Please find attached below my reflective report for Assessment three, if you have any problems accessing the PDF , please contact me through email in order to send a pdf version your way 🙂
Approx : 2300 words
References:
*To access all my weekly blog post and design process in WordPress, they can all be found under the category CAGD390 tab which is located on the left hand side of the page. This was done in order to make the blog easier to access, having them all under one category – thank you *
Stage 7 learn- (reflect)
Outline three primary references including their relevance (with at least one theoretical reference)
Through “Information design” a design book written by Kathryn Coates and Andy Ellison (2014) prove to be a usual resources in regards to visualizing and communicating information through design artworks, providing hints and tips on the design process (Coates & Ellison, 2014,p.6). According to International Institute for Information Design (2014,p.10) they describe visual communication as the “planning and shaping of the contents of a message and the environments in which it is presented, with the intention to satisfy the information needs of the intended recipients” (cited by Coates & Ellison, 2014,p.10). Highlighting the importance of knowing who and what you are designing for, with the aim to making a clear and direct message (Coates & Ellison, 2014,p.18).
Reading Pictures’ (2003) a book by David Crow highlights the importance of a graphic designer to understand semiotics as an essential skill in designing. Highlighting the importance of designers finding “the right tone of voice or the right associations for a message”(Crow, 2003,p.56), playing with the concept of hidden set of meanings or messages signifying reality in a picture. The way we understand a message depends on how the language is being displayed, thus controlling how the viewer interprets the message and the tone of the language (Crow, 2003,p.56). Thus being an important factor in my design project, to create designs that clearly communicate the indented message through carefully selecting the right languages and images to use.
Visual Thinking for Design demonstrates how design can be considered as tools for cognition. This book presents visual thinking as a complex process that can be supported in every stage using specific design techniques. This allowed me understand how visual thinking can impact your design, by thinking out of the square and not so straight forward, this primary research also helped in understanding the design process.
Describe 3 significant outcomes of your project:
This project has allowed me to acquire the right skills needed to produce and conduct a project on a large industrial scale. Allowing myself to produce the best quality of work I can, one that can be regarded as a professional standard. However working on a project of this scale, illustrated the importance of creating a project timeline. To ensure each design is met with the right amount of time to explore all options of the project, a technique that has been proved to be significant outcome of this design project.
This project allowed me to explore new options of design, allowing myself as a designer to think outside the box. By considering social media into this project gave myself access to create designs in a new way, a design that could be applied to modern technology through social media. Thus, impacting the way my project and visual communication message was applied to my design. Therefore becoming a significant outcome of the final major project.
Designing an advertising campaign proved to be a significant outcome of this design project. In order to have the right information and learn the right strategies and methods, I needed to conduct extensive research on what makes an advertising campaign so successful. By doing so, the research gathered allowed myself to learn the right tactics to use in order to make my project, an advertising campaign, a successful one. Allowing my project to reach a professional standard, something that wouldn’t happen without learning the right methods and strategies for an advertising campaign.
Describe how the design concept and final project is relevant to your career intention
The chosen design concept and the final outcome of my project is relevant to my career intention. After graduation, I wish to work in a design firm that specializes in advertising and marketing, particularly through creative design campaigning. My major project highlights my talent to work within this industry, showing to future employees that I can handle industrial scale projects, while maintaining a professional level of advertising and marketing designs. Choosing the topic of pill testing demonstrates that I can tackle challenging topics within our society, particularly on design, marketing and advertising, while also meeting project deadlines. Showing that I am capable of working under pressure and succeeding. By producing posters and social media campaigns based on fantasy characters demonstrates my ability to push my design thinking, in order to think out side of the box. Thus displaying my skills to design on a professional advertising level, a quality that is needed in the design-advertising world.
References found within Research and Process Summary :
This week is all about fixing my chosen social media designs, now that my posters series are finalised, meaning i can add my posters into Instagram. This enables the campaign to have a home page , a place full of information. It also allows the campaign target audience to comment , like or share . The more times this is done within social media the more the campaign is spread around the public and festival grounds , an objective in which this project is sought to achieve.
Please find below the selected / implemented Instagram designs
Team / character poster design
During this week i made sure to implement my selected designs, making sure to use the right portions and scale , while watching my kerning and leading on all posters designs. I decided on presenting three posters on the Pokemon go teams and three posters on the Pokemon go characters.During discussion with Angelina this week , she suggested if i had more time ,with my poster to include different pills in the background of my poster , to make my project more interesting and have more depth to the story. With this in mind i went back and added different sizes and shape that capsules are come in. It was also brought to my attention by Gregor to add a logo for a NGO or NSW health to the bottom of the poster , in order to have a sense of hierarchy. It was suggesting again to think about what these posters are meant to be doing , and by placing NSW health logo allows the viewer to associate the poster with wellbeing / harm prevention.
Critical incident = Changing the background of one type of capsules to different varieties and sizes. Secondly adding the NSW health logo to the bottom of the poster , creates a sense of purpose and advocates health and pill testing.
Please find these design below
Styles :
This week is all about finalising my posters and social media designs for my project . Making sure I’m getting them right and ready for print next week (hopefully) . I talked to Angelina today and for submission Angelina said that i should include all my poster that have created to hand in , highlighting that this will show my whole progress , as she said its about telling a story of your project , not just the end result. During our discussion she emphasised that this project has the potential to be the beginning of a proposal document for the government if they wish to pursue the tactics of pill testing in Australia especially around music festivals , particularly in the summer seasons.
However , during class i finally found the right divisions for Snapchat and right photos to be featured at 300dpi , that i can use for when printing for submission and grad-show . I ended up using a selected few to be featured in the mock up in the iPhone , currently their are 20 mock ups of snapchat filters in which i chose to select 17 designs to showcase the Snapchat filters . One pop up ad and within this week and next creating 2 x three instagram posts using the poster campaign.
Critical incident = Choosing how many snapchats will be needed to show for hand in and grad show . In order to show the two different designs. Secondly, finding the right dimensions and 300dpi images
Snapchat measurements :
x=3028px
y=960px
w=1080px
h=1920px
Implementing Snapchat filters
This week is all about fixing my posters doing the last touches , and getting submission document ready ! as well as fixing and editing the blog report 🙂 . Plus it will probably be a good idea to sort and look for a printing studio where they will be able to print my project for me , making sure that i don’t leave printing at the last minute.
Today during class it was my chance to continue producing social media advertising for my project . With the main objective to make my campaign likeable and sharable among the target audience . To do this, my project is taking advantage of the resources Snapchat and Instagram to spread and access the desired audience for this project.However , this week in class i am working on creating snap chat filters, that are designed to be featured at the festivals grounds during the summer seasons. As a way for the average person to be apart of the campaign , in which they might stand for , advocate or even just advertise pill testing, in which they make the idea more known and comfortable within the public. Though what i have found while designing the filters , it soon became apparent to work within the right dimension of snapchat screen filters. It also became a critical incident when trying to locate the right photos to use for the mock up of the Snapchat filter. It became hard to locate photos that where of 300dpi , and didn’t have a water mark crossed across them. To progress further i will need to find the right dimension of the Snapchat screen , in order to show the design for hand in week 15 and for the Gradshow.
I also have to keep in mind the closing due date that is fast approaching . I need to analyse if i may be taking too much on bored ,particularly when designing too many social media creations.So far i have also focused my attention down to six poster for submission in week 15 .
Critical incident = Not having the right dimension needed for Snapchat filters or finding the right photos for the background image. Changing from the hash tag to taking away the hash tag , in the main tag line. Thirdly , adding the second tag line to the filter .
Please find below the first prototypes of my SnapChat filters.
By creating these snapchat filters allows the audience to feel connected and involved , giving them the opportunity to chose a team to participate within , using these filters when taking a photo at the festival grounds , to show their supper , or even jus to use these design because they like the characters or teams. Either way the message behind to spread around the festival grounds and the general public.
During class i created the idea of using a pop up ad in the actual Pokemon game ,to feature the campaign communication message of pill testing. This gives the project a connection between the game and the campaign, which in return enables the project to reach a wide variety of audiences into the campaign.I ran with the same idea of using the pokemon teams to highlight the qualities of pill testing , as they do share the same notion .This also captures the attention of the audience in which they might relate too as well. The pop up ad incorporates , the the campaign tag line and the team logos.
Instagram was also created , though it was proven to be difficult to make a mock up with the poster already made , this will take more time , something i will have to continue during this week and the next , in order to get it right with the best quality possible for printing.
Grad-show Thoughts
I want to display my poster design , particularly my team designs and character design , i just need to figure out what social media designs should i display and how many ? when i currently have 20 snapchat filters created , this will require further thinking , particularly cost and materials , at this moment I’m thinking of using a magnetic system !
In week 11 we were giving the task to present our designs that are up to the select stage of the design thinking process by Ambrose and Harris . With the main aim to gain advice on what is needed to be approved upon , ready to handed in for week15 due date. After presenting all my designs that where created over the last serval weeks. Below is the following feed back received from both Gregor and Angelina
After this response i decided on selecting the designs on the teams and character design , with the capsules in the background. After presenting these ideas it became clear that this design strategy was the most effective and worked with the design brief . From here i will now implement my design so they are perfect . Once this is done i will now create and design social media aspect to this project , creating a fun sharable environment with a very important message.
Critical incident = Adding a shadow effect on the team logos , while also changing the opacity of the capualues in the background on the posters. Thirdly playing with the colour of text , to match the background colour.
After designing the posters featuring the team designs , it occurred to me to keep pushing my design thinking further to explore all aspects of my design concept. It soon became clear to me to to include the pokemon characters back into the posters , with the main heading “i stand with team ….” . I thought that this would create a more relatable and catchy advertisement for the target audience in order to capture their attention. Incorporating Pokémon characters into the team poster designs,making them mascots , creating a connection towards the campaign.Im thinking about using the different characters to represent different popular festivals drugs found at the grounds, for instances using Pikachu = ecstasy, Squirtle= ice , Charmander= LSD ? is a potential thought / idea.
Critical incident = Changing the posters to include the characters into the team design , in order to create symbolism between viewer, pokemon and pill testing. sSecondly adding capsules back to original designs ,using the characters.
Character Prototypes
After designing three characters posters , i knew something was missing from the background . I decided again to bring back the pill capsules , in order to bring reference back to the notion of pill testing , creating a link between the two themes.
Prototype two of characters 
During this week break (mid session – recess) my main aim was to create and work on my previous draft posters , constantly making sure I’m evolving my designs , making the type and illustration elements work together. I decided to use the same colours and style keeping with the vintage feel within each design. The first step before creating any more poster design or images , as suggested by Gregor , was to work on developing campaign copy , making sure the copy related to the main idea of Harm prevention and pill testing in Australia . The following phrases below are campaign copy i brain stormed.
After further evaluation of the phrases i came away with two standouts that i believed would stand out within the project and relate well with the design and project aim. These are :
Critical incident = choosing to change the sub tag line , in the poster campaign , to “over the tension , its time to act on harm prevention”
From here i made different version for the poster campaign , making sure to explore all the different aspects of the same theme. After intensive research it became clear that using just the game icons found within the game of Pokemon wasn’t going to work properly , so i decided to step away from this idea (as found below).
As a result I went back to researching more about the game .This is where i came across a few websites that started talking about the different teams in the Pokemon go app . As i kept reading their site , they author started talking about what team you as a player should chose. In the game their are three teams available in which you as the player can choose from. While doing so different blog post, kept popping up regarding what teams to choose when playing the game . From reading the team qualities from a few blog post , it suddenly became clear that i could potential use the Pokemon teams in order to relate their qualities to pill testing. That maybe i could combine these two elements giving me me the main text and colour scheme for the poster , while incorporating the one of the two phrases above.
The Three teams
critical incident = choosing to design the poster campaign around the notion of the Pokemon team , rather then the icons found within the app.
The Frist Prototypes:
After creating quite a few copies of these style, it became clear that this style / design will work within my set brief . Though i want to further adapt on this design making sure to include capsules and pills , to highlight and reference the idea of pill testing ,making this more visible within each design.
Critical incident = adding the capsules into the background of the poster design , in order to bring reference to pill testing
After further development , from the images from above it became evident for me to incorporate capsules into the posters, to emphasis the notion of drug abuses and pill testing, creating symbolisms within the image . This time i decided to take a different approach to the team posters, trying out different and new layouts.
After looking back at the previous posters made , it made sense to fix and change my campaign copy. In order to focus the communication message back to the notion of harm prevention. Since this project is aimed to prevent further harm at festival grounds while teaching the general public. Changing from get the worry off your chest to > over the tension , its time to act on harm prevention. This campaign copy is making light of the situation of the general public worries concerning pill testing in Australian music festivals. This is because their have been so much concern and debate over the issue of pill testing.
From this , i went back to my first initial design and worked on them again.To see if i could improve their designs , with what i have previously designed. I wanted to incorporate the same themes and colour back into my posters , from this i decided to add back the original speech bubble. Bringing reference back to the original game of Pokemon. but after further develop it become clear that this design strategy wasn’t going to work as well as i thought it would
What Now ?
From here I will now finalize and choose to fix the chosen poster in order to make it fit within a social media environment, creating social media designs for instagram and snap chat filters.
During the weekend i spent some time creating these characters for my poster campaign. I wanted to use Pokemon characters that where highly recognisable , within the chosen target audience. After some research and from playing the game myself i knew these characters where the most known and sought after characters of the game. The bonus of these characters is that they all belong to different teams within the game of Pokemon. However my first idea was to use their colour as a way to represent different drugs found within music festivals. Particularly , focusing on the drugs of Ecastay , weed, ice, and LCD. After creating these characters i felt best going with the characters of Pikachu , Squirtle and Charmander , i believe these characters will gain the most attention as they have a more distinctive outline and vibrant colours that i could use to be incorporated into a poster series.
Critical incident = Choosing to eliminate bulbasaur from the poster series , and stick to three characters based on their status and recognition. Secondly, deciding to use a black outline around the illustration of the characters
According to Chelsea 