Assignment 5B

Design Essay Part 2

The brief taken from textiles which I intend to relate with design studies techniques is a brief on ‘Trend Forecasting’. In this brief we had to research new trends for 2010 and 2011 for male, female or children’s wear. There is a magazine in the library called the ‘Textiles View’ where we all chose a trend and had to research from there. I felt design studies made a difference to my way of researching as I did a mind map of all the different things I could look at and where I had more branches, I decided was the best idea. I also learnt from design studies that discussion with peers would help me gain information. Every week we have a seminar with a tutor and 8 other peers where we would talk about our work, and everyone would discuss each other’s work. This helped me a lot with my project. Out with the seminars I would ask people who aren’t art related to view my work and give their opinion to see what they think as I feel a wider audience will give a fresh look to the subject and may give interesting suggestions. These discussions with people are useful but very limited. From all the research methods I have learnt from design studies I would like to incorporate them with my future projects. Another method which was used in our studio was a brain storm of 3 titles, 1 being ‘what do you perceive textile research to be?’ 2’what is your understanding of the design process?’ and 3’what are the skills and knowledge which are different to other students in other disciplines?’ This was very helpful as my peers where pointing things out which I wouldn’t have thought of. Short discussions on each point was also useful because everyone interpreted the points differently also therefore having different points of view on a subject gives you a wider horizon to work from.

Techniques that I used similar to design studies, and carried out from the beginning and throughout my projects, was to look up books in the library for inspiration to see what other people have done. For the trend project in particular I found looking up books, magazines and the internet was very vital in getting the project right because trends are already made up therefore its your own interpretation on the trend which counts. Fashion trends can also change up to four times a year so the internet is a great tool to keep up to date as information online is constantly updated. A technique which I could have carried out was the interviews as I felt this would have benefitted my work. I would have carried out an interview at the beginning of the project because I would have liked to find out what females from the high street would like to wear in the future and to see if they follow trends. I would have a few trends in mind which I would show them as visuals and get them to choose the one they liked best. Using these visuals is a similar idea to the culture probe technique which I haven’t tried out yet, this technique requires making up a pack which could have coloured pens and paper, you would hand them out to people and get them to interpret the subject, and then collect this pack after they are finished. This is a good technique as the participants would have their own space and wouldn’t feel under pressure, it also gives a true reflection of the subject. After the interviews I could take all the common answers and work from that. This technique is very useful because finding first hand information and testing the public makes the project more interesting and gives me a better understanding of the subject. I think interviewing is the best way I can get first hand source on a subject because other techniques such as discussions wouldn’t give you an answer as accurate, it would be more of a guess of what other people might say. Although interviews are not 100% accurate for the whole population, I think combining it with secondary source from books and internet will give me a close indication of what I am looking for. This project is very open for the ways to research the project. Other ways I would gather information would be observation because I could sit and observe people coming out shops or going in shops, what people buy, their body language and listening to what they might say to friends while they are looking at a garment. Groups of people would be very good to observe because in the book ‘Tipping point’ Malcome Gladwell mentions that an observer in London saw a group of people in a flashy place in London wearing shoes by Hush Puppies which made them a new trend. So observing groups of people and what they wear might indicate if something might be the next big trend. After observing these groups of people I could make another set of interviews for groups of people and see what trends influences them and why they buy things.

From this information I would go back and have a discussion with peers to see if new points might be suggested and things I could change or try again.
From all these techniques which I have mentioned, I feel that I could use them throughout all my studies, especially in my dissertation as I have all these techniques behind me to help me gain first hand information. Interaction with people will enhance my interest on a subject and I feel this is very important. The most effective method I find is the interviews because I can adapt and choose questions and participants to suit my area within design. It is also important to know what the participant may feel when you are asking these questions which I have learnt in one of the tasks within Design Studies. This helps me word my interviews so that the participant doesn’t feel uncomfortable or reply with little information. Methods which have been learnt from design studies have been used regularly in the studio as my peers and I have tried out using brainstorming and regularly discuss our work and help each other out and it will continue with in the later years.

Bibliography

M.Gladwell, 2000, The Tipping Point, United States, Little Brown

Assignment 5A

Design Essay Part 1

The topic, in which I am going to explore more fully, is Advertisement. I have chosen this subject because I feel as a designer, our work has to be advertised to be noticed and if new ways of advertisement were to be introduced then advertisement of work will be much more powerful. In order to understand advertisement, many ways can be used to research and analyse it. So far I have researched some literature on new 3D technology and the effectiveness of advertisement. In some of the journals, which I have read, they mention that they have taken out some experiments, finding out if music was an important factor within design, and how big of an effect advertisement has on consumerism. Finding out other people’s research and analysis is not enough to understand a subject. I feel there are many other ways that can better the understanding of advertisement such as primary research. This means I can have first hand information and be involved in the researching, making my subject more valid.

The points which authors made about advertisement, ‘if music has an effect on advertisement’ and ‘if advertisement is a big factor in consumerism’ To further research these points I would carry out 2 separate interviews which will enable me to engage and interact with people and ask them questions such as the type of music they listen to, and if that type of music was played on an advert, would it make the advert more appealing. As these questions are just mock questions I would make up a series of questions and have a pilot interview with somebody semi close to me as they are more likely to give me a more accurate account on the subject, also doing these pilot interviews will help me test my wording to see whether I’d get a one word answer or a fuller answer. Doing an interview is a very good technique to find out a certain subject as I feel it is more personal and gives it a sense of truth and validity. I would carry out these interviews on a cross section of people through age and gender as male and female perceptions on a subject may differ. Age is very important to understand in an interview especially if you want to find out about a subject such as advertisement because youths listen to different music to elders and have a different effect on them. Therefore doing these interviews on more than 4 participants will give me a better idea of the range in answers and the common points which are made between the participants. After gaining all this information, Market research would be included because advertisements are aimed at a certain age group therefore doing research on a certain age group to see what would appeal to them would make an advert more effective. Information within the interviews will help the understanding of advertisement that only interviews can show because other primary research techniques such as observation wouldn’t give me the same solid answers and watching someone doesn’t give you a full picture of what is going on in someone’s mind. I wouldn’t rule out the observation as I feel the body language of a person and the way someone dress tells you a lot about someone. If you observe someone while walking past an advert on a wall, their body language could show their feelings towards it, such as an advert with bank interest rates wouldn’t appeal to a young child but would appeal to an adult. Observation is more visual than an interview so I feel it has an advantage in that way. Visuals can also be used in an interview as I could ask someone to describe a poster and different people will see different things. I feel the combination of both these techniques will enhance my understanding of advertisement. After gaining all this information I would put it into a mind map and discuss with peers or people with more understanding to advertisement than myself to see their views on the subject. Talking about the information may add new ideas on the subject and going back to the idea of different people see different things, maybe my peers will see advertisement in a different way to myself. Brainstorming these new ideas with peers will be helpful as it will give me a chance to review what I have learnt and maybe I could repeat the techniques with a few new questions and see if I would get different answers. To further my understanding I would take these new points and use cross search to see what other people have said on this subject. This might answer my raised questions or make my points valid. A technique which I learnt about experimenting with pictures might not work as well as interviews and observations but shouldn’t be ignored because experimenting with a poster with words and no words will show if an advert is successful in conveying its message and what changes could be made to a certain poster. I would also be able to find out what people find interesting and could enhance it by adding or taking away a factor (music, text, imagery)

The techniques that I would carry out to understand my subject are a combination of Observation and series of Interviews and carrying out experiments with visuals. I feel all of these techniques are very useful in getting first hand information. Also being involved in researching is very interactive and gives what I’m trying to find out an importance. I feel making an interview makes me think about a subject deeper and having discussion with peers helps me analyse the information. The use of primary resource and secondary resource is very important in researching a subject because finding out what others have said through their research expands the knowledge of the subject. This also adds an importance or makes my information valid if someone else has found something similar. I feel all these techniques are equally useful in gaining information and I would use them in most research-based subjects in the future. As a designer I feel my main focus is Textiles but techniques which I have learnt in design studies can be related to all areas of design, it also allows you to work in a cross section of design areas rather than just your specialised area. In this subject I am writing about Advertisement which is more related to Graphic design but is interesting to see how advertisement is related to different areas of design.

Bibliography
Morris. JD, Boone. MA, 1998, The Effects of Music Emotional Response, Brand Attitude, and Purchase Intent in an Emotional Advertising Condition, Florida, University of Florida.

Long. P, Wall. T, 2009, Media Studies: Text, Production and Context, Harlow, Pearson Longman.

Interview

'What does the way someone decorates their living space tell you about them.' This was the topic I chose to carry out an interview on. I got together with a group of girls in my Textiles class where we all brainstormed some ideas for the interview questions. Some headings which we came up with were, Generation, Influences, Space, Colour co-ordination, Use/sustainabilty and Taste. We thought that maybe Age or Childhood would play a big part in the way people decorate their space. The choice of decorations could be influenced by many things such as friends and family or TV, Magazines or personal interest. We thought this would be very suitable for finding out about someones personality.


Writing my own questions for the interview was quite hard as I had to word it in a way so that I wouldn't get a one word answers and had to make sure that the interview flowed. We were asked to make a semi structured interview which meant that I could add in questions if something interesting popped up during the interview. I asked a variety of age groups to try and get the sense of 'Generation' and time. These age groups varied from early 20's to someone in their 70's and were of both gender.



An interesting interview was of a couple who stayed in the same house. I asked the same questions to both people and the answers reminded me of Jonathan Baldwin's Lecture on 'Taste'. He did this little experiment on 2 people who got asked the same questions with the other out the room, The male gave short answers whereas the female would go into detail such as ' I have a comfy sofa with big fluffy cushions' My interview with the couple was also interesting as they both had similarities in their answers but different views on their living space. For example they both thought their house was homely, relaxed and comfortable but they differed in answers when I asked what their favourite item in the house was. The male said 'iPhone' which is related to technology and female said 'her wedding ring' or washing machine for practical reasons. She also mentioned she didint like technology in the sense of computers and phones. This shows that there is a balance in consumption as people buy to consume the latest and some buy for practicality. 'The culture of Design' by Guy Julier refers to consumption to 'need' and 'want' which relates to my interview of consumers buying because they 'want' something(iPhone) and buying because they 'need' something(washing machine)



The idea of taste can be influenced by generation or by Childhood experiences. In a few of my interviews when I asked the participants about the colour co-ordination of their space and why they colour co-ordinated, they said it looked nice and it was influenced by their parents. One male said there was no colour co-ordination at all in his childhood home but mentions that his Friends decorate their homes in the same way as his current home. This may mean that his taste has been influenced by the people around him therefore colour co-ordination became a theme throughout his house. In my interviews I also asked how they came about decorating their place whether they used Magazines or watched decorating programmes on Tv and a lot said they looked at magazines for inspiration and one interesting lady said she used mood boards and swabs of colours on different walls to see what they would look like in different lights. This was to do with her personal interests as she mentioned she was a collector of antiques which was the main theme throughout the house. She decorated her space accordingly to her ornaments and furniture. She was influenced by antiques as a child where she developed her own style and refered to magazines for ideas. The collection of these antiques shows that she does not consume new products, the sense of sustainabilty is captured here as old furniture or ornaments have stood the test of time.

Design Issues in Starbucks

Is Starbucks a higher classed franchise?

How do Starbucks expand their empire?

These are the two questions which I am going to explore. After a discussion in my seminar last friday, I am still confused to whether Starbucks is a higher classed franchise than likes of McDonalds or other fast food shops. In the seminar we were saying that Starbucks is aimed at a higher classed market due to the layout, atmosphere, and the type of people who go to starbucks. The layout of the starbucks is more inviting than mcDonalds as it has the comfy couches which makes a customer feel as though they are at home. The atmosphere was quite calm while i was observing it, although it was very busy. There wasnt enough spaces and the place was quite crammed. The tables were mainly for groups of two which is very inconvienient for families who have children or parties of more than 3. Maybe Starbucks designed the layout this way for people to come in smaller groups such as business type people and for people who want a space which is more peaceful. When I think of starbucks I think of people in Book shops or libraries with a cup of coffee and a book. This may be the reason why people think that Starbucks is aimed at the higher classed. Altough it may seem that Starbucks is aimed at a higher market I feel places like Mcdonalds all serve the same purpose therefore I dont feel that there is a market difference between them. There is a difference which I could compare in the two businesses which is the age market because I think it is more likely for someone in their late teens to drink a cup of coffee than it is for a child/toddler to do so.

How do starbucks expand their empire?
Starbucks uses many different ways to make their business grow. The theme within all the Starbucks is the same. The general atmosphere and lighting is warm and inviting. You could go in a starbucks in Scotland and go in one half way across the world and it would still give you this feeling. The recurring colour of green appearing on all their products and even the aprons which the employees wear makes Starbucks instantly recognisable. They provide a fast and efficient service which is very appealing for take away service for people on the go or people who want to sit and enjoy their coffee for hours. They provide internet service making it convienient for business men on their lunch breaks. All these points show why Starbucks is so successful in expanding their empire.

Observation

For my Observation location Me and 2 other girls in my class decided to go to Starbucks Coffee Shop. When we got there we found had to wait for spaces to become available. We were luckily as we got the comfy couch near the corner where we did our observation. We drew the layout of the coffee shop to make it easier to understand. As we drew the layout we figured that there was a one way system which wasn't sign posted but was very obvious there was one. I think this is to do with good design system made for Starbucks as Starbucks is a massive franchise. Their target is more money so designing a way for quick coffee break and efficient service will allow them to serve more customers in a short period of time and therefore make more money.

As we sat there observing people who come in to get a coffee and take away I thought back to Starbucks way of making money and how there branding is advertised through take away cups. The employees wear a green apron which separates them from the customers. The aprons give the employees a certain personality like they are undercover and have to put on an act on. The space in Starbucks was very confined, everyone sat really closely together which made some people feel self conscious and feel like an invasion of privacy. people mainly came in twos or on their own. People who came in twos were either couples or business people or just friends. Infront of us sat a woman and man who came and asked us if the space was free as there were no other spaces in the coffee shop. They were talking about business shown by there body movement. They made a lot of hand gestures and has sheets of paper with charts etc on it which made me think it was about work. We realised couples sat closer together which made there body language more intimate and private. Friends sat further apart and were more open as it was very casual and not as cautious about other people. People who st on their own tended to be more self conscious. They tended to fidget or do something to keep themselves occupied, They were more wary about people watching them and self conscious. There was this man who sat diagonally apart from us in the shop who stared at us a lot which made me think that he noticed we were observing people. He glanced over a lot looking uncomfortable with us looking around. Another example of someone who sat alone being more cautious with people around them was a woman who dropped a bottle and looked around to see who was looking at her. If this situation held 2 or more people the person who dropped the bottle wouldn't care who was looking as she would be more confident. The Starbucks we went to is situated inside a shopping center which gives you a sort of feeling of the people around you. Majority of the people in Starbucks were well dressed. They looked middle classed working people who shop in similar places as we do. Shops within Overgate shopping center. There were a couple of men who were in suits which look very business man. One had his laptop which means he could be making use of Starbucks free WiFi. This is another way attract customers. Starbucks is made very attractive with little things which people don't think about. It is very open made with full length windows which attract customers, as an invite for people to come in. As we were leaving we noticed a group 5 or 6 girls who sat in the corner of the coffee shop. They were unaware of their surroundings and sat in the corner to keep away from other people so they can have their own space.

After the observation part of the task we had a little discussion on all the points which were made. We put ourselves in other peoples positions and things which we all agreed on were that If we did the observation on our own we would've felt intimidated and self conscious. We felt as though we were invading peoples space and that we wouldn't have liked to have been watched especially in a place that was designed for relaxing. As I mentioned earlier we were also getting watched by people who were on their own which made us feel uneasy even though we were in a group. We noticed it more because we were deliberately watching but if we went in casually just for a cup of coffee I don't think we wouldn't have noticed it as much. A really good point which we said was that even though we were observing people, it doesn't actually tell you about the person or people you look at as you wouldn't know their lives. We all said we do little things when we are on our own such as Sarah playing with her fingers and I play on my phone which confirms our note that people keep themselves occupied when their on their own.

Sarah presenting the large windows

Maxine standing at the entrance showing route to desk.
Me walking towards exit but shows the customers around the shop doing there own thing. sitting down, waiting for order.

End of Project!

At end of Trend Forecasting project, we had an informal presentation and who thought an informal presentation was so nerve racking. We had to talk about how we came about chosing our 'Trend' and the process we went through to get our final outcome. I chose to do Knit for my samples which were simple but effective. Although my trend was blooming pattern I focused a lot on colour composition. I only used a few techniques but came out with quite a few designs which I thought worked quite well. I tried a lot of these knit samples on fashion models and below are my 3 favourite designs on models.

This layered knit is made up of tucks where I limited the colours to a sandy beige and a deep red.

Maxi Dress, good for summer. I used partial knitting technique for this sample giving irregular lines.My sample is on the jumper of this model. Not too sure what the technique I used is called but the plain bit is ribbed which is not noticeable on the model but adds interest to the jumper.

Experiment

My understanding of polysemy by from the Essay 'Rhetoric of the Image' by Roland Barthes from my first reading was very vague. I understood from the essay that an image could have more than one meaning but the language in it was really diverse which made it hard for me to grasp. While I was reading through the Essay I tried to relate Barthes statements to my own discipline. Things which I thought related to Textiles was words and how it changes a subject from a persons interpretation. I related it to my Trend Project as we had to choose a heading and interpret it in our own way into fabrics, The fabrics which we make from the interpretation of the heading is similar to the Text and Image used in the essay and how people interpret things differently. After writing notes and discussing the Essay with people in a group I came to understand it a bit more. We then did an experiment which tried to help our understanding of polysemy. In order to start the experiment we had to group up to look for 3 random images. Our images were the below:



After obtaining these images we each went away to ask family and friends to make up a story with these 3 images in a random order. I asked my sister who is 16 and still at school, My boyfriend who is 25 and is a sales assistant and my aunty who is 40 and works in a chinese take away. The stories they came up with were different. Similarities in the stories occurred in the group so we decided to pick our favourite story being that it was a holiday to a costal village of the Mediterranean where they followed a path lined by palm trees, this led them to the beach where they bumped into a local lady who agreed to take them around the local beauty spots. This was very interesting as a lot of the stories jumped to the conclusion that the pictures represented that it was a holiday. This relates back to the Essay by Barthes as he mentions 'stereotype'. His example was on a pasta advert which showed people immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was Italian and in this experiment it showed that because there is a girl on a beach then people assume its a holiday. As we agreed that this was the story most common in all of our stories we added a 4th image to enhance the understanding of the rep taking the tourists to local beauty spots, so went out again to ask strangers around the art college to read the images in the order we gave them. We asked 5 different people and the majority came up with similar stories. One girl called Michaela said it was people on holiday who meet a rep, she lives on the beach and later they meet up with family to go for a walk along a path. This story was pretty close to our chosen story as she mentioned the Rep on the beach and it was a holiday. As a lot of people assume these picture connotated a Holiday, it makes me think of culture as we think sun shine and beaches relates to holidays whereas people who live in countries with beaches would read the picture as being a normal day. In the last part of the experiment we added text to each of the images. Our 4th image was :

We added words such as Mediterranean, Path, Rep and Activity. These words really helped the people who were analysing our pictures as they were much closer to our original story when text was added. An example of this is a girl called Shawn. Her initial story was the girl was on a plane, then goes for a walk, stops for a drink at the beach and then goes for a walk in the forest for an excursion. When text was added her story became A plane view of the Mediterranean. Walked along a path to hotel to meet Rep who took them to do activities. This shows that the concept of Polysemy in Barthes Essay does work shown in this experiment. In the Essay Barthe mentions the Linguistic Message which I translated to be the Written Message. Text is used for quickness so that people don't need to ask 'What is it?' Barthe also mentions that text adds Fresh information to an image which is clearly shown in our experiment. People responded more clearly and had a better understanding of what is portrayed in the images when Text was added. In the Denoted Image section of Barthes Essay he said that the 'Literal message cannot be substantial but only relational' shows that the text added to the image is only related to the image to make the experiment work. If the experiment was done with just text and no image then the story wouldn't transmit the correct story that's trying to be told.