Kugen Singam: DESIGN SPECIALISM

WEEK 3 : INTRODUCTION TO GRAPHIC DESIGN

What is Graphic Design ?

Graphic Design is the art of profession, combining text and pictures in Art, Advertisement, Publication or Websites. Graphic Design is also used to inform and have a specific effect on its audience.

Understanding the Elements of Graphic Design

Graphic Design has two main parts of development that are Elements of Graphic Design and Principles of Graphic Design. The elements of Graphic Design are often used to combined and create Graphic works.

Colors

Colors are used in Graphic Design in order to attract and bring attention to certain areas of design. Besides that each colors have their own meanings and feelings attached to them. Apart from this most people are actually affected by colors in terms of their mood, character, feelings and etc.Besides that colors also influence people to purchase products. This has been proven by KISSmetrics Analytics, Marketing and Testing in order to show how colors do affect purchases.

Bellow is a infographic done by KISSmetrics :

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/color-psychology/

Moreover colors can also create contrast and allow the illusion of movement.

Above image is one of the example of illusion of movement that is done using geometric shapes and brilliant colors to create Optical Illusions.

Shapes

Shapes are made from various kinds of shape that are use to focus and form a design. Shapes are divided into three main categories which are Basic, Natural and Abstract.

Basic shapes
Basic shapes are shapes thats consist of geometric shapes e.g. (Triangles, Squares, Circles, Cones, Octagon and Hexagons.)

Natural Shapes

Nature shapes are shapes that are created from natural forms e.g. (Plants,Tree,Rocks and etc)

Abstract Shapes

Abstract shapes are shapes that forms a stylized or simplified version of basic and natural shape.

Lines

Lines are one of the elements in Graphic Design. Lines are used basically in every design project in order to give the design a structure.Apart from this lines are also used to create forms and divide space within Graphic Layouts. Moreover lines are affective tool in design because they can be applied in any manner of forms, shapes, patterns and etc. There are various kinds of lines such as dotted, curved, straight, swirled, and more.

swirled Line Art

Curvy line art

Straight Line Art

Dotted Line Art

Type

Types are used in Graphic Design to enhance the look of a design by conveying a specific message that other elements would not be able to convey alone.There are billions of typeface with even more being produce by typography designers everyday.

Various kinds of typeface

WHAT ARE THE SHIFTS IN GRAPHIC DESIGN

As technology continues to change at a mind-blowing pace, we shouldn't be surprised that graphic design evolves right along with it. Graphic design has been evolving and changing throughout the years, often redefining the definition of form and functionality. But why has graphic design changed so rapidly in the last ten years? Thanks to the ever-rapidly developing technology used to create, display, and even print graphics and art, we're seeing designers push themselves beyond boundaries in creating perfect artwork.

Here are some of the reasons for the rapid advancement that technology has influence graphic design.

Higher Quality

Thanks to the advent of faster, more powerful computers and faster Internet, we expect our graphics to be higher quality. People nowadays expect more colors, higher resolutions, and more detailed designs. This is because most computer nowadays are able to achieve those type of graphics.

With the advancement of graphic tablets, new design software, and printing devices design now can produce a more creative design without limitation. One of the example is tablet. Designers are able to design faster by using tablet then using a computer mouse to do their work.

Besides that design suites like Adobe Creative Suite releasing new, updated software consistently every few years, the programs feature robust options for designers to utilize in new and often unexpected ways.

Moreover printers now have the ability to print high resolution images, blending inks together to create true-to-life representations of what you see on a computer monitor, allowing for bolder designs on more materials than ever before.

Today people expect to be pulled in by a design, whether it's product packaging or a movie poster, web design or digital art and graphic designers have to utilize the powerful technology around them to create a world at a glance.

Years ago design was more function then form. The amount of text was more then images in design, product packaging was simple but effective. Today that's has all changed thanks to the advancement in technology designs are now more visual base. As for the packaging it has become an art in itself, with dazzling arrays of colors and information that adds to the design.

Packaging years ago which use more function then form

Packaging today which is more dazzling with array of Colours

Besides that the growth of technology has gave designers the ability to use what is known as vexel art, or pixel art that has been made to imitate high quality vector art.

Vector art

Graphic design is a lot like languages. Its an identity, beautiful and enigmatic. Graphic design varies from culture to culture, influenced by a country's culture, history and way of life. Just like art and music, graphic design aesthetics differ from culture to culture. There may be common elements found in a cultures graphic design, not found in other cultures and vice versa.

Latin America

Latin America is occupied with 500 million people, consisting of 20 Spanish-speaking countries save for Portuguese Brazil. Latin America has produced the most unusual and energetic form of graphic expression history has seen. Art is alive and well in the streets of Argentina, Ecuador and Brazil. Building exteriors filled with graffiti & stencil art. Latin American design is a reflection of the rampant street art scene: colorful, tantalizing, soulful, and a bit naive.

Her art revolved around her surroundings and culture. It is diverse, given its hundreds of years of exploitative colonization from other countries. Latin America is one whole continent and stretches more than 21 million kilometers, but we see a common theme for all Latin American design: the Latinos love for life, dance and celebration.

Most Latin American posters have evident pop art and art deco influences. It makes use of contrasting colors, wacky typography and energetic shapes.The Latinos piousness is evident with the use of religious themes and Roman Catholic symbols.

Impressive Latin American Web Design

Latin American graphic design shows the Latinos love for partying and celebration. Latino graphic designers are liberal when it comes to using bold colors and contrasting elements. Minimalism is also used, but mostly for web design–and its not as minimal as it is in other places. The world can learn a lot from the Latin Americans such as to take life less seriously and enjoy. They teach us to look at design not just visually, but with your six senses.

China

China is one of the oldest civilization, spanning at least 4,000 years. During its heyday, China was one of the most advanced societies in the world, but through imperialism and civil wars it began to decline. Still, China has a flourishing history of art, literature and culture.

Chinese graphic design is fairly new as compared to the west. It wasn't until recently, in 1979, that China reopened their doors to the world again, welcoming new ideas and the latest technologies. The country is making a slow but sure move to democratic ways, becoming more liberal with new ideas, especially in art and design. China is surging with creative energy with a strong sense of nationalism (if not a bit xenophobic), so its no surprise that modern graphic design still employs the same design elements found in traditional Chinese art.

Traditional Chinese

Graphic design in China was used as an effective Graphic design

means of illegal political expression. It was a vehicle for

self-identity and self-expression.

Wonderful Chinese Web Design

Chinese web design is addicted to using Flash. Web sites from China are highly interactive and playful. Some elements in graphic design are copied from other cultures. In the recent decade, Chinese graphic design is heavily influenced by the west, but still retains its own Chinese drive and soul. For example, design makes use of fengshui symbols, calligraphy, cultural festivities, etc.

Japan

Japanese contemporary art takes many forms: architecture, advertising, video games, anime and graphic design. Japan's influence in art is immense, contributing many ideas in graphic design and modern art in general. Japanese graphic design is urban and offbeat. They show an affinity for neon colors, simulating the lights we see in downtown Tokyo at night.

Japanese graphic design has heavy influences Mangga (anime)

Japanese Furoshiki design

Brilliant Japanese Web Design

Japanese graphic design is interesting because its radically different from what we are used to in the west. Its extremely varied, and an infusion between the old and the new. On one side of the spectrum, its sleek, futuristic and very minimal. But on another, it is super cute, childish and wacky.

Middle East

The Middle East is seen by the west as mysterious, alluring and mystifying: its the land of sands, flying carpets and magic lamps, the kind most of us will only visit in our dreams. The Middle East is a paradox–this culture is wealthy with some of the oldest and most extensive art in history, boasting thousands of years of art. However, graphic design in the Middle East is still pretty recent. Its still a struggle for the Arab world: freelancing is not a good way to earn a living here, the government is not very cooperative and there are only a few graphic design schools around.

Middle East graphic design is just as alluring and mystifying. It is strongly influenced by old calligraphy and arabesque, or the repetition of forms and patterns.

The Middle East has slowly opened themselves to the western culture of consumerism. The Arabs love their gold–and this affinity can be evident in design.

Just like the whole world, the Middle East world has also caught on the minimalist bug, but still maintains the Middle Eastern vibe were all familiar with.

Superb Middle Eastern Web Design

Middle Eastern design is rich in color and culture. Like other Asian countries, the Middle East prides herself in beautiful symbols and calligraphy.In some aspects, the region is still conservative in many matters. For example, they need to open themselves to the idea of freelancing, female graphic designers, etc. Nevertheless, the region is a hot-pot of new and intermixing ideas. They have adopted many Western ideas on design, but retain the identity that makes them distinct.

Graphic Designers from around the world have their own approaches to art. Despite that, one thing is certain: good design will always be good design. Even if we don't understand the meaning, symbol and calligraphy being used, we can distinguish good from bad design

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/design/worldwide-graphic-design/

WEEK 4 : FLUX = CONTINUOUS CHANGES ; INSTABILITY

What is Advertising ?

Advertising or advertising is a form of communication for marketing and used to encourage, persuade, or manipulate an audience (viewers, readers or listeners; sometimes a specific group) to continue or take some new action.

Purpose of Advertising

- To convince customers that the company products are the best

- To enhance the image of the company

- To point out and create a need for products or services

- To demonstrate new uses for established products

- To announce new products and programs

- To reinforce the salespeople's individual messages

- To draw customers to the business

- To hold existing customers

Types of Advertising

Product placements

Covert advertising, is when a product or brand is embedded in entertainment and media. For example, in a film, the main character can use an item or other of a definite brand, as in the movie.

Product Placement Advertising

Press advertising

Press advertising describes advertising in a printed medium such as a newspaper, magazine, or trade journal. This encompasses everything from media with a very broad readership base, such as a major national newspaper or magazine, to more narrowly targeted media such as local newspapers and trade journals on very specialized topics.

Newspaper Press Advertising

Billboard advertising

Billboards are large structures located in public places which display advertisements to passing pedestrians and motorists. Most often, they are located on main roads with a large amount of passing motor and pedestrian traffic; however, they can be placed in any location with large amounts of viewers, such as on mass transit vehicles and in stations, in shopping malls or office buildings, and in stadiums.

Mobile billboard advertising

Mobile billboards are generally vehicle mounted billboards or digital screens. These can be on dedicated vehicles built solely for carrying advertisements along routes preselected by clients, they can also be specially equipped cargo trucks or, in some cases, large banners strewn from planes. The billboards are often lighted; some being backlit, and others employing spotlights.

Mobile Advertising

In-store advertising

In-store advertising is any advertisement placed in a retail store. It includes placement of a product in visible locations in a store, such as at eye level, at the ends of aisles and near checkout counters.

In store Advertising

Coffee cup advertising

Coffee cup advertising is any advertisement placed upon a coffee cup that is distributed out of an office, café, or drive-through coffee shop. This form of advertising was first popularized in Australia, and has begun growing in popularity in the United States, India, and parts of the Middle East

Coffee Cup Advertising

Street advertising

This type of advertising first came to prominence in the UK by Street Advertising Services to create outdoor advertising on street furniture and pavements. Working with products such as Reverse Graffiti, air dancers and 3D pavement advertising, the media became an affordable and effective tool for getting brand messages out into public spaces

Street Advertising

Sheltered Outdoor Advertising

This type of advertising opens the possibility of combining outdoor with indoor advertisement by placing large mobile, structures (tents) in public places on temporary bases. The large outer advertising space exerts a strong pull on the observer, the product is promoted indoor, where the creative decor can intensify the impression.

Sheltered Outdoor Advertising

Celebrity branding

This type of advertising focuses upon using celebrity power, fame, money, popularity to gain recognition for their products and promote specific stores or products.

Priyanka Chopra Amla hair oil branding Advertising

Consumer-generated advertising

This involves getting consumers to generate advertising through blogs, websites, wikis and forums, for some kind of payment.

Aerial advertising

Using aircraft, balloons or airships to create or display advertising media. Skywriting is a notable example.

Aerial Hot air balloons Advertising

Traditional Advertising is Evolving

The rise of different medium are overtaking many traditional medium such as Television, Radios, Newspapers and etc.

A new form of advertising that is growing rapidly is social network advertising. It is online advertising with a focus on social networking sites. This is a relatively immature market, but it has shown a lot of promise as advertisers are able to take advantage of the demographic information the user has provided to the social networking site. Friendertising is a more precise advertising term in which people are able to direct advertisements toward others directly using social network services

What are the changes in Advertising

Advertising has been around for centuries and will always be a prominent part of our world. Through the years advertising has changed to a more society based business. Now, clients look for more visual aids and features that will benefit the earth as a whole not just for a specific business.

Social media has become a major contributor in the modern advertising campaign. Before the main advertisements would be shown on television, radio, or print ads but now social media has a major role as well.

Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc. all have a part in the advertising campaign. The Internet is part of everyday life and without taking advantage of advertising through these different media there would be a whole audience lost.

The economy has also had a major impact on the advertising campaign. Today’s society is all about getting their money’s worth so to speak. Advertising budgets are quite large but companies don’t want their money wasted. Effective advertising campaigns come through a well-utilized budget plan.

The changes that have taken place over the past 5 years will only continue to progress. We live in an ever changing world which causes advertising to change along with it.

Guerilla Marketing

Example of Guerrilla Marketing

A recent advertising innovation is "guerrilla marketing", which involves unusual approaches such as staged encounters in public places, giveaways of products such as cars that are covered with brand messages, and interactive advertising where the viewer can respond to or become part of the advertising message.

Guerrilla advertising is becoming increasingly popular with more companies. This type of advertising is unpredictable and innovative, which causes consumers to buy the product or idea.

This reflects an increasing trend of interactive and "embedded" ads, such as via product placement, having consumers vote through text messages, and various innovations utilizing social network services such as Facebook.

Niche Marketing

Specific Audience

Another significant trend regarding future of advertising is the growing importance of the niche market using niche or targeted ads. Also brought about by the Internet, advertisers will have an increasing ability to reach specific audiences.

In the past, the most efficient way to deliver a message was to blanket the largest mass market audience possible. However, usage tracking, customer profiles and the growing popularity of niche content brought about by everything from blogs to social networking sites, provides advertisers with audiences that are smaller but much better defined.

This leads to ads that are more relevant to viewers and more effective for companies' marketing campaigns. Among others, Comcast Spotlight is one such advertiser employing this method in their video on demand menus. These advertisements are targeted to a specific group and can be viewed by anyone wishing to find out more about a particular business or practice at any time, right from their home. This causes the viewer to become proactive and actually choose what advertisements they want to view.

With the Internet came many new advertising opportunities: popup, Flash, banner, popunder, advergaming, and email advertisements (all of which are often unwanted or spam in the case of email) are now commonplace. Particularly since the rise of "entertaining" advertising, some people may like an advertisement enough to wish to watch it later or show a friend.

Legal consideration

Different countries have different advertising laws that need to be accepted and followed. Therefore while creating advertisements it is very important to know the laws that are imposed in that particular country.

In Germany it is illegal to use any comparative terminology a competitor can sue you if you do so.

Belgium and France explicitly ban comparative advertising, where as it is clearly authorized in U.K, Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

Banning explicit comparisons will rule out an effective advertising approach heavily used by US companies. Therefore it is very important for the advertiser to identify this and act accordingly.

Case Study 1

Pepsi for its campaign “Joy of Pepsi” came up with an ad which showed a kid stepping on a coke can in order to reach up to get Pepsi from the vending machine. This ad was a direct case of effective comparative advertising. It was only allowed to be screened in Netherlands and was banned in all the other countries.

http://youtu.be/GHs2zX5XtVE

Language Limitation

Language is one of the major barriers to effective communication through advertising. The problem involves different languages of different countries or dialects within one country.Everyday words have different meaning in different cultures even pronunciation cause problems.

Making Messages Culture Specific

Cultural misunderstanding can raise havoc on the best business plans. Even though it is basic communication tool of advertising in foreign lands, advertisers often fail to develop even a basic understanding of foreign languages and linguistic that reveal unspoken attitudes and information.

In some cultures, messages are exploiting. The words carry most of the information. In order cultures, less information is contained in the verbal part of the message since more lies in the context.

The advertiser must achieve expert communication that is gained by a thorough understanding of the language for making messages culture specific. No generalized recommendation can be made about whether to adapt or standardize advertising.

It depends on the product, the culture, user pattern and so on. Advertising affords are moving towards a centralized position, standardize where possible and adapt where necessary, which generally translates into pattern advertising.

Example :

Nescafe has a global brand but advertising messages and formulations vary to suit cultural differences. In Japan and UK tea is popular, in France, Germany and Brazil ground coffee is preferred.

We can see that how over time peoples habits, tastes, styles, behaviours and values have changed. Advertiser essentially have the power to promote positive images or negative images, this affects the culture.

In many cases, advertisers want to influence the public for buying a certain idea, product or service, directly impacting their free wills. The skilled advertiser will take advantage of people weakest points, such as greed and desire in attempt to sway then to do what they want.

Case Study

United Colours of Benetton in their advertising tries to bring about unity among the different parts of the world. The advertisement campaign involves people of different countries came together and united by their clothing. All the colors of the world” was one of the first slogan to appear in Benetton ads and was later change to United Colors of Benetton.

A trademark that became the driving force behind the “United colors” message, which formed the basis of the advertising visuals designed to create a growing network of “United People”. This kind of advertising shows how ads today are trying to bring about positive change in culture and thus uniting people.

The problem associated with communicating to people in diverse culture presents one of the greatest challenge in advertising. Communication is more difficult because cultural factors largely determine the way various phenomena are perceived.

WEEK 5 : THE POWER OF PRODUCT PLACEMENT IN MOVIE

Introduction

What is Product Placement ?

Product placement is a form of audiovisual commercial communication consisting of the inclusion of or reference to a product, a service or the trade mark so that it is featured within a program.

On week 5 we have been given a group task in conducting a research on product placement and how powerful is the product in the movie. Based on our research we find that the movie Casino Royale (James Bond) is one of the movie that has more Product Placement than I've ever seen in other movies.

Casino Royale Movie Info

Casino Royale is the twenty-first film in the Eon Productions James Bond film series and the first to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Directed by Martin Campbell and written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Paul Haggis, the film marks the third screen adaptation of Ian Fleming's 1953 novel of the same name. Casino Royale is set at the beginning of Bond's career as Agent 007, just as he is earning his license to kill. After preventing a terrorist attack at Miami International Airport, Bond falls for Vesper Lynd, the treasury employee assigned to provide the money he needs to bankrupt terrorist financier Le Chiffre by beating him in a high-stakes poker game. The story arc continues in the following Bond film, Quantum of Solace (2008).

Most Product Placement used in this movie is SONY Product.Every laptop is a Vaio, digital cameras are CyberShots, mobile phones are SonyEricssons, cd players are Sony, and CDRs are even Sony brand discs besides that they are even other brands like Ford car, Omego watch, and etc.

Print screen on Product Placement

Sony Laptop

SonyEricsson Walkman Phone

SonyEricssons Handphone

Advantage of Product Placement

Increase Sales in Product
By repeatedly showing Sony Product Placement in the movie, it will have a subliminal effect on the viewers so that whenever they think about 'electronics devices they will think Sony.

Gain Product Popularity
The Product Brand eventually become more famous and will spread out trough many consumers from around the globe.

Disadvantages of Product Placement

Decrease of Consumers Interest
By repeating Sony Product Placement in a movie almost every scene will cause more sinister intent to its viewers on Sony brand and products.

Gain Consumers Negative Point of View
By repeating the Sony Product Placement in the movie, consumers will have a doubt on Sony whether it is in a dire financial straits thats why its been advertise too many times.

Consumers Point of View

November 20, 2006 by daemon-IGN said :

He couldn't help noticing, however, how much desperate product placement Sony had forced into the movie. Sony distributes the film, but he think they went a little overboard trying to splash their name over every frame.

Which in our opinion we think is true, basically every scene there is a Sony product. The product placement is too much that at certain point people could lose their interest in Sony Product but at the same time it could also influence people in a way that when they go to purchase a electronic device the first thing that will come in their mind is Sony.

WEEK 6 : FLUX IN ADVERTISING POSTER IDEAS, SCAMS, TYPES AND ETC.

Idea sketches for FLUX 1 : POSTER DESIGN

FLUX 1 : POSTER IDEAS & DEVELOPMENT

Idea for poster development 1

Idea for poster development 2

Idea for poster development 3

FLUX 1 : FINAL POSTER ARTWORK

Reflection Note
This project has improve my knowledge a lot base on design and research. i have research on freelancing, sustainability and advertising and i have learn a lot from this research and findings. Besides this i use to be afraid of advertising but after research about i found out that its not bad after all and its a very wide and interesting topic.Moreover this task is a group work, what i learn is that we should work together as a team to produce a good work. Yes there were missunderstanding but it was all a passing cloud and barriers that me and my teammate overcome to achieve a quality work.

FLUX 2: USING THE WORD FLUX AND EXPERIMENTING IT WITH DIFFERENT MEDIUMS USING

DYSFUNCTION