Finding it really hard to focus on my war on want project with the essay deadline looming... Think I may have to put it on hold for a few weeks. However, on the up side, my essay is coming along. Finding it hard to make up the word count though.

Completed my draft for my essay! Just need to start now...

Black box project

Really fun day! We were put into groups and got given a mysterious black box....

inside was an envelope with a piece of paper saying 'pedigree chum'. Our instructions were to go away and provide clues as to what the product was, and then hand them back to another group.

The clues our group were given were:

-Comes in a variety of colours

-Soft, kind and gentle

-Can be used as a lubricant (preferably not sexual!)

-An image as a baby in a bubble

-Featured frequently in Art Attack and can be made into a rocket

So we concluded that the product had to be...

Fairy Liquid!

Then our task was to create a 'visual representation' of the product.

We went through lots of ideas and finally decided to create a leaflet sent to student properties. We decided on stereotypical 'personalities' that go with each Fairy Liquid flavour. These were:

-Apple- organic, active, health

-Pink Petal- girly, feminine

-Lavender- mellow, chilled, cool

-Lemon- optimistic, lively, zesty, hippyish

The leaflet then had a flow chart which led to telling you which kind of person you are, and therefore which flavour Fairy liquid you should buy and stick to. It then folded out and supplied you with a sachet of each flavour liquid.

I really enjoyed this project as our group gelled really well. We were good at bouncing ideas off each other, and then when had decided, we equally allocated jobs to each person and then came back at the end to collate all our ideas.

The crit was really successful and all the tutors really liked our outcome :-)

All in all, a really good last day before the xmas holidays!

Yesterday we had a talk by Bond and Coyne Associates which was really helpful. Moreso, we had group tutorials with the guy afterwards where we got to show him some of our initial ideas for War on Want. He liked my idea of having a bunch of flowers with a card in saying 'how much did these flowers REALLY cost someone?' so I think I will run with this idea and see how it turns out.

Democracy group project.
SO today we had to do the group project 'Democracy'. In groups we were told to design an A3 poster exploring the theme democracy. Our group took a while to get off the ground as we weren't very good at communicating! However, after some brainstorming and discussion we came up with this idea:

however, we thought that this didnt really show what we were trying to communicate so we ended up using the logo next to Labours Manifesto. The poster got the message across, however, it wasn't very visually stimulating.

I had my tutorial with Anna today which was really helpful. She gave me feedback on my essay idea and gave me lots of tips and books that I should research. I am quite looking forward to writing my essay as I haven't written one in ages and need to practice my essay writing skills!

Plan for next week is to create an essay plan so that I can get on with completing it over christmas.

From researching the WOW website, I discovered the Cut Flower Industry issue. Whilst everyone else in my class is focusing on the clothing sweat shops issue, I have decided to further investigate this subject as it is something I had no idea was happening.

I found out some really interesting but harrowing facts:

Flower workers in developing countries like Kenya and Colombia risk their health for unsafe, insecure jobs supplying UK supermarkets. In our new report Growing Pains War on Want investigates the human cost of cut flowers in British supermarkets.

Supermarkets sell 70% of all the flowers bought in the UK - the highest proportion in Europe. But the workers in Colombia and Kenya supplying those flowers to the supermarkets face low wages, health problems such as repetitive strain injuries and miscarriages through exposure to pesticides. Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury's all source from one or both of these countries, and have enormous influence over flower producers and ultimately the health and safety of workers.

and are powerless to stop it. Most patients in Columbian hospitals work in the flower industry. Two-thirds of Colombian and Ecuadorian flower workers reportedly suffer from work-related health problems, including headaches, nausea, impaired vision, conjunctivitis, rashes, asthma, stillbirths, miscarriages, congenital malformations and respiratory and neurological problems. When the children become sick they don’t receive sick pay or medical care because most are employed on temporary contracts, which do not include benefits. In addition, run-off from the farms contaminates the water supply with pesticides.

When they are eight or nine, we see children mixing pesticides in the tanks without gloves, masks, or any protection. We may not see the effects until five to twenty years later when they can no longer move their hands.

I am looking forward to working with this issue further as I have already found out some shocking things and it is making me more aware of problems around me that I didn't even know existed.

Research for War on Want project.

I have been looking at the Barnardo's ad campaigns for my research. They are a very controversial and hard hitting approach, designed by Saatchi and Saatchi. Whilst this tactic is very successful, I think I want to try a different approach rather than the typical shock tactic.