My Concept

Brief Rationale

My poster explores the concept of social media being bad as it causes children to follow the societal trend of being constantly plugged into social media.

I used light colours of blue, white to create a calm and peaceful atmosphere to the image because I wanted to show that there is an approachable world outside social media. The darker blue was used to create a little bit of contrast to the composition.

The rhetorical approach I chose was using balloons representing social media because children can relate to wanting balloons. The image shows the girl releasing the balloon as it is seen as a symbol of releasing the bad from you and being able to feel the world around us. Each balloon represents the top social media used by youth of Facebook, Snapchat, Youtube and Instagram.

In terms of Ihi and wehi I wanted my poster to have a type of uplifting persuasion without being too exaggerated in a negative way. This suited the idea of being free from social media better because it illustrated the world without social media being good rather than just showing social media being bad. In conclusion I wanted to convince people through promoting the positive space outside of social media rather than focussing on the negativity of social media.

Week 6-Session two

It was the final Critique and we looked at each others work and gave advice on what we could fix or add just before we print. It was useful to see everyone's resolved projects in A2 size. I think it helped to progress more project as I was able to see what worked and what didn't in a larger scale. There were some printing issues however, that were causing problems.

Refining Developments

Refining and adding to Concept

I refined some developments of my poster from the type experimentation that I did. I also decided to add more balloons in the colour of the most used social media in New Zealand in terms of youth. I found that they were Snapchat (yellow), Facebook, Instagram(blue) and Youtube(red). I think it strenghtened the concept more as it shows a larger range of social media used rather than just facebook that people seem to be attached to. Also, I researched into the release of balloons which is like a release of problems and troubles tied to them. I wanted to show that people should let go of the ties to technology as the experience is different from digital to reality.

Release of balloon research

http://journeyofhearts.org/kirstimd/balloons.htm

Typography and image refinement

Developing final image

I changed my type and refined some found type to develop my posters because from the critique I found that my typography ledding and kerning were unbalanced and made the text look weird on my poster. I think that changing the position and improving what my type looks like will make the meaning of my poster possibly clearer and refined.

Week 5- session 2

Group Critique- Interim two

We discussed our printed out copies of our developed posters that were refined from the previous week. I found that maybe the imagery needed some editing as the larger scale caused me to be able to see some errors better. It was helpful to get feedback on what I developed my poster into and see whether people could get the idea. Also, I found that I also needed to work a lot on my type choice and the ledding and kerning as it did not suit my concept that well. The feedback will help to advance my project as I now know what I should work on to hopefully make my poster clearer and easier to read.

It was also interesting to see the works of students in spatial design as although their project was completely different they still incorporated ihi and wehi in an interesting way. I learnt that ihi and wehi are not limited to just being able to persuade people as we can express it in different ways. This also helps to adavance my project because I have a better understanding of ihi and wehi.

Week 5- session 1

Had a shared moment where we saw how this assignment was used for other disciplines. It was to show how although we had different assignments, Wehi and Ihi can be expressed in different ways. We then developed our posters further. The knowledge from the shared moment may help in completion of the assignment while being inspired by works of others.

Developments of Developments

Developed concepts for Tuesday

Continued developing my concept further and experimented with type and different phrases to hopefully make the meaning of my posters better. I combined tools and ideas I had learned from the previous weeks.

Concept
The concept of my posters was based around how youth or children have become more adapted to the vast range of technology through the internet technology driven society. We see technology everywhere we go in the city. I wanted my posters to let the youth (younger generation) know that it is okay to let go of technology and be free every now and then and we don't have to be constantly connected to the online universe.

Looking into connotations of poster subject matter.

https://nz.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080730003629AArpuP6

References images of children with balloons

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/220957925442406200/

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/87116574013217717/

Developing Concepts

Developments

Tried to develop some ideas forward in terms of layout, composition, text and type.

Also tried to research some more fonts that I could use. I was thinking of using San serif fonts as they are easy to read and are more relevant in my mind in terms of modern society. I tried to add elements that were successful in my other designs from after the critique to hopefully make a stronger rhetoric poster.

Used a girl as the silhouette to represent the youth

The city in connection with the social media balloon represents the  media driven society

I used a balloon to connect the girl to the city. The connection of technology like the attachment to the balloon.

added the tui bird flying with the same colour as the girl which represents  being free and being able to let go of technology.

Researched into possible negative connotations of using the Tui bird in relation to the existing well known Tui brand.
http://www.simpleandloveable.com/bad-brand-personality

However, I think that the connection with the bird silhouette I used will not directly correspond to the Tui brand. The Tui brand does have a outspoken, not caring what others think vibe so it could support my poster in some ways too.

Week 4- Class Critique

Class Critique to find solutions for refining posters forward

We split into groups and presented our 4 ideas that we developed into A3 posters. It was helpful to see what others saw from my posters. I found that some ideas worked better than others and how I could improve the posters to display a clearer and more refined visual.  From the feedback I was then able to decide which posters I want to refine further through and input of ideas to move towards creating my final poster.

I also found that my type needed work and maybe my phases as well. This helped as sometimes it is hard to figure out what parts of your own design needs work and the feedback of others helps. For the rest of the week I was then able to continue to refine and develop our posters to make them more refined.

Found more information on Children becoming more accustomed to technology
Stuff.co.nz
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/10283488/Whats-your-family-Facebook-policy
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff-nation/assignments/should-your-kids-be-on-facebook/10294411/Don-t-let-social-media-abuse-your-children

Women's weekly
http://www.nzwomansweekly.co.nz/health-home/sex-relationships/social-media-and-your-children/

NZ Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=11247694

Week 3- session 2

Class work and Independent Study

We discussed ways that metaphors in imagery on posters with text influences the way we look at posters and were made to look at posters without any context and see whether we could get the meaning. I found out that putting elements together doesn't necessarily carry the same meaning as when they are singular elements. This would help to develop my poster further to see whether my poster does convey the concept I want. Then we got got given the de bono hats, I used them to brainstorm ideas I wanted to convey through each thinking hat. I used my brainstorming from the de bono hats to understand what I wanted to display in my posters better. It was helpful to write what I wanted to display as well as see what I came up with for visual material. This would help to develop my posters further in terms of the meaning I want to convey.

I decided to go for a illustrator drawn style because I like the simplicity and clean cut images that you can get from illustrator. I Developed ideas further as independent study to be ready for the interim on Monday.

Decided to add a silhouette of a girl representing the youth that are adopting technology.

Uses Auckland city scape and Tui to create familiarity

Introduced Wifi (Wireless Connection) Symbol of being connected to the internet.

Week 3- session 1

Class Work and Research

We had a lecture on type and how the type that is used can carry meanings of its historical use. This helped to show that the type of type does influence how the message of the poster is conveyed. This will help me when I choose type and imagery and be cautious as to their historic or other known meanings. We also discussed our concepts further and brainstormed words that could be used together with our imagery to make the message of our posters clearer. We learnt how we could address our issue from a particular stand point by addressing an issue within the standpoint. This helped me to understand the brief better and therefore developing my project.
From the concept of social media and how people sometimes can't distinguish the difference between the real world and the digital. I decided to add the concept of Facebook weighing people down, and that people should let go of the digital Facebook environment and experience the real. I changed my view from research to be slightly more against rather than for social media.

Researched into the affects of over use of Facebook.
http://www.netaddiction.co.nz/socialmedia.html

Facebook's Secret Psychological Experiment

Interesting psychological influences from Facebook. People following each other. Facebook manipulating people's emotions. It helped to see a video as a change from just articles and images. Also, I liked researching into the opinions on others on Facebook as it helped to deepen my understanding on the topic of social media.

Week 2- session 2

Class Work/Research/Developing Thumbnails

In class we discussed our topic further in groups and then got feedback on concepts. I found that my concepts were too literal and had to rework my idea on social media to convey my idea in a more metaphoric visually appealing way. This feedback helped me understand the brief better because I was struggling a bit to visually represent my concept in a metaphoric way.
We learnt how symbols have different meanings which helped me to think of some ways I could represent my idea in a rhetoric way. There were around 4-5 symbols displayed on a board and we just shouted out possible meanings we could visualize based on the simple dingbats. It was interesting to see that even a simple cross can mean a big thing like religion. This helped me to start thinking of subject matter I could use to represent different aspects of the standpoint and issue of my concept that I want to develop further.
I was thinking of the idea that people being connected to the internet. In a way of addiction and not being able to separate themselves/ unplug from it.
I think that when I start to mock up my A5 posters maybe I'll get a better idea of whether my thumbnail ideas will work as a poster and convey the meaning I want.

Independent

Researched some subject matter that I could use for the thumbnails I developed with more clarity of the idea I wanted to portray in my posters. In particular the bird I could use in one of my ideas.

Research on different birds I could use for my poster.
http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/kea/facts/

http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/native-animals/birds/birds-a-z/tui/

How youth is affected by Technology consumption.
http://www.morino.org/pdf/cdf.pdf

Week 2- Session 1

Synthesize Research

We had a lecture in class about posters and we discussed in groups what techniques or tools the artists used to make their posters convincing. This helps to identify techniques I could use to make a more convincing poster for my topic. It helped to see what styles and compositions worked and how they worked together to make the poster successful and convincing to the issue they were addressing. I think this will help when I start to develop my thumbnails further and make my concepts more convincing.

We then discussed our topics in class in groups, shared found posters and imagery for our topics,and drew thumbnails to plan possible concepts for posters using the techniques and tools we learnt to express our point of view on our topic.

For Homework I continued to draw up some more Thumbnails through some inspiration of words found from my researched material and found some posters with metaphoric meaning to see what techniques I could use for my own poster.

Week 1- Session Two and Independent Research

Class Debate/ Synthesize Research

In class we were split into groups and allocated to debate on one of the possible 3 topics as for or against. We discussed 3 convincing points that we thought could counter the others response. It helped to see different stand points and views on each topic to aid to choosing a topic for my own research. This will help to advance my project as I was able to see what others in the class thought about each topic. This is good because it will help to expand my knowledge on each topic and aid to developing my concept for the project.
For Independent research I decided to further research and read articles on social media, to figure out an angle or stand point I would like to approach for my own topic. Also, some image research to start to visualize possible colours and symbolism I could use as inspiration.


Infographic Poster Research on Social Media

Bibiography

http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/02/20/mapping-twitter-topic-networks-from-polarized-crowds-to-community-clusters/

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/who-uses-social-media-nz-commscores-breakdown-ck-150606

http://www.phosphor.co.nz/news/the-digital-universe-key-trends-in-new-zealand

http://www.slideshare.net/RoyMorganResearch/the-digital-universe-new-zealand?ref=http://thedigitaluniverse.com.au/presentations-overview/new-zealand/

http://time.com/3000978/the-emojis-strange-power/

Images inspired by words from my research

After researching through reading I decided to base my idea around social media being good for connecting with others. I found some words from which I decided to draw imagery from. This helped to start to figure out how I could visually display my idea for my poster.

Possible idea of social media watching you. Connecting to you.

Images sourced from: www.google.co.nz

Week 1- Social Media is anti social Research sites

Introduction to Topic/Bibliography/Research

After the lecture in class, I Researched some sites on my chosen topic of Social Media being good or bad to decide on which angle I could possibly decide to approach to the topic and the brief. I then used this information to start to think about some possible emotional qualities that might relate to social media usage of both pros and cons. This will help to brainstorm ideas on how I want to approach the topic of social media and help to then be able to visually display my concept.

- Site debating whether it is anti social or not- different people's view points.
http://www.debate.org/opinions/can-social-media-make-you-anti-social

- Site on social media being anti social
There is an acceptance for people to tweet or send messages during a presentation but it isn't acceptable to speak even though they are both similar things. - technology chosen over actual interaction
http://multichannelmagic.com/03/does-social-media-encourage-anti-social-behavior/

- Site debating whether Facebook makes us anti social
Facebook allows people to like and dislike posts, also people seem to be more expressive as the person responding can be unknown.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/josephgrenny/2013/05/07/is-facebook-making-us-antisocial/

-Site debating whether video games make you anti social
http://www.debate.org/opinions/do-video-games-make-people-anti-social

-Types of Social Media
http://outthinkgroup.com/tips/the-6-types-of-social-media

https://www.boundless.com/marketing/social-media-marketing/introduction-to-social-media-digital-marketing/what-is-social-media/


Some Posters Related to Social Media

Aaron Wood Posters