Manifest your Manifesto!

The following assignment is a common one among art & design academies. It was proposed to me during my foundation years in Graphic Design at Willem de Kooning in Rotterdam. Unfortunately, I was not able to find to find my old manifesto, which focused on creativity and inspiration when undertaking a design project. Although it is a standard assignment, I think it is interesting to revisit this assignment because it pushes you to interrogate where you stand (what are your believes, philosophy and values?) as a citizen and as a future brand manager.

BACKGROUND RESEARCH

MANIFESTO

”A written statement declaring publicly intentions, motives, or views of its users” (Merriam Webster, n.d.). The statement piece aims to promote a new idea with perspective notions for carrying out changes, supported by the author’s believes. It is often found as a political or artistic written form/ text like the Communist Manifesto or the Dada Manifest. Used to pass down ideas and views on the world, the manifesto could lead in a change of reader’s thinking, perception and behaviour.

CHANGE CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

Companies spend time and money to segment their audiences based on the belief, values and habits to create a more effective and personalised marketing campaign to change their brand preference. ”Marketers should be asking how consumers are alike, not how they’re different. People are much more similar than we think” explains Forbes (2018) in one of its article. The article argues that all buyers have similar associations about brands, so marketing teams must use certain codes and cues (language, imagery, music etc.) to bypass the sceptical brain and create positive associations on a subconscious level, thus leading to change in behaviour towards a brand. 

Joe Boyd, CEO of Rebel Pilgrim a creative agency in Ohio (USA), Boyd explains, in one of his company’s video, how to initiate change. One of the effective ways to do it is to tell the story of your preferred future that everyone would benefit from (also known as vision casting). It starts by explaining what would be the future be like for all of us when we reach to this preferred future. So, Boyd believes that the most powerful and effective way to create impact and lead to consumer change is to tell a compelling story. By using storytelling, one can create emotion and empathy leading to behaviour change. In Forbes’ article (2018), the author explains that emotion is the outcome. ” The key is for consumers to feel a positive connection with a brand, not for brands to communicate emotions”, in other words, the feelings are the result of a consumer experience not from a message delivered by the brand. A positive emotional connection is created by tapping into positive, familiar ideas in the consumers’ memories.

In the context of the research, I am looking to create a green and sustainable consumer behaviour and change. Over the last decades, the consumption of products and services has increased exponentially and worldwide. This consumerism led to depletion of natural resources, loss of biodiversity and rapid environmental deterioration (Kostadinova, 2016). There is an urge to change this behaviour to tackle and resolve our sustainability challenges.

According to Kostadinova’s research (2016), there are two categories that influence pro-environmental behaviour:

• Individual (related to the attitudes, values, demographic characteristics and other variables that affect the consumer’s decision-making behaviour).
• Contextual/ situational factors (related to external forces which may influence sustainable consumption in a positive or negative way).

”Changing consumers’ habits is a major challenge before sustainable consumption”, concludes Kostadinova (2016). She also argues that the low-involvement everyday decision-making on a good or service contributes to the significant environmental impact and is at the heart of overconsumption (this topic is still under-researched).

The conglomerate, Unilever, claimed to have used marketing and market research to promote behaviour change through their own model called Five Levers for Change. It is a tool that the company hopes will help others to tackle big sustainability challenges. The model is based on the well-known ”trigger, behaviour, reward” explained by the psychiatrist Judson Brewer in one of the TED Talk. Unilever’s model works when looking and going through the five levers (Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, n.d.):

• Make it understood: This lever refers to raising awareness and encouraging acceptance (Do people know about the behaviour? Do they believe it is relevant to them?).
  
• Make it easy: This lever is about convenience and confidence (Do people know what to do and feel confident doing? Can they see it fitting into their lives?).
  
• Make it desirable: This lever look at ‘self and society’, because we tend to emulate the lifestyles and habits of people we respect (parents or even celebrities) and follow society’s norms (Will doing this new behaviour fit with their actual or aspirational self-image? Does it fit with how they relate to other or want to?).
  
• Make it rewarding: This lever refers to demonstrates the proof and payoff (Do people know when they’re doing the behaviour ‘right’? Do they get some sort of reward for doing it?).
  
• Make it a habit: This last lever is about reinforcing and reminding once people have made a change (What can we do to help them keep doing it?).
  

Photo credit: Unilever Sustainable Living Plan, (n.d.)

For the following assignment, it is important to trigger the audience by bringing knowledge and positive emotions (storytelling) into the manifesto to hope for a green and sustainable consumer behaviour change.

If we want to create a behavioural change, like our attitude and excessive petroleum consumption, many people would rely on brands to reduce its use. However, is it wise to tackle this problem by leaving it in the hands of brands and designers? If we want to raise the issue, open up a dialogue, and create change in our habits, I believe that it is better to initiate this change by targetting, what I think is the core of the problem, the (future) consumers. Consumers are creating the demand and brands/companies are responding to this demand (most of the time and cases). Of course, we shall not deny companies’ effort to reduce environmental impact, but the focus is put on consumers’ moral responsibility towards consumerism in relation to a desire for a greener and healthier environment.

PETROLEUM & SUSTAINABILITY

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, petroleum is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons that occur in Earth in a liquid, gaseous, or solid state but it is often referred to the liquid form (McLeroy, Atwater and Riva, 2018).

Out of petroleum, plastic was created and mass-produced in the 1940s and 1950s and was intensively promoted because of its transparency, lightweight, malleability, and toughness properties as well as low cost of production (Rodriguez, 2018; Thompson, Swan, Moore and vom Saal, 2009). Plastic is a polymer made of hydrocarbon chains, which is often derived from liquid petrol (Plastics Make It Possible, 2011).

Did you know that 10 tons of plastics are produced every second worldwide and 1 ton ends up in oceans every 2 seconds (Cash Investigation, 2018)? Plastic is everywhere and in everything like tap water, food (salt, beer etc.), clothing, utility tools and even within you in shape of microparticles (McDermott, 2017)!

Notes from the documentary, Cash Investigation: Plastique La Grande Intox, aired on France 2

Items that contain plastic are convenient and cheap. Many activists published photos of plastics in the oceans showing the damages caused to the environment. However, we do not simply need to understand that it is happening but we need to know why it has happened. Modernized economic countries have a high degree of environmental awareness and generally good waste management practices. Most of the plastics found in the oceans come from less modernized economic countries that didn’t establish environmental standards such as awareness among the population and setting up recycling infrastructures. We should also not forget about natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, etc. which aggravated the plastic dispersion from lands to oceans.

CONCEPT

Goal: Changing human behaviour on a small scale. Nowadays, plastic prevails over traditional materials like wood, leather, metal, glass, and ceramic. How can change consumer behaviour towards a petroleum consumption-free attitude? The manifesto is an attempt to raise awareness and ”explain” how easy can it be to reduce this excessive consumption for a plastic-free world.

Message: Reduce petroleum consumption (from excessive to a petroleum-free life).

Format: Manifesto in the shape of a pin attached to the actual manifesto text.

Visuals: Ideas are formed by associating unrelated concepts in an unexpected or unusual way (Collins, 2018). To increase the change of having greater ideas, the mind mapping tool is used. A large and unclear problem generally benefit from this tool to lay out the elements. Mind mapping is useful to create hierarchy and categorisation in a visual and clear manner allowing an easier association between ideas (Collins, 2018). A couple of sketches were also done as a visual reference for the final product.

Reference: Label pins are iconic symbols that represent causes, brands, political parties or musical artists. Cristaux (n.d.) explains that the label pins’ history may date back to Egypt in 1800 B.C. who used wire to form decorative filigree pieces. Six hundred years later the Grecian artists began using powdered glass to fill in the spaces between wires in filigree designs (Cristaux, n.d.). Label pins come from the decorative enamelled objects from ancient times, where the process of enamelling is still used nowadays for colour inlay. From a functional purpose to a decorative object (accessory), the pin became a medium for making a political or social statement displaying an attitude/ membership of a movement (Malev, 2017). The pin is a very intimate act making the wearer part of something offering a way to express him/herself to a wide audience (Malev, 2017).

Reference: Pins Won’t Save the World is a project initiated by Sagmeister & Walsh, a NY design agency, and contributed by a cohort of artists like Adam J Kurtz, Mike Perry, Timothy Goodman and Jing Wei. It focused on raising funds for charities that support causes under the threat by Trump and his administration such as Planned Parenthood, the NAACP Legal Defence Fund, ACLU, International Refugee Assistance Project, the Mexican American Legal Defence and Education Fund, and the Trevor Project (Pins Won’t Save the World, n.d.).

Photo credit: Sagmeister & Walsh (2018)

First sketches

Manifesto

Layout

The pin symbolises my manifesto and the act of wearing it proves that the owner acts accordingly to the manifesto. The pin would be attached on a recycled square brown paper card. The recto side would showcase the pin and the title of the manifesto. The verso side gives a general fact about the consumption of petroleum (a.k.a. plastic) followed by the manifesto helping the reader to change his/her consuming behaviour. At the bottom of the card, a small annotated text explains where the money is going for every pins purchase. The money could be raised for social initiatives or associations like The Plastic Bank.

Second sketches

The poppy is commonly used as an icon to remember people who lost their lives during WWI in Anglo-Saxon countries. Worn during Remembrance day, the poppy is based on a famous poem In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, a Canadian soldier previously known as a poet and physician (Hutchcroft, n.d.). Looking at this example, I decided to look at something, which can symbolise adversity through the abundance of plastics on our Earth. In the flower repertoire, dandelion is very easy to grow and do not need much attention, in fact, they are often considered like nuisances. Difficult to remove, dandelion can live on acidic soil, which makes them very resistant to harsh conditions. Microplastics can make the soil less fertile leading to a long-term negative effect on ecosystems (UN Environment, 2018). From its colour and properties, this flower inspired me to be one who prevails from this land pollution.

The yellow flower head is composed only of ray flowers (Jackson, 2015), so I imagined that a pin could be a ray and by collecting them, a dandelion could be created. Thus, a larger illustration would appear before the eyes of the viewer/owner of the pins.

FINAL RESULT

Master project?

CRITICAL REFLECTION

The concept was generally well accepted. The research and logic behind my manifesto appeared to be solid taking into account the time dedicated to the assignment. However, I was not able to show the final result because I waited too long to take a final decision about the manifesto’s content. Taking quick decision is important and I hope that I can be less indecisive in the future.

Based on the feedback, the first visual draft portrays a too negative image, which may refract people from wearing the pin. This is something that I have expected, but I found the visual representation of the manifesto rather difficult. I need to stop thinking too literally but think more metaphorically. This can be done by making a connection between the problem and something else, something unusual (Barrett, 2016). ”When you use a metaphor to link two ideas together, you are combining elements that have little or no logical connection” (Barrett, 2016). Thus, it interesting to look at the relationship between the ”tenor” (object or concept) and the ”vehicle” (what is compared to) of a metaphor (Relihan, n.d.).

After discussing with my classmates, I was pointed at looking from a positive nature perspective, meaning that nature always takes back its rights. This is something that I have future developed after the presentation. Visual thinking will also be an interesting way to stimulate my imagination, especially after reading an article on 5 Sketching Secrets of Leonardo Da Vinci: sketch your ideas out 4-5 times, use annotations in your sketches, collaborate with other when you sketch, engage your imagination, and look for combinations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barrett, T. (2016, September 2,4). 9 Ways to Think More Obliquely and Develop Your Ideas [Online]. Available at: https://medium.com/startup-grind/9-ways-to-think-more-obliquely-and-develop-your-ideas-6c3abe30dd09 (Accessed: 12 November 2018)

Cash Investigation. (2018, September 11). Plastique: La Grand Intox [Online]. Available at: https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-magazine/france-2/cash-investigation/cash-investigation-du-mardi-11-septembre-2018_2925427.html (Accessed: 06 November 2018)

Collins, H. (2018). Creative Research, The Theory And Practice Of Research For The Creative Industries (2nd ed.). London, UK: Bloomsbury.

Cristaux. (n.d.). A Brief History of Lapel Pins [Online]. Available at: https://www.cristaux.com/blog/history-of-lapel-pins/ (Accessed: 12 November 2018)

Dermott, A. (2017, October 11). Plastic is in Everything Now, Here are Seven Places It’s Turned Lately [Online]. Available at: https://oceana.org/blog/plastic-everything-now-here-are-seven-places-it%E2%80%99s-turned-lately (Accessed: 06 November 2018)

Forbes. (2018, September 06). How and Why Does Consumer Behavior change? [Online]. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/09/06/how-and-why-does-consumer-behavior-change/#7be8fdbe86dd (Accessed: 05 November 2018)

Hutchcroft, A. (n.d.). Biography of John McCrae Flanders Fields Author [Online]. Available at: http://www.flandersfieldsmusic.com/johnmccrae-bio.html (Accessed: 30 November 2018)

Jackson, B. S. (2015). Pissenlit [Online]. Available at:  https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/fr/article/pissenlit (Accessed: 30 November 2018)

Kostadinova, E. (2016). Sustainable Consumer Behavior: Literature Overview. Economic Alternatives, 2, p. 224-234.

Malev, D. (2017). To The Point, Pins Mechanisms And Brooch Back Design. Leipzig, Germany: Winterwork.

McLeroy, P. G., Atwater, G. I., and Riva, J. P. (2018). Petroleum [Online]. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/science/petroleum (Accessed: 06 November 2018)

Merriam Webster. (n.d.). Manifesto [Online]. Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifesto (Accessed: 05 November 2018)

Plastics Make It Possible. (2011). What Are Plastics & How Are Plastics Made? [Online]. Available at: https://www.plasticsmakeitpossible.com/about-plastics/types-of-plastics/what-are-plastics/ (Accessed: 06 November 2018)

Pins Won’t Save the World. (n.d.). About [Online]. Available at: https://www.pinswontsavetheworld.com/pages/about-us/ (Accessed: 04 November 2018)

Relihan, B. (n.d.). Four Steps to Encourage Metaphorical Thinking [Online]. Available at: https://www.crresearch.com/blog/four-steps-to-a-metaphorical-connection (Accessed: 12 November 2018)

Rodriguez, F. (2018). Plastic [Online]. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/science/plastic (Accessed: 06 November 2018)

Sailor Jerry. (n.d.). The History of Tattoos [Online]. Available at: https://sailorjerry.com/en/tattoos/overview/ (Accessed: 05 November 2018)

Shaw, J. (2015). Vintage, 100 Years of Traditional Tattoos – Tattoo from the Collection of Jonathan Shaw Flash. Brooklyn, NY: PowerHouse Books.

Sustainable Materials. (n.d.). Materials List [Online]. Available at:  http://www.sustainablematerials.org.uk/resource/ (Accessed: 05 November 2018)

TED Talk. (2016, February 26). A simple way to break a bad habit | Judson Brewer [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-moW9jvvMr4 (Accessed: 05 November 2018)

Thompson, R. C., Swan, S. H., Moore, C. J., and vom Saal, F. S. (2009). Our Plastic Age, The Royal Society, 364 (1526), p1973-1976.

UN Environment. (2018, April 03). Plastic Planet: How Tiney Plastic Particles Are Polluting Our Soil [Online]. Available at: https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/plastic-planet-how-tiny-plastic-particles-are-polluting-our-soil (Accessed: 30 November 2018)

Unilever Sustainable Living Plan. (n.d). Inspiring Sustainable Living: Expert insights into consumer behaviour & Unilever’s Five Levers for Change [Online]. Available at: https://www.unilever.com/Images/slp_5-levers-for-change_tcm244-414399_en.pdf (Accessed: 05 November 2018)

Visualise Statistics Challenge

During one of our MA class, we accumulated a range of statistical information captured in photographic form. We were asked to analyse, present and conclude a range of information based on these data collated. It is a creative challenge that helps us understand data collection and teaches us how to translate these data into information for a broad audience.

My goal is to create an informative and, yet, entertaining visually. So, it is interesting to look at how storytelling can be used in an informative design. Furthermore, I decided to focus on (future) leaders within the defined sample. Before creating the informative design, information has been collecting regarding the following topics: (visual) storytelling and lead (leadership).

BACKGROUND RESEARCH

[VISUAL] STORYTELLING

Visual storytelling is being used in various media such as newspapers, magazines, websites, advertising, museums etc. According to Losowsky, visual storytelling is the combination of emotional reaction and narrative information. To approach visual storytelling, designers will either aim to maintain a sensation of continuity (through a colour scheme, typography and tone of the information) or invoke contradictory emotions using a piece of visual language and its content (Klanten et al., 2011). Studies showed that more than half of the brains is dedicated to the processing of visual input, so it is necessary to convey information in a memorable and/or digestible form using visual-based storytelling.

The book, Visual Storytelling: Inspiring a New Visual Language, provides a collection of inspiring visual ‘graphics’ examples, but the main idea behind the book is to explain how visual storytelling takes a familiar image context, photos and illustration, and use them in a new way.

Design storytelling is a book, which looks at narrative techniques to create satisfying graphics. Lupton (2017) explains the importance of a good story for good design because a good design connects an audience through shared experiences. Thus, it is important to narrative techniques to create powerful work. The book looks an action tool, emotion tools and sensation tools.

To create an informative design, I decided to use action tools like the storyboard tool to sketch ideas and to illustrate the final product. The Rule of Three tools was also explored because studies show that the audience is more likely to understand and absorb any type of information are grouped into threes (Lupton, 2017). A study showed that a visual present no more than 6 to 12 elements when representing a single concept or idea (IQ Doodle School, n.d.). So, 12 elements can be presented in a visual as long as they are grouped into threes. Finally, it is very important to visuals simple and straightforward to get the message across (KISS Principle).

LEADER[SHIP]

For a career perspective, I seek to be an inspirational art/ creative director, so I decided to focus my assignment on leadership. Thus, I will investigate leaders who are taking part in this visual statistics assignment.

Leader. To achieve organisational goals, a leader should possess a number of specialist qualities. According to Marcus and van Dam (2007), a true leader possesses the following qualities:

• Does not impose his/her leadership
• Attracts supporters without needing to be coerced
• Demonstrates an ability to fulfil the wishes of followers
• Is an expert

There are historical examples of strong leaders like Napoleon (French emperor), Winston Churchill (British prime minister), Mahatma Gandhi (Indian activist), Nelson Mandela (South African president), Richard Branson (Virgin Group CEO), and Steve Jobs (Apple co-founder) just to name a few. The French general/ president, Charles de Gaulle, once said ‘’the effective leader has to be well informed about the details of specific circumstances, he should not think in abstract or vague general theories and should have more self-confidence than his rivals’’.

Nowadays, leaders need to challenge the status quo, create visions of the future, and inspire organizational members to want to achieve the organisational/leaders/their visions. A study looked at charismatic leaders and reported that the relationship between a leader and his/her employees would have the following qualities (Marcus and van Dam, 2007):

• A leader is considered by his employees (followers) in some ways to be superhuman
• Employees do not question the opinion of the leader
• Employees follow their leader unconditionally
• Employees will give a leader complete emotional support

From a leader to leadership style. Leadership refers to ‘’the ability to influence a group toward the achievement of a vision or set of goals’’ (Robbins and Judge, 2013). Leadership can also be the relationship through, which one person influence the behaviour or actions of other people, meaning on an interpersonal/behavioural context (Mullins and Christy, 2013). There are different styles of leadership style but there are 9 that are commonly known, check them out by clicking here.

What makes a ”good” art leader/ director? According to Niklas Dorn (n.d.), if you want to be a successful art director, you need to adopt the following 7 traits:

• Self-confidence in every project you work on, and every assignment you turn in.
• Keep on learning from your superiors and take all advice/ feedbacks (of course, with a grain of salt). Keep on asking questions, curiosity leads to new ideas.
• Stress-resistance because creative agencies deal with several projects at the same time, so you’ll have to stay on top of your work.
• Think out of the box, it is important to try and create unique, successful projects by using your colleagues and superiors to help foster your creative success.
• Communication skills because you’ll have to build relationships with clients, co-workers, and superiors.
• Strategic thinking because you’ll to have a tactical plan to achieve your objectives.
• Teamworking skills where you’ll inspire your team and strategically place your colleagues were their strengths lie for every project.

According to Artisan (2016), there are 10 qualities for becoming a successful art director:

• Resilience, to handle the bruised egos of others.
• Focus, to think of the big picture while thinking about every detail of this big picture.
• Imagination to invent a project from scratch.
• Diplomacy skills when discussing ideas with the team and client (be prepared to tell a graphic designer to throw away an idea).
• Courage and remember to not be afraid of failure.
• Good design sense, a passion for design is a prerequisite.
• Punctuality and efficiency as meeting the deadlines are crucial in this field.
• Market knowledge to pitch the ideas to the marketing department/ client.
• Experience/ productive career before obtaining this status.
• An outstanding portfolio is more important than a resume (important to document everything).

CONCEPT

Goal: Translating photos into visual statistics by selecting parameters to create digestible information for a broad audience.

Message: A closer look at future art leaders traits from MA Graphic Design and Design, Innovation & Brand Management courses at University for the Creative Arts in Epsom.

Format: Digital illustration/ infographic.

Content: Translating photos into visual statistics by selecting parameters.

The sample of this experiment is 42 MA students (n=42). The story focuses on the leaders in two MA courses at the University for the Creative Arts: Design, Innovation & Brand Management; and Graphic Design. Based on the question ”Are you a follower or a leader” a total of 15 students categorised themselves as a leader. Here are the following demographic characteristics of the observed group:

• Sample size: 15
• Age: Millenials (the mid-20s and early 30s)
• Gender: 5 (men); 10 (women)
• Ethnicity*: 4 (European); 10 (East Asian); 1 (Central Asian)
• Occupation: MA Graphic Design students at UCA (Epsom); MA Design, Innovation and Brand Management students at UCA (Epsom)

Disclaimer: The following observation fails to reach an equal number of respondents per ethnic groups, plus it does not represent all the world ethnic groups. So, the observation cannot draw a portrait of leaders and comparison between recorded ethnicity groups. Next, the observation looks at only at two MA course offered at UCA (Epsom). Due to the sample size and the above-mentioned restrictions, the gathered data cannot be generalised to the overall UCA (Epsom) population parameter.

To complete this challenge, I looked for patterns through the different categories set during the data collection. Based on the gathered data, I decided to look at the following traits of the 15 students (leaders), which would give us more information about the general profile:

• Introvert vs Extrovert
• Speaker vs Listener
• Organised vs Unorganised
• Giver vs Receiver
• Sketchbook vs Journal
• Pencil vs Pen
• Coloured clothes vs Black & white clothes

All the data are treated, reported and calculated using Microsoft Excel. The following tables give an overview of the selected parameters:

To represent the chosen traits, it is important to create an illustrated representation. To do so, I tried to sketch out symbols, which were drawn in my sketchbook.

Finally, I combined the different symbols with the observed traits of the leaders from the MA Graphic Design and MA Design, Innovation & Brand Management of 2018-2019. The idea was to create one strip, one story, which could be used in the future for a UCA brochure.

FINAL RESULT

CRITICAL REFLECTION

The assignment was slightly frustrating me because I knew that based on my infographic concept idea, the data would never be supportive (irrelevant due to the lack and limited data collection).

To complete the assignment, Microsoft Excel was used to quantify the data and the informative design was created in Adobe Illustrator to improve my software silks. I decided to create a condensed design, which could be used by UCA in their information brochure regarding the courses and opportunities that the university offers. After being presented in front of the class, there was not any clear feedback given to me.

From a personal point of view, I believe that I was not able to create a good story through this infographic. This is probably due to the way of how the information is displayed. The characters should probably be repositioned and the item representing a data may also be separated from the characters. It would have been interesting to get feedback from a design point of view so I could have grown from this graphical experience.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Artisan. (2016, May 25). 10 Qualities of Successful Creative Director [Online]. Available at: http://creative.artisantalent.com/10-qualities-of-successful-creative-directors (Accessed: 01 November 2018)

Dorn, N. (n.d.). 7 Powerful Traits of Successful Art Directors at Ad Agencies [Online]. Available at: https://blog.filestage.io/powerful-traits-of-successful-art-directors-at-ad-agencies/ (Accessed: 01 November 2018)

IQ Doodle School. (n.d.). The 6-12 KISS Principle of Visual Thinking [Online]. Available at: https://school.iqdoodle.com/framework/core-principles/the-6-12-kiss-principle-of-visual-thinking/ (Accessed: 01 November 2018)

Klanten, R. S. Ehmann, S. and F. Schulze, F. (2011). Visual Storytelling: Inspiring a New Visual Language. Berlin, Germany: Gestalten.

Lupton, E. (2017). Design is Storytelling. New York, USA: Cooper Hewitt.

Marcus, J. and van Dam, N. (2007). Organisation and Management, An International Approach. Groningen, the Netherlands: Noordhoff Uitgevers.

Mullins, L. J. and Christy, G. (2013). Management & Organisational Behaviour. 10^th edn. Harlow, England, UK: Pearson Education Limited.

Robbins, S.P. and Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behaviour. 15^th edn. New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education.

Love Challenge

Today’s challenge started with the following sentence: ”Sometimes things are not all they seem – and there is often an underlying message behind the main theme of the problem to be solved.”

CONTEXT

In small groups, the challenge was to help the social services division of Epsom and Ewell Council to find ways to save money while creating a positive impact on the community. The social services division of Epsom and Ewell Council want to ‘spread the love’, so the ultimate challenge is to think of ways make people happy to give their time without financial reward and without creating extra cost for the town (bonus point if the group could help the council to save money on services that they would normally pay). Each group had thirty minutes to come up with an idea and to present its best idea in front of the class.

CHALLENGE & REFLECTION

This brief demanded the collaboration between two MA classes, MA Graphic Design and MA Design, Innovation & Brand Management students. The first barrier was to get to know each other, but due to the time constraint of the assignment, it was difficult to see where everyone’s strengths lied. Nevertheless, everyone seemed up for the challenge.

To start off the challenge, I suggested to the group that we should think of two-three ideas individually and then present it to the rest of our group. Due to the short time, I believe that this method would help to create a number of ideas (first quantity over quality). Once, every member of the group presented his/her ideas, we brainstormed, which idea seemed the more appealing based on the challenge’s context (I do not have visuals of our brainstorming session). The topics of ‘food waste’, ‘difficulties to access healthy products” and ‘unhealthy food habits’ were mentioned a lot. As a group, it took us a long time before agreeing on a unique concept, because there were divergent thinking. Nevertheless, compromises were made, because we were running out of time.

Concept: Based on our knowledge as a group, we knew that supermarkets and other food stores throw away leftover food at the end of the day because they cannot be sold because of sanitary regulations. We also know that municipalities have to take care of this huge amount of food waste by disposing and destroying them. This costs a lot of money! A second life could be given to this food waste. So, as a group, we would encourage the social services division of Epsom and Ewell Council to seek partnerships with the food stores by buying its unsold food. We would suggest buying the unsold food per kilo. This new social initiative would be supported by a group of volunteers/job seekers maybe call W.EAT from ”We Eat” referring to food for everyone.

I felt like a moderator in this group, so I decided to lay out our concept on paper by structuring it under different categories, which would help us to present it to the class and later on, to describe it to our future client. The final paper was not as structured as I hoped it to be, but for a 30 minutes-challenge, I believe it included a lot of important elements (see the photo below).

W.EAT-Concept Presentation Poster (Bally, 2018)

So, the final concept focuses on reducing food waste, fighting poverty and reducing obesity in the United-Kingdom. The primary target audience is university students because one the largest population of Epsom are students. We can easily connect our themes to the student population because as students we are aware of the financial restraints, thus making it difficult for this community to reach a better quality of life. It is a LOVE-challenge, so we wanted to be inclusive and not discriminating the other populations of Epsom. I have learned from my previous education that when developing a concept, it is important to be specific when targetting our audience. This was our first compromise.

This social project should not cost extra money for the town, so it must be run by volunteers. However, as a group, we could clarify whether students or job seekers should run this project because often people are motivated when they can earn a reward (extrinsic motivation). So, we would need to think of a way to intrinsically motivate people for this project. As this social project aims to fight obesity, subventions from the NHS could be sought but as far as we discussed the concept, I do not think that the NHS would give any money from this raw concept. The intrinsic motivation and the financial support from external partners are our main problem in this concept.

Moving on to the resources needed for this project, we first discussed the need for a location/ storage. To rent a small office in the middle of Epsom or to own a food truck? It seemed more plausible to negotiate a small office to the Epsom council. However, the group decided to have both (second compromise on my side by letting my group have both options). Thus, a food truck would be used to sell the food and an office to control the food quality and to store it. The food truck would visit the university and some areas of Epsom. However, I would have asked the following two questions to my group if we had more time: How would you pay for a food truck? How would you pay for the gas in the food truck? The promotion of this social initiative was also discussed. Epsom UCA university holds a business school, so we thought that this initiative could become a student project supported and guided by university teachers. Another idea was to create a student contest. The last idea was to create a social student club, where students would be intrinsically motivated to create, together, a brand/marketing plan.

Finally, our presentation offered future expansion ideas. These ideas were first discussed during our brainstorming but later on put on the side. These options came as follow: learning how to cook healthy (cooking classes), and a ‘Cake & Tea event’ where old and young can meet (parents could leave their children for a short time- creche?).

After reflection, the concept was based on my idea but I wonder if it is the best idea to demonstrate love. Alessandra was very attached to her idea of ‘Cake & Tea’ event. I wondered if I should have been less stubborn about my idea and instead look at opportunity behind her idea, which I believe would have shown more love than the final presented idea.

FEEDBACKS

The underlying message behind our concept’s main themes (reducing food waste, fighting poverty and reducing obesity) is love. Through the W.EAT-concept, we hope to create social interactions between citizens. For centuries, food has been a strong social facilitator between populations, so we believe that by sharing food and knowledge, we could recreate a bond that seemed to disappear over time.

Overall, the concept was well-received amongst the class and teachers. The presented concept offers various ideas, which could lead to beautiful social projects. At last, we were encouraged to fine-tune some details and to re-think the way to present W.EAT-concept because the Epsom council might be invited to listen to our concept.

INSPIRATION

(TED Talk, 2012)

Tristram Stuart is a British author, activist and founder of Feedback who talks about food waste. In his TED Talk and BBC podcast, he explores creative solutions to reduce our waste and call us to change the system for using more responsibly the global resources.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bally, A. (2018, November 07). Love Challenge 12. October 2018 [Online]. Available at: https://mauteora.wordpress.com/2018/11/07/love-challenge-12-october-2018/ (Accessed: 07 November 2018)

TED Talk. (2012, May). The Global Food Waste Scandal [Online]. Available at https://www.ted.com/talks/tristram_stuart_the_global_food_waste_scandal#t-836607 (Accessed: 07 November 2018)

Good vs Poor Design Branded Campaigns

Today’s challenge is to defend what’s good and poor design using six examples. For this challenge, I decided to focus on my interest in branding. I chose three viral brand campaigns, where I looked at their good and poor design conception.

To base the critics, I looked at the most known core design principles guideline by Sullivan, used by many designers from around the world, to define whether the brand campaign is good or poor. The focus is principally put on the analysis of the use of ”feelings” to generate a positive and adequate emotional response amongst the targeted audience. Please view the presentation and read the rest of the article to gain a better understanding of my reasoning.

https://prezi.com/view/0v0sRUso5lBlEkqQYW3H/

CONTEXT

The core design principles started from Louis Sullivan (1895-1924) who popularized “Form follows function” in the 20^th century. Form and function is a starting point considered by every designer when developing new work, rather than focusing on aesthetics. According to Sullivan, a great design follows these principles (Craven, 2017):

• Form
  
• Function

FORM looks to the visual appeal using harmonic colours and a well-chosen typeface. FUNCTION refers to the work’s purpose, its easiness to read, understand, and to execute in a given media.

• Feeling

There is a third subtler factor that plays in design principles, which is FEELING (Elaver, 2012; Pence, 2004). FEELING refers to the message, the mood-evoking an emotional response to the audience. Many designers think about it subconsciously but it is rarely expressed as a priority in their design thinking. Storytelling is a common tool to convey emotions through the use of a narrative. Using a narrative approach helps to build emotional connections between customers, brands and its product/ service (Huang, 2010).

Thus, in my opinion, a good design is able to tell a story without words creating an emotional response to its audience.

EXAMPLES OF GOOD/POOR BRAND CAMPAIGNS

1. Volvo FM Truck Campaign

In 2013, Volvo launched a new campaign that portrays Jean-Claude Van Damme performing a split between two reversing trucks. The video was created by Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors, one of Sweden’s leading creative agencies.

Goal: To demonstrate the stability and precision of the dynamic steering making Volvo FM easy to drive. The goal was to make a number of different Live Test films to break with the traditional-looking advertising.

Aim: To create awareness and ”pave the way for further marketing in Volvo Trucks’ 140 local markets” explained Lars Terling, Volvo vice president marketing communications, “(…) we were looking for a strategic partner that could help us out-smart our competitors with an unconventional take” (Carter, 2014).

In the end, Volvo’s marting communications department and Forsman & Bodenfors tried to create multi-level storytelling to appeal on an emotional level to both the general public and to truck experts. It received a Bronze Lion at Cannes International Festival of Creativity in 2014.

2. Benetton UnHate Campaign

The marketing campaign was created in 2011 by FABRICA, an Italian communication research centre as a part of Benetton Group, for the UnHate foundation (founded by Benetton Group) using controversial billboard posters.

Goal: To break the barriers of racial, ethnic, religious backgrounds, educating and enlightening people on political and social agendas (though one-sided beliefs) across diverse socio-cultural demographics.

Aim: To increase brand awareness and equity to help revitalize and reinvigorate the United Colors of Benetton brand. Raise awareness and equity of foundation by promoting peace and dialogue. The billboard campaign pictures the following:

• Nicolas Sarkozy, ex-French President of the 5^th Republic, kissing the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel
• Pope Benedict XVI kissing the Egyptian Imam, Ahmed el Tayeb
• Barack Obama, American president kissing Hu Jintao, the Paramount Leader of the People’s Republic of China
• Kim Jong-il, Supreme Leader of North Korea kissing Lee Myung-bak, President of South Korea

Focused on the theme of the kiss, a universal symbol of love, the series of these symbolic images portray reconciliation, and a profound reflection on how politics, faith and ideas, even if they are opposed, must lead to dialogue and un-hate (UnHate Foundation, 2012).

According to Alessandro Benetton, the UnHate campaign wanted to send a “message about the need to overcome the culture of hate, through dialogue and the understanding of differences (…)” (UnHate Foundation, 2012). It received a Press Grand Prix at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity in 2012.

3. Dove Campaign for Real Beauty

Real Beauty Sketches was created in 2013 by agency partner Ogilvy & Mather for Dove owned by Unilever. It is the perfect example of a good design campaign showing how emotions and personal story to drive social engagement and shares around the brand. It became a viral marketing success and the 4^th most shared advertising ever on YouTube (Stampler, 2013).

Goal: The advertising was part of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. The goal is to improve women self-esteem by showing that the only barrier to beauty is their own self-perception. To do so, the campaign to underline the contrast between how women view themselves and what others see.

Aim: To find a way to convince the other 96% they are also beautiful, thus showing how the brand cares about its female audience.

Women were asked to describe themselves to FBI trained forensic artist Gil Zamora (from behind a mysterious curtain), who drew a portrait of them based on their description. 

Most advertising campaigns don’t evoke clear emotion but only communicate about a product or service benefits. The campaign became very successful because it taps into deep-seated emotions. Furthermore, the commercial elements are barely present.

Ogilvy & Mather received a Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (Asset Ogilvy Public Relations, n.d.).

BONUS. One Dollar Shave Club Campaign

In 2012, the start-up Dollar Shave Club became successful thanks to its ‘’Our Blades Are F***ing Great’’ in its promotional video. To steal market share from razor powerhouses like Gillette and Philips. The CEO, Michael Dubin, promised a better price point: for $1 a month, you will receive a high-quality razor (AAE Speakers, n.d.).

Goal: To create a crude and goofy viral video to support the launch of his new and disruptive business model. ‘’ I think what we wanted to do is not take ourselves too seriously, and deliver an irreverent smart tone”, explained Michael Dubin, thus trying to put yourself from a consumer’s perspective

Aim: To increase brand awareness and equity to rivalries with competitors on the market by showing a young and transparent image of the brand. The video shows the CEO who wrote the advertising to stand out from brands that take themselves too seriously.

Any company can study and design a clever marketing campaign regardless of brand awareness or marketing budget. Beyond the FORM and FUNCTION, a good design must be able to convey FEELING or EMOTION to drives an audience’s response.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AAE Speakers. (n.d.). Michael Dubin, Founder Dollar Shave Club [Online]. Available at: https://www.allamericanspeakers.com/speakers/420501/Michael-Dubin (Accessed: 28 September 2018)

Asset Ogilvy Public Relations. (n.d.). 13 awards for Ogilvy Public Relations at Cannes PR Lions 2013! [Online]. Available at: http://www.ogilvy.gr/en/asset-ogilvy/13-awards-ogilvy-public-relations-cannes-pr-lions-2013 (Accessed: 28 September 2018)

Carter, M. (2014, June 18). How Volvo Trucks Pulled Off An Epic Split And A Game-Changing Campaign [Online]. Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/3031654/how-volvo-trucks-pulled-off-an-epic-split-and-a-game-changing-campaign (Accessed: 28 September 2018)

Craven, J. (2017, October 23). The Meaning of ” Form Follows Function” [Online]. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/form-follows-function-177237 (Accessed: 28 September 2018)

Elaver, R. A. (2012). Form, Function, Emotion: Designing for the Human Experience, International Conference On Engineering And Product Design Education, p267-272.

Huang, W., Y. (2010). Brand story and perceived brand image: Evidence from Taiwan, Journal of Family and Economic issues 2010, 31(3), p307-317.

Pence, J. (2004). Narrative Emotion: Feeling, Form and Function, Journal of Narrative Theory, 34 (3), p273-276.

Stampler, L. (2013, May 22). How Dove’s ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ Became The Most Viral Video Ad Of All Time [Online]. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-doves-real-beauty-sketches-became-the-most-viral-ad-video-of-all-time-2013-5 (Accessed: 28 September 2018)

UnHate Foundation. (2012). Press Grand Prix for the UNHate Campaign [Online]. Available at: http://unhate.benetton.com/unhate-campaign-2011-press-gran-prix-winner-at-cannes-2012/ (Accessed: 28 September 2018)