Assignment 1

Last week on Wednesday 15th September we had our first lecture of design studies for the year. It was here that our first assignment was explained to us and that this would lead into our dissertation topics. A big difference this year for the assignments is that this time we have been put into groups mixed with students from other courses, unlike last year where we were in groups within the same course. The first thing that we were to do was locate the groups we were all assigned to, mine being group 17.

The first task we had to do was to plan to meet up with the other members of our group where we would discuss and pick topics to write an essay in the style of a wiki entry. We all exchanged numbers and emails and planned to meet the following day in the canteen just after lunch. This being a bit more quiet and out of the way of any ones classes. I looked over the list of topics given to us the night before to see what would be best suited to me.

Once we all met up we sat down and discussed what topics we had chosen and why we thought we were best suited to them. We also did this to make sure that no one else wanted to do the same topic.

The topic I chose to do was Branding and Design. This is mainly because I would like to one day make this one of my main lines of work. It has always interested me from when I started my NQ year back in college and also because we are currently doing a branding project. I find the project slightly frustrating since we are working in groups of 3 but still think this was the topic for me.

This is the list of what everyone in group 17 chose:

Bio-sphere/techno-sphere Andrew

Branding Nicholas

Celebrity Liam

Craft Helen

Education Yunhee

Environmental sustainability Sarah

Fair trade Charlotte

Interactivity Jarred

Resource depletion Amy

Assignment 5

Part 1

For the final task of this semester, assignment 5 we were to choose a topic or return to a previous one we did at the end of semester 1 and review it. The next part is to develop a short proposal of how we could use one of the methods we carried out and developed from the four previous assignments.

The topic I have decided to go with for this assignment is the one I did last semester. For that I chose two journals that looked into the area of sexually transmitted diseases and just how much people are aware of them.

What the two journals discussed were the results of observations and tests carried out to see how affective advertising is and how much knowledge people have on STI’s.

The next thing I will do, will be propose what techniques I could use and what possible results I would gain from them.

For the journal ‘Internet treatment of sexually transmitted infections – a public health hazard?’ the article discussed the stigma that is normally associated with sexually transmitted infections as people who have been infected by any of theses diseases prefer to keep it private and would rather seek information and advice from the Internet than from a one to one from their doctor, as this is less embarrassing. It is though quite dangerous to seek out remedies from the Internet, as those who sell them do not always provide the correct information.

The second journal ‘Teenagers and the risks of sexually transmitted diseases: a need for the provision of balanced information’ is an evaluation of teenager's knowledge and understanding about sexually transmitted disease, conception and contraception. It goes on to explain how teenagers may underestimate their risk of contracting a STD after the promotion of information about HIV/Aids. It says that simple messages about them in mass media advertising programs may have unwanted results and need to be targeted and easy to understand for teenagers to take in the effect.

Both my chosen journals are trying to increase the message of how high a risk people are at contracting STI’s and how little information is actually available.

So what could I do? Well a technique I could use would be to carry out interviews with those who have experience with treating and studying STI’s. Who would I ask though; well the most obvious people to ask are nurses and doctors. The first thing I would do when beginning this research would be to first email or phone a doctors surgery or a clinic that specializes in treatments with STI’s asking if I could spare an hour of one of their colleagues time giving them a brief overview of what the topic will be about. I believe that asking doctors and nurses would be beneficial into the research as it would allow me insight into the opinions of those who deal with these sort of thing all the time. What do they think of the information that is available to people today? Do they think it is helpful enough and do they think it making the issues of how dangerous they can be effectively? I do think that it would be more appropriate to interview school students.

Results from both groups would slightly differ, as I would get the opinions of those who deal with this all the time and already have experience of how young people are made aware of them and how affective the current information is to them. Is the information working or do people need to be made aware of them at an earlier age?

Another technique I could possibly pursue would be to observe how people react in a clinic, what is their behavior like? Do they seem comfortable or nervous? Are they keeping to themselves? Even looking at posters and advertising in these places. How are the displayed and where? Are they more commonly seen in clinics and surgeries and how many of them are there? This could help show just how available the information is and how helpful clinics can be. Looking at the leaflets available I can even see for myself what information is out there and can compare with others what there opinions on this can would be. I think it would be more beneficial to do an observation in a clinic rather than a surgery.

Out of both of these techniques I think the interview would be the more successful as I would get a variety of answers and results form those with different points of view and ask what their own personal opinions are.

Yet another way to find out information would be to ask, how much do young people actually know about sex in general? Do they actually understand the consequences? Do they read the back of condom packets? Do they use condoms or do they rely on the pill, coil or injection? Looking at contraception packets and information about them could allow me to see if the company’s that provide these are giving out enough information.

Once I collect all my results I would compare my results with others and discuss in detail our own opinions and differences. A major problem with that I may find with this is that the people who I would be discussing this with may be the wrong people to talk to. They may not have the same understanding as nurses, doctors and patients. A way that I could possibly get around this problem would be to discuss my findings with someone also a nurse, doctor or patient who I have previously talked to.

A discussion with people who have never had an STI or who are above a certain age may be a bit useless as they would not know themselves enough about how much young people know about STI’s. They may just say that young people do not know a lot and have nothing to back up these answers, also because it is not only young people who contract them. This is also why I think having a discussion with someone or a group of people who have dealt with this my notes is a better idea, because they themselves know and understand. People who have at one point in their lives contracted an STI may not be so willing to answer any questions let alone take part as they would most likely be to shy and embarrassed to talk about it. This is a problem I see with this technique as finding and talking to someone may be quite difficult.

Another way to compare my notes is with past articles and journals that have carried out similar research into the same area. This is good as it would be easy to do and find out the results of those like me. I do however think that may not be as affective as searching on the Internet may be a bit more difficult to do. The question would be where to look for the more appropriate sites to find and how long would it actually take. The only way I think I could solve this would be to look in libraries, books, magazines and appropriate newspapers.

So now to conclude this part and go over the key points of what I have gone over. I have quickly reviewed two journals I had carried out in a previous assignment; both went over what this essay is based on. I then went over what techniques I would and believe to be the most effective use to carry out research on gain an understanding of just how much information is available to schools and the public. From here I talked about doing observations, and from this seeing what treatment is available and how comfortable are clinics made for patients.

The final part was talking about who I would find more beneficial to carry out a final discussion going over my notes and results with them expressing their own opinions and saying what they thought of the things I had collected.

Part 2

For the next part I will be going into detail of how I would apply both primary and secondary research into a project that I have done this year. The most suitable project that comes to mind would be a project we did to produce a broadsheet and 3D typography piece for a design exhibition. In this project I was given a particular food (Potato) to thoroughly research and produce these final outcomes. This project was based on the food science centre SCRI who carry out research and produce healthier and more nutritious food.

A research technique I could carry out for this would be to do a cross search on the potato. This would allow me to see if there have been any previous articles on the life and health of a potato. Even just carrying out research from books, any magazines where I happen to come across any information. Also looking at SCRI’s research on the food would be very beneficial for what I am doing. I would then break up all my information into the form of a mind map. I could map out all the different areas I have covered. I think would be a good technique to use, as I would get a clearer picture of what it is exactly that I have done. Everything would be highlighted, each part colour coded.

Another research technique I may use to further this could be to again carry out an interview. This may be both a good and bad thing because I might not be able to find a lot of people who know a lot about potatoes. The main people that would be the most obvious to interview would be those who work at SCRI. They would be able to tell me anything I wanted to know about them.

During my research I discovered a disease known as Black Dot. If you want to know more about this, I have previously blogged about this and is simple to access. I discovered that supermarkets have a high demand for a perfect looking potato. They believe looking good is a lot better than being nutritious. So this is where the interviews could be affective again. If I managed to interview a manager at a store such as Sainsbury’s I could subtly find out what their actual views are without me telling them what my actual research is about. That way they cannot lie about it.

Another interview I would do is to question members of the public. We all do shopping so questioning them would be perfect. With another set of questions, subtly asking them how much they know and what would they do etc. without giving away the actual purpose of the topic. From this I would have the opinion of the researcher, provider and the consumer and not just the one view that could be biased. Also finding out what they all think of each other as well. What the consumer thinks of the provider. What the provider thinks of the researcher and so on.

Even getting in touch with potato farmers and hearing their thoughts and opinions would help. This would help see how much they lose, such as profit, time, labour and crops. Something I think not a lot of people would think about.

To conclude this I find that carrying out interviews would be the most effective technique to carry out. I also find that because of the project I chose for this I feel that interviews are the only effective technique to use. I also find that the mind mapping would be most efficient just because of how it would make the process as a whole a lot easier. It would also allow me to understand what people from all sort of views think of each other and what they think of not just potatoes, but food in general as well as the consumerism within supermarket, but that is another topic that can be further explored from this.

Bibliography

Vivancos, S. (2007) 'Internet treatment of sexually transmitted infections - a public health hazard? BMC Public Health. 7, 333.

Cooper, RG. (2007) 'Sexually transmitted disease/HIV health-care policy and service provision in Britain' INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF STD & AIDS 18 (10) 655-661.

Type on Blogger

I have been having a few problems getting all the text size on my blog all the same size. Whenever I set them to this for some reason the site changes some of it to a smaller size. Wonder what that is all about.

Working in Sainsbury's

I have been for the past three years now worked in Sainsbury's supermarket, and I can tell you it is not the greatest job about. The only reason I have not left is because the pay is good and is only a few minutes away from my home. Sainsbury's advertises to the public that it is a good, fun place to work where all the employees are happy to work there and all have a laugh with each other. I can tell you this is a lie, as is the same in any other supermarket.

When I first started my first job was to order in stock for the fresh, produce, counter and bakery departments, this was more of a nightmare as I only had 3 hours to do it in. It was during my second week I had badly hurt my arm, and with a doctors note was told not to lift heavy objects and to take it easy for a few weeks. I took this into work and by sudden coincidence the store manager at the time told me to work some stock, not part of my job and on a completely different department. So I had to tell him and get Personal to show him the note, they suggested that if I had to work kit then crisps, sweets etc would be best to do, but no what did he have me work, heavy crates of booze, ON THE TOP SHELF. So obviously I could barely do any of it and after being told to work seven cages of them I had only managed to get three done. The response I got from the manager was very loud shouting at in the middle of the shop floor and a threat that he was going to sack me by the end of the week. Luckily another manager was there and complained against him.

There have been a number of times where I have had problems like this, such as being moved department without being told and a job I can clearly not do. this was working on warehouse, bringing all of the deliveries in and having to split each cage up for each isle fir the Night shift to come in. This was when the Night shift manager decided to single me out and do whatever he could to embarrass me in front of his team, only this time another 4 managers had complained against saying that this was a form of bullying, eventually both him and the store manager left for other jobs. HOORAY.

So now once I had moved department yet again after being put in for shifts I could not do, getting phone calls at 10 in the morning for not coming in, I was in college and they knew this, you had to work around their time. My contract at this point was 25 hours a week, they had me doing over time at 39 hours, I could not go in for all of this as I am a student, I complained myself this time and was completely ignored. You see in the place most of the managers stick together and won't bother telling off their friends.

So now on fresh doing my old job again but for only one department and with an pretty good manager that did whatever he could to help you out with any problems, well he also left for a better job leaving us with some one who did no work at all and kept putting you off your work just so she could either complain about her life or put you on another department to help someone out leaving me no time to get any of my work done and get in trouble from our current store manager, who also does not believe anything I say. The problem with this department manager was that she was very lazy, she picked out her favourites and they also did no work and they got away with it, leaving all the work for those who work on the evening shift.

Gladly I can say now that I do like working there, at times, because our last two department managers have done anything they could for you, they have tried to do whatever they could to make everyone on the department happy and keep up moral etc, everyone now pitches in to help each other because of this. There are still a few problems we have, especially with the funding as our store manager will not spend money on equipment unless it benefits him. We are constantly on the hunt for handsets that work as they are nearly all broken and no one can order in any stock because of it, but will waste money on plastic guards at the bottom of the shelves where anyone who is of an average height cannot reach up to the top shelf to get anything without falling. It does not make any sense in any of the other staffs opinions.

My point in all this is that those who have worked in places like this think that they are the big man, the head honcho. All employees under the age of 25 are not really treated with respect, we are considered a joke by one or two of the managers and speak to us as though we are six, seven years old. There have been times where the managers have caused so much bad things on a department they have blamed it on the younger ones, which has resulted in a few investigations and have left a few students without jobs because the managers didn't believe them over their pal, even though their friend has caused the problem.

This is not just happening in Sainsbury's but in places like Asda and Tesco, I am sure other will agree with me, with more likely worse stories than the ones I have described. These are places where just because we are young means we do not know anything and they know better than us and they can treat us however they want just because we are young. I will admit that I am no model employee but neither are the managers who are the majority are very lazy just because they think they can be.

Crazy Heart

I began this weekend by going to see the film Crazy Heart, this is a film I have wanted to see for months ever since I first saw the trailer. It has recently won a number of awards such as Golden Globes, BAFTA's and Oscars, mainly for the lead performance of Jeff Bridges.

Bridges who plays the part of Otis "Bad" Blake, an aged country western musician who's career has been getting worse and worse over the years due to a back story of him teaching his ways onto someone younger and them becoming more successful. It is that bad he tours around America even playing in bowling alleys. It is not long that he is introduced to Maggie Gyllenhaal, and there is an immediate attraction between the two, (rather typical of Hollywood in my opinion). She is a single mother who's trust in men has gotten worse and worse with every guy she has gone out with but begins to think that "Bad" Blake may be different. The trouble is he's and alcoholic in denial, and a very bad one at that. This is the beginning of his troubles where it affects his life so much he finally begins to realize just how much help he needs.

This is a movie that uses no special affects but simply a good, strong story line that relies on nothing but just as strong and brilliant acting, especially from Jeff Bridges who completely deserved to win the Best Actor Award. You really do feel for him when he realizes he has to get rid of his problem, even when he does terrible and stupid things. The rest of the cast as well give strong performances, surprisingly even from Colin Farrell, who as we all know is not exactly a talented actor but I would say that with the exception of In Bruges this is his best film by far.

Another thing I would have to praise is the fact that all the singing done came actually from the actors, and what is even more surprising was that it was actually good, and there wasn't even any miming, it just added to the realism of the plot. The music in it was also really good and am about to download the album after I have finished this blog.

So I would recommend that you see this film, I really enjoyed it and would gladly buy it when it is released on DVD. This film may not be for everyone but I think that even people who do not really like the type of music in the film will enjoy it as much as me when they see it.

Assignment 4c

For the final part of assignment 4 we were to get together in a group and have a discussion on our findings from our interviews comparing on what we gained. The interviews we had all carried out were all quite varied but there were a few of us who had carried similar interviews.

When talking about why people would buy a magazine we talked about peoples interests, is it something they would look at for themselves or because other they know buy them? Such a topic we discussed was health awareness and how people would look at this to keep in shape and healthy. This is the type of magazine that would influence people to keep their bodies healthy. By looking at pictures of the models in this and the affect of what can happen to your body if you do not look after it can greatly influence people to do whatever they can to stay in shape. In these such magazine or tips on what to and what not to eat as well as exercises that people can do. They can look as someone and say I want to look like that.

It all generally depends on what peoples interests are that makes a person buy a magazine. Some buy it for the clothes, for the celebs, the models or the real life stories.

A major influence we all thought in advertising in general was fashion. If a man or women sees something in a magazine that is the fashion of the season such as stripes, they could see this and later when out and about could buy something with stripes just to be in the current style, even if it is not the exact dress or shirt the saw in the magazine, it has at this point influenced them to buy this.

We also talked about how celebrities are used in magazines to influence people. From this point we discussed how the public all want a better life, we all want to be something greater than what we are and think we can do this by looking through the life of a celebrity. People can look at a celebrities life and see that they look good and better off than them and they want what they have. If they see and item of clothing, a car, or if there is an image of the inside of their home, can see an item in it and think that something like that would look good in their home. The point is that it may not be the exact same item but something similar can make a person feel good about themselves. This is sort of what we as a group got or at least what I got out of the discussion.

Another topic we went over was the design of a company, such as Top Shop and New Look, they look the same and as we discussed the stores are all are most likely designed by influence of another designer from another popular store and try to base theirs on them. This is more copying their sort of style. Someone then mentioned that clothing from Gap and Tesco and a few other company's all use the same supplier and that the only difference between them were the pricing depending on the company.

Another thing we quickly went over was the fact that people are also influenced by the majority. They see what everyone else around them is wearing and doing. I even know this from personal experience as I have even done this myself, where I have bought an item of clothing because I have been influenced by someone or have seen it in something.

From this I have learned that everyone is influenced by advertising in one way or another, more are than others but are still influenced all the same. We cannot avoid it not matter how much we try, or how much we would deny it.

Assignment 4a and b

For assignment four we were to chooses a topic and interview about three to four people about it. This was to help us gain experience on interviewing people. From this we were to either choose a topic given or to make our own up. I decided to go with asking people 'How does advertising influence a person's own personal style?'.

Part of this task was to not ask this question directly as they would most likely deny that they are affected by them. We were to instead ask a series of questions that would allow me to see why a person would buy something? Where would they buy etc. I was also studying them, their behaviour and their style. The people I have interviewed signed my permission slips but will not be using their names on this blog.

The people we were interviewing first had to consent to me talking to them and were to be people that we do not know. This to me was a bit nerve racking and wasn't too sure of how to find someone to interview as I felt that I did not have enough time to speak to some random member of the public on the street. In the end when I was speaking to my girlfriend about this assignment she said she would get in touch with one of her friends and her boyfriend I had not met, saying they wouldn't mind at all with helping me out. So we arranged to meet later on when we all finished work and uni up at my girlfriends place. This was a bit awkward for me as I would rather have met them under different circumstances instead of uni work. I found out straight away that they were very willing to help out and came in laughing and joking with me. I first said it was nice to meet them and asked how they were doing and they did the same back.

I did not start the interview straight away as we all got settled first and got to know a little bit about each other first so we could all just sit back and relax without it having to be an awkward time.

Below are the questions I had prepared before to ask them:

• Can I ask you what the last thing you bought was?
• Do you remember where you bought it from?
• Do you often buy something because you saw it in the shop passing by or saw it somewhere and at another time bought it?
• How much do you tend to spend on a shopping spree?
• What sort of shops interest you?
• Do you prefer to actually go to the shops or shop on the Internet?
• What it is you mainly prefer to buy? Clothes, films, ornaments etc?
• What magazines and t.v shows do you normally read and watch?
• Do you watch the adverts between the breaks or do you tend to ignore them?
• If you see something advertised does it make you think I'd like to see that or I'll look good in that?
• Can I ask what make of shoes you're wearing?
• What about your top and trousers?
• Where did you buy them?
• What made you go there to buy them?
• Do you remember hearing about this place through friends or family or was it by anything else?
• What or who would you say influenced you style of clothes you buy or the films you see?

These were the questions I had scripted but did go during the course of the interview asked a few more questions as we all felt a bit more comfortable and relaxed.

The male when I first asked him this questioned joked at how he bought some kinky underwear for her from Ann Summers last week to which she turned round jokingly hitting his shoulder calling him a cheeky sod saying it wasn't true while laughing. He kept on joking about it saying its all true is a very dirty girl. I could tell she was a bit embarrassed about this but is probably used to this sort of thing from him.

I asked them both the questions at the same time to see who would answer first, as it were questions on shopping the female was answering the first mostly, she seemed to be more into it than her boyfriend who was mainly agreeing with some of her answers or saying well it depends if your a guy, if she sees something she'll want to go out and buy it but if i see something then ill buy it. He did say that he looked at sites on the Internet to see what was new and that.

When I asked them what they were wearing they were wearing quite trendy clothing, such as Nike trainers which he had bought from Archive and her top was from TK Max. The reason for her buying it form here was that you get a lot of really good stuff cheaper than what you would get in a bigger name place. From the way she was speaking and reacting I got the indication that she was quite sensible with money and would of wasted it as much, but he said she tends to buy something every week, implying, typical woman which his girlfriend took as a joke. I do have to agree that if you are making a really big bargain from it then why not.

I also asked them about films and music and how they choose to see them. The boyfriend said that he frequently bought Empire magazine and Total film to see the new upcoming movies. From this he would tell what were the best films to see were but would end up making his own judgement on what others would say about the film or depending if the trailer in the cinema or TV spots looked good.

The next interview I did was with another female, she was similar to the previous girl I had interviewed whereas she read magazines such as Cosmopolitan but also read Empire and she made judgements about things from the magazine whereas she said her boyfriend would read FHM and GQ and she would read some of the actual articles in them after he had been through it. When it came to films she said her boyfriend didn't buy film magazines but would see a advert for it then search for reviews of it online and decide from that.

I would say that all three of the people I interviewed were all influenced by advertising in magazines and TV programs but I would say the girl I interviewed on her own wouldn't fully admit to be influenced as much. An example of this was when she said that if her friends didn't want to see a film with a bad review she would want to see it anyway to make up her own mind but when I asked about a film with a good review she said she would go and see it, but on her "own free will".