OUGD501: SB2 Ideas Generation

Developed ideas from developed essay:

• Advert for set in ways company, all about expressing identity
• Editorial and adverts for Dazed & Confused/ An Other/Harpers Bizzare
• Web content for magazine exploring arts and culture reaching a wider audience
• Social media campaign to encourage going outside and trying something new with what they already own! 
• Encourage a hashtag and audience participation 
• 18-30age M&F Target Audience
• 'Snap and capture things that make you, you'
• Remake adverts from existing companies (American Apparel, Harpers Bizarre, Fashion companies)
• Fashion adverts encouraging social responsibility
• Client- Vivienne Westwood?
• Fashion Zine expressing identity
• Branding for a fashion company encouraging sustainable fashion and consumerism
• TV advert about individuality for a brand which is really mainstream
• Client- Primark/ H&M
• Newspaper/ Freepost distribution featuring re-made adverts. These adverts would be going from negative ideals to more freeing/positive aspects of identity, moving away from beauty and consumer needs
• Place the emphasis on remaking old fashion/beauty ads (to-be-looked-at-ness vs empowering-looked-at-ness)
• Consider Canons for newspaper, as well as possibly Risograph printing from Footpath to relate to keeping costs down and promoting responsible consumption
• Collages distorting imagery and adverts for new meanings
• Taking all the core principles of advertising (so constructing something with the overarching aim of selling), in a way that is not obviously an advertisement. > Collage style, quite abstract and surreal in approach, borderline art mixed with graphic design. Artists such as Hattie Stewart who illustrate over images to give them a new vibrant meaning.
• Campaign to re-use items rather than to re-consume for the wrong reasons
• Don't give in to peer pressure
• Aimed at younger generation 
• Digital emphasis to relate to the target audience
• Get a celebrity endorsement to make them respond more to the message
• Advertising campaign expressing values you can't buy
• You can't buy happiness
• Typography and image led
• Transferable across print and digital media 
• 2 Campaigns for the same company/same subject matter, featuring a corresponding hashtag. Everything kept the same, except one will be using negative codes (exploitative visual coding and instilling unrealistic beauty ideals) vs ones where we are turning away from these codes and capturing a more real persona without loosing visual quality. 
• Can monitor via 2 feedback sites which gets the most popular response from the audience
• Advertisements derived from the shop environment and experience
• Looking into shop environment and making adverts based around what they’re trying to say- infitting to the brands. Using typography and images from London stores this past Christmas time. Often negative codes are implemented into advertising to encourage passive consumerism and unneccesary self indulgence, it will be interesting to see if this overlap is apparent in the physical place of purchase as well as through their other forms of media communication.
• Re-brand/Re-appropriate adverts with alternative slogans/brand logos to suggest different meanings
• Advertising series breaking all the preset rules of advertising 
• Or// Advertising series breaking all the rules of beauty/identity ideals but keeping to the strict rules of advertising. 
• Full brand identity and business structure for fashion brand, promoting sustainable consumerism and positive ethics
• non-exploitative company model
• Aimed at age 18-30, mainly females but quite gender ambiguous (don't want to be un-accomodating or exclusive). This age group is more aware of the cost of things, both ethically and economically so may be more willing to try new brands.
• Clean modernist aesthetic to reflect higher end 'aspirational' brands, however a high pricetag may defeat the point? 
• Full brand identity for new magazine, promoting positive consumerism and positive ethics
• Everything in moderation
• Showcasing graduate designers rather than established brands
• Showing identity through one aspect of consumerism that we develop a bond and connection with

(In the 21st century, we have expanded our societal love for fashion and tech brands more than that of sustainability and social consciousness. Is that just how we define society is and the place we need to start making changes.)

3 Ideas developed briefly (blog post on each one)

1) Editorial content for Dazed & Confused magazine exploring identity through typography and photography, expressing it as a positive aspect which shouldn't be restricted. I need to consider relevant canons, Jan Tshichold and Massimo Vignelli introduced some interesting grids, adaptable for print purposes. Furthermore, as the content would be for Dazed I can tailor the content for the appropriate target audience- 18-30, males and females but 1/3 male. 

2) Advertising campaign expressing values you can't buy. The emphasis will be on turning away from material goods, encouraging time with family, nature and finding yourself as a person. This could be distributed as a print campaign if for a widespread/mass audience, or more tightly confined to the demographic with the highest rate of consumerism? 

3) New concept magazine where branding and identity does to reflect positive codes, corresponding to the new age, embracing empowerment and aspects on society as its focus.  Taking all the core principles of advertising (so constructing something with the overarching aim of selling), in a way that is not obviously an advertisement. For this, I need to consider cannons for magazine construction, as well branding to create a new conceptual identity. The target audience would be B/C1, whom enjoy indulging in aspects of consumerims yet are perhaps tiring of the pre-set conventions fluid through advertising. 

Images and typography will need to be highly considered, possibly using alternative methods of production (such as collage & re-appropriating adverts), introducing a level of surrealism when we consider advertising and the consumer spectacle.

As this would be a printable piece, the stock and binding needs to be consistent with other ‘competing’ magazines, yet rather than gloss, matte 180gsm pages and a 320gsm cover will reflect the grittier side to the message.

Feedback 

To consolidate on the ideas and development of the project so far, I participated in a crit with Elliott and Johnathan who both said that exploring the avenue of identity was a good route to take- and reflecting this photographically would correspond best with the relevance of advertising within my essay. I showed them visual research which had informed each decision, including advertisements and magazines of key influence.

• Don't focus too highly on branding aspects as this has not been a priority within the essay
• Advertising for editorials has the potential to appeal to more people, as viral threads from sources such as as Dazed/i.D are frequently getting boosted and shared by numerous other platforms. 
• Expressing values you can't buy is a good idea, yet it would be difficult to define a target audience as its such a broad message.
• 'If you are on social media and a millennial, you will probably come across 10-15 articles a day on whatever you're interested in'
• Having the benefit of a broad client would give necessary restrictions, to strip down the core of the message and show it off at its most simplified form. 
• Photographic content will be time consuming and challenging to construct if for a high fashion scenario. 

• Vivienne Westwood aesthetic with the snapshot looks quite nostalgic and homely, as well as being vibrant and 'in the moment'. The style looks quite home done (laundrette advertising sequence), and so gives a sense of normality to the adverts which is a really good quality-Elliott.

After this piece of feedback, I asked Elliott if this would likely inform his judgement about buying into a brand, or engaging with that brand in any way?

• He said, 'I would be more inclined to go for a brand which makes you feel welcome rather than excluded'
• The quick snapshot styles of Vivienne Westwood photography is good for making people feel welcome as it kind of reflects Instagram, so not so alien and out of peoples reach.

The feedback received was highly useful, and considering a client based around editorial design may be more appropriate than an advertising campaign, unless the advertising campaign was for social media. The role of the internet is a huge factor in the way we engage with information, consume news and potray who we are.