Time plan: December

I didn't keep 100% on track for my November time plan, but that is bound to happen. I have gotten about 5000 words done. I predict that my essay will need at least 3000 more words to be finished, as I have my third chapter to do and also my conclusion.

Here is my time plan for December, which takes into account where I am currently up to.

4/12 - 6500 words

8/12 & 9/12 - Develop practical side of the project - I need to make sure I dedicate enough time to getting this developed, instead of just focusing on my dissertation which I have done for a lot of november.

11/12 - 7500 words for the draft submission - I do not expect that my essay will be finished by this time.

17/12 & 18/12 - Develop practical

- Christmas -

30/12 - Develop practical

- New Years -

CoP Practical // Visual/concept research

Children's Festival

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/eric-rohter

Norway-based Eric Rohter’s rebrand for the World Children’s festival is a sweet, candy coloured identity that uses simple curved shapes for an adaptable typeface and clear, communicative language tailored towards its audience.

Fresh'N'Friends Fruit Figures packaging make kids eat healthy food

https://stocklogos.com/topic/freshnfriends-fruit-figures-packaging-make-kids-eat-healthy-food

There is just one small problem: kids hate healthy food but they love sweets. And worst of all: kids won´t listen to logical arguments. Therefore, our task was to convince the kids without lecturing them. Instead of calling attention to that problem with a traditional ad campaign we chose to solve the problem. The solution was a new product: fruit figures. To make fruits as appealing as sweets for kids we designed fruit arrangements that suit children. Boring fruits were designed in shape of teddy bears, kittens, flowers – all the things kids love. Just like ordinary fruit salads the fruit figures were sealed, put in a tray and sold in Fresh´N´Friends stores. And to open the design process for those who should really be involved, we let the kids design their own fruit figures. Over 3,500 designs from children were submitted. The rabbit figure of five-year-old Dario got the most votes and was therefore added to the product range.

Advertising Agency: Scholz & Friends, Berlin, Germany


Jooze fruit juice packaging

http://www.packagingoftheworld.com/2010/09/jooze-student-work.html

The shape of the logo is inspired by the shape of a sliced fruit, and the handwritten typeface used is to portray a sense of fun, hands-on personality and characteristic that appeals to kids and toddlers. The logo also consists of singular bright colours, which may vary depending on the flavour of the juice. This would hopefully be a recognisable icon whereby children can relate and connect to the brand. A simplified illustration of the fruits are to further clarify the flavours, to add visual aesthetics, and to appeal and connect to the target audience. 

Save Energy
http://www.designswan.com/archives/tio-save-energy-from-child.html

Tio, called by its designer Tim Holley, is a ghost-shaped light switch that gives kids a visual reminder of how much energy they’ve used by leaving lights on.

Jean Jullien - Childline Posters

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/jean-jullien-childline

Colour Me Healthy

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/publication-colour-me-healthy

The Psychology of Colour
http://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/the-psychology-of-colour/

Many of us haven't owned a nice box of coloured pencils since we were children. Yet no adult life should be without one, because having a suite of hues at our fingertips provides a route to a wide array of moods and inspirations.
This box knows that colours are connected to the chords of our souls.
The set includes a booklet about the psychology of colour, explaining how particular shades can link us to a range of memories and feelings:
Hope
Vitality
Adventure
Power
Ambiguity
Clarity
Discipline
Sanity
Realism
Mellowness
Dignity
Authority

CoP Practical // Crit

We had a crit for Extended Practice, but I also mentioned my practical ideas for context of practice.

What am I struggling with and need thoughts on?
I'm not sure where to take the practical side of it, and with what tone of voice or opinion to take.

I explained these ideas and thoughts:

• One idea is an informative pack in the form of a packaged product that explains how colour can be used to make people feel things and buy things.
• children could colour in and interact with it
• encourage them to widen their knowledge of different colours other than the main primary colours
• teach them that colour shouldn't be decided for them.
• introduce a challenge, by making them think more about why they see things in a certain light, so that they can make more informed decisions.

Feedback summed up

• use colour to entice children into something they don't usually want, like how the Green Giant sweetcorn adverts show how the green giant makes children want to eat vegetables to be strong like him.

An example: package vegetables in a colourful and enticing way, or medicine, or vitamins. In this sense, I could manipulate for GOOD from my knowledge instead of for consumerist reasons.

• give children certain colours which they can overlap to make new colours. 

This could teach them about how colour is vast and we can control what we do with it, and what it means.

• research into gender constructs and why blue is for boys and pink is for girls.

Although this is part of colour perception, it is something I have been trying to avoid in my dissertation, as it opens up a huge new subject. If I do touch on it, it will be skimmed over and amongst many other connotations.

From the feedback I received, what has stuck with me is using the manipulation I've learnt about, to create positive change in children. Some further ideas I have thought of:

• package healthy food, medicine, vitamins etc.
• make informative content that is in the form of supermarket packaging, but when opened has fun information inside, or a clay/knitted/toy fruit/veg/object that we are trying to persuade the kids to use/eat.
• this could be something that changes how they see packaging for unhealthy food and items, and make them warm to healthier things.

CoP Practical: Initial ideas/ Where am I?

I am nearly half way through my second chapter, so at this stage I need to be starting my practical work.

Dissertation title:
Is colour in branding and packaging for children manipulative?

My research:

• Case studies of children's packaging
• Statistics of colour perception
• Brand theory
• Communication theory
• Marketing to children

Practical exploration points to consider:

• I need to create something that reflects my research and is a new exploration. It needs to be based around children, colour and packaging.
• However, if I want to make something that doesn't include packaging, I may need to change my dissertation title.

I am struggling to come up with an idea that is not going down the route of rebranding or repackaging something - I feel that this would not open any new doors.

Problem solving:

• wider colour palette awareness for children (eg more than just primary colours)
• colour free of social connotations
• creating our own connotations with colour and symbols
• packaging/branding that doesn't manipulate

Initial ideas:

• interactive booklet with colour slots to colour in/ detachable colour palette - so children can decide the colour palette for themselves
• rotating colour wheel with colours and key words/connotations - it could either be to help children figure out the connotations of colours, or to teach them that they are not set in stone/innocent.
• food packaging that children can colour themselves
• objects and features made up of unnatural colours to challenge the ideas of what colours mean

The idea of children colouring in food packaging is an interesting concept - children not falling prey to branding and marketing - but it would lack logical sense, as the manipulating of packaging is about being enticing in supermarkets etc. It would not be solving much as would the child be interested in something colourless to start with? 

A lot of my initial ideas include teaching children about colour connotations - but in my dissertation I am discovering that they have them in their mind already. This is too simple and not really attempting to change anything.

CoP Tutorial 3

Practical crit - 7th December
Final draft - 11th December

Need to work on:

• Design boards and blog
• Practical example and studies - this will put the theories into perspective.
• Colour theory - need to add more of it into the first chapter, which focuses too much on colour preference.

Practical work:

• think about the format
• fit it into the title of dissertation

I might have to take 'packaging' out of the title, if I don't want to do a packaging outcome. This is something I am struggling with as I don't necessarily want to just design packaging, however it is something I write about a lot in my dissertation.

CoP Tutorial 2

In this tutorial we discussed how to organise my chapters, as I was a bit lost on how to separate and structure my writing. Below is my plan before the tutorial:

Chapter one

How do we perceive colour?

Chapter two

Manipulation in branding

Chapter three

Children's packaging

I felt a bit uncertain whether this was the right way to go, so we rearranged it as so:

Chapter one

Colour and audience (children)

Chapter two

Brand and communication theory

Chapter three

Case studies/visual research

Notes:

• send Amber introduction and first chapter by next friday
• three or four chapter plan (time plan)
• 500 - 700 word count for intro
• link this into extended practice research

Research:

• communication theory - Mediums & Message (book)
• The Secret Life of 5 year olds - a documentary consisting of filming children in a nursery and the things they get up to and how they communicate and deal with issues.

Practical

I need to be thinking about my practical response and have a clear idea soon. Some thoughts we had:

• I don't want to do a standard rebrand of a product, or design a new brand for children. I'd much rather do something more abstract and abit more unique, that can still be linked to my written work.
• Amber suggested the idea of packaging an emotion or feeling, and using colours to communicate it to children.
• It needs to be packaging and have an audience of children, and can be quite lighthearted.

Time plan: November

Seeing as I am starting to piece together all my research and starting the introduction of the essay, I made a time plan at the start of this month. I feel that this will help to keep me focused, especially as I aim to be finished on my dissertation by Christmas.

I think that maybe I have overestimated myself in this time plan, but I find by setting high standards it will push me to work hard.

-

4/11 - Full plan of my dissertation done - everything needs to be clearly organised so that when I start writing, I have a strong structure to work from.

5/11 - 400 words - This will be most of the introduction.

6/11 - 800 words - Have a solid start to my first chapter done.

13/11 - 1300 words - Further development of my first chapter.

20/11 - 2500 words - Most of my first chapter, if not all.

27/11 - 5300 words - I will be spending all of my working time of that week working on the writing, so hopefully I can reach this goal.