Semester 2 - Assignment 1 & 2

For the first assignment of this semester we were asked to take a learning style test to help us better understand how each individual within our group works. The different learning style modes were Activist, Theorist, Reflector and Pragmatist.

I scored high as a Pragmatist. Low as a Reflector and moderate in Activist and Theorist. I think this is pretty accurate as I scored low as a reflector and I am the kind of person that once something is finished I want to get on with things and get stuck into the next task rather that contemplate the previous. I also agree that I have Pragmatic qualities as I do like to consider how things will work out in the end, I do find myself thinking is it worth pursuing an idea that might not work?

We then had to try and guess how our team mates scored and what kind of learning style they dominate with. Generally, our team done well at guessing other people learning styles. A few people in our group however guesses that I was a reflector, which I found interesting as I scored lowest in this. Our team results were varied and we have a relatively multi-modal team the results are as followed -

Me- Pragmatist
Karen- Theorist
Connie-Reflector
Ailsa- Reflector
Graeme- Activist
Jennifer- Reflector
David- Activist

For the second Assignment we were asked to research into what a Post Consumer was and create a profile poster for a typical post consumer. We decided the typical post consumer would be 30+, a person who is middle class, has experienced a good life so far in terms of material possessions but is looking for something to make them happy that is not money based.

Assignment 4 - Analysing a Book

In the book 'War Posters - Weapons of Mass Communication' the author discusses the relationship between the government and communications industries during the Second World War and how this varied in different countries. The writer appears to be asking what the differences in styles and messages are between the propaganda in several countries. Propaganda examples from Germany, USSR, Britain and America are discussed in reference to style and also how the key values of each country are visually represented and how they differ from each other.

How propaganda was created and the values it was intended to portray to the given nation are discussed in detail. The author explains how Nazi propaganda was 'openly associated with communism' it was distributed by one political party, repressing negatives of war and portraying an 'illusion of coherent reality'. It is important to note that these communist values greatly influenced the style of the propaganda displayed at the time, calculated in its messages, 'ideological' ideas and repetitive use of the swastika symbols to assert control. Advertising space was controlled in Germany and was even more manipulated in Soviet Russia, media was censored and very controlled and the author again shows how this affected the propaganda visuals.

The main point of view that the author appears to be trying to put across is how acutely different these countries propaganda could be. This is asserted when he goes on to discuss British propaganda - he suggests that the graphic design industry in Britain was part of the war effort and was there to assist , it had a much more independent voice whilst still maintaining a desire for unity. The author highlights that messages of promise and benefits were portrayed, posters were intended to "inform and instruct" people on how to behave and carry on with everyday life, encouraged but not forced, hugely different from the authoritative demands of propaganda from countries like Nazi Germany. The author supports his ideas by also suggesting although it seemed a more free type of propaganda from USSR and Germany some people may not have found it completely effective by including quotes from secondary sources such as "posters today are not pictures to sell pills, but to save civilisation and however clever, are a waste of paper unless they kill Germans" a quote from J.B Guild from and advertising company at the time, showing that some people perhaps felt the propaganda should have been more war focussed in terms of fighting and achieving.

The author also discusses American propaganda and explains also how different it was, american imagery was very patriotic, they used a realistic style, depicting photographic images of war, even if they showed defeat, it was honest and truthful. The author also again backs this up with an argument showing that although this seems like a positive way of creating propaganda, it is important to note that advertising was still a business and was still a means of 'mass communication and persuasion' just in a very different form from such propaganda like the Nazi posters.

Although the author uses many references to examples of posters and the odd quote from people to back up his statements, implications may lie in taking on board his line of reasoning as there are not many opinions on the actual propaganda from people that were surrounded by it at the time and although containing many interesting facts it seems more like a 'looking back' view of it.

Assignment 4 - Analysing a Journal

The first text I chose to look into was a journal titled "The war has turned our lives upside down" : The Merit of Commercial Advertising in Documenting the Cultural History of the British Home Front in the Second World War. The journal is focused around the idea that the striking, memorable war poster we know and associate with the second world war were not in fact the best graphic representation of life at that time. The author questions whether this recognisable and nostalgic government propaganda that is so much associated with the war time were a true visual representation of how British people acted and felt at this time and alternatively shows how commercial advertising was perhaps more relevant.

The author discusses how government propaganda was not representational of real life on the home front but rather a reflection of an almost theatrical and unfamiliar image that the people of Britain could not relate to. The author explains that commercial advertising was much more effective as it related to the people with familiar ideas and concepts that helped people adapt to the war rather than be overwhelmed by it.

Several examples of commercial advertisements are given by the author from the time that related well to the lives of people in Britain. It is reiterated throughout the article that the ads which related to everyday experiences and how to balance these with working during these hard times were most effective. An example that helped me to understand the authors point of view was the advert about " Mrs Peek's Puddings" which was promoting easy to make food - very appealing as woman had to balance working( to contribute to the war effort) as well as being a housewife, this supported the reality of people having to adapt their normal lives to the situation of war time life rather than being soupy controlled by it, people still had to get by on a day to day basis.

The views of the author are backed up by occasionally referring to secondary sources, one of which gives insight from Philip Stobo, a man who worked in advertising during the war and was part of many successful campaigns at the time. He explains that in advertising, we should look at "real living people" a point stressed by the author throughout the article about connecting and relating to your target market. It is helpful that the author makes references and includes opinions from other relevant people about the topic as it helps to back up his ideas and consolidate them.

I found it important that the author showed why government propaganda was not truly representational at the time by explaining that although visually striking the posters were generally over the top and enthusiastic, they tried to make war look appealing but it wasn't - people were depressed by the thought of war and needed advise on how to deal with it - especially in correspondence to daily life. It was also interesting to note that although commercial advertising dealt with 'the uncomfortable truths' it was effective because it was real-life and reassuring for people to know that everyone was in the same boat.

Although I do agree that government propaganda was not the the best documentation for representing the people of this era, I feel that the author could have looked into why the government used these glamourised visuals more. Although the author picks up on the fact that the propaganda 'became mythologized as a way to cope with the harsh realities of being at war' he doesn't look into maybe why they had to remain positive - could it have been because they didn't want to seem weak in the eyes of the enemy? If we take the authors line of reasoning on board, it undermines the exciting, nostalgic and memorable graphic design that we currently associate so strongly with that era. The author touched on it slightly but I feel should taken on board that these were adverts still trying to sell products, using psychology to encourage empathy in people which would cause their products to be remembered.

The overall main points that were expressed in this paper were that although government propaganda from the war time is visually exciting and well known, it is not the necessarily the best visual source we can use to learn about the time period. We can learn from commercial advertising what everyday life was like in the war and if we were to rely on government propaganda alone we would not get an accurate account of how people felt and acted, which was so important to the history of this crucial time.

Assignment 3

As part of the 3rd Assignment we were required to meet again with our peer groups and discuss our possible topics for dissertation. We were trying to narrow down our topic to something more focused but at the same time not wanting to restrict ourselves too much at this stage. We each took turns to discuss the topic we were interested in and the other members of the group contributed to creating a brainstorm type mind map for each individuals chosen topic. It was very helpful to get other peoples input and ideas relating to my topic which I may not have considered myself.

I went ahead with looking more into environmental sustainability as my starting point. After attending the dissertation workshop however, I feel I may need to focus on something more personal, as I think this will maintain my interests more. Although I strongly believe that the sustainability of our environment is relevant and crucial I think it might be too typical a subject, I want to look into something a bit more unique so maybe I can generate some fresh ideas. What that topic is yet however, I am not sure, I'll keep you posted!

New Tattoo

I got a new tattoo last week during the reading week. It says 'love is enough' and is written down my right hand side. I found the picture online and loved the phrase and the font. I already have a tattoo on my foot which I didn't find particularly painful but on my ribs was agony, wouldn't recommend it! I am pleased with it now, I'll only ever get tattoo's that I can cover up, that you don't see that often because I like that little element of surprise when people don't know or forget you have them as they aren't on display all the time. Theres always the debate of whether people will regret tattoos as they get older but I feel that at least I love them now and I can look back and say at least I loved them for a while at one point in my life, and two I have are discreet (it looks bigger in the picture somehow than it actually is) and easily covered up.

No Regrets! :)

Assignment 1 -Environmental Sustainability & Design

For the first assignment of semester one (3rd year) We were split into peer groups, each group was made up of 8 designers from different disciplines. We were given a list of possible topics to further research and each person in the group was to pick one, ensuring that no two people within the group were going to be studying the same topic. Our group met up and we all had an idea of which topic we would like to look not, luckily we all had our minds set on different topics so it was straightforward. I chose to study Environmental Sustainability as I feel it is a very relevant topic to look at as a modern designer. We all created a mind map based on our chosen topics and met up again to discuss our initial thoughts and findings. It was interesting to see at this stage how, although we had all picked different topics, a lot of areas matched up and connected to each other in many ways.

Assignment 5A

After reading 'The Tipping Point' book by Malcolm Gladwell, I was intrigued by a concept that he called 'The broken window theory' which suggests that "If a window is broken and left unrepaired people walking by will conclude that no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes” (Gladwell 2000:141) Following on from this, I was interested by the aspect of how crime within a neighbour can affect people and this led me to conduct some secondary research on crime within neighbourhoods. The first journal I looked at concentrated on how elderly people's fear of crime can affect their social relationships within their neighbourhood (Oh, 2009). The second paper I looked at was a more focused paper that showed a case in which a neighbourhood with high rates of disorder pulled together to improve their community (Donnelly, 1998). Although quite different, both papers generally looked at how social relationships within a community affect peoples fear of crime or vice versa -how fear of crime can affect community relationships as it works interestingly both ways. To collect information for my secondary research I read the book, I used cross-search to find related journals, to analyse the information I used techniques such as mind-mapping, brainstorming and discussion, all which were helpful in developing or clarifying ideas. I have since been gaining practise in primary research methods including observation, interviews and visual association.

If I were to conduct primary research on how community relationships affect fear of crime, I think one of the most appropriate research technique to use to collate information would be interviews. Interviews would allow me to obtain a focused sample which would be beneficial in collecting information about the dynamics of one specific neighbourhood. Conducting several interviews within one geographical area would enable me to build up information on personal experience and to see how much one person's views of crime and fear within the neighbourhood may differ from another. Alternatively, since interviews can be conducted relatively easily in short periods of time, they would also allow me to compare information from several neighbourhoods to see in which ways peoples views compare or contrast in different areas. Interviews would be successful in this case as they would allow me to secure quality data from a small sample. My aim would be to discover whether people's social relationships within their neighbourhood have any affect on their fear of crime and also if their fear of crime may affect a person making social ties in a community. Asking either of these question directly would not provide me with sufficient data, instead, I would ask a series of questions that are indirect but will allow me to get more descriptive answers about a person's opinions or personal experience. I would have a pre-composed set of questions prepared for conducting my interviews to ensure consistency throughout. I would select people to interview that I did not know as a pre-existing relationship may affect my results as they might strive to provide answers they think I want, rather than honest responses. I think the best context for these interviews would be the individual's homes as they would feel relaxed and more in control in their own personal environment. Also responses to questions about their homes, safety and experiences with crime may be triggered more effectively when they are in that environment. Safety for myself may be an issue in this case, I would be going to unknown places to interview people I don't know but I could perhaps work with a partner, or alternatively book out a room to conduct the interviews in.

Another research method which could be very effective in researching community attachment on fear of crime is case study. Conducting a case study would allow me to collect a bulk of factual information, studied in significant depth. It would be focused on one specific geographical area and would be a good or possibly bad instance relating to how community social bonds influence fear of crime. Case study is ideal for creating an example from a real-life situation and can raise issues which might not be identified in controlled environments. When conducting a case study, I would have to collect background information to have a better understanding of its history, a lot of prior research would be required as my case study would need to be based on a very specific example of how people's fear of crime affects their attachments or vice versa in a real life situation. Case studies involve several different sources of data which allows for rich information to be collected, despite this however, it would be very complex, involving a lot of work therefore I could only conduct a small amount of them. It would be important to compare my information with previous studies to see how they relate as case studies are not representational and the results that I may find in one instance may not apply to others. The second journal I looked at in my previous essay gave a very interesting example of a case study which showed how residents in Five Oaks, a ‘racially and economically diverse’ neighbourhood responded constructively to an increase in crime within their neighbourhood and integrated members of the community with city officials to design a plan for the community to help reduce it. In this case the community all came together and responded positively to an increase in crime, however, I realise this is not always the case as suggested in the 'broken window theory', a neighbourhood becoming run down only leads to further decline. It would therefor be very important not to generalise my results and make sure I compare them with several other studies to see how and if my results relate to similar cases.

I don't think observation alone would be very effective in researching how community relationships affect crime or how fear of crime affects the formation of neighbourhood ties as these are difficult to distinguish just by watching and recording what you see. Observing individuals within their neighbourhood probably wouldn't provide rich enough information as observing someone in their home area might not tell me very much about their relationships with the rest of the neighbourhood or their fear of crime. I also feel it may be unethical to watch people go about their personal business in their own environment.




Bibliography

Donnelly, P (1998)‘RESIDENTS’ EFFORTS AT NEIGHBOURHOOD STABILIZATION: FACING THE CHALLENGES OF INNER-CITY NEIGHBOURHOODS Vol 13, No. 2 pp. 189-213


Gladwell, M (2000) The Tipping Point. Abacus, London.


Oh, JH (2009) Ageing neighbourhood attachment, and fear of crime: testing reciprocal effects. JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY 37 (1): 21-40