[EXPERIMENTATION WITH FINAL DESIGN]

I thought I'd have a quick bash with one of the suggestions from the crit. This was having the pharmacy logo 'stamping' out the cigarette. Below is no where near a finished article with this suggestion but gives a good idea of the final design.


When I have a bit more time I will come back to some of the suggestions from the crit for the poster, so I have a professional finished article for the final hand in date.

[LOOK AGAIN / THINK AGAIN FINAL CRIT]

The first critique of the new academic year. Overall it was very good feedback. Neil felt it was a good campaign, with a good, strong and simple design; which is easily understandable. It was felt though that it could do with a bit of playing around to make it the finished article. Improvements suggested were that - 

• Need more clarification from the bottom text, maybe explain the campaign a bit further?
• Could treat it as if the law has come into effect and it is a general public info advertisement.

Not major changes and merely suggestions, which is always a sign of a good piece of design. The general feeling was that it was nearly there, just needed wording slightly different. Was also suggested that the green crosses could be seen as looking positive, but I didn't agree with this as the Pharmacy symbol is world renowned. Another suggestion was to have the pharmacy symbol defeating and stamping out the cigarette, and I will look into this further. Overall I am really happy with the feedback from my first unit of the 2nd year.

[STUDENT CRIT & FINAL DESIGN]

We arranged a small critique between a group of about 8 of us. It was good to see how well everyones ideas had come forward and there was some really strong designs. I used my time in front of everyone to gain a general opinion on what they thought was a stronger poster, with or without a frame. A clear winner with 7 votes to 2 was the poster with the frame, and this is the poster I will take forward with me tomorrow to the final critique. One small suggestion was to make the warning label text slightly smaller to give a bit more white space. My final design is below -


Everyone really liked my design and this filled me with confidence ahead of tomorrow.

[LOOK AGAIN / THINK AGAIN PROGRESSION]

After deciding which route I was taking with the poster the designing on Illustrator came naturally. I first designed the symbols using basic illustrator shapes, and added the warning label.


It didn't look right, so I made the pharmacy symbols slightly smaller and added an extra one.


This I felt gave it more of a swirling smoke shape as there was more movement due to more symbols. Next was to add the Green Party slogan that I had come up with to go with the campaign - 'Britain's better without it, Britain's better with the Green Party'. Then I added the logo and tinkered around with the colour green, so it was easier on the eye, and also to fit in with the colour of The Green Party.


After lots of tinkering around to make sure everything was aligned, everything was the right size, and the addition of the I came up with the final design -


But I decided to take away the green frame to see what it looked like -


I'm now unsure which one I like best. We've arranged a small critique between us students in the next hour, so I guess I'll find out which one is the most popular then.

[LOOK AGAIN / THINK AGAIN IDEA GENERATION]

After our tutorial and realising that I had thought far too much about the final piece I took a step back and went back to the research side of things.

The first step was to research into what I had been recommended in the tutorial. I browsed through books such as Communicate and Shock in Advertising to get a better general feel of advertising and to gain a better understanding of smoking within advertising. Even though the smoking related advertising in the books, was all dealing with the anti smoking side of things it helped me realise that I didn't need to make my piece overly complicated. There are a lot of easily recognisable symbols to do with smoking and I should use these to my advantage.

The use of a symbol such as the cigarette symbol that is world wide recognised, would mean that I could stray away from my initial idea of a cigarette packet with a prescription label on it; that from afar may just look like an advertisement for a cigarette company (which is completely the opposite of what I want!). It also means that the could be viewed from from a distance and the viewer would be able to instantly pick up what it is about, without maybe reading the text.

I then started to look into Damien Hirsts' 'Pharmacy'. Even though it maybe didn't have a lot to do with the whole smoking side of things it did generate two big ideas. The first being the whole pharmacy side of things. I had already thought of using simple easy recognisable symbols, and the green cross of the pharmacy is another one I could use to my advantage, especially with the whole prescription idea of things. The second being the simple bold colours used in his installation. It really made it a striking piece of art, and I feel that a few or maybe even one bold colour would make the poster stand out from the crowd, making it eye catching.

After experimenting with a few ideas I decided to go down the symbol route, and produce the campaign for The Green Party.

[JAMES MCMORROW AKA. QUALIFIED PAL LEADER]

The last two days have been rather long and also rather different to what I'm used to. I didn't know what to expect from the two workshop days, but by the end I learnt that choosing to be a PAL leader was definitely a good choice and I was excited for it all to begin properly.

Yesterday we were eased into the whole process. We were first told to pinpoint what our biggest fear about being a PAL leader was. Mine being that the first year students wouldn't respect my position. By the end of the day this fear had vanished though, as my confidence had grown and I felt much more relaxed about the whole affair. We were talked through the handbook, highlighting key points, and listening to others explain the sections that they had read further into. The main point I feel was that the reason of PAL was for it to be beneficial to the first years, and to get them to be active and think. In the afternoon we were split into groups and we had to complete a PAL session of our own. My group being given 'Stage Fright', which was to do with critiques and having to stand up in front of the class. We weren't given much time to plan, and it felt like we were being thrown a bit into the deep end. However when it came to it, I found that I was a bit of a natural (don't want to sound to big headed!). I don't know where it all came from but I was able to answer every question that came my way, however obscure it was. I felt a bit nervous at the start talking, with all eyes on me, every word being listened to. But this nervousness quickly disappeared and I enjoyed the interaction aspect.

Today was more of a wrapping up session than more training. We had to write reports of our PAL session from yesterday, and reflected on the workshop. We then had to decide what leaders we wanted to be in groups with. As I worked successfully with Dan yesterday it was a natural choice with him, as it was with Lianne as we are good mates and bounce off each other well. We were then required to write a plan of our first session. To wrap it all up we went over the fears that we had discussed yesterday, and it proved that the workshop had been a success as we all felt that we had overcome ours.

[LOOK A BIT MORE AND THINK A BIT MORE]

This morning we had our group tutorial for our new project. I found it to be very helpful, and it was a breath of fresh air to have my whole group talking and debating as I found at times last year this wasn't the case. I was the first to discuss my idea with the group and I had a mixed reaction. The general consensus was that I had thought to much about my final graphic/illustration and I needed to take a step back and to research a lot more and to think about the title Look Again / Think Again. But they all felt that my idea was very interesting and that I should build on it, as it would make an interesting campaign.

I needed to step away from the anti-smoking side of things as this has been done to death. Neil and the group felt my idea was strong but I needed a different stance. That stance maybe being a government campaign for a fringe party. The feeling was that the language and tone of voice was going to be the most important aspect of my poster. Neil went onto explain how he believed that shock tactics no longer worked. Yes in the 80s they worked, but now everyone seen it before. The same was with statistics. A quick Q&A with smokers in the group proved this, they didn't care how many people died etc. as it was their choice to smoke.

So I needed a new stance for my poster, and that was for it to be a public information campaign. It was to present my 'campaign', in such a way that explained pretty much everything on an A3 poster. It needs to have a catch to draw people in, such as a witty strap line or a striking image.

I was told to look into artists such as Damien Hirst and his 'Pharmacy', as well as into Government advertising. Neil also felt that it would be beneficial for myself to look at 1920s advertising in New York as well as more recent communication adverts. Books recommended ranged from Graphic Agitation to Smile in Mind to Shock in Advertising.

I feel excited to start this brief properly, and can't wait to jump into the research and generate ideas.

[PAL LEADER SUCCESS!]

One last thing today is that I found out that I had been successful with my application to become a PAL leader. I am really glad to be given the opportunity and responsibility, and look forward to the training next week. In total there are 11 of us, 3 being assigned to each of the 3 PAL groups with the remaining 2 being given the responsibility to float around all the groups helping where they can, and covering if any absences occur. We will find out our groups and PAL leader teams after the training has occurred.

[LOOK AGAIN / THINK AGAIN]

Today we were given our new unit - Visual Communication in Context 2. As with our first unit last year this unit is split into a series of tasks. Task 1 being Look Again / Think Again.

Our task was to produce an A3 poster either -
Choosing a social issue that in our opinion has been over looked and needs addressing
Or, choosing an object that carries values that go beyond its intended purpose or everyday use; it may evoke certain memories or feelings that give the object a sentimental significance.
Unfortunately I see myself as a bit of a nomad. There's nothing really that sentimental in my life, that I feel carries values beyond its intended purpose. Rather sad I know! So it looked like I had to go for option 1.

At first I was pretty bamboozled. Surely if I knew of a social issue then it couldn't have really been overlooked, as it would have been brought to my attention. I produced a brainstorm listing issues that I knew about. Things such as racism, drugs, religion, drinking all popped into my head. However one did stand out - Smoking.

Yes the issue has been raised. There have been smoking bans in all enclosed spaces such as work and pubs. But even though we all now know of the dangers it has to us and the others around us there are still teenagers and even younger starting it up every day. Why? Because they have the choice to do so. Maybe because of peer pressure, or maybe to look cool. Who knows. I strongly believe they shouldn't have the choice. It should I feel personally be completely got rid of. But then there's the problem of all the addicted.

Another way round it would be to phase it out. Stop letting people start it up, so eventually it would die out. The only way to do this would to be to stop selling it in shops. Make it be like a prescription, where you would have to prove that you are already a smoker, and then you are only allowed a certain amount a week (that you would still have to buy) so you could not pass on your spares. Then their 'prescription' could be cut down, eventually helping them to quit completely.

I had a quick brainstorm, thinking about maybe just having a packet of fags with a prescription label on it, and having the typography follow a swirling smoke shape. Maybe a slogan "Don't give them the choice". All pretty basic ideas, but would it be hard hitting like all the anti-smoking campaigns we know? I decided to have a quick chat with Neil, who said that I should think of it as a political campaign. It needs to be a persuasive argument. One example he gave was that of the Conservative campaign against Labour.


A simple hard hitting design using statistics, that won the Conservatives the election. I then started to research into existing anti smoking campaigns. Whilst flicking through the book 'Creative Advertising' I came across this anti smoking poster -


A very simple design, with a very strong statistic linking in with the image. Tomorrow I have a group discussion of our ideas so far with Neil, so tonight I will be doing more research into previous campaigns and smoking statistics, jotting down any ideas I may have on the way.

[AND SO WE BEGIN]

Well day one of Year 2 has been and passed. I now go to a 'university', but everything seemed the same. Well everything except for me. Unlike last year I went in with a different attitude. I went in full of motivation and excitement, without a hangover. I know the university life now, I'm used to it. I'm used to my freedom, but I now need to give my mind the freedom to create.

It was a usual first day back. Catching up with mates, a welcome back from the tutors, enrollment and our first brief - PPRD 2. This was the unit I failed last year. Something that cannot be repeated again this year. The aim for this brief is to make us employable and/or ready for the third year. Something that did stick out from the Neil's talk though was the need for us to create an identity. Its all well and good for us to pass with flying colours, but if we're not unique we aren't going to be able to get the jobs we dream of as there will be someone else out there.

We also need to build up a reputation for ourselves. Get our names and work out there. Build up a network of contacts. The way to do this is through live competition briefs such as D&AD and ISTD. Neil stressed this point, and it stuck in my head. I shied away from such briefs last year, just focusing on the work set in class.

We've already been emailed a number of briefs, ranging from t-shirt and hoody design to logo design. One brief that has caught my eye however is a competition run by Don't Panic to create your own New Era cap [link]. As a fan of New Era caps this is an exciting competition for myself, and something I look forward to starting.

During our PPRD unit we are required to -
- complete a progress file which you are viewing :)
- enter competition and live briefs
- prepare out portfolios and CVs
- and prepare for our end of year show.

Lastly on our first day the PAL leader nominees all gathered together to discuss this years PAL sessions with Kit and to write why we would make a good PAL leader. Becoming a PAL leader is something that excites me as I feel the responsibility would be very beneficial for myself, and I feel that my experiences from last year would be good for the first years. We are to find out if we were successful in applying to be a PAL leader shortly. I will keep you posted, fingers crossed!