Module Evaluation

  In this module, I think it is the hardest module compare with other modules because we had to do a lot of critical writing, however, as English isn’t my first language so I felt quite complex when I was doing the critical writing, I wasn’t sure if the uses of my english were correct or not so I spent more time than others to complete every writing. To be honest, this was my first time to write about 1000 words in English, in the past, I just usually wrote around 400 words so I thought it was quite difficult to do the task. Luckily that, I had the one to one tutorial with tutor so it helped me to tackle some of the difficulties so that I could do the writing easier. When I received the task(studio brief 2), I felt so confused because I didn’t know what I wanted to produce. Therefore, I kept thinking what did I learnt since the course started, I remembered that I did a rebranding project in September and it was really interested so I started to think doing rebranding. As I choose the technology as the theme for my first critical writing. Hence, I wanted to do branding like Fedex. I really enjoyed doing the second studio brief, I asked my friends if they could guess the meaning of the pictogram that I produced in the second studio brief and they answered correctly before I told them the answer so the outcome works quite well, I felt really happy with that.

  Every lecture on Wednesday, I felt quite sleepy because of the dark environment but I know I have to drop down some notes in the lecture, however, because of the fact that the lecture theatre is too dark so I couldn’t concentrate all the time. Therefore, I want to overcome this problem in COP2 so that I can fully understand the purpose of the lecture. Moreover, I did really bad in time management through this module as I spent most of the time on other modules rather than this module so I really want to manage my time better, I should spend equal time on every module, not using most of the time in just one module and ignore the others. Overall, I want to improve my English better so that I can do my COP2 work better, also I want to manage my time wisely, not spending too much time on just one module and do really rush on other module. According to William Penn who is an English real estate entrepreneur, he mentioned that “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” Therefore, I really need to use my time better.

10 page ISSUU presentation

https://issuu.com/yc265365.1619/docs/cop1_studio_brief3_2_

Studio brief 2 Outcome

  This is my final outcome, I really like this pictogram, it looks simple but I can know it is about “Speed”. As I said before, the reason that I choose to redesign the Fedex logo is because I want everyone can read or understand very easily. In my final design, I just kept the Fedex orange and purple as this was my classmates suggestion and the result was quite good. The biggest reason that I really like this pictogram is because the gap between the arrow was really funny, this idea was inspired by the DHL logo, I used the gap to create the upper case “F” which represent Fedex, it makes people easier to recognise Fedex.
  As I mentioned in my critical writing, Amazon and Google become success because of their simple logo designs which made people feel easy to recognise. Therefore, it was my focus point when I designed this pictogram, I have to make it as simple as I can so that people can read easier. Also, the other reason that they became success was because they gave trust to people. Hence, I didn’t decorate my pictogram that much because I thought if I over elaborate the pictogram, people may not trust my company as the pictogram doesn’t look serious. Moreover, when I did the research about the E-bay logo in my critical writing, I found that they just used maximum four colours in their logo which helps to keep the simple style. Actually, I could fill in the gap between the arrow with any colour but I didn’t do that because I thought keep it in white as I wanted to keep simple and it is the colour of perfection which helps to promote a strong image to people and make them trust our brand.
  Overall, I feel happy with the outcome in the project, it look effective. Before I did the research about the Fedex company, I didn’t know that there is an arrow in their logo between the “E” and “x” so I felt really surprise in that time.

Studio brief 2 - Pitching your ides / further developments

Transform my sketched ideas to digital:
At the beginning, I used my sketched ideas at the starting point, I picked some of my favourites and made them into digital with black and white first, I mainly picked those ideas with an arrow because after the group crit, most people agreed that those ideas with the arrow are the best. I really like the one that some lines behind the arrow, I think it looks the most effective but the simplest. Therefore, I tried different scale on that design, I like the one with the balanced size, it looks the best compare with others.

Digital development:

  Since I got a basic idea about how my pictogram would look like, I made them into black and white first. However, during the crit, people suggested me not to change any colours which means keep using Fedex orange and purple. I tried to use lines with the arrow and created the “F” which represents “Fedex”. However, I think it doesn’t look good enough. Therefore, I tried to just use lines to make the arrow but I got the same result, the outcome doesn’t look strong. As colour is one of my concern so It is really import to apply a good colour, due to the fact that my classmates asked me to keep the original colours (orange and purple) and I wanted to make more interesting so I created a gradient colour with orange and purple, it looks quite well. Meanwhile, one of my design was inspired by the DHL logo which is the bottom purple one, I left some empty space in the arrow and formed like the upper case “F”, I really like that idea which is very amazing. 

Final design development:

  I choose to develop this design because I thought it was the most success and looks most effective so that it would be easier to attract customers. However, it doesn’t look strong enough. Therefore,  I thought about the feedback from the crit, some people suggested that I could look at competitor’s design, actually, I really like the DHL logo, the lines represent the speed. As being a delivery company, speed and trust are the most concern when people deciding to choose which company. Hence, I tried to put some lines behind the arrow. It looks quite good and I can know it means “quick” and “fast”. I tried to put some lines after the arrow, however, the result was not good as the first one. Therefore, I just came with the first idea as my final design. 

Mock Ups:

  Since I made my final design, I did some simple mock-up to show how will my pictogram works. As Fedex is a delivery company, I made the box of shipping and the fedex shipping label.

Fedex delivery box

Fedex delivery box

Fedex delivery box

Fedex delivery label

Semiotics

What is the meaning of Semiotics?
-It is the ‘science’ of studying signs

Codes: SIGNIFYING SYSTEMS 

-Have a number of units to choose from (PARADIGMATIC dimension) which are combined by rules or conventions (SYNTAGMATIC dimension). 

-Depend upon agreement and a shared cultural background. 

-Perform an identifiable social or communicative function. 

Postmodernism

Postmodernism:

1. Exhaustion 
2. Pluralism 
3. Pessimism 
4. Disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge

Postmodernism is the reaction of modern life, technology, new materials and the communication.

Uses of the term Postmodern:

-It used after Modernism

-The historical era following the modern

-Opposite with Modernism

-Artistic and stylistic eclecticism

-Globalisation of cultures, races, images, capital, products, etc

 Postmodernism has an attitude of questioning conventions with Modernism

Modernity and Modernism

Modernity & Modernism:(1750-1960)
-Modernity is Industrialisation (industrial) , Urbanisation (city)
-Modern artists usually response to the fact of the city
-Modernism emerges out of the subjective
-Modern art and photography

The Importance of modernism
1. a vocabulary of styles
2. art and design education
3. Idea of form follows function

Studio Brief 2 - Idea generation/ prototypes

Sketches:

-Actually, I just wanted to focus on the “arrow” part from the original logo, therefore, I drew  different ideas with the “arrow” and tried to work as the Fedex new logo

-I don’t want to contain text if it is possible as I want to make it looks different from the original logo

-I looked at the DHL logo, the lines represent the speed, as one of the strategies of Fedex is to be the fastest delivery company in their industry so I thought it would be good to make some lines near the arrow

-I tried to work with the “F” but it doesn’t look effective enough

-As it is a delivery company, I tried to work with the transportation such as flight or truck, also, I tried to use the arrow to represent the timer(speed)

Use of colours:

 Probably I will use the Fedex purple and Fedex orange because I think these two colour work really well in the original logo, as I did some research in my first studio brief, different colours have different meanings so we have to use the colour correctly in our logo, otherwise, it may cause a really bad result if using a wrong colour. Orange is the colour of social communication, it is a warm colour which can make people feel friendly and cheerfulness. Hence, using it can make our customers feel happy. While purple is the colour of the imagination, it shows a high ideals to people, in this case, using purple can make the customers feel we are innovation and we are a safe company, as a result they will trust us. The Fedex orange’s CMYK is C:0 M:65 Y:100 K:0, the RGB is R:255 G:102 B:0 and the Fedex purple’s CMYK is C:90 M:100 Y:0 K:0, the RGB is R:102 G:0 B:153. I think I may use CMYK for the colour because Fedex is not only display n computer, there are some boxes or advertising have to print out so I think it would be better to use CMYK.

                                     

Prototype solutions:

First opinion

-People said they prefer my ideas that worked with the arrow, they thought it is better than those were not worked with the arrow

-Most people didn’t know there is an arrow in the original logo between the letter “E” and “x” so they suggested me should focus on this part to make the arrow not be hidden

-People agreed that the arrow is the strongest part to represent the Fedex company after I told the meaning, the arrow represent direction, speed, and precision so it is a great part to show the company power to customer and make them choose to use our company

-People said it is a great idea to use the arrow in my pictogram

-But they said I may change the scale, for example, it doesn’t has to be the same width and length so that it looks more unique.

Second opinion

-When I asked about people’s opinion about the colour to apply in my pictogram, they said it would be great if I keep the original Fedex colours (purple and orange) because I am rebranding the Fedex logo not design a new logo for a new company

-I asked them would it be good if I use red and yellow like the DHL and they rejected this idea immediately, they said it may looks really bad

-As I know Fedex use different colours for each departments nut the main is orange and purple so I asked them should I use all colours in the same logo and they said it won’t be good because it is too colourful and cannot give trust to people, they said the best is keep the purple and orange

Third pinion

-I asked people how to make my pictogram looks more interesting, most of them said I should make 

the design as simple as I can. In my first studio brief, I found that people think simple design is more

trustable, for example the E-bay logo, it just contain text with four different colours (Red, Blue, Yellow and Green) but it attracted many customers

-They said I should looked at some competitors such as DHL or Ups logos to see how their designs are so that I can get some inspiration from them. In the DHL logo, there are some empty space in each character, I don’t really know the meaning of that but I think it is quite interesting, while, the Ups logo, it used the shield as the shape of their logo so that it allow users feel more trustable and safe 

Systematic Colour (Part 1) - An Introduction to Colour Theory

How do we perceive colour?

-Spectral colour is a colour that is evoked(awake) by a single wavelength of light within a visible spectrum.

-A single wavelength, or narrow band of wavelengths generates monochromatic(single) light.

-Every wavelength of light is perceived as a spectral colour in a continuous spectrum.

-The colours of similar or fully close wavelengths are often indistinguishable(weak) by the human eye.

The eye contains two kinds of receptors:
-RODS (classify black, white and grey)
-CONES (allow our brain to perceive colour). There are three types of Cones which are
TYPE 1:Sensitive to red-orange light
TYPE 2:Sensitive to green light
TYPE 3:Sensitive to blue-violet light.

When a single cones is being stimulated, the brain perceives the corresponding colour. For example:
-Green cones are stimulated > Green
-Red-orange cones are stimulated > Red
-Both our green and red-orange cones are simultaneously stimulated > Yellow
Due to this face, the eye can be "fooled" into seeing the full range of visible colors through the proportionate adjustment of (Red, Green and Blue)

Spectral Colour

-The eye cannot see the different between spectral yellow, and some combination of red and green.
-The same effect accounts for our perception of cyan, magenta, and the other in-between spectral colours.

Chromatic Value: Hue + Tone + Saturation

Research for studio brief 2

Visual research:
Fedex Logo

1. won over 40 design awards and was ranked as one of the eight best logos in the last 35 years in the 35th Anniversary American Icon issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
2. Designed by Lindon Leader
3. Created optical illusion if close up to the letter “E” and “X”, there is a presence of an arrow there which represents the speedy and accurate service of the company

DHL logo

1. The DHL logo was designed in 2002 by Nitsch Design.
2. The line in the logo represent the speed and direction which give trust to customers.
3. It used Yellow because it is a happy and warm colour which help to get attraction from people.

Colour used in the Fedex logo

-Only used purple and orange

-According to Patrick Fitzgerald, the reason of using purple and orange was because they are the most recognised representations of the logo by consumers

-Due to the fact that the brand has been built up, there’s one Fedex brand in the world, they wanted to

maximise its value and simplify it for customers, therefore they decided to use only two colours with a simple design.

Contextual research:

Fedex

-They have two type of services which are International Shipping or U.S.Shipping

-Both kind of services usually  delivery within 7 business days.

-Customers can even choose a faster possible delivery depend on their need.

History of Fedex

-Earlier known as Federal Express which was the largest airline cargo carrier in the world

-The former Fred Smith, came with the idea just looking after the delivery of a thing from a point to a point.

-In 1994, Federal Express changed the name to ‘FedEx’.

-The operation was started in Memphis International Airport, Tennessee in 1973. 

-The first day of operations was April 17, 1973 and that night only 18 packages were carried on board.  

Similarity with Amazon and Google logo

-All of them are logo not pictogram, just contain text in their logo.

-They are online company, however, Amazon is a shopping branding, Google is a social web branding, while Fedex is a delivery company but all of them are relevant to online branding because they are using the internet as the platform and act like the real store or shop, which mean to do a business through the internet.

-All of their designs are really simple, according to my first writing, it said “The simplest solution is often 

the most effective.” Therefore, simplicity helps a design be more versatile.

Competitors

-Basically, the best known delivery branding are Fedex, UPS and DHL

-DHL does not handle domestic shipments within the U.S.

-FedEx has more guaranteed delivery and time-dependent options compare with Ups and DHL.

-UPS and FedEx offer freight, express, ground delivery, global dispatch, time critical, and temperature control delivery which DHL doesn’t has.

-FedEx has a larger air fleet, while UPS has more ground vehicles.

-FedEx may end up being slightly cheaper compare with Ups and DHL.

-Hence, they have to make their personality be trustable. Setting a good personality can promote tryst to people which helps to attract more people to use online shopping in the company due to the fact that customers feel the brand or company is faithful which they can trust it.

Target audience research:

Target in their market

-Different government departments and embassies

-Small business owners and professionals , for example they want to move their business from a place to another place

-Anyone who needs to send something anywhere in the world and it is the most important target

-  It doesn’t has any specific target in gender, age group or job, however, the users must be aged over 18. Moreover, users have to register a fedex account before make the order, for example they have to fill in some personal informations, payment method, etc.

Location

-Mainly located in United States and is catering the services with in America and Canada but also approaches to the destinations worldwide through its air fleet.

Marketing goals

-Maintain its competitive style in the minds of the customers

-Provide a trust of delivery time to customers and to stay in the market for a longer run

Marketing Strategies/plans

-To be the fastest delivery company in their industry so that it helps to attract more customers

-Maintain the logistics and operations of the company smooth and provide a good quality of work to customers

Studio Brief 2 Defining the brief

  Due to the fact that the Fedex company is a delivery company, customers have to order the service online which is similar to the way of online shopping brand, customers have to order the item online first. However, as it is a delivery company so the target audience will be worldwide. Therefore, I want to redesign the Fedex logo to make more like a pictogram and modern. As a result, everyone can understand it as someone may not know English.

-When I looked at the Fedex’s logo, I didn’t realised that there is a small arrow between the “E” and the “X” so I guess most people won’t know there is an arrow as well. Therefore, I think I will mainly focus on this part to
redesign the logo.
-As it is an online branding or company, I think the logo should look different with others, there are too many online branding logo used text only for example e-bay or Google. Hence, that’s the reason that I want to redesign
the Fedex logo.
-As the target of the Fedex is everyone from the world which is a worldwide target so I want everyone can understand and read the logo easily. Therefore, I think making pictogram in this case is better than using text as some people don’t know English.

Consumerism - Persuasion, Society, Brand Culture

Sigmund Freud(1856-1939)

1. New theory of human nature 
2. Psychoanalysis 
3. Hidden primitive sexual forces and animal instincts which need controlling 
4. The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) 
5. The Unconscious (1915) 
6. The Ego and the Id (1923) 
7. Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) 
8. Civilization & its Discontents (1930) 

In 1930

-Fundamental(basic) tension between civilisation and the individual

-Human instincts incompatible(opposite) with the well being of community

Fordism:

-Henry Ford (1863 – 1947)

-Transposes(reverse) Taylorism to car factories of Detroit

-Moving assembly(part) line

-Standard production models built as they move through the factory

Marketing hidden needs:

1. Selling emotional security  
2. Selling reassurance(trust) of worth 
3. Selling ego-gratification 
4. Selling Creative Outlets 
5. Selling Love Objects 
6. Selling sense of power 
7. Selling a sense of roots 
8. Selling immortality

Print Culture

"LATE AGE OF PRINT"
-Term comes from the media theorist Marshall Mcluhan

Culture:

1. – ‘the best that has been thought & said in the world’ 
2. – Study of perfection 
3. – Attained through disinterested reading, writing thinking 
4. – The pursuit of culture 
5. – Seeks ‘to minister the diseased spirit of our time’

Leavisism:
-A form of literary studies named after F. R. Leavis. 
-Still forms a kind of repressed and common sense attitude to popular culture
-For LeavisC20th sees a cultural decline Standardisation & levelling down

Collapse of traditional authority comes at the same time as mass democracy(No government). Also, popular culture offers addictive forms of distraction and compensation.

Technological Reproduction of Art removes:
AURA

1. Creativity 
2. Genius 
3. Eternal value 
4. Tradition 
5. Authority 
6. Authenticity 
7. Autonomy 
8. Distance 
9. Mystery

Chronologies: Type- Production & Distribution - Part 2

  Medinger set out to design a new sans-serif typeface that could compete with the successful Akzidenz-Grotesk in the Swiss market.
-Originally, the name was called "Neue Hass Grotesk", the design of it basically based on Schelter-Grotesk and Haas' Normal Grotesk.
-The aim of the neww design was to create a netural typeface that is clear and easy to read which doesn't has any meaning in its form.

Arial
-Was released 25 years after the original release of Helvetica.
-25 years is the maximum time that a design is protected by intellectual property before it lapses.

Apple

-The first Apple product was introduced on October 15, 1990, it was the first Apple Macintosh to sell for less than US$1,000. 

-By making itself more obvious, typography can illuminate (light) the construction and identity of a page, screen, place, or product.” 

Comic Sans MS

-Is a sans-serif casual script typeface. The modern Comic Sans was designed by Vincent Connare in 1994.

                                      

Emoji                                 

                                   

-People like to use emoji rather than text nowadays because it is easier to understand, you don't have to understand other language but you can still know the meaning.

Chronologies Type - Production Distribution Part 1

Definitions of typography:

1. -The art and technique of printing with movable(flexible)
2. -The composition of printed material from movable type
3. -The arrangement and appearance of printed matter

-Mesopotamia (specifically, ancient Sumer), 3200 BCE(ish) 

-The first true alphabet was the Greek Alphabet,(adapted from the Phoenician)
-The most widely used alphabet today, is a further development of the Greek. 

  Since typography is a communication method that utilizes a gathering of related subjects and methodologies that includes sociology, linguistics, psychology, aesthetics, etc.

Finding research sources

Quote

This is the quote that I have chosen. I choose this because Amazon and Google are popular websites that people usually access so I can do the research on it easily.Also, I think it would be interesting to look at these popular websites how do their layout, colour, type etc attracting people focus. At the same time, I can learn from it so that it can enhance my knowledge.

History of Image

  Basically, this lecture was mainly focused on introducing us to a broad range of visual communication from different cultures, contexts, and epochs, also to demonstrate how creative and tangential connections and continuities can be traced between these diverse examples. I really like one image from this lecture.

  This is the Barack Obama "Hope" poster, I thought this poster is very interesting, it just used few colours which are quite simple, I like the tone from light blue to light red, it seems hopeful. I did some research about this poster. This poster was designed by Shepard Fairey and described as iconic and came to represent his 2008 presidential campaign. It consists of a stylised stencil portrait of Obama in solid red, beige and (light and dark) blue, with the word "progress", "hope". I found lots of posters which inspired by the "Hope" poster, it seems very famous over the world. I am thinking if I can make something like this or not by using that simple typeface and tone of colour. 

Visual Literacy - The Language of Design

Visual Communication

  Being a designer, we should be able to solve communication problems by using images or motion, also communicate our ideas to different audiences in a range of contexts.

Visual Literacy: The ability that explain ideas from images and types that can be read.Being visually literacy need to contain an awareness between Visual Syntax and Visual Semantics.

  Visual Syntax means the basic elements of an image that can affect the audiences. For example framing, format, scale, colour, font.

  Visual Semantics represents a way that an image fits into a cultural process of communication.

  Semiotics is the study of the sign process.

  Visual Synecdoche is a term to represent a large thing such as a place.

  Visual Metonym is a symbolic image to make reference to something. 

  Visual Metaphor represents using an image to represent an other image.