Initial Ideas

For my posters I want to use a certain product range from IKEA that I can advertise. I'm looking to tackle how advertisements can be persuasive to a range of social classes and to how extent does advertisements entice and persuade them to a product based on their social status. Do certain products or brands relate to some social classes? Do people use brands or products to define their identity and lifestyle?

The target audience may be people who are more modern and in contemporary homes such as apartments and flats; conscious how they may be perceived socially though their lifestyle and home choices but are also price conscious about what they are spending on, kin of like 'middle-class foe attitude'?

Idea 1

• Putting product in an environment that's quite 'middle-class' or rich' which can emphasise the perception of being 'middle class'.

Idea 2

• Put the product with products considered to be only used by middle class people and play on theft that the product is only appropriate to be associated with these items and also possibly puts the product in a higher class perception to the consumers. 

Idea 3

• Recreate some existing posters? possibly put the lifestyle aspect to it as most adverts only showcase the product but often are quite bland and simple as the adverts are expected to make the consumers feel that they should put their own twists and context to it but in reality there's already a perception of IKEA of being something thats quite 'middle class' and rich.

My Brief

This is the brief that I create and will use in order to proceed in the second part of the module.

I picked IKEA as I thought I could research a variety and wide range of advertisements that they've done before as it's a company which has been around for a long-time with a clear image to the public. I can also use IKEA to look at different consumer demographic and link my designs in order to answer the question on the 2nd part of the module brief which is "To what extent can advertising be said to persuade or manipulate the audience?. I could explore the different social classes of consumers as well as what could appeal to some and to others within an advert for basic living necessities such as furnitures. Do some even consider certain furnitures as essential? Can they afford it enough for it to be a basic need?

Client Research

The client I have chosen is IKEA.


History 

IKEA is a furniture and appliance store which was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. The name is an acronym of the founder's  name (Ingvar Kamprad) Elmtaryd (farm he grew up in) and Agunnaryd (his hometown in Sweden). IKEA is particularly well-known for it's 'modernist' designs and their conscious approach to cost effective and eco-friendly products and packaging. IKEA also puts importance of involving the consumer in product making such as that they don't pack their products already assembled; they may have done this in order to create a better consumer company relationship and also cut down on cost for packing and shipping. They also take into account about how the consumers travel back with the products that they buy, as it is easier to carry de-assembled packages e.g. in trains.

Examples of IKEA Advertisement

• I like these advertisements as they cleverly used the idea of presenting the clothes as if they are on invisible appliances. I think they are quite effective as it makes the audience think of the appliance that 'needs to be there' it may also make them think they have to buy that appliance (ITS VERY PERSUASIVE) 
• By having the items that are usually held by those appliance present it makes it seem that if those appliance aren't there the items won't have anything else to be put on, therefore putting emphasis on the importance as well as the functionality of the product. 
• Not only does it make it seem important it also makes it seem like it's the only thing that will keep the items together. 

Where they advertise 

• IKEA has been advertising on catalogues for awhile as it proves to be very effective, as catalogues clearly shows what the product looks like as well as their prices, it may also be good for older customers who aren't used to using computers or mobile phones. 
• They also advertise on TV and on the Internet through commercials and stills, this may be to appeal to the younger generation and to be on trend with the medium that people nowadays use a lot of, n order to widen their customer demographic.

Target Audience

• IKEA aims to target people of all ages, sexes and geographical locations with one thing it common which is being price conscious. Because of this, IKEA may be aiming for functionality over 'pretty design' that is worth it of its price for the audience to buy it. 
• Most people who shop in IKEA may be quite contemporary due to their minimalist design, families who have certain budgets, people who just moved out and are in single apartments or flats, people with small spaces who wants to maximise the space they have through IKEA's storage designs. 
• IKEA items are also easy to put together so more people may buy it as it's easy to carry through transport which also lowers cost but also because they know they can assemble it themselves without needing professional help.

Study Task 8: The Design Process

This session, we had to discuss the stages and cycles in which we have to go through for out design project, We discussed in our groups, and we then came up with our own considerations of how each stages should be done. From our experiences from other modules, we came up with this stages in which we thought are appropriate to use to follow for our own design project brief.

I think the order we choose was pretty much the same to what we discussed when the whole class shared their own strategy orders. I think this shows that we have carefully considered each stage and are aware of the difference between each stages in order for us to do ur design project.

Making my Brief

Types of brands I can use for my brief:

• Beverages
• Cigarrete 
• Clothing
• Travel 
• Vehicle
• Food
• Entertainment (e.g. toys)
• Music
• Film
• Radio

D&AD Research

In order for me to have an idea  of how a brief should look like and what to include, I decided to look at past briefs from D&AD.

I've noticed that for most if not all briefs it includes:

• It always includes the history of the brand or company its for.
• It includes information of what participants are asked to do.
• It also includes things for participants to consider while creating their designs, which can help them create a better and innovative designs as they are able to research and look what's already been done.
• It tells participants the target audience - which can also help them consider other factors such as demographics and social status other than age and gender.
• Mandatory requirements are outlines to tell participants what the designs need and should include.
• It also tells them the deliverables of the brief - how their designs should be made in order to be accepted e.g. physical mock - ups or digital submissions; as well as possible supporting materials which are an extra deliverables that participants may choose to do. 

I think for my brief I need to consider who my client is first in relation to my topic (Advertising and Public Awareness). Maybe I could choose brands or clients which have a specific type of audience or style to them so that I can link the brief on how these brand may persuade their audiences. I think it will also be better if I can create brief which focuses on a certain aspect of advertising for the brand e.g. designing a new ad campaign for a new product, or an ad campaign which will renew an old or dated product.

Study Task 7

Today we started to talk about how we were going to write and create our own briefs for our practical piece for this brief. We also talked about the different design processes that we have to go through in order to do the brief.

Brief

• Should be very specific to the context and practice that we are focusing on (Advertising)
• Should focus on the question on the brief
• Identify the client
• I should be able to interpret the brief and develop an aim with it.

Research 

• Primary and secondary research about the context 
• History of client, their purpose etc.
• Target Audience - sociocultural, demographic, age, social class
• How design works in the context - how advertising persuades and sells

Initial Ideas (Ideation)

• Outlines the requirements 
• Experimentations
• rough sketch and thumbnails 
• conceptual study (overarching theme, idea of how it'll look) Designs should be bound together by overarching theme.
• Think about the choice of formal elements (layout, colour, type etc.)

Developments

• more detailed versions  of initial ideas
• creating alterations and versions of designs
• highlight production of design
• Narrow down concepts (preferably 3) through feedback and evaluation
• Refine and reject ideas
• Making practical work and process of using materials in order to see whats possible and whats not.
• Do tests (show to potential consumers see i f it works or not)
• ALWAYS JUSTIFY IDEAS AND REFER BACK TO THE AIMS

Negotiations

• Negotiate between you and the client (what's appropriate and what's not)
• proposals for final designs
• Final mock-ups
• Has to look quite polished so audience (client) can get the gist of the design
• Allow time for errors to occur during work.

Final Outcome

• Meets the brief
• User focused
• Justified in relation to the research
• Conceptually driven
• Innovative