Knowing that I would have to produce a body of practical work along side my essay, I made sure from the start that I had chosen a topic that would genuinely interest me as this would make engaging with the module a lot easier and more enjoyable. To do this I brainstormed the areas of design I a interested in as well as some general topics that interest me outside of Graphic Design. One topic that stood out for me was culture, by this I mean the differing design cultures around the world such as Japanese and European. Once I had chosen this as an area of investigation, the next task was to then come up with a sort of 'thread' that I could use as an example that runs through a number of different design cultures. At first I had the idea to chose an international brand such as clothing or produce, but through further research I came across the idea to look at the Olympic Games. This topic suited my aims perfectly and allowed me to explore different design cultures existing throughout the 1900s. To then turn this topic into a discussion I began to look into the appropriateness of each individual branding campaign of the modern day Olympic Games. This decision was informed by that fact that one major issue with designing for an international audience is it being received differently by people of different beliefs and cultures and so this issue is demonstrated clearly using examples of Olympic branding. Through extensive research and a genuine interest in the topic, I was very pleased with the final draft and is a definite improvement from my CoP investigation last year. This is due to the amount of research and readings I undertook before starting the essay. This meant that I had a good understanding of relevant topics and issues and made writing the essay easier and more informed.
As the essay focused on branding and identity of the Modern Day Olympic Games, it was an easy decision for me to choose to produce my own Olympic branding as a practical response. Once I had chosen an Olympic event to brand, the next step was to further link it to the essay by focusing on the appropriateness of my own designs. I first started to design posters that would ideally be seen as an appropriate means to advertise the host nations culture through design. However due to feedback, although the designs themselves were appropriate, the issue with them was with practicality. In response to this, I then shifted the focus onto how I could apply the campaign in a more appropriate way. Evaluating the practical side of the project, I think that I achieved what I set out to do how ever there were some set backs that could have been avoided from the start. Taking on the branding of an Olympic Games is a huge task and so from the start I knew I couldn't produce a whole campaign in the time I had. This means that although I am happy with everything produced, I have only covered a few aspects of a full campaign and so feels half finished. In the future, I will make sure that if I am undertaking something as big as this that I make sure to make my aims more specific and to focus on only a few aspects as apposed to the whole thing.
I will definitely be further exploring design cultures around the world for my CoP 3 investigations over the summer and into final year as it is something I am genuinely interested in and can see myself producing even stronger work next year. I will make sure I chose a suitable topic to write about and then learn from mistakes made this year during my practical and improve on them.
No comments:
Post a Comment