TASK 4 Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

While there is no universal definition of corporate social responsibility, it generally refers to how business aligns their values and behaviour with the expectations and the needs of people. The terms of People enclose the company’s stakeholders, employees, business partners, customers, investors, suppliers and vendors, the government and the community. Increasingly, stakeholders expect that companies should be more environmentally and socially responsible in dealing with their business. Depending on the organizations risk profile, globalization and maturity, CSR may include some or all of the following elements. 

Ethics
Transparency
Environment [IIA environment page]
Health & Safety

Corporate Governance
Human Rights
Community Investment  

Because of the rapidly changing business world, if a company wants to increase their ability to manage their profits and to increase the reputation of their brands, they have to become socially responsible. How a company relates with its employees, communities and the workplace can greatly contribute to the sustainability of its business success. 


To achieve a good CSR, companies need to think two aspects of their operations. First, the quality of their management. Second, the quality and quantity of their impact on society in different fields. HSBC Bank (China) did very good in this side. CSR is critical to HSBC’s long-term success in China. CSR in HSBC is not only about charitable donations, the environment or society, but also about making decisions that maintain the right balance between the environment, society and the Bank’s business. HSBC China is emphasis on education, the environmental protection and support of local communities. To cite an instance, in 2008, HSBC launched the Consumer Education Program. It consists of a series of booklets and a public website to promote financial literacy. It also launched many Economics Forums for the public in China. HSBC supports a number of environment projects in china as well. Such as Yangtze River Delta Carbon Dioxide Emission Reduction Research, Ethical Banking, Energy-saving Campaign, Supporting Green Cities and so on.

As a designer, I will use the environmentally friendly materials to do my design and also I will do some campaign about social responsibility to arise people’s awareness about environmental protection and other crucial social issues.

Task 3 Motion graphic

1. Some popular trends in motion graphic  

I have always loved motion graphics and animation. I am also sure many of web and graphic designers do too. Motion graphics combine the languages of film and graphic design. This can be accomplished by incorporating a number of different elements such as 2d and 3d animation, video, film, typographic, illustration, photography, music and so on. There are different trends in motion graphic. I thought I’d take a look at some of the recent design trends, which interested me most in motion graphics world.

Typography Animation  
Using typography as an element to design seems to be an increasing trend these years. Blow is an interesting music video designed by Kris Moyes one of the most exciting animator. 



Many designers try to have their designs stand out from the crowd. This last couple of years is companies that are trying to extend their brand by using lots of motion graphics to present their logo. 
Take a look at some groups that use motion graphics to showcase their logo.





Handwriting/Paper play  
It is may be one of the most popular trends of the last few years. Stepping away from computer and draw something or play with items is really awesome. It also gives the work a more personal touch.

The  animation I chose are coming from the campaign Want2Bsqure. The creative agency Attik developed the whole campaign. 


 
Stop motion  
Have you ever drawn images in the corners of a book? Drawing images slightly differently from one page to the next and then flipping through then to make the images moving. This is the key of animation- incremental changes to drawings or objects, creating movement. Stop motion animation do this in its own special way. It let the object appear to move on its own and create the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence.

Stop motion isn’t something new. Just recently there seems to be an increasing use of it. 





3D animation with footage  
The technique connects the line of motion graphics and visual effects. It looks like a visual mash-up of real life, real people and images that helps people to imagine what the world would be like if they have the product/service.



2. Great designer in motion graphic industry  
It is very hard to say who is the pioneer in motion graphic field. The industry nowadays are greatly diverse, different designers have its own personal style. But recently I am very interested in Kris Moyes projects. Kris’ work is some of the most exciting moving image out there. His style is easy to recognized: Intensely colourful animations, striped-back, raw puppets, hand-draw flying items… His music video for Beck’s “Youthless” is a good example. “Youthless” is full of details and wonderful Beck characters. Kris’ unique style and Beck’s music seem like a perfect match. 



There is a TV commercial Kris did for Honda Jazz. 



3.The future  
Motion graphic are now widely spread in various fields such as TV, Internet, the forms of entertainment like CD/DVD, movie, video games and so on. Graphic designers are already being called on to produce interactive user interfaces of all kinds. Design the visuals to be accompanied with video and sound effect is strongly required. From developing static images to motion graphics has already started. Designers need to prepare for the future remains.

Tast 2 Wayfinding design: Umeda Clinic, Tokyo and Katta Hospital,Tokyo

The environment sign system of Umeda Clinic and Katta Hospital were designed by Kenya Hara, a Japanese designer in 1996 and 2002.

Umeda Clinic, Tokyo

The Umeda Clinic in Tokyo is a hospital specializing in obstetrics and gynecology.
The most distinguishing characteristic of the design is the material: cotton cloth. First of all, because the childbearing is not an illness and the maternity hospital should not give the impression like other polyclinic hospital. The designers aimed to create a soft, gentle feelings rather than a cold and tension atmosphere. Another important element is the signage is washable. This kind of design conveys to both patients and visitors as: We choose the white cotton cloth specially because we always do the cleaning. Our hospital is the cleanest one. For the women who spend time before and during childbirth, it dose shows a token of respect and understanding. Thirdly, using cotton cloth as the basic design material allows people to feel the material as to feel how gentle the hospital is.











Each washable sign has two backups and allows for about 400 times launderings. This washable signage will maintain its cleanliness for ten years.


Katta Hospital,Tokyo









The innovative design of the wayfinding system in Katta Hospital is the signs with large arrows and clear Japanese text are inlaid on the floor as well as on the wall. It solved a problem as the painting characters on the floor would probably peel off because the friction of footwear.




The wayshowing arrows not only show a direction but also tell the distance. The length of the arrow stem indicates the distance to the target. An arrow outside a door has no stem at all.









While the large number of the hospitals avoid red colour, most of the signs in Umeda Clinic are in red. It is not a bad idea for showing cleanliness and attention through the hospital.

A red cross with inlaid white directional signs marks the intersection of the building stand out very well, nobody will ignore the signage.





Signage in hospitals always serves a broad constituency including patients, visitors and staff. These groups have different needs and different wayfinding abilities. Both the two hospitals wayfinding design satisfy the need of customers and achieve hospital’s purpose.

References:

Per Mollerup (2005) Wayshowing: A guide to environmental signage principles&practices

Craig M.Berger (2005) Wayfinding: Designing and Implementing Graphic Navigational Systems

http://www.ndc.co.jp/hara/home_e/index.html

TASK1 Futura and Verdana

Futura



Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Paul Renner between 1924 and 1926 and was the most popular sans serif typeface before Helvetica and Universe.

It is based on geometric shapes that became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919-1933. Futura was commercially released in 1927.

Paul Renner believed that a modern typeface should express modern models rather than be a revival of a previous design. In designing Futura, Renner avoided the decorative, eliminating non-essential elements.

In my opinion, Futura is like a bridge between the traditional and the modern. If you look at each single word of Futura, you will find out each word looks like a sculpture, simple, elegant and forwardness.

The readability and legibility of Futura is not quite well in large amounts of text. For example, the “t” and “j” do not have usual tails or curves but instead of straight lines and the capital letter “L” and the low case letter “l” looks quite similar in Futura.

Futura Usage



Verdana


Verdana is a humanist (the letterforms to some degree evoke traditional Renaissance pen letterforms) sans-serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation. It is one of the most widely used fonts on the web.



The font was designed for using at small sizes on computer monitors. Verdana has large x-height, large counters (such as “c” and “s”), wide proportions, loose letter spacing and other features that help to identify letters and tell similar ones apart at small sizes.

IKEA Case

IKEA recently make a decision that is to give up the Futura font, in used for about 50 years and switch to Verdana. Many IKEA fans and designers are displeased with the change. To be honest, Verdana is good to be used on screens but bad in prints. The fonts are not as elegant as Futura. So when the new IKEA catalogue 2010 was released, many readers descript it as “a disaster”

From another perspective, choosing Verdana is not such a bad idea because it allows the company to use the same typeface in all countries. The capital letter “I” and low case letter “L” in Verdana are obviously more readable in terms of display than those in Futura. Also there are comments that Verdana’s number designs are better than that per Verdana’s. Concretely speaking, the cost of using Verdana is definitely low than that of Futura.



But the main problem is: Does it really satisfy the readers demand? If the message you are trying to communicate does not need to show the “avant-garde” so use the classic font? It may seem a lack of creativity, but your readers might be more familiar, so it will become readable because of the trust coming from the readers.