What the font

Today's lecture was an introduction to the areas of practice in design giving us a clearer understanding and taster of what we could be learning and putting into practice in our near future. I enjoy design for advertising however I would like to keep my options open as I cannot satisfy on a preferred subject when I do not know fully about the other available areas of practice. All areas had a common principle; all areas focus on an idea. A design can look professional and exciting from its graphics and technique but its the great idea that results in a successful design.

I was highly interested by the work presented in the area of advertising. In today's lecture I learnt that advertising is not necessarily used for persuasion. You cannot tell people what to do so instead it is used to invite and excite people, which helps build a better relationship with your audience.

We were shown many campaigns to support each area of practice, and all were very inspiring. I enjoyed learning further into my subject to discover work that I had not seen before and was not fully familiar with. In advertising we were first shown the mccains chips campaign.

                               

We usually see chips as a greasy food. McCain's wanted to do something different so they flipped this idea and made their chips recognised as a healthy product. They deliver the idea of chips being healthy through semiotics. Using the British symbol, (100% British potatoes) makes their audience automatically recognise McCain's chips as trustworthy and sustainable produce. In the top left advertisement, they show the process of making McCain's chips. Again it advertises McCain''s as a trust worthy brand.  If people can see where their food has originally come from and how it is made, our audience forms a closer relationship with McCain's as they know they can rely on them to produce healthy food. This series works well on their own, but showing the process of their food also works well when the ideas are put together in the form of a commercial. I learnt that story telling and narration plays an important part as it enables your audience to engage and feel involved. McCain's do exactly this within their campaign.

I learnt that is important to have a good knowledge of history in design, so you know what has been created so you can design for new. It is also important to know where the inspiration for ideas originally came from. The idea for the McCains chip advert is extremely similar to an advert made by Honda as they both show the functions and process of making the product. The ideas have been taken, adjusted and re created for a new purpose.

David also discussed the area of practice, viral advertising which involves spreading the idea by word of mouth or through internet networks. He showed us work created by Samsung and not only did I learn how viral advertising was used but I also learnt that delivering an unexpected idea can result in a successful design. We do not expect Samsung to produce a commercial on a farm, showing the production of their Smart Led technology through the herding of sheep. They avoid the obvious and go with something different and unique which stands them out from their competitors. As you can see from the making the production is very risky, but it works. David stated 'think advertising as a piece of art', which is exactly how Samsung execute their idea.