Today I had a one day project which was enititled the "Black Box" project. It began with the whole class being split into six groups, with each group being given a product name. Each group needed to produce visual clues as to what the product could be, without making the answer to obvious to the reader. My group recieved "Aqua Fresh" and began by generating ideas for possible clues which would link in with Aqua Fresh. We all contributed with our own ideas and discussed which clues we would use. Each member of the group then created their own clue. I produced a dipiction of a persons reflection in the mirror with mouthwash in their mouth which I felt was quite strong.

Once we had produced our clues we placed them in a black box (hence the title) and swapped our box with another groups box. We then had to look at the new set of clues and guess what product they were depicting. We eventually found that the clues were displaying the "Dorset Cereals" company. When finding out the company name we began carrying out the next part of the project, which required us to produce a piece of media to promote the company. We decided to create a poster and began generating ideas and developing them to create a final design. We produced a poster which used the individual main ingredients from their cereals, represented in the shape of the dorset cereals logo. I felt the final piece was a very effective and efficient design, using brand identity to represent its purpose of advertisement.

Yesterday I began the day with the last PAL session of the year. As it was the last session we carried out a vis com quiz between our group. Our group got the highest score on the quiz which was a result, so we were crowned the winners! We then had a small get together with the other PAL groups in the upstairs studio, with food and drink!

After the PAL session I then had my tutorial for the written essay in Visual Culture, going through what I needed to improve on and add in to my essay in order to bring it up to the required standard. I needed to include more refferences, context and terminology, and also include a relevant title.


Today I was given the task to take my best idea for Visual Thinking and develop and build on the idea to create three new designs. I was advised to create the three designs by sketching them. We had til our Visual Thinking tutorial in the afternoon to finish the skecthes and bring them along.

During this time I was also given my feedback for the Text and Image project. I managed to Pass the project and achieved some great feedback from Sally.

After recieving my feedback I began sketching out my new ideas. I found it very rewarding when deveoping the new designs and felt it opened up my mind to new design concepts.

I had my Visual Thinking tutorial later in the afternoon and felt it allowed me to see exactly where I would need to take my designs to achieve the finalised images. I realised that I would need to bring more elements into the poster designs in order to make the message more clearer to the viewer.

On Thursday the 10th of December I attended a talk by a graphic communication consultancy Bond & Coyne Associates. The talk was very helpful and allowed me to gain a greater understanding of the design industry and what it is like working for clients. I was also able to view some of the work they created which was of very high quality.

After the talk I was later able to discuss my work with them and receive some helpful feedback which was based around keeping the work simple and getting to the point.

Yesterday I carried out the one day group project, in which we were required to create a poster revolving around democracy. The project went very well and allowed me to improve on my team work and communication skills. Working in this way is something that would be used frequently in the design industry and therefore made for a strong learning process. Being able to mind map with others and generate ideas was a great experience. It was also good to be able to voice opinions and take on other peoples as well. I felt our finalised poster was a decent result to the project, however I felt we could have planned our time more efficiently to make further refinements and additions to the final design.

Today I started off the day by signing up for a visual thinking tutorial. I then carried out some internet research on war on want, looking at their website in detail. I looked at their main aims and also where they targeted their work. I also looked at the background to their campaign for sweat shops, and the reasoning behind their work. The information about how the workers are treated was quite shocking and put their campaign into greater light.


I then later had my tutorial which I felt went quite well. It gave me some insights into where to go with the second dimension, and how to structure it. I was also able to understand more about linking and connecting a message with the actions that a viewer will take when looking upon the advertisement.

At the start of the day I made sure to sign up for a visual thinking tutorial which would be taking place after PAL.

I then kicked things off with a PAL session, going through the essay writing for Visual Context. We got into small groups between our PAL group and discussed our chosen images that we were analysing. We went through the process of analysing the images with our PAL leaders and talked about how to make refferences to other work and link to the relavant termionolgy. The session was very helpful and gave me a stronger approach to the essay writing.

After PAL I then had the visual thinking tutorial which was very helpful, allowing me to gain feedback which opened up new research topics and allowed to gain new possible ideas.

I then had the rest of the day for self directed study, allowing me to create some more initial ideas and designs.

On Monday the 30th November we started the day with a PAL session going through different types of advertising, including viral videos. We looked at some specific sites that worked with these types of advetising in relation to the work we produced for anti brand in the Visual Culture lessons. The session was quite good and gave us a greater insight into different types of advertisements.

We then carried out self directed study until the Visual Culture session, in which we carried out the brand/anti-brand presentations. My group was looking at Nike and Burberry, with my half of the group workin on Nike specificly. We presented the presentation as a whole, working up from the history of the brand and where it stands in the world today, and then moving onto the anti-brand work. I felt our presentation was quite successful and allowed us to get a taste of presentation work. We were also able to gain feedback on how to improve our presentation and how to approach it in future.


On Tuesday the 1st of December I had a session in my cyan group which focussed on research, going over the different types of research and methods. The group was split into a further three groups, with each one discussing what we would research (Research Topics) and placing this information down onto a large piece of paper. We used a mind map, listing down things such as the target audience, design methods, where to advertise, Strategies etc. We then swapped sheets between the groups and went over which research topics were actually research methods. After this we went over the differences between primary and secondary research, summing up with how we could use research most effectively.

I then had a session in the afternoon in my cyan group, looking at different advertisement videos from different companies. We looked at some very powerful videos, discussing why they were so powerful and the techniques that had been used. It allowed me to gain further knowledge of advertisement techniques and how to gain attention from the viewer as well as influence them.


Today I had a Tutorial for Visual Thinking which was carried out in small groups split between the whole class. We started off by going around the group and finding out what each person was intedning to do for the start of the project, mainly focussing on the research methods that would need to be carried out and what would need to be considered when carrying out the project. We took all of these into account and made relevant notes on feedback sheets that we had been given. We then went through the research methods and also how the target audience would need to be considered, thinking about the age and also their money income. We also discussed what things would appeal to the target audience including what magazines they read and the ways in which these magazines sell products to them through advertisement. The tutorial was very helpful and gave me a great amount to think about for the project.

Ok, time to recap blog posts once again....

On Monday the 23rd of November I began the day with a PAL session in which we went through a whole list of work which we would need to include in the text and image project. This is was extremely helpful as it made for a good reference to check if I had forgotten to add in certain pieces of work.

After PAL we had a session going through Type Classification 2, in which we went through the type classification sheet which we had previously been given to complete. We went through each part of it, discussing key aspects and given examples of where they could be used and found. The session was very helpful and allowed me to gain further knowledge of key terms in type.

The day was then finished off with a Visual Culture session, which looked at an introduction to Post-Modernism and Visual Culture. We began by watching the first part of the film "Blade Runner," making notes of key areas dealing with post modernism and carrying out a contextual analysis of the film afterwards. We went through how elements of retro and old fashioned objects had been placed within the futuristic film and also how stereotypical views had been used. The session was good and aloud me to gain a greater insight into post-modernism.

On Tuesday the 24th of November we were given the day to work on our Text and Image project so it was ready for hand in the next day at 12 oclock sharp! The day was quite stressful involving a lot of last minute touches to my sketchbook and a great amount of printing as well.

On Wednesday the 25th I finally handed in my Text and Image project, allowing me to feel free from stress!