SVR
Strategies for Visual Research BA Design for Graphic Communication London College of Communication
MAHDIS ESMAEILINIKOU - YEAR 03 The Brief A practicing graphic designer creates and develops appropriate solutions for markets, users, environments and specific contexts, even those far outside their own realm of experience and knowledge. This project focuses on the development of a range of practical visual research methods common to current industry practice that can be applied whilst exploring and solving communication design problems. During this project I have investigate how I as a communication designer can explore and produce design research/ outcomes that address a chosen social issue.
Contents 01 - DISCOVER
Is the process of exploring a new area or journey, and documenting learning findings.
02 - DELIVER
Is the production, implementation and dissemination to optimum standards.
03 - DEVELOP
Is the process of generating and experimenting with many ideas and concepts, transforming into prototypes and testing them with the client and target audience.
04- DELVE
Is the process of becoming deeply engaged in secondary and primary research methods to develop and in-depth understanding of the context, topic area, target audience, similar practice.
05- DEFINE
Is the process of analysing and synthesising all the research carried out to date to help decide on the direction of the best route that the project should take to address the social issue.
06- DETERMINE IMPACT
Is the process of evaluating the impact that an outcome has had in comparison with the initial aim or function that is has been designed to achieve.
3
01 - DISCOVER Whitechapel is district within East London. It has been for a long time a poor and working-class neighbourhood perhaps best known for being the location of the infamous Jack the Ripper murders in the late 1880s. Today, its residents are of varied ethnic origin, primarily Bangladeshi or Bengali. By the 1840s, Whitechapel had evolved, or devolved, into classic “Dickensian� London, with problems of poverty and overcrowding. Whitechapel Road itself was not particularly squalid through most of this period it was the warrens of small dark streets branching from it that contained the greatest suffering ,filth and danger. The Bangladeshis are the most visible migrant group today, who make up 52% of the Whitechapel ward total population. The East London Mosque at the end of Whitechapel Road is a major symbol of the resident Islamic community.
4
01 - DISCOVER Experienced issues To identify a social issue I first decided to consider the most important problems that I have experienced in Whitechapel, personally. As a result of my thinking I realised that Whitechapel is not a pleasant area to live because of its overcrowdedness specially around the rush hour period. It is also an uncomfortable atmosphere specifically for young females because of the matter of verbal abuse that is caused by street gangs and young male adults in the area. Litter and noisiness of the operation was also something that I considered thinking. I discovered that the market and public transport stations are big parts of causing such issues.
Over Crowdy
Noisy
Verbal Abuse
e l b rta
U
o f m nco
5
01 - DISCOVER Trip Advisor To discover what strangers and tourists think of Whitechapel I decided to look at TripAdvisor reviews and find out what’s other people’s perspective and first impressions of the area. Neglected but fascinating “True, the neighbourhood is pretty run down and could be much improved, but is well equipped and has everything you could possibly need. If you come here is to follow the footsteps of Jack the Ripper, which was fascinating to me.”
MISERABLE HELL HOLE “Whitechapel Road is dirty, smelly and depressing. There are no shops of any interest and the market is quite abysmal, selling very poor quality goods and save for the grubby façades of a few Victorian buildings (which are not anything very special by London standards) it has no redeeming features whatsoever.”
TOO BUSY “Too busy too hectic too chaotic but u can find anything and everything here so worthwhile it is as long as you keep your guard with pickpockets.”
6
01 - DISCOVER Local Residents To go deeper into my topic I decided to ask local residents of Whitechapel Road about their opinion of the area they’re living. Alicia - Student “If they move half of the store somewhere else so it will be less overcrowding in the high street. And the hospital makes the area look so unattractive because it’s so old and all the windows are broken. It’s like a ghost house!”
Joe - Lloyds TSB “All the empty buildings need to be fixed because they are depressing. I would like to see the market is destroyed so there’s more space for people to get to the public transport in mornings.
Viktor - Product Analysers “Investing night out facilities. Fixing a bit of structure and considering people’s safety by arranging more police officers. Because it can be dangerous for females”
Objective View Culturally
Aesthetically
As a Habitat
Population Typographically
8
01 - DISCOVER Finding The Real Issue After analysing all information and data that I have gathered by primary and secondary research, I discovered that 90% of people that I interviewed (local/ nonlocal) believe that Whitechapel Road has three main issues and they are : Overcrowdedness caused by the market, visually repugnant and lack of diversity. But what really wasn’t mentioned by ANY of my interviewees was increasing the homeless population in the area which is highly noticeable. Everyday, we walk pass by a human being who has lost home and family and is living in the street without hope and shelter. For that reason I decided to focus my thoughts on something that does exist but has been ignored rather than working on a topic that is too obvious and ordinary for everyone.
no
one
! s e car
homeless & hopeless
lost life of a human being
9
The Brief 01 “Ignoring the problem” was a social issue that I mainly focused on during this project. According to one of my online surveys 17 out of 20 people ignore the poverty because they believe “ It was their choice to be homeless”. Most people choose not to donate money because they think homeless victims are not putting enough effort to earn anything. Target Audience: Anyone who can financially support the homeless. Employed and 18+ Possible Formats: Publishable materials such as : Posters, Booklets, Flyers etc. Potential Client: Whitechapel Mission “is called to serve the men and women caught in the cycles of poverty, hopelessness and dependencies of many kinds, and to see their lives transformed to hope, joy and lasting productivity”. www.whitechapel.org.uk Aim The aim of this project is to empower my audience to donate money, gifts or any other materials such as food or clothing to the Whitechapel Mission.
10
02 - DELIVER Idea Generation When I started thinking about my design problem I decided to capture all my first thoughts and empty my mind onto paper to warm up my creativity. Here is a selection of random words related to my subject that I thought about during the exercise. This helped me to generate lots of potential starting points for the next steps.
unfair goals
rt o f com
ll roo u f r e m Pow r e t s o p
hopeless
Homeles raise s food ess n r a w a no body money irty no p or o P rivacy listens Alcohol s u o s r e e s no clothes g a n e s a i d D o d t e c g r n needs i vo i d noth t o g o left t too much lose behind handle m o o d g r e n zi ed fir d e b t e o r o f g n rug s lost starve e
11
02 - DELIVER Dominant Idea At this stage of the process I focused on my initial thinking and this helped me overcome possible barriers to creative thinking and eliminate obvious/dominant ideas. A dominant idea is an idea that is so strong and obvious that is different to think of any other ideas when thinking about the subject.
- A poster with a powerful image and a thoughtful message. - A flyer to advertise whitechapel mission - A powerful advert on the local news paper
CONCEPT CHALLENGE
Is the third step of the process where I tried to come with ideas that are as playful, ridiculous, outlandish and unrealistic as possible. At this stage I wasn’t trying to solve anything, I was trying to expand my thinking away from the dominant ideas that we’ve all seen before. I tried 4 ways to challenge my concept > Reverse : A not so powerful/ an ordinary image with a stupid message, A flyer against whitechapel mission, An awful/sarcastic/ugly advert on news paper > Exaggerate: Homeless is nothing/ homeless is everything/ homeless doesn’t exists. > Distort: Be homeless for a week, Ask your audience to be homeless for a week > Wishful thinking: publish my ad on “Ads of the world”, become famous by your advert, get a placement in Creatiview, make/sell an app: find your local homeless!
12
02 - DELIVER Outcome V1 The first outcome I have created after Dominant Idea exercise was a poster with a twisted message that encourages my audience to put themselves in a homeless person’s shoes for a moment. This poster is created by following two steps of the Concept Challenge exercise: “Distort” and “Exaggerate”. To create the imagery of the poster I took a variety of pictures of homeless people in my area, and also used a few old pictures that I took with my phone before.
13
02 - DELIVER Outcome V1 Images below display my first attempt to design a poster as the Outcome V1. I wasn’t 100% happy with the results because I always thought there’s something missing and I was lost in a way of communicating a clear message to my audience. At this stage I wasn’t sure what I wanted to achieve by producing these posters but the “Peer Review Feedback” session helped me a lot to demonstrate my thoughts in a much clearer way and it assisted me into a brighter direction.
14
02 - DELIVER Peer Review Feedback This is a summary of feedback i received during the session. The next page shows a developed version of Outcome V1 designed upon the feedback.
• No info about Whitechapl Mission on the posters • May be a bit outplayed • Think of different ways to convey your message • Through focussed research • Punchy message • Really powerful images • Good choice of Client • Well researched & thought out
• Contact Whitechapel Mission before designing further to get feats and figures on what they do • Figure out what part of Whitechapel you want to locate your campaign • Think of your message. Raise awareness or promote your client
WITH TODAY’S ECONOMY THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU
You Can Help Find out how via www.Whitechapel.org.uk
16
03 - DEVELOP Get in Contact Following the feedback I was given from my colleagues, I decided to send my potential client an e-mail, tell them about my project and ask them if they would be interested for any collaboration with me. Thankfully I have received a reply from their Fund-raising Manager Mr Ruth McCaughley. On that email I was informed that they would like some help to design posters or a promotional booklet that educate their audience about their services . All the information that they wanted to communicate with their audience was available on their website, but they wanted a printed format to hand in to donators, visitors and public.
Hi Mahdis Thank you for your email – we would love some help with our posters and materials. Or something like a booklet that provides all the information available on our website. Do you think you can help? Best wishes Ruth Ruth McCaughley Fundraising Manager The Whitechapel Centre
17
03 - DEVELOP Outcome V2 - Production When it was the time to think about producing the Outcome V2, I had all the information I needed about the format (A booklet), the message (Website data) and the target audience (Donators, visitors). At that point I found it very easy to think “Inside” the box and produce what exactly I was asked to deliver. This mistake of being ordinary and not so creative thought me an important lesson (will be explained in the next couple of pages) and led me into a much better direction afterwards.
Idea Generation “The Christmas Idea” One of the first thoughts that came onto my mind by thinking INSIDE the box was make the booklet “Christmasy” “Tricking people idea” I wanted to put my booklet into some sort of Christmas packaging so the audience won’t know what they received is about a charity at first. “Why Christmas idea?” because this project was very close to Christmas holidays and I thought that my audience would be excited to receive something that looks & feels festive. and has a positive vibe
map
info
inf o se Ca
back
3-4 pa ges
d folde
100 WAYS OF DRAWING
19
03 - DEVELOP Outcome V2 - Production During my production process I researched through a number of DIY packaging projects and I found one tutorial that showed me how to make my “Christmas Idea” into reality. I decided to locate the booklet inside this Christmas style package. This package would attract the audience attention, has a positive and fun feeling to it and it doesn’t look like most boring charity published materials that we all see nowadays.
20
03 - DEVELOP Outcome V2 - Production Pictures below display a few pages of the finished booklet. Yet again I wasn’t fully satisfied with the result since I believed I could design the layout more appealing than what I did. I wasn’t also sure this product would solve any issue since it was only giving some sort of dry and serious information about the charity to my target audience. Here I was standing at the first place producing something cliché that would not be even interesting to read, never mind solving a social issue!
Client’s Perspective Although my client was happy with the finished product, he had two important concerns which I agreed with - Time Consuming - When it comes to big production - It costs a lot - Especially the Christmas package >The final discussion with my client was to avoid the Christmas packaging and improve the layout before the production.
21
03 - DEVELOP Outcome V2 - Production Here is a summary of the feedback I have received from my PBL group and tutors.
Research
F
A
Analysis
F
A
Experimentation Communication & Presentation Personal & Professional Development
F
A
F
A
F
A
• More Experimentation • Change the typeface for large amount of text • Think about target audience language • Make it more Image + story based
22
04 - DELVE Experimentation Going through the feedback I was given, I realised my tutors and peers believe that I haven’t done enough experimentation through the project. This feedback encouraged me to go deeper into my main topic and helped me to engage with the subject. For that reason I decided to break boundaries, go out of my comfort zone and find a vagrant in the streets who’d like to share his story with me. Here is only 2 minuets of a 3 hours long conversation between me & Glen. A gentleman who has lost everything in July 2012. (Double click to play - It can take a few moment to play)
04 - DELVE Analysis Speaking to Glen cleared my vision a lot more. I was 100% engaged with every single word that came out of his mouth and that made me wondered maybe this is something people want to know instead of reading about the services that a charity provides. The story telling, the feeling , the understanding, having the image of someone else’s life, putting yourself in their shoes, trying to imagine how it feels to be them. This is what makes you want to know more and more and more. After all I found the missing link in my brainstorming and thoughts. This was what I really needed.
Glen was a very calm man He is well educated If you ever met him somewhere you would never guess that he is homeless I took him to lunch and hs shared his story with me
Our conversation lasted for three hours He expressed himself through words
He gave me every single details of his life events. Even the dates and hours
He was tall, He didnt want to show his face. So I drew an outline of him There was something crazy about him brown and big I NEVER SAW HIM AGAIN bonned He couldnt stop talking
24
04 - DELVE Changes In The Brief After my epic experimentation I felt that, there is a need to make a few changes in my first written brief. Although my PBL group believed that, it is too late for making changes at this stage I decided to take a risk and go with what I felt will work out better for my project. Although the changes I made weren’t big enough to transfer my original idea into something completely different, I used them as a tool to develop and improve the basics. I managed to transform my idea into something less cliché but more creative. The 6 thinking men method helped me a lot to improve the structure of my new brief.
six Thinking Men
WHAT are the different ways that I can convey my message? - are the different methods that I can use? - Would make people to listen? - Would make people to ignore? WHY People try to avoid this topic? - no one cares? would people care? - aren’t more people aware of this issue? WHERE am I going with this topic? - Do I find more information? - do I start? - am I gonna end up? WHEN Will people be interested? - do I start? - do I have to finish it by? WHO would support my idea? - would listen? - is my real audience? - would participate? HOW homeless people would feel about my idea? can I make it work? - can I convince my client? - can I make a difference?
25
The Brief 02 For this project I would like to create an opportunity for homeless to ask for their needs without feeling ashamed. I think no one has ever given them a chance to speak up for themselves without being judged. My job as a designer is to collect and publish the result. By selling the outcomes and giving the founds to the local charity I will increase the donations. Therefore that money can improve the quality of services that local homelesses receive. Target Audience: Anyone who can financially support the homeless. Employed and 18+ Possible Formats: Publishable materials such as : Posters, Books and Post cards. Potential Client: Whitechapel Mission “is called to serve the men and women caught in the cycles of poverty, hopelessness and dependencies of many kinds, and to see their lives transformed to hope, joy and lasting productivity�. www.whitechapel.org.uk Aim My aim is to give both sides (homeless and target audience) a chance to engage with each other. A chance for homeless to express their feelings and a chance to the audience to listen, think and act towards it.
Live
OUTSIDE THE BOX
26
04 - DEFINE Testing Before starting the production process I decided to make an online survey just to see how many people would support my idea and how many will show interest to buy the final product.
39/50
As the result 39 out of 50 people (Including neighbours, PBL group, local shops & friends) showed interest in my idea and confirmed that they would definitely buy the product.
Plan Of Action PLAN A - Ask for collaboration from the client (whitechapel mission) - Sign 10+ homeless volunteer to join the workshop as starting point - Collect and publish all artwork into books, posters or post cards. - Put the product on the sale at Whitechapel Mission for visitors. Door to door marketing in the local area could be another option. - Give the money to Whitechapel Mission to improve the quality of their services so it’s beneficial for all attendants. PLAN B (Only if the client didn’t want to take a part) - Find and ask 10 local homeless to join the workshop - Collect and publish all artwork into books, posters or post cards. - Sell the products by door to door marketing in the local area. - Use the money to buy food and clothes for the creators of the art work.
27
04 - DEFINE More Research To find more inspirations and ideas I decided to research through campaigns,activities and projects that have been done to give homeless a chance to speak up. Here is a list of three main projects that inspired me to create my very own version. By clicking on each title you will be directed into their websites and you can read more about each projects. • My homeless project • Signs for the Homeless • Sign of the Times
Art workshop These projects inspired me to think of creating an art workshop for the homeless in Whitechapel road. By attending the workshop, the homeless is given a chance to express their feelings or share their story throughout art. It can be a drawing or a typographic quotation that they want to share with people. Through this process they don’t have to show their face if they’re not comfortable with i.e Glen. Plus some people (the audience) may not have the time to listen to someone’s life story for 3 hours but it’s more likely to think that everyone has 5 minutes to look at an art piece and appreciate the message or understand the concept.
Why Art?
Because art is an universal language. It’s easy to understand. It’s creative and not boring. It can communicate well. It can find hidden talents. It can Increase people’s confident. It’s a tool to express feelings and it’s fun and interactive for both sides
28
04 - DEFINE Final discussions Jenny
Sonia
Sue
Through a meeting with Whitechapel Mission’s management team I was informed that my project is accepted by the charity and they are willing to support my idea. During this meeting we have discussed a variety of important facts and concerns that were essential as the starting point. These were included: - Format: Book (10-15 pages) - Each page includes the art work, artist’s name and previous occupation - Name of the product (Chosen between 4 possibilities) 1) I have something to tell you 2) There’s something you should know 3) My art explosion 4} Things we can’t say on a cardboard -Price: £5 to £10 depending on the quality - Materials we wanted to provide in the workshop: Acrylic Paints & thick A3 papers.
29
04 - DEFINE Final Outcome During the production process I have attended breakfast at Whitechapel Mission and asked 8 homelesses to join my activity. They have all showed interest in my project and were excited to get their hands dirty. Some of them were already art lovers and I could see they are happily getting involved. But for some, this activity was slightly difficult because they have never had the chance to draw or paint, for that reason I helped them out by teaching them how to draw and apply colours. To start the activity I gave them a simple task and that was: Draw something that you really want to have in your life right now. The result was surprisingly amazing as most of the participants drew something that is not materialistic. I also wrote down interesting quotations that I heard in our conversations. I then collected the paintings, scanned them on, added the quotations and designed a book. For choosing the layout, fonts and colours I looked at how homeless cardboards look like in real life and tried to create the same effect on the book to engage my audience with the product better.
30
04 - DEFINE Asking Experts Once I have printed out the sample of my book, I’ve sent a digital file of my research and the final outcome to a few design experts that I knew to get their feedback and used them towards developing my work. One of the designers who has always helped me with my projects during the past two years is the creative director at Interstate studio. They design and publish amazing books so I thought his feedback would be very helpful for me to improve my work. My clients also were impressed with the final result and we agreed to create 50 copies and test them out on the 24th of Jan the with public at Whitechapel Mission. The price for each book is set for £5. And for the big production we decided to get rid of the red wrapper band around the book and add the details to the layout instead. Sue and I agreed that it’s time consuming and it will cost extra to print.
Dear Mahdis I reviewed your pdf file as you asked. Your research and analysis is nicely done. It’s thoughtful and well designed. I like your idea about the art workshop ,it’s very unique and interesting. I think the concept of your book is great. Just develop the layout a bit more in terms of text and image, typefaces and the size of them, I think they are oversized in some pages . But overall I think you’ve done a great job. Impressive! Well done. Best Nigel Nigel Gray
Creative Director
Interstate
31
05 - DETERMINE IMPACT Evaluation This project or let me say this amazing experience was one of the best accomplishments that I have ever achieved. Through this journey I have learnt a lot of lessons. One was to appreciate everything I have in life, even the smallest things. Throughout this project I have also learnt a lot of new skills such as working with Prezi, Garageband and iMovie, which I found very beneficial for my future projects. In this progress I got the chance to talk to the real clients in industry, test my outcomes with the target audience and work upon the feedback that I was given. I enjoyed every second of spending time to make my idea happen. And I personally believe that, this is just the beginning for me. I am willing to push my idea further in the future to the point that I can publish my book globally. I am also willing to develop this idea further by creating a range of other interesting questions for the homlesses to answer by their drawings. Questions like : - What is the best life lesson you can give to others? - What is your best childhood memory? - How did you become homeless? - What did you eat for dinner? etc. I also thought about collecting a big number of paintings and exhibit them for the public in art galleries. In this way I can donate all the incomes to the charities or hand them to the original artists. I believe, I achieved everything I aimed at the beginning of this project. My main aims were to improve my design knowledge, to be helpful and problem solving, to make a difference with my design and to create a great portfolio outcome. Reviewing my process from the start shows me that I grew with every step of Research Methods that I used. And I can easily see the effects on my final outcome. Although my book still needs a lot of design improvements, I believe it can convey my message to everyone efficiently. I have also made a short animation about my process for people who will not be able to read my PDF report. These people can be future clients, employers, other designers, friends and family. Picture below displays a shot of my video that I have uploaded on Youtube. By clicking on the picture you will be directed to the Youtube channel.