Political Poster Process

I first decided to play with some fonts to meet the effect im looking for.

I liked this one, however I thought it may be too bold for my aim.

This one was too messy

I liked this one

Again, too messy.

I did like this one, however I dont think it matches the style for the rest of my poster.

I really like this one, however I think a bold style would be more eye catching

Using a thin, san-serif font creates a modernistic effect.

Using the gap tool I widened the gutter to create more space.

After adding a small box to leave room for a QR code I liked the effect of the poster. I feel its very modern feeling and shows a good use of space, however I feel as if it is missing something. I decided that the percentage design should be changed to make it more legible and look more swiss-inspired.

I decided to turn the percentage on its side and align it using a grid.

When I added the rest of text, I decided a slight greying makes the percentage stand out more.

I aligned everything to a grid to keep it all neat and tidy

I decided to create a swiss-inspired graphic

I then placed it at the bottom of my poster. I felt it worked, however the poster still had no instruction at this point.

I then replaced this image with a QR code, adding text to instruct people to scan it. The code would send people to link with more information about compulsory political education. I liked the look of this, however I wanted to include my graphic somewhere.

I decided to add the graphic behind the text. To make the text legible I had to lower the opacity of the graphic.

I then aligned the text so that it sat on the grid properly.

I decided that moving the text to sit on the grid caused it to look out of line. I nudged the text up so it meets the top of the grid.

I tried to use the swiss-style grid formatting more, however knowledge started to cause issues (due to being too long). I hyphenated the word and moved the "Scan the QR code to find out more" text.

After a peer vote, this design wasnt favourable, however I decided to push it further by formatting the text in a bold style. 

I like this one more, however I still feel that my first design is better and features a better use of whitespace.

Final design

Focus Group

Today we were given a plate of biscuits and were asked to record ourselves whilst we tried them. As we ate them we had to talk about the following:

• First Impressions
• Smell
• Texture
• Taste
• Visual Impression
• Quality and Cost

The recording however was lost and therefore I cannot embed it onto this post. 

These were some of the pros & cons of using this method of Primary Research.



For the discussion of my political poster, I decided on the following discussion points.

• First impressions
• Colour scheme
• Layout
• Style
• Appeal
• Is it convincing?
• Success?

I also made a short questionnaire in order to gather information about the demographic im interviewing.

My Poster

Tabbi's Poster

Dan's Poster

Abbie's Poster

This is the audio for the focus group we recorded.

Election Connection

Research is the gathering of information needed for a product/type of media. There are many different types of research, all used for gathering different types of information.

• Secondary Research
• Research already compiled and organised for you.
• Primary Research
• New research carried out to answer a certain question.
• Audience Research
• Information about the audiences lifestyle & economy
• Market Research
• Research to gather information about target markets
• Production Research
• Research to determine what you will need to release the product at end of production

Examples of these are:

• Secondary Research
• Books, Internet, Magazines, Previous polls/questionnaires
• These methods make it easier and faster to gather information, however sometimes cannot be reliable.
• Primary Research
• Questionnaires carried out yourself
• Slower gathering of information, more reliable than secondary research, however questionnaires can sometimes be unreliable (due to people not answering honestly)
• Audience Research
• Questionnaires asking people about their lifestyle and economy
• Useful information about target audiences lifestyle, however shares the same cons as primary research.
• Market Research
• Looking at competing products in the market
• Useful if product is not unique, if product is too similar to others could lead to copyright issues.
• Production Research
• Certification, copyrighting,recce’s, risk assessment
• Needed to legalise product/type of media, can take time but is compulsory.

All of these different types of research have different uses, these are some of the main ones:

• Secondary Research
• Find out information to reach target market/audience
• Primary Research
• Find out information to reach target market/audience
• Audience Research
• To find out about target audience to base product on their needs
• Market Research
• To find out information about competing products to compete against them and meet audiences wants/needs
• Production Research
• To release product legally and safely. To create a satisfactory product for the market

Media/product producers need to carry out this research in order to reach a target market more easily, to compete against competition and to make money.

Poster Styles

Futurism

Late 20th century

First from italy

Geometrical shapes, curves, jagged edges

Contrasting colours

David Bomberg - 1890 - 1957

Gino Severini - 1883 - 1956

Primo Conti - 1900 - 1988

Died off mostly due to squabbles or fascist conversion

Soviet Realism

Contains mostly red and yellow colours

Shows power and workers

Hammer and sickle commonly found

Come from Russian revolution

Art Nouveau

Began in 1880’s

Evolved from arts and crafts movement

Became popular at the start of the 20th century

Spread throughout Europe

Recognisable from ‘organic’ swirls

Toulouse-Lautrec and Alphonse Mucha - main players

Influenced structure and design

Found on perfume bottles and herbal tea etc. (usually girly items)

Swiss Style

Switzerland 40/50s

Based on grid system, sometimes tilted 45degrees

Josef Muller-Brockmann

Armin Hofmann

Otl Aicher

Still relevant

Simple modern lines

Block colour

Ikea commonly uses Swiss Style graphics for their communication with their customers (catalogues, advertisements etc)

Bauhaus Style

Beginning of modernism 

WW1&2 era

German school of art closed by nazi authorities

Messy style, often described as contemporary

Fonts follow linear pattern

Usually found using white space and abstract designs

Colour

My associations with colour:

• Red - Anger
• Yellow - Warning
• Blue - Calming
• Green - Natural
• White -  Minimalistic
• Black - Dark/hidden
• Orange - Fruity
• Pink - Girly

After researching into how different cultures see colours, I came across THIS website.

I find this very interesting as different cultures see colours in a very different way in comparison to people in this country. 

Recce's

Walking round bath to different locations helped me understand the importance of recce's. Looking at the location and checking that it meets all the criteria needed to get the correct effect for the shots is needed.

Recce's require checking of:

• Access
• Power availability
• Safety/risks
• Sound
• Lighting
• Any other limiting factors

Visiting many locations in order to choose the correct one makes this process a lot easier than trying to imagine the locations. 

Genre Research

Presentation Link