Tuesday 8th March 2011:

I did some further research on branding today. I firstly wanted to find out what the actual definition was, and after reading a few, I feel that this one explains it in the best way: The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products. I then did some research on what comes under the subject of branding, and a few things, which I found, were: creating a voice for your company (which reflects your brand), a great logo (which you then place everywhere), design templates/ marketing materials (consistent), and a tagline (a memorable, meaningful and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand). I think that the definition and all of these things really explain the meaning of branding and what needs to be done in order to market your brand in the best way. I will mainly be focusing on the design aspect and the ‘voice/ essence’ part of the brand for my company as I feel these are the most important aspects, which will also be relevant to a support company.

I then went on to look at Pentagram Design Ltd (a multi-disciplinary design firm with offices across the world), and looked at their ‘branding and identity’ section to see how their designers went about creating a brand for a company. I came across their work for the ‘New York University Abu Dhabi’. I really liked how they had come up for the design for the logo and what they then did with it: ‘’The centrepiece of Pentagram’s solution is a motif based on the NYU’s symbol, the torch. By repeating and rotating it, we create a tiled pattern evocative of Middle Eastern decorative arts”. I thought this was really innovative as it took both the aspect of representing ‘New York’ with the torch, and then the design was repeated and rotated in order to create a pattern, and with using bright colours this would represent Abu Dhabi. I will consider all of this when creating my own logo and think about what can be done with it after in order to create something new, if possible.

The next thing I did was to try and find out about the Childline/ NSPCC design (Childline is part of the NSPCC), to see if I could find out their branding guidelines, designer details, etc, for inspiration. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find this information. However, I did come across this calendar design, by Johnny Kotze, for Childline. I love the illustrations because they appeal to children at first glance, but after a second look you see that actually the images are in some ways quite disturbing. I also like the minimal use of colour, making certain parts stand out more than others (ie: the red heart in the second image). I think that these things are important because it could relate to at first glance, a child seems fine, but if you take a second look you may notice something different about them or something that stands out, and this may be due to being bullied, etc. Perhaps this could inspire an idea of having a photo of a child on a poster, but manipulating subtle things so at first glance of the poster it seems normal, but then you notice small details which aren’t quite right. This could then include the message ‘at first glance, everything is fine… but is it?’ in order to grab the viewer’s attention and to give out a strong written, as well as visual, message.

I then did some quick research on unrelated branding stationary, such as letterheads and business cards, and I quite like this design as it’s simple but stands out. There is minimal use of colour and I like the greyed out image in the background.

I then went on to do some further development work in my sketchbook and focused on words related to bullying. I thought it would be interesting to write the words that the victims may be called (eg: fat, ugly, stupid) in black/ red, and the emotions that these words may make them feel (eg: sad, angry, unloved) in blue to show the contrast. I then did some experimental effects using masking tape and marker pen to create visual elements. I quite like this effect because it stands out but also looks quite like bruises, which could represent both the physical and mental bruises that the victim may encounter through bullying.

I then did another page where I used photos of children/ young people looking sad and then cut out words into the photos. This represents that the words that people may say to them and how they then feel after, hurt them. I think the one where the young girl has ‘unloved’ cut out of her chest, really grabs your attention as it seems that her heart has been hurt/ cut out and all that’s left is her feeling unloved. Although this isn’t a very nice image, I feel that this is important because it’s giving a very strong message, which is exactly what I will want to do in my final pieces. I may explore these ideas further by taking my own photos and doing something similar with them. I also tried to pick out words within the words, eg: ‘care’ in ‘scared’ (or I could’ve used ‘scar’ in ‘scared’) so show that no one cares, or they just need someone to care, or they’re scarred, etc. I was initially going to write the words on (which I may still do on a later page), as I had seen on an image during my research, but I then remembered that from my peer review it had been suggested that I do something different (and I had written ‘cut out’). So I decided to try this technique to see what effects would be created, and I think that this works really well.

I also read more of my ‘Bullying’ book, and read about why bullies bully and how they are made (part of Chapter 9). The things included in this were: the child’s contribution (ie: Y chromosome/ testosterone – more likely to be aggressive, irregular moods/ eating/ sleeping patterns, slow to adapt to new situations), outside influences (ie: schools: low staff morale, poor organisation, inconsistent methods of discipline), TV/ Films (learn through observation), family (ie: absence of father, loss of parent through divorce rather than death, socioeconomic advantage, large family size), and also I thought of: may be being bullied themselves, or they could be under peer pressure to bully as part of a group. All of these things are really important because if these can be stopped/ helped or talked about with the bully, this could perhaps prevent the bully from bullying again. I feel that the bully, in some cases, needs just as much (if not, more) help than the actual victim, and this is who needs to be helped and stopped initially in order to prevent the bullying in the first place. I will therefore, explore this element further and will look at helping the bully as part of my awareness campaign/ support company.

Target for today: More sketchbook development work and relevant research. Focus some more on the branding side as well as the awareness campaign side.

Target for tomorrow: Prep more sketchbook pages and continue with development work in sketchbook focusing on words related to bullying using new materials.