The last few weeks have been busy with the completion of my dissertation, which in turn has had an impact on my TBI project. After completing my thesis I now have a few days to really focus on my project. I want to look at the editorial environment within social media to implement awareness content on our perception of social media and how we behave. I am really interested in how we act online and feel it would be a great thing to research and work on, as the internet is dramatically becoming a part of our everyday activity. From my research already I have learnt the issues social media brings such as smiling depression to our perceived ideology of the perfect lifestyle which is influenced by famous figures or simply our social media friends.
My direction and purpose of this project is to raise awareness to those who use social media activity about the way they do so. This could be done through interactive content/ advertisement. It could possibly reflect their own behaviour through a light-humoured cartoon style, with a deeper awareness which will make the target audience reflect. A possible direction could be that the user clicks through the daily activities a said character does which is a standard behaviour of an active social generation such as myself. The user would interactive with these still images or gif animations to extend the story. Between each transition there could be an informative note which raises the awareness of the dangers or issues caused by doing a said activity (such as checking a smart device at night, this can disrupt sleeping patterns which has a wider affect on a persons body such as insomnia, memory fatigue or anxiety) I really don’t want this project to become a metal health awareness campaign because that is not the case, instead I want to make the user aware of their ‘looping’ styled behaviour and try and influence a fresh approach to the way people use social media in an attempt to bring a healthy balance between their social life and actual lifestyle. I could possibly link this to the creative industry and how this can affect their creativity by limiting their imagination and idea generation.
I had a short tutorial with my tutor today to discuss possible direction. I discussed my concept and how I could target my desired audience and what I wanted to achieve from this. We talked about augmented reality and how companies such as Pepsi have implemented their advertisement into everyday situations.
All of us know bus stops have generalised advertisement posters on the sides for us to see while we wait for a bus, however more recently we are ignoring many ways of traditional advertisement which I discussed in my dissertation. Pepsi have taken a fresh approach to this by implementing augmented reality which uses a live feed of a pavement behind the bus-stop to turn the side into a ‘window’ where the audience can see others passing by and the same goes for the traffic. However, at different moments the screen introduces bizarre scenarios such as a UFO attack, meteor crash and even escaped animals running towards the bus stop. At a first glance the audience are drawn to the sudden movement from the sky or path which is moving towards them. After the audience is aware that the animation is projected onto the screen it transitions to a pepsi advertisement. This approach to grasping the target audience proved very affective with many of those who witnessed the projections, smiling and enjoying themselves.
While doing some research on our perception of social media, I came across these hard-hitting short films which perfectly capsulate what I would like to make others aware of. It is so easy to create a different lifestyle online to ‘fit’ into societies perception of an ideal lifestyle. Where in fact, many are spending so much time on social media their actual lifestyle is affected. I’ve seen many profiles where people strike for attention, followers and likes mean everything which is bizarre as social media is relatively new, given the public interest of Facebook in 2005 and Youtube later that year.
These videos capture the emotional distress on both parties through social media and how they comfort themselves through the interest of others ‘liking’ their activity. ‘What’s on your mind?’ has a slightly dark humour to it as he goes out of his way to make his life seem great, but in the process his emotional level is shown to affect his health as he turns to alcohol. At the end, he finally opens up with his life – soon to be blocked by others because of his negative approach. I have been guilty of doing this as there are a few people I have know to only post negative things on social media all day, every day. But seeing the bigger picture and their life behind the screen does have an impact on the way I think about those affected. I would really like to create a more light-humoured approach to the subject of social perception and nudge others to realise that they are falling into the same trap of trying to be similar to other people, which in turn may make them feel more alone or ‘unsociable’.
This morning we had our final presentation on our field project, The Big Idea. The past few weeks have been slow-moving in terms of exploration within my project. However, at this stage I am happy with the quality of my work and I am motivated and exited to finish my project. I will implement Parallax scrolling within my content pages which will engage the viewer within its visually animated graphics. I feel it will also be great to experiment with new forms of communication within my final projects to make it stand out in comparison to previous years. Below you will find my presentation along with a short clip of the header pages.
At the very start of this project, We had to chose our desired word which we would research and create our own direction and outcome based on what we discovered. I chose Perception and wanted to step away from distorted reality as this was seen everywhere. I looked at a range of different perceptions and found our perception of vision and strength compared to other living creatures very interesting. It was different and took a fresh approach to perception. It reminded me a lot of the David Attenborough documentaries. I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to look at info graphs, visual animations and let me explore different ways of presenting information. My presentation is attached above and looks at the sensation, cognition and perception process of our thinking process and how we perceive information. This research was closely linked to Plato and Aristotle’s wok on vision and reason. My initial researched looked at the literal associated reasons behind perception of the human body and the senses we have.
‘Of all the senses, trust only the sense of sight’
Plato and Aristotle closely associated vision and reason.
I was inspired by this quote I came across during my research and it has a lot of sense behind it. Many of us may experience similar situations such as rain, watching the same program or a car ride but each persons individual account is very unique. This is because our genes and our jeans. To explain, we are all born with very similar yet very different genes which affect our perception of our individual senses from sight to smell to touch. One may see the colour green as blue and another could see that same colour as red but from birth we associate a seen colour as what we are brought up to know by its given name. And by jeans, I mean metaphorically for our experiences and choices we have previously made to get to that given point in time. Our emotions and experience of a situation can change the way we perceive an event, this can be from an emotional connection to a song, the memories of a specific smell as we make connection to past events.
A personal account of this is the drink, Fanta fruit twist. I have a strong memories of accidentally getting it into my eyes when I was very little and the smell has stayed with me, during the event I dropped the bottle in the process which rolled off a bridge onto a garden below. Many years later and that garden was taken over by the council and renovated into a modern cafe known as ‘The Mill’. Which I went on to work for many years later. Small encounters like this can have strong connections to events and locations.
I think it is really interesting to explore the psychology of perception and how we perceive things in connections to past experiences.
UCC is Japan’s largest producer of coffee and is responsible for £2bn annual sales turnover globally and 7,300 employees, including 30+ Q-graders and World Siphonist Champions. It supplies some of the world’s leading companies in retail, out of home and industrial markets and owns successful retail and out of home brands – Source
About Grand Café
Grand Café is a specific range created by UCC Coffee which is 100% traceable to its origin and fully certified to be ethically and sustainably suited to be fair-trade to the land and farmers who grow their coffee.
Vision: To be the most respected certified coffee brand in the out of home market.
Brand Concept: Promoting the social and economic benefits of certified coffee whilst providing a feel good factor and peace of mind.
Reasons to Believe: Committed to industry certifications FT, Organic and RFA; solid taste test performer; our best-selling branded product range
Brand Personality: educated/knowledgeable/travelled/down to earth/respected/direct/academic/possesses gravitas
Tone of Voice: friendly/accessible/no jargon/matter of fact
Sustainability
UCC Coffee source certified sustainable coffees from farms and cooperatives across the world, which are each 100% traceable to their origin. Their ethical credentials include, Fairtrade Rainforest Alliance and Soil Association. This in turn makes their coffee fair for growers, the environment and their customers.
UCC Coffee are also dedicated to improving their resource efficiently throughout the life cycle of production. Their packaging is part of the Comply Direct compliance shame which means that their machines are selected for their energy efficiency. They also continue to cut their carbon emissions from their roasters and fleets too.
The company select their partners and suppliers carefully who are as dedicated to the environment as UCC Coffee. Amazingly they even recycle all of their water filters through one of their partners BRITA Professional, whom have more recently achieved zero landfill status.
Target Audience
The ideal target audience are businesses who are ethically aware, this includes non-branded coffee shops, cafés, pubs, quick service restaurants and contract catering. UCC Coffee does not sell directly to consumers however, the nature of Grand Café means that it is only available to companies who comply with their corporate responsibility requirements. More recently more and more businesses are becoming aware of their impact through their buying choices and looking for a coffee that promotes sustainability in the industry.
Core Products:
Grand Café Rainforest 500g
Tasting notes: Chocolately, sweet, with a hint of its slow roast, gives this blend real character. Bright and balanced with citrus hints and a clean and balanced aftertaste.
The source: Colombia, Honduras, Brazil
Grand Café Fairtrade
Tasting notes: Deep, intense coffee with a full body and lasting taste.
The source: Colombia, Vietnam, Peru
Grand Café Triple Certified
Tasting notes: Rich, balanced coffee with red fruit top notes and a sweet creamy finish.
The source: Peru, Guatemala, Sumatra
Grand Café Fairtrade Decaf
Tasting notes: A clean mouth feel with a hint of sweet watermelon. All the flavour but without the caffeine.
The source: Peru
History
“UCC Coffee UK & Ireland has been operating in the UK coffee market for over 20 years, but wehave not always been known by the same name.
In 2010, First Choice Coffee – the UK’s OOH coffee market leader – and Gala Coffee – the country’s largest retail own label roaster – merged to become United Coffee UK & Ireland and part of the United Coffee European Group.
Having operated independently, the combined strength of both businesses and ambitious growth plans, led to the transformation of United Coffee into the UK’s leading total coffee solution provider.
In 2012, United Coffee Group was acquired by UCC Holdings Co Ltd. (UCC), to create one of the top five biggest independent coffee companies in the world. Following the acquisition, United Coffee retained its identity before rebranding as UCC Coffee UK & Ireland in 2014. – Source
Our second project is the Penguin Book covers. I really enjoyed this last year and hope I have the same experience this time. To start, we had a session with Cath Davies which looked at the film Clockwork Orange. Cath gave us a detailed overview of the film and deconstructed the characters appearance, music and analysed the language used. For this project I must consider a classic book within the 21st century. The book cover must be timeless. The book itself is split into three parts
The introduction to Alex
This is the development and behaviour to his violence. We are introduced to his gang whom are called The Droogs. They drink milk laced with drugs and mindlessly attack and rape others.
Alex goes to prison for his crimes
Alex gets his prison sentence and is rehabilitated through experimental Ludovico techniques, this is where the eyes of the patient is forced open to watch violent scenes from films. While this is happening, drugs are pumped into the patient to make them feel uncomfortably sick. The mind fuses this connection of violence with being sick.
Alex is rehabilitated and befriends one of his previous victims.
Alex is rehabilitated and reformed by the trials. He is released from prison and becomes the victim of his crimes. We see Alex abused and attacked by his previous partners and victims. We feel sorry for Alex nevertheless due to his freedom being taken away through these inhuman tests. Alex’s violence has been taken away from him which also had a connection to music which was part of his soul. Alex is soon restored to his original self.
Themes:
Dystopian futures
Social and moral control
Violence
Free choice / social conditioning
Dehumanisation
_______ Notes _______
Extreme violence dressed up as entertainment
Alex commits violence to music
thuggish violence vs government accepted violence.
Here is a preview of my résumé (above) and cover letter (below). From the two images you can see the similar colour theme and use of icons and top margin separator.
On the weekend I began redesigning my CV and cover letter to have a unique colour swatch which linked to the theme of my online portfolio. I used a turquoise and grey contrast as they are soft colours and stand out from the universal use of black. More deeply, the psychology of colours suggest that blue is the colour of integrity and loyalty, and green is the colour of growth and balance. I began by creating a margin, I felt that 1/4 of the page was adequate, after creating a dividing line I brought the section inwards to make room for a margin around the page. Once this was correctly proportioned I began adding in title blocks and example text, at this point the framework started to take shape. The next creative things to add were the icons. I found a free retina icon pack online (here) and started to adapt the selected ones to fit my theme. I changed their colour and added a circle icon behind. I made sure they had equal spacing and began positioning them within the margin. Half way through I realised my grids / ruler lines got out of control.
Next was to add the important stuff! I was stuck for my profile as I wanted to make it original yet bursting with strong positive information about myself as a designer. I did not want the cliche ‘my name is..i’m a graphic designer..’ and so by having my name and profession as the page header it shows my creative ability in the simplest form. In the margin I decided to add short bits of information such as my website, contact details and location. I also recreated my cover letter for an example company. The cover letter follows my résumé layout and continues the top margin line in which the company’s address details sits above, to separate it from my own. I am happy with how they have turned out – I will get feedback on them Thursday.
Recently, I have started to work on my online presence. I bought a domain and set up a website with the basics. I also created a Facebook page to engage people on social media to visit my website and stay updated on my journey. I still need to add work to my portfolio and Facebook site, however the structure is now in place for me to do this. My online portfolio will be live at www.imben.co.uk. Check it out today and watch it develop over the next few weeks. My cv/résumé has also been in the works too!
Grand Café Fairtrade Decaf 
Ben Walton 
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