Task 7 Thou shalt not advertise...

The role of advertising
Advertising is a form of communication that used to attract attention of prospective customers to a business or its products or services.

Advertisement has been called “ the voice of business”, for it make people know the things they need and to make them want to buy these things, and It tells what products or services are on the market and how they can be obtained. It can also lower the prices of products by creating the mass production. Mass production lowers the costs of manufacturing and then the manufacturer can lower the selling prices. As a result, customers will buy the products at cheap prices.

The more effective an advertising campaign, the more the customers it draws. Creativity plays an important role in adverting. As the DDB creative director and the father of modern advertising Bernbach believed: “ Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.” This puts a strong emphasis on creativity and individualism which can be seen in some of Bernbach more famous adverts such as the “ Think Small” campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle.
 
The ethics of advertising
Though many benefits are achieved through advertisements, the ad message seems to become more exaggerated. It claims more and more unbelievable benefits. The customer finds many advertisements as false, deceptive or misleading. For example, The advertisement of PriyaGold orange juice mislead to think that packed/preserved orange juice is better than water. This kind of commercials is harmful to their business for customers won’t buy their services or products again and develop an aversion to every other product of the company.

In my point of view, an advertisement should communicate with real information to the customers. To gain positive effect the adverts itself should be based on purity and shy away from negative thinking or destructive demonstrations.

While the public claim that advertisement is not telling the truth about their services or product. But sometimes ethics in advertising is subtle, almost never black and white.The purpose of an advertisement is to put the clients in the best position. The ads want to make a good first impression,but different people react different. Take Nike's 2000 Olympic game commercial for example. This ad received over 2,000 complaints. The ad received so many complaints that NBC had elected to discontinue airing this ad during the Olympic broadcasts. Some people claim it was too scary to watch, especially for kids who enjoy watching the Olympics. Some think the ad was very creative and enjoyed it and many others do not care for it at all. What’s your opinion of this commercial? Same problem happened in the Xbox “ life is short, play more” commercial campaign.



A lot of people question the ethics of selling consumers things they do not need. Which means we shouldn’t have the things we don’t need but want anyway. Advertising lives where reason meets desire. It is not just about the things we buy but also about how we feel about things. That’s what makes it interesting.








Good advertising and bad
I believe a good advertisement should first satisfy the pre-condition of communicating with the right information and increase sales. It doesn’t matter how creative or extravagant the advertisement are, if they do not help improve sale figure then they are not good advertisement. As David Ogilvy said: “ I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it ‘creative’. I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product.”

Task 6 Product packaging

Kotler defines packaging as “ all the activities of designing and producing the container for a product.” Packaging can be defined as the wrapping material around a consumer item that serves to contain, identity, describe, protect, display, promote, and otherwise make the product marketable and keep it clean.

What is the role of packaging?

The role of packaging is protection, containment, safety and display. A major funcion of packaging is the communication of the product. A package must communicate what it sells. The use of unambiguous, readily understood symbols on the package is essential. symbols on the distribution If the products are selling through retail stores, the packaging designs should create desire, catch the browsers attention and inspire confidence.

Below is a very smart CD packaging design

Some Good  packaging design:


 





Who do you consider to be a good packaging designer?

Good packaging designer should always focus on the customers main requirements and be full of creativity. There are examples of Japanese designer Kenya Hara’. This series of design is an attempt to include in modern mass-produced objects the charm or magical element of strong spirts.

The flavor of lwafune rice, grown in Niigata Prefecture, rivals that of Minami Uwonuma rice, which ranks among the best in Janpan. The lwafune brand symbolies the spirituality of the Janpanese culture.
 
The design of the bottle for “Hakkin Sake”, seems to be a mirror, which disappears into its environment.
   
What is a carbon footprint?

The carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to directly and indirectly support human activities, usually expressed in equivalent tons of CO2.

Your carbon footprint is the sum of all emissions of CO2, which were induced by your activities in a given time frame. Usually a carbon footprint is calculated for the time period of a year.

What is green packaging?

Green packaging also know as sustainable packaging is the development and use of packaging which results in improved sustainability. The goal of green packaging is to improve the long term viability and quality of life for humans and the longevity of natural ecosystems.

We all know that product packaging is a largely unnecessary source of waste. But this problem may still become a surprise. Packaging that is designed for multiple uses is a solution that can both add value to products and help reduce their environmental footprint. For example, the Y water packaging design got a great attention of just this sort of dual use packaging. The organic children’s beverage is packaged in 4-lobed botttles that interlock with natural rubber connectors to become a building set when empty. And when no longer in use, the bottles can be recycled.

Below are other examples of green design packaging.

What is traffic light labeling?

A traffic light rating system is a system for simply indicating the status of a variable using the familiar red, amber (yellow) or green of traffic lights. A growing number of supermarkets and food manufacturers are using traffic light colours on the labels of some products to help you make your choice. For example, green means the food is low in that nutrient. The more green lights, the healthier the choice.

 

Task 5 Responsible design

Jonathan Barnbrook
The increased awareness of the responsibilities of design made me want to talk to one person in particular: Jonathan Barnbrook, who is not only famous for his font design but also been active in this responsible field with its strong views on corporate culture, consumerism, war and international politics. He works in both commercial and non-commercial spheres.

Since 1990, Barnbrook has produced a wide range of innovative graphic work,from print design to corporate identity, magazine work to typeface, industrial design to CD covers. Barnbrook’s work always deeply thougt- provoking.

In Barnbrook’s point of view, graphic design can’t last for a very long time, it is better to create something which relates to what people are currently thinking about. In his work, he try and comment on those social and political issues in a more reflective way, rather than “shouting” trying to be a litter more humanitarian and reflective.

This is a project completed for a South Korean magazine called: North Korea – Building a brand. The project not only criticizes the regime, it also talks about ideas of freedom and the power individuals have over dictatorships.

"Detail of Disneyland” finished in 2004 by Jonathan Barnbrook. Like Disneyland, North Korea is a contained fabricated geographic fantasy. They are both very expensive to get into.

These image was part of Barnbrook’s “ Tomorrow’s Truth” exhibition at the Seoul Arts Centre in 2004.

In this poster, Barnbrook entered in the Barcode as a mustache in Bush’s face. Bush is ironically seen as a Hitler for the modern age.

Friendly fire exhibition:

Barnbrook also did a Japanese version for Adbusters’ Buy-Nothing-Day commercial. This is an event which is held once a year encouraging people not to shop and to think a little about what the values are, of a society that regards consumerism as so important.

No more Dog Poo

The small Swiss town of La Chaux-de-fonds has many dog lovers. With a population of just 37,000 people, there are as many as 2,000 dogs that excrete about 600 kilograms of dog feces every day. To improve this circus, the authorities and the art school have launched a “ Dogs Mess Eradication Project” this year – enriching the town with different coloured, 3D dog signs that indicate clearly if it’s a no-go zone for pets or not.

Some postercards and booklets for the “Dogs Mess Eradication Proect”

A no dog’s zone with many red dog shaped objects.

I have also found a campaign created by Volkswagen called “ The fun Theory”

This is a series of experiments, captured on video, to find out if making the world more fun can improve people’s behavior.

In my opinion, as a designer, working very good with clients and happy just to do cool work is not enough. There is a political, social and psychological impact of what we do. Taking a bit more responsibility is significant in today’s design world.

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