopotanmia
Occidental western part if world: America and aus / oriental eastern world 
The rosetta stone: evidence that 3 languages are used to to agree align with each other to understand trade on a big scale through use of symbols
 first opportunity for people to see how people communicated in 7000bc 

1450 
Gutenberg
Created the first press in Europe, had been around for 600 years in China 

Type became design, very little changed up until mid 19th century 
1870 William foster brought in the elementary education act 
Shifted into the idea of mass production 
Fundametally effected the way we created typ let 
1919 1933 bauhaus 
Walter gropius 
Range of different type of creative, drawing together of design 
Been informed by new mass manufacturer 
In terms of type it became a lot more serfisticated 

Type is language based
From oral tradition to physical representation of language
Images in the pass have slowly developed into an alphabet over time
Post digital type age
Designers all working with each other
Bauhaus form follows function
Less is more
Pee modern: because God put it there and that's the way it's ment be
Modern:

Rebuilding of nations
Mass communication
Mass distribution
Helvetica allowed this
Striping away everything unecessary
Large scale small scale
Benchmark of modernist type
Oct 15 1990 first mac under a 1000
Mac classic
Democrasition of type design
Computer becoming a design tool
Vincent conner in 1994 is creator of coming sans
Worked for Microsoft
World wide Web 1990 created
Suddenly a way of communicating with a physical thing
1995 Internet Explorer
Striped down after 5 years to a template
Decline in spoken word as people could send an email
Texts are falling of
Landscape of how we communicate has chafed
Emojis has come out of this
Global language
Gone back to using symbols to communicate ideas things and content
We have gone in a  huge circle essential
1932 John heartfelt
1977 Jamie Reid
2014 London print studio
 Type moving across to a gallery
Barbra kruger
David Carson 1992 bring a different aesthetic to type and to challenge it
 there is no single at of doing things 

Print culture:
Why people returning to hand made production:
A world of instant results
Has a politics to it
Are society has no regard for maintain anything
Lice in a fast culture obese with buying and selling things
How many social spaces can go to without having some kind of financial charge
Re humanising and culture that has been de humanised

What is research
Knowledge/ analysis/ comprehension application/ evaluation/ synthesis
 What's the problem
What do u need to think shout what do u already know where could I find information
What's is the clients preferences 

Colour theory
Colour is contextual
 Very rare that we see isolated colour
Infinite gradient
Complex and change medium
Types: physical physiological psychological
Colour is inispicably linked to light
Perception effected by light
Each colour has its own wavelength
Continously spectrum
Different animals can see in different colour
We can see 160 Mil
Light is made up of of the different colour we can see in wavelengths
White surfaces reflects black surfaces absorb
We recommend I've colour through how's it reflected
What colour is the sky? No colour
Wavelengths coming through the atmosphere  creating the colour
Eye receptors
Rods: conveys brightness picks up on black n white and gray
Cones: allow the brain to perceive colour
Type 1 cone : red n orange
Type 2 cone: green
Type 3: blue
Yellow doesn't exist , mix of red n orange wavelength with green wavelength
Only we actually see are red green n blue
Proportional adjustment of the r g b
Everyone perceives colour potentially different
Jose Alber
Johannesburg itten
PrimRy secondary teriary
Colour wheels are map g the relationships between the colours
Colours clash and remove and cancel out each others wavelengths ie red n green mixes to a mesh dull gray colour
Chromatic value : hue /tone /saturation
Start to think of the 3d aspect of colour
Hue is how we recognise the colour
Tone: it's luminance and how bright it is
Different shades or idea of a tint adding white to a colour

OUGD401: Final outcome and evaluation

This is my final outcome for this project. I created a logo trying to create a fresh urban look to the green party, to appeal to a wider audience. I have also mocked up a website page to show the rebrand in context and how I would use the rebrand across different formats not just as the logo. 

I feel this project has been informative and I have learnt a lot about how branding is used in politics. As well as definitely agreeing on the point the political branding borrows techniques form the world of commercial advertising and branding.

I feel looking back I could have spent a lot more time on gathering sources of information that were stronger and had more substance about the subject area. I felt the online articles I looked at were most relevant and best informed me. in comparison to the books which I found hard to find much useful information in. I feel my triangulation essay would have been stronger if I found more reliable, well known sources. I found the analysing of images helpful, putting in context the subject. This also made me consider the practical part of the project and how I could use the knowledge gained about political branding into my own design.

Leading on from the visual analysis I rebranded the green party. I created a logo trying to create a fresh urban look to the green party, to appeal to a wider audience. I also mocked up a website page to show the rebrand in context and how I would use the rebrand across different formats not just as the logo. Looking at the project as whole I feel it was a good choice and a topic that’s relevant. Especially with the general election being called recently.  I feel the project was well suited to my previous research. I feel my design decisions were valid and the concept of using different colours, not just green, to show there range of policies worked well. I’m not sure if I needed to carry this concept through with the type. In retrospective I could have spent more time on variations of colour with the text. Overall the outcome suited my rational giving the party a new face that would hopefully entice a new type of voter.

Concluding I feel the research part of the project could have been more thought out with a wider range of sources. This would have gave me a more in depth range of opinions about political branding and its links to commercial branding. As well as whether there should be any constraints in relation to borrowing techniques of the commercial world. 

OUGD401: Idea development

Taking the rebrand forward I needed to think about a slogan that enraptured the green party’s morals, whilst supporting their policies. I mocked up quite a few fraises and liked these the most. I felt ‘uniting for our future’ worked well and was my favourite. 

I then went on to choosing a typeface for the green party. I wanted something that was bold, friendly and modern. I quickly decided that I wanted a sans serif font, creating a less dated and sharp feel. After experimenting I narrowed it down to four choices. They were; Helvetica/ Sathu/ PT Serif Caption/ Circular Std. From these I felt Circular Std worked best, fitting a friendly font with the rounded letterforms. A thick stroke showing strength, and being very easily legible.

After choosing to develop idea three, I wanted to experiment with different ways of cutting and dividing the triangle into the different sections to represent the key policies. I decided to stick with using the triangle for stability whilst also acting as arrow pointing forward and upwards.  At first I attempted to differentiate the different layers through different shades of green. I felt this didn’t work well and some of the logos looked like a fade of colour. I then revisited the ‘what we stand for’ page on the website and decided to use the colour scheme used to represent the different key policies. I felt this worked well and I started experimenting adding text with the symbols. Although I felt the design was clean and strong, it almost felt to easy and as if I could push this concept and create a logo which was more futuristic. As well as appealed to younger audience, as I feel their policies would as well.

After thinking the design could be pushed forward more, I started playing around with repeating the triangle shape to create both an upper and lower case ‘g’. I felt this worked really well, giving the logo a more modern sleek look. I felt the upper case ‘G’ worked better, creating more of an impact. 

         

Although I still wanted to use the triangles and range of colours to represent the greens policies, I felt the use of sharp edges created a cold feel to the logo. Making it look less friendly. To change this, I decided on making each triangle that makes up the ‘G’ a different sized with curved edges, some even being circles to push the idea of equality. I felt this worked well and gave the logo an even more urban, unique look.

After deciding that I was going to stick to this idea of different shaped triangles and circles, I then played around with the layout of the ‘G’. I decided on keeping each shape touching, not overlapping for clarity. I also felt the logo shouted at the viewer more with the black background, pushing the colour to the front.  

OUGD401: Idea generation

I have created these initial ideas from looking at the parties ‘what we stand for page’. From this I gathered their main aims as a party and looked at some of their key phrases to give me inspiration. Some of these were:

- Our members come from all walks of life

- each of them can have a voice in how our policies are written, 

        updated and amended.

- Our policy is developed by ordinary members, not just the leadership

- ensuring each individual voice is heard and listened to

- system that puts the public first

- an economy that gives everyone their fair share

- society capable of supporting everyone’s needs

- planet protected from the threat of climate change now 

           and for the generation to come.                        

- ensuring that everyone has access to a secure job

- build an economy that works for the common good

Initial sketches:

This first concept is the idea of people from all different walks of life coming together, on a road to a positive future and change in politics. In this idea I have looked at swirling patterns, trying to represent starting small and growing into something bigger. I have also tried incorporating the G into this. I also looked at the shape and patter of stairs and representing rising. I felt the G with this idea looked too related the environment, something which I wanted to keep in consideration but edge away from.

This second concept was based around everyone having an equal voice, and ensuring the equality of everyone’s opinions. Something which came up a lot whilst researching into the party. I have tried showing this simply by using shapes and symmetry to divide them and show equality. I also tried using the overlapping of hands joining together in different shades of green to show diversity and a fair society.

The third concept I have taken forward is focused on representing the range of policies that the green party have. This was the key reason why I wanted to re brand the party in the first place and therefore I feel it’s the strongest idea. Once again simply using shapes I have broken them up into 6 sections. These represent their main policies. I feel the use of a triangle works well being the strongest shape. It also pushes the idea that it doesn’t matter how big or small you are, without either size piece the whole structure wouldn’t be as stable. Encouraging people from all ethnicities and levels of wealth should be on an equal level.  

OUGD401: Defining the brief

After looking into political branding as the area of study for my context of practice module, I thought I would only be right to brand a political party or member. After looking at the range of main parties in the UK, I decided to rebrand the green party. I feel they only communicate and convey themselves as a party that considers the environment and climate and doesn’t worry about other policies. After looking at their website and key policies, I could clearly see that this wasn’t the case. To my surprise they had a range of good policies that catered for a much wider target market, not just those gunning for the environment. I particularly thought their policies catered for the younger generation, meaning I would be in their target market, something I feel is good, designing something for my age group. I thought their logo was an immediate let down, feeling like a fair trade sign only appealing to middle age hippies at first glance. The green party brand I feel has a big gap in appealing to a much larger audience. It seriously lacks conveying that this is a party with lots of policies to offer, that appeal to a much bigger audience. This is why I felt it was the perfect political party to rebrand. I will need to look at successful political branding and the competitors of the green party and how they go about communicating what they stand for. I will also need to consider creating a logo that is friendly and modern to encourage the new generation of voters.

OUGD401: Studio Brief 2: Research

Visual research :

This design was done by Shepard Fairley, 300,000 posters were created and over 1 million stickers.  The piece is a silhouette stencil type of piece of barrack Obama’s face using the word ‘hope’ as his slogan in large text. This stencil style to piece created solid character using the American colours red blue and white to aid Obama in making the people feel unified and on his journey and the countries journey together. His slogan word in this in this famous poster is ‘hope’ previously ‘progress’ which was the original word from the artist. It’s clear, bold, solid and sits in with rest of the piece well. It also highlighted and pushed the American public with the idea of big cultural change. The poster was strongly supported by it’s logo.  The logo shows the American stripes creating the road into the distance representing a bright future ahead quote article ‘in no doubt helped sway many of the undecided voters who needed a clear brand like sense of what Obama stood for’. Much like a commercial brand, the confident use of specific colour, imagery, logo and slogan was used to push Obama to his victory in 2008.  Although simple this piece created a strong aesthetic that the public warmed to.

This is the conservative parties Billboard poster from 1987. The work uses text as its main tool to highlight an opposition party’s policy. This aimed to capture the attention of the public this is a done with imagery of a soldier with no weapons next to the text; ‘which reads Labour’s policy on arms’. This is paired with the conservative logo and slogan at the time.  The piece is black and white throughout, apart from the logo highlighting the party who’s attacking on the opposition. The use of black and white looks to me to be used to enforce the idea that the subject matter is black and white and they don’t have to do much to show you. The use of black-and-white also aids the party as it highlights their logo which is in blue representing their right-wing politics. This technique of showing up the opposition is used to constantly throughout politics, but similarly used every day commercial advertising.

 This is a referendum poster from 1938 from the Nazi campaign.  This propaganda poster shows the unity of hands hailing Hitler with the words ‘greater Germany yes’. The imagery of all the raised hands shows and stresses the idea of Mass movement and their importance this has on the power of the country trying to propel the public opinion. Similar to the previous Obama imagery, the use of simple slogans that are confident such as ‘greater Germany’ again pushes the idea of unity and making the public feel part of something. Like in previous Obama poster the Nazi colours of red black and white have been used throughout reinforcing the Nazi colour scheme. The use of black letter style text which is bold, strong, sharp and clean supports what the propaganda poster and campaign where trying to convey. This simple use of the word ‘yes’ enforces clear power and no room for negotiation.  This links in with the idea that propaganda is enforced through power and mass movement.  Although no use of the Nazi logo here the bold graphics and strong imagery married with the use of colour allows you to glance at the poster and with ease you know what it’s communicating.

In 2014 after being quite well established of 6years in the making, airbnb needed a face lift and rebrand. With the use of a new logo and clean simple font, as well as clear colour pallet they launched the brand. With the help of some creative social media platforms, this is a clear example of how a rebrand can end up pushing a company to lead its industry. 

In the late 1990s, Burberry had no choice but to start considering a rebrand of their whole company due to association with the wrong target market and their brand being linked with gang culture and not being seen as the high end, exclusive products they were creating. With a new global design director in 2001, they used style icons like Kate Moss and Emma Watson to turn their brand around and turn the negative talk into positive.  This clearly shows how endorsing a brand right and pushing for the right target market can turn a brand around.

Target audience research: 

The green party’s logo was one of the key reasons I chose it to rebrand. Straight away I look at the logo and to me it represents some kind of fair trade brand. What it doesn’t do, is say we are strong political party. It feels like a charity organisation to support climate change. Whilst climate change does play a huge role in the party, it also creates a big gap between conveying that that this is a political party with a range of policies. Whilst the party is called the green party, linking to the environment straight away, I feel I will take largely into consideration the use of colour in the logo and will edge away from using green.

As not being a voter for the green party, I am one of their target market which viewed the party as pretty much being based just around the environment. After spending a long time looking at their website, this gave me a much better understanding of the party. I gaged they are very much left wing and stand for people from all walks of life, pushing the idea of democracy and that  policies are developed by ordinary members, not just the leadership, and passed at conference to which every member is invited so you can directly affect the policies by becoming a member. Their key focuses are: Public NHS/ Fair economy/ Decent homes/ Safe climate/ Free education/ Better transport.

I then went on to look at the branding of the main competitors for the green party and how they have branded their party, in order to appeal to as wide of an audience as possible. Looking at the other logos should help for direction and inspiration as well as pushing me to create something different and modern for the green party.

The conservative party uses a tree as their logo, promoting the idea of growing into something bigger. The use of an oak tree (the national tree of Britain) works, showing the idea of strength, endurance and longevity. The logo used to be a green wash to show the leaves but since the larger competition of the UKIP party, the conservatives changed it the the union jack.

The Labour party uses a rose as its logo. The rose is the national flower of England and automatically links to our national rugby and football badges. As well as this it’s a symbol that for a long time has been a symbol of socialism. As well as the idea of growth into something beautiful and the link to love.

The liberal democrats adopted their bird logo in 1989, trying the represent the new middle ground party ready to take flight. As well as the concept of the bird representing liberalism.