Comprehensive relfection

This year at college alone has really flown past quicker than I could have ever anticipated, beginning this course I had a certain set of goals I wanted to reach by the end, in doing this course it has allowed my creative freedom to reach new heights I did not think my creative talent could reach, in doing this course I have not only found my new flair in creative arts but I have also allowed myself the space to develop into a young adult with my goals for my end of the second year changing also. Academically, I feel like I haven't really learnt new skills or been pushed into new and exciting briefs to really put my all into this year; however my software skills have really shone through. I started this course with absolutely no idea what I was doing and had no creative direction, yet coming back this year from September I hit the ground running feeling comfortable in my abilities to do each task given to me, this year i really wanted to focus of where my talents were strongest by working with some of my preferred softwares such as Photoshop and Illustrator to build up strong work for my portfolio in the future. I also found a new skill in website design, something I never thought would be an enjoyable task for me, however I have found that design is a huge strength to me, although the website template creating isn't due to never being taught coding I feel like this is something that I could work with in the future and something to consider now we are coming into FMP season. Some of my strongest work from this year has been created by myself via being allowed the creative freedom to make something suitable for the work needed but also slightly out of the box;

Here is one of the pieces of work i am most proud of from this year, it may not look like much but this abstract self portrait was created using Illustrator, a software that I had no idea what to do with last year. What I am most pleased about with this drawing is that it takes influence from an intimate picture taken of me in a much unhappier time in my life. Drawing the interpretation and using the photographic for reference really allowed me to see the stark contrast between then and now & how much I have grown mentally since the photo was taken, the artistic flairs such as the intricate, hand drawn hair strokes and added in dashes of colour for detail adds up to look like something I would be drawn in by naturally therefore this is an image I am incredibly proud of for its sentimental reasons. The image was created to add into a visual CV, due to the success of the image I will use CV when applying to creative job roles in the future.

Another piece of work I am exceptionally pleased with is a piece I have already spoken about, Creating a website is something I would have never thought of doing before this however using a template website such as Wix really helped with what I struggled with such as coding the website and allowed me to really focus on the websites overall ascetic. Working with Lj Hugs was probably the brief I have enjoyed the most, getting the opportunity to work one on one with the owner, Lewis behind the company gave me the boost I needed to work hard, as the project was very personal to Lewis, I wanted to nail it to give him a clear direction of where I wanted to take his business or at least supply him with ideas on what he could to benefit his business. Doing this project meant I could also show Nick, our lecture, my skills when it comes to marketing and PR which is what I hope to do in the future. Overall, he was really impressed, as was Lewis who was overly complimentary about my work; without realising it, I needed that boost to push me forward into the last few months of our time at college due to feeling quite burnt out, working with Lewis was great as it was refreshing to see a man so passionate about his business give all of us as students the time of day.

The finale piece of work I want to talk about is similar to that of the Lj Hugs project, as this was only a micro project not much was done into it accept creating visuals to show ideas. For this project we were asked to work with the museum of Bath at work to create some visual mock ups of art work, these mock ups really show my drawing/artistic style. This was the last project we did before signing off work for FMP to begin so really this style has come full circle to me from not having a style at all to finding one that represents my artistic style.

Overall, as said previously I feel like this year has not benefitted me in terms of education, however it has given me the opportunity to really push myself creatively and get the chance to practise the skills I have learnt in the past. I felt like all but one or two of our projects have been time fillers to allow first year students to have the time that they need to do projects, which I understand entirely but I think in the future the staff should look at giving second years major projects to do that will take some time rather than small ones that are too easy for us to do. 

Primary Research from Typography (pt2)

The first lesson back after half term it was confirmed that we would be re doing our typography projects from the previous term as the work overall was not up to a second year standard. To re begin our projects, we started out with Primary research. For this I created a survey to give out to over 25 people to get a large research group, here were the questions asked;

From my research I can understand that those who will see my display the most will be either students or teachers meaning that I will use this information when thinking of how inventive we can be with our project. I feel like we can really push this project to a new level using different materials and textures to develop our ideas and catch the eyes of those who may walk past or be in the room of the display for lessons, over 90% of those who answered my survey agreed that the most creative aspect of the display board should be images, however for the vision that we as a class have, we will need to disregard this information as it is difficult to really execute a mature and sophisticated display with only images used. Other information I will take on from my survey include the fact that that majority vote thought that visibility is also another key aspect in how our display should be portrayed as well as that the use of lighting was a very popular answer in how we should really make the display creative. Overall, we will take this feedback on board as a class to create a light based display using the quote 'it doesn't get easier, you just get better.'

Here is an infographic of my results;

Interview with Author

As part of my research, I wanted to conduct an interview with published Author Mark Carrigan whos book I also read as part of my secondary research. I contacted him through his website as I wanted to seek his opinions out about how he felt about online influencers and marketing collaborations such as paid advertisements. Overall, unfortunately, the interview wasn't so successful. After emailing back and forth over a five-day span, I eventually gave up on his vague answers. I even thought about not noting that I attempted an interview, however, an unsuccessful one is part of the research project I suppose. I asked Mark;

1. Do you think it is worth the time and money that a brand could put into a celebrity endorsement/influencer collaboration? And do you think that in your opinion they are successful? 
2. Do you think that there is still a risk for brands to collaborate with these kinds of influencers, such as “youtubers” even though their celebrity status has been cemented in pop culture for at least the past 10 Years? 
3. Who do you these collaborations are most successful for? (Such as, which market do they target the best and which brands would see the most benefit from something as small as a sponsored post)
4. Would you ever consider purchasing something endorsed by a celebrity you may enjoy? 
5. And finally, do you see a future for social media “influencers” and brands working together? Do you have any ideas of where it can be taken next? Where you would like it to go? 

In response to this, all that Mark had to say was is;

"My answer to every question would be "it depends" I'm afraid. The idea of the influencer and the brand could apply to so many cases that I don't think it's possible to meaningfully talk about this at the level of generality you've been asked to. Obviously, there are some brands for whom some influencers have proved useful but there are undoubtedly many this is not the case for. I worry the language of brands and influencers is something digital marketers have made up to make what they do seem more complex than it is. But in the process it also manages to be simplistic, ignoring the many differences within any group of influencers and within any group of brands. "

Unfortunately, this response really disappointed me as it did not lead me further into any conclusive answer coming from an intellectual such as himself.  

Questionnaire results from research project

As part of my research project, I wanted to gather some information from a large audience on if they had ever brought celebrity affiliated products, I created my survey through google forms and then sent it out to be answered through all of my social media pages. I thought it would be relevant to do this because my research is loosely based on social media, I also wanted to share it this way to attract some responses from a larger audience of people, for example; I could share a link from my snapchat by adding a 'swipe up' feature which meant all those who wanted to complete my survey had to do was swipe up and fill out the form instead of being redirected away from the app. I managed to get 20 people to answer my survey, which I feel like is a fair number to take on the feedback and reflect on what the general public had to say about celebrity endorsements. Unfortunately, I would have liked more, however, you cant push facebook friends or otherwise to take part if they choose not to.

The first question I asked those who wanted to partake in my interview was their age, in response to this, I was happy with the overall collection of results being so varied. To me, this means that my survey has reached such a mass of different audiences for marketing companies to consider but also means for me a variety of opinions. The main bulk of those who answered my survey were in the 43-50 years category, which was strange to me due to it not being the bulk of my friend or contacts or followers that I have. Another constraint I found was that I have my own prejudices in assuming that those between the 43-50 aged bracket may not have a lot of social media and so will not buy into the influence market side of things.

 The next question I wanted to ask my participants was 'Have you ever bought a product that has been endorsed by a celebrity?' I wanted to know this as part of my research as I wanted to have clear confirmation on if any of my participants would be willing to admit that they had brought a product spoken about by a celebrity honestly. For my results, a lot answered yes but to counteract this some answered that they had brought a product but they were unknowingly buying the product that was endorsed by a celebrity which is unfortunate when coming to a clear conclusion on if collaborations work between brands and influencers due to there being contradictions when consumers have been asked.


  The third question I asked was 'Have you ever purchased a product that you have seen advertised on social media?' I wanted to ask this to see if consumers really do buy into advertisements they see on social media, with most replies stating 'yes' it seems like advertising through social media is clearly very successful.

Following this, I wanted to diverge further into personal opinions of how consumers really feel about celebrity endorsed products, the overall impression that has been given is that consumers do not feel swayed but products that have influencers or celebrities as their face of the brand, which I found to be interesting, the fact that opinions are negative this would suggest that celebrity endorsements are not successful.

I followed the intensive questions by asking three that didn't really have a didn't really have much of a significance to my research, however, it could be argued that when asking questions such as 'could you give an example of a collaboration?' it goes to show that out of a huge variety of ages, which endorsements were really successful. 

Overall, the survey was great research in getting to terms with what real life consumers of all demographics what from their social media and marketing. It has come to my attention that contrary to what my previous hypothesis would have been, it seems like the general public is quite anti-celebrity endorsed marketing, the most beneficial answers to me were the ones contributed by answering the question 'Have you ever purchased a product that has been endorsed by a celebrity?'   

Possible ideas for my research project

For our research projects, we were assigned the task of looking into possible ideas which could lead us down our paths to find which topic we could research and discuss. The first idea I came up with was researching and then further discussing if collaborations between high street clothing brands and high-end brands are successful, I really considered this as it goes down the marketing route that I am interested in, however, I felt like the question itself was too vague and therefore took away from my digital publishing roots. I also felt it unnecessary to do this question as I had certain prejudices before even beginning the project itself such as the fact that I do not wear designer clothes nor do I ever have an intention to do so, another issue I came across was due the fact that this question was not relevant enough to digital publishing, which was unfortunate however I felt like it wasn't relevant either.


                                                       

The second idea I have is also the one I ended up sticking with, after getting the approval from Jo. The question I created was 'Are marketing collaborations with celebrities or influencers effective in increasing brand popularity?' the reason I would like to explore this question is due to the rise I have noticed on my own social media pages whereby many celebrities I follow have collaborated to with b brands to do advertising campaigns for products such as vitamins. Pop culture and the way it shapes culture as a whole, marketing can have the same effect by changing attitudes towards products, that is the whole point of selling and becoming successful so by tying the two together companies can sell alot more than before. Marketing ties in very well with digital marketing, therefore this research question will be a great route for me to go down.

Review of Book two-Mass Media

Title of the book; Mass Media
Author; Marsha Jones and Emma Jones
Year of Publication; 1999

Biography of author;
Marsha Jones is an experienced teacher of A-level sociology and media studies, Emma Jones is also an experienced teacher of A-level sociology. The authors are mother and daughter.

Name of publisher;
Palgrave

Summary of contents;
An introduction to sociological approaches to the mass media, combining a clear overview of traditional and more recent theories of mass media.

Contents;

1. Introduction
2. Media use
3. Histories of the media
4. Marxist and pluralist theories of the media
5. Feminism and the mass cultural debate
6. Representation 
7. Moral Panic 
8. Audiences and the effects of media
9. Politics and Media
10. Globalisation and new technologies

Read 1-3 reviews of this book, write facts you can take from the reviews;

• 'Overall there is a sense of natural opinion throughout the book'
• 'The book is too outdated and a more recent follow up has yet to be created.'
• The book doesn't seem to have taken social media into account.'
• 'The book is factual and informative.'

Does the book have a main idea or strong conclusion;

No, in my experience this book was poor with no real informative research into it, it is more opinion based more than anything which doesn't benefit me at all! This book is far too outdated for my use, considering it is nearly 20 years old, the term used in this book to describe 'new media' is now old media! Social media hadn't really been created, really, when this book was written and so didn't benefit me from reading it at all.  

Good things about the book;

• When resources were used, they were reliable. 
• It covered all aspect of traditional media.

Bad things about the book;

• It is too out of date
• Barely speaks about the internet 
• Poorly constructed with information conflicting itself.

 

Review of Book One for Research project-Social Media for Academics

Title of book; Social Media for Academics
Author; Mark Carrigan
Year of Publication; 2016

Biography of author;
Mark Carrigan is a digital sociologist and consultant, currently, he is a research fellow at the University of Warwick University in the social ontology department.

Name and Description of Publisher;
Sage publishing was founded in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge by publishing high-quality research and content.

Summary of contents from the books inside cover or back cover blurb;
'This practical book writes clear guides on effectiveness and intelligence using social media for the academic purpose. '

Chapter List;

1. Social media and digital scholarship
2. Social media and to Publicise work
3. Social media and to build network
4. Social media for Public Engagement 
5.  Social media and to manage information
6. Social media and professional identity
7. Social media and communicating effectively
8. Social media and finding time
9. Social media and future landscape

Read 1-3 other reviews. Write down facts you can take from the reviews;

• 'It is a useful book to understand how social media is academic'
• 'Carrigan strikes a good balance, he argues that deciding how to use social media is first knowing why we might do so.'
• '.... but looking for something more advanced, it wasn't enough.'

Does the book have the main idea or strong conclusion? If so, what is it?

Unfortunately, there is no clear conclusion is given to if social media collaborations are successful, Carrigan states that 'Its *social media* only evolving and we can only allow that, some build their careers on this and with time, we will move onto the next.' Overall, the book gives a clear positive that careers are built on social media platforms suggesting that collaborations between brands and influencers can have a positive outcome. One statistic in the book states that over 7,581,700,000 videos have been viewed on Youtube, giving a marketer plenty of opportunities to reach a demographic they want too. 

Three good things about the book;

1. Carrigan describes how to accumulate a large following and money in a world of new social status.
2. Its a mix of surveys, academics and analysing.
3. Makes a convincing argument for Social Media needing to be a key part of research from now on.     

 Bad things about the book;

1. More effort towards a general perspective could be better.
2. It is not recent enough or is too in-depth already to only brush past collaborations, it needs to be more in depth.  

Overall, this was a thrilling and eye-opening read into how to manipulate social media into a business of its own. Unfortunately for my research project It did not have the answers I needed up overall, it was an interesting read. 

Two step flow theory

https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/communication-theories/sorted-by-cluster/Mass%20Media/Two_Step_Flow_Theory-1/

The Two-Step Flow of Communication hypothesis can be best explained visually than to be written, essentially, the hypothesis was created by Katz and Lazarsfeld during 1944's presidential election campaign, they hypothesised that on observation the general public would be more likely to vote for a presidential candidate after hearing from them, themselves through the mass media, at that time such as Radio and Print magazine. On contrary to their belief, both Katz and Lazarsfeld experience that this wasn't the case with most voters making their decision on who to vote for from impersonal contacts influencing their voting behaviour than exposure to radio or newspaper sources. Armed with this data, both of decided to created the two-step flow model of communication;

The theory suggests that from the media flows through two distinct stages, the first stage of the flow is that influencers who pay close attention to the media (For my argument, social media 'influencers') will receive the message that the mass media is carrying, from there the opinion leaders pass on their own interpretations in addition to the mass media content and feed this through to their followers. Opinion leaders can be quite influential in terms of getting people to change their attitudes or behaviours to fit that of themselves therefore in regards to my own research into if marketing collaborations between influencers and brands are worth it, this theory would fully support the argument, that yes it would be.  The two-step flow model has given the ability to refine and predict the influence of media messages and cultural behaviour, therefore if an example of an icon of our generation such as Kim Kardashian being able to influence her users by endorsing a product such as vitamins, the assumption would be that those who follow her, will be influenced to buy the product. 

Paper engineering reflection

To begin this project Steve introduced us to many different ways paper could be engineered into different interactive aspects such as pop up books, still story telling images and cut out images that when reflected onto a wall would created a shadow puppet feel, This really began my inspiration to flow as, seeing the paper manipulated in such different ways was really interesting to me as it is something i haven't been educated before, seeing that all of these engineering processes took hold into art types was truly interesting considering their only thing in common was paper. Here are some examples;




















The main brief for our paper engineering was to research into fairly tales, Steve had previous said that our project would be fairy tale based, however I knew I wanted to put a dark spin on things by making the tale I would choose more gothic themed in comparison to the light tales told to children to prevent them from the real truths, I began to research into multiple fairy tales before deciding on doing Little Red Riding Hood, I thought this would be a good idea as the forest scenes really stuck out to me as being something so atmospheric that could be manipulate into something good. Unfortunately, when researching into the dark truth of LRRH it seems there were many interpretations such as the fact the wolf is actually a sexual predator after the young girl. Another interpretation is that even the people we think we can actually trust can and will harm us, in layman's terms the wolf is essentially a metaphor for predatory behaviour, which i think is rather interesting considering the fact that LRRH is a folks tale. The particular scene I wanted to focus on for this project was the wolf sneaking up to the young girl within the depths of the forest as I feel like as a still image it is that scene that is most iconic, whilst researching LRRH this was the scene that was most iconically shown during image shows. Out of the examples Steve had shown us, I was most interested in doing a still image but after my own version of, after doing my own research can all be scene in my sketchbook, I found an example of paper engineering that I wanted to interpret into my own where by the images almost comes out of the page. I was drawn into re doing a still image version as i was drawn in by the intricate layers and 3D aspects lead into the image, it brings it to life.

I began creating my paper engineering by collecting all of the things I would need such as a hardback book and sticks to start my process, selecting the middle of the book as my starting point I drew out my rectangle and began to cut out the middle area of the book, on reflection I wish i had scalpelled out the middle section neater than I had because it wouldn't have been so amateur or maybe that is me being too hard on myself. My wolf and young girl were created by both hand and through Abode Illustrator to present my skills and talents to the Steve, I really liked this element and it worked well together due to the fact both images were consistent even though created differently. I also think that adding in real sticks to the still image really brought out the 3D aspects like I hoped it would, it tied the image in together well. Overall, I have really enjoyed doing such a different project as it was great to be working on a physical item instead of working on a screen.

Reflective blog post on Lj hugs

On reflection, I feel like I did a really good job of pitching my idea to Lewis (owner of LJ's) and Nick, I managed to clearly and concisely get my ideas across with both men being drawn into the presentation of pitching a new logo and as well a rough pitch of what Lewis's new website could look like. I was given some constructive criticism which I will ensure to incorporate into my next presentation, which I am sure will be next term. Before presenting, I wanted to only allow my key points to be conveyed through my slideshow and run with this so that the slideshow wasn't too overwhelming. The slideshow itself contained a brief history of the brand, its current audience, my ideas, concepts and visual ideas for marketing and design ideas. In terms of the physical presentation itself, I feel like the key thing that  really boosted my presentation were the visuals I created, i took on board last terms criticism presenting and worked hard at them, which paid of, I had spent a lot of time on the marketing side of the visuals, which was noticed and complimented.

Overall, my presentation was complimented on how confident I was, my presentation was direct, captivating and a success in its own right, which has really given me the confidence in knowing I am heading down the career path for me in Public Relations in which I will talk to the public a lot. The fact I introduced myself at the beginning gave a more personal and relaxed feel to the presentation as it was less formal which really allowed me to flow through the presentation with an ease that meant I didn't need to read off of the board much or use notes allowing myself to give eye contact and free-flowing body movement. My feedback was really successful in terms of promotion and clear direction in terms of where I see my redesign ideas going, I had been informed that my marketing campaigns looked like they could be followed easily with appropriate action. Nick also fed back to me that my research was really strong in terms of primary research and my secondary research was really strong also, In conclusion to this all, I am really happy with the constructive criticism I was given. I will carry it with me as a reminder for future projects and also outside of college and in the work place. Next time i feel like i would look further in-depth into my research to really get a clear idea of what my audience will look like to then develop sales techniques that will seduce them into Lj's. After receiving feedback, if I was to do this project again I would add in a 'shop' page where by LJ's customers could buy extras that Lj's offer such as beanies and the pots of seasoning that Lj offers, I think that would be a great thing to include if I am to do a project similar. 

Vivienne Westwood Case Study

I have chosen to Vivienne Westwood as a case study, not the brand but on the women behind the name. As a fashion conscious student, her iconic punk style has been a standout to me as the definition of a pioneer who made punk mainstream. Westwood, whose real name is Vivienne Swire, continues her legacy even in today's saturated fashion markets through her fashion shows with political protests sprinkled in for good measure. Using her power of influence to educate is what influenced my choice to choose her as a case study. 

In 1971 Westwood, along with her then partner Mclaren opened up her first boutique in Kings Road London and started to fill it with her eclectic selection of clothing designs, the shop much like Westwood herself, was in a constant state of flux with the shop name changing five times before finale stopping. It is stated and many including Westwood herself may agree that her original shop was a pinnacle necessity during the punk movement with much thanks to Mclaren who started being the manager of the legendary band the Sex Pistols, it was Westwood's designs that carved out their identity. As the punk movement past, Westwood's distinctive designs and iconic fabrics still stood out in the test of time with tartan print and thrills becoming a statement to her collections from the 1980s, Jaspar Conran, fellow British designer once said 'Westwood's effects on other designers is much like a laxative, Vivienne does and others follow.' 

Coupled with her unconventional style, Westwood's impression is hard to ignore. She once iconically stole a suit supposed to be worn by Margret Thatcher and posed as her on the front a huge British magazine, sending Thatcher into a rage. This and other political messages sent through her catwalks on t-shirt prints and protest posters are only some of the ways Westwood has allowed herself to stand out from the crowd, but it is all forgiven considering the two OBE's she has been given, her influence is undeniable.