Difference between Primary and Secondary Research
Primary research is research that has never been either gathered or ever disclosed to the public, examples of Primary research include surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations.
Secondary research is research that has been gathered and has been made publicly available by the group of people who collected it, examples of Secondary research includes textbooks/encyclopaedias and websites, ranging from articles to archive websites.
Advantages to Primary research include the data being up-to-date, making it more reliable for either the person or company, alongside the data being unique, where only one party has this information and no one else, meaning that party has a huge advantage over it's competitors.
Disadvantages to Primary research include being expensive to conduct, which means not everyone can conduct this type of research, in addition to expensive, it is also very time-consuming, as it requires a lot of planning to get successful results, which not every party may have the time to do.
An advantage to Secondary research include being very easy and cheap to access, as it only requires the one conducting the research to simply look it up on a website and note it down compared to organising things like interviews and focus groups to conduct the research.
A disadvantage to Secondary research include not being as reliable compared to Primary research, as the research had already been conducted long ago, which may misrepresent audience's needs.
What do you think you would need to research?
One thing that needs an extensive amount of research in order to make an effective new product would be studying the market of the thing you want to sell to millions, study the different amount of marketing campaigns that the companies you would be competing with once you start developing your product and see not only what makes it effective for consumers, but also find ways on how to stand up in the market. It's important to stand out in the market as it only helps you grow in terms of money and consumers, but also helps you pose as a threat to the competitors, as the whole goal of market share is to dominant it.
Another thing that would require research would be the audience you want to market for, observations could be a viable research conductor as it helps you determine what attracts and detracts consumers in terms of marketing, it would be important to study the detraction part while also keeping elements of the attraction part, as you want to make it appeal to everyone interested in that particular project, other alternatives that work the same would be things like survey's and interview's, whether online or out in public.
Primary research methods
One of the most cheapest forms of Primary research that is cheap, yet reliable would be online survey's, this is because apps like Google Forms and Microsoft Forms allow you to create survey's for free alongside sharing them for everyone to access for free. While it may not attract a huge audience, it could provide enough results that clearly tell you what consumers would want to see with the product.
Difference between qualitative and quantitative research
Qualitative research is research based on a group of people's experiences, where the questions relate to things like what group in society they're in or about the town they live in. Quantitative research is research based on statistics from a group of people, usually focusing on both their lives and what they do outside.
Examples of Qualitative questions may include: What's are the people's thoughts on the town? or How does it feel like to be part of this community for X amount of years?
Examples of Quantitative questions: How much shopping do people do usually? or How much on average do people make a month?
The results can be displayed by conducting interviews with the people that you would be marketing towards, specifically ones that to you, would give you more reliable answers. Such as if you're wanting to know what it feels like to be a part of a community for a long amount of time, you would want to talk with the older people, whether that person is middle-aged or elder, about their experience in order to calculate results that mostly line up with what's usually stated.
Secondary research methods
One method to Secondary research is using the internet to look up statistics relating to customer's opinions, whether this could be articles that briefly mention this information, or on websites that hold company or government reports. It would be important to use the most recent data reports as consumers behaviours may change and may not align up with the current market and on what they want, so it's important to at least use recent data reports as a reference to your customer base.
What is a tagline?
A tagline is a short form of text that's meant to be memorable and easy to remember, while also subtly explains what the company does. The difference between a tagline compared to a slogan is that a slogan is more used for campaigns and can change frequently, while the tagline is a permanent statement for the business.
A great tagline comes in the form of how easy it is to remember it, like with McDonald's "i'm lovin it" or Nike's "Just Do It", these are examples of iconic taglines that are very simple and easy to remember. Another factor is how well it translates to the actual company and what type of produces they make, going back to McDonald's and Nike's taglines, these work not because of their simplicity, they also work because of how well they match what the company represents. McDonald's tagline is meant to represent the customer eating the food and enjoying it, which is what a restaurant wants to happen when you order from them, for you to love and enjoy it, while Nike's tagline is meant to represent drive and determination to be a better person than you are, which links to how Nike creates products related to sports, and how people get good at sports by taking the risks head on and improving from them.
Examples of Social Campaigns
This Girl Can
This Girl Can is a social movement started by Sport England back in 2015, the main intention of the movement is to combat gender inequality by giving women an opportunity to show a different and realistic perspective of exercise. Throughout the years, the campaign has had many iterations throughout its inception, launching partnerships with companies like Disney and Bodyform, and also addressing social issues relating to women in general.
The promotional material of the campaign are posters that have the same structure, the main subject being a woman exercising, with white text in the middle that often have a sense of snark to them, while also being empowering at the same time. An example of this would be in one poster that has the slogan "Sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox." The main intention for the message is that while exercise is tiring process, the payoff for performing this makes you feel better about yourself. The slogan also takes a jab at gender inequality with the 'sweating like a pig' bit, which is a reference to how women considered fat are often called a pig, which the slogan takes this derogatory term and applies it to something empowering.
Movember
Movember is a social movement dating back to 2003 that is focused on men's mental health, which aims to combat suicide amongst males, prostate and testicular cancer, and also what it means to be a man. The term is a portmanteau of moustache and November, and takes place throughout the month of November.
In terms of how effective they are, Movember includes the tagline "Grow a Mo, Save a Bro." with another one saying "Your Dough will Save a Bro." These taglines both touch on the issue about suicides amongst males, which is often reported as the gender with the highest number of suicides. Some other forms of advertising outside of the emphasises on moustaches, the website often include pictures of men with other people, whether it be with family or just a single family member, it helps as an up-lifting to struggling men who feel their voices aren't heard, which helps welcomes these type of men to get involved with not only supporting the movement, but also recognise what they need to do to improve.
Some things to take inspiration from for my social campaign is emphasise on the 'bro' part, specifically marketing it as something you can enter with open arms and that we're here for you. A problem that men face with mental health is that compared to women, men don't usually speak about their experiences with other men, mostly due to their gender role of being tough and serious, and that them opening up makes them weak. So by reassuring them that they are free to open up, helps them with their mental health more.
ACT UP
Act Up, also known as AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, is a social movement related to AIDS, the issues that Act Up fights for includes medical research that could be useful to put an end to the AIDS crisis, while also tackling stigma around the disease, whether it be from healthcare or general stigma towards people who suffer from it.
How effective ACT UP's campaign is in getting people to support their groups is they don't try to make it marketable to a general audience, most of the posters usually contain text on either a black or white background, on some occasions, the posters take a more homemade aesthetic to them and the subject in question is either a real person (e.g. Ronald Reagan) or a well known organisation (F.D.A). One of their most well known posters is Silence=Death, which became the unofficial symbol for the group. Using a pink triangle meant to harken back to the inverted triangle from the Holocaust, the first incarnation of the poster had only two things, the triangle and the name of it and nothing else. The poster is a perfect example of how simplicity is sometimes better, as even though there's almost nothing on it, it practically spells out the issue they're fighting and why you should join them, as it tells you the more people ignore, the more the population will fall.
An inspiration that could be useful for my social issue campaign is that to not be afraid to be simplistic, because simplicity sometimes helps drive a message stronger than if it was overly designed, which would imply it may too way too hard to convince you to join.
Earth First
Earth First is a social movement dedicated to helping the Earth, from fighting to reduce global warming and climate change, alongside finding solutions to not only save the Earth, but also keep society running as is.
The campaign is represented by two symbols, the first one is a simple fist in the air, while the other one is a wrench clashed between a stone hammer. These symbols could be a form of optimistic hope, with the hand representing either power to the below, or a form of uniting between a group of people, which links to the movement's fight to protect the Earth. The tool symbol could possibly mean anyone can join and do their part, with the stone hammer representing the poor, while the wrench represents the rich, the clashing between the tools also links to uniting one another, which is the main intention with a movement like this.
One inspiration from this movement that I could take inspiration from is a symbol about being united, because if a campaign is solely dedicated to one group, then it makes the campaign unserious and biased, which is not what a campaign wants to be known as.
Elements of Identities
Elements of an identity
What I learnt about elements of an identity is that identity is more of an umbrella term for the many people living in the world, identity doesn't just cover how someone on the outside, identity is much more rooted into the inside of a person, which includes their gender, race, sexuality, politics, social class, hobbies, personality, and the list goes on and on. What I learnt the most is identity doesn't cover just ever aspect of a person, everyone has a different kind of identity that makes them stand-out.
Purpose of an identity
What I learnt about the purpose of an identity is that without any defined identity, then no-one would be attracted to anyone and that would end up having people believe they're worthless in life. Identity, in terms of social status, doesn't matter the most, but in terms of how a person presents themselves, identity is a key factor on how someone may stand out in society, whether they follow the status quo, or they go against it and may fight for something that doesn't get brough up a lot, and in any case, that is linked to someone's identity, and is what would make them stand up from the usual.
The 38 Degrees identity
What I learnt about the 38 Degrees identity is how despite identity being a factor as to why someone is different, that doesn't mean everyone has different beliefs. Identity's can also link to how a person touches on social issues in the world, such as discrimination against race, sexuality, gender etc. Which leads to other people forming a group in order to fight for their rights.
The use of identities in campaigning
What I learnt about identities in campaigning is that often how people get their word out, they integrate identity into the campaign in order to strengthen their message. For example, campaigns against racism, homophobia, or sexism are linked to identity because as a person's race, sexuality and gender is linked to identity, people who aren't considered the ideal are usually looked over and don't get as much help compared to the ideal, so using their experiences linked with identity, they push a campaign to help get both their word out and get their rights that protect them.
Experimental Jetset
This poster was a promotional poster for an exhibition that displayed the works of Fernando & Humberto Campana at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany.
The green and blue contrast on the main text is what makes the poster stand out and make it visually unique, seeing as it seamlessly combines the two words using the 'I' in both words to blend the different coloured letters together.
The next poster is a poster that is meant to bring awareness to Animal and human abuse and advocating for liberation for both, with the phrases used on the main text are meant to be relating to the type of abuse animals and humans go through when they are unwillingly imprisoned.
In my opinion, this poster is perfectly designed not for how it looks, but for how straight-forward it is, it doesn't try to sugar coat itself to make it more marketable, it straight up tell us the type of horrors that these people and animals go through that would want to convince us to support the liberation.
This poster is an advertisement for a documentary movie about the Helvetica font, the poster includes a tongue-in-cheek subversion to the cast list, where instead of listing regular actors, it lists the entire alphabet in the Helvetica font, and after it finishes, it then continues by telling you to watch the movie.
The one word I can use to describe this poster's method of marketing itself is genius. It's perfectly straightforward on what the movie is about, a documentary based on the popular font Helvetica, but EJ took a more jokey twist to the poster to help make it stand out, where they decided to take the mick out of the top billing and, instead of listing actual actors, they decided to include the whole alphabet and list them as the cast, which is a funny subversion to credited actor billing while also relating to the documentary in a way that doesn't feel too pretentious.
The final poster is a poster for an exhibition called Changing Ideals, where the main point of the exhibition was presenting a series of case studies for architectural house models. The poster used to promote it comprised of the three basic shapes used to represent different architecture for different houses, with the red shapes meant to point out the message on the poster by using it to emphasise the tagline 'Re-thinking the House'.
Much like all the other ones, this one takes a simplistic approach by comprising of shapes and text, and much like the other posters shown, the simplicity helps get the intention of what the exhibition is about more clearer to people who first look at this poster, where the red combined with the tagline help get the impression that it follows house architectures and what should be the standard for houses.
This is the artist-inspired poster I made that links to what I want to focus on for my social campaign task. It surrounds the topic of men's mental health and how men are often taught to suppress their feelings and forget about it, which is a dangerous mindset as that causes issues that range from anxiety and depression at best and anger problems and suicide at worst, which is why I think it is important to discuss mental health as a whole and destroying the stereotypes surrounding men being stoic, as this causes more harm than good for society.
The first detail I want to discuss for my poster is the main subject, which shows a tear coming out of an eye. The tear is a simple 0, using a font that has a slash across the 0, while the tear is an upside down V on the top and a U on the bottom. The decision to use a 0 with a cross was a deliberate choice, it was meant to symbolise silence, which relates to the struggle that men are often forced to suppress their emotions, which is a huge problem for many men today.
The second detail I will address is the main tagline for the poster "These aren't Tears of Weakness, These are Tears of Vulnerability". This relates to another problem men face that directly links to the stigma around mental health. As mentioned above, men are often taught to suppress their emotions, and one of these emotions include crying, as society considers them a 'weak' man if they do cry, which is why it's important to tell men that it's ok to cry, alongside defeating the stereotypes that hold men back in society.
Constructivism
Constructivism was an art movement originating from Russia during the 1910's, this type of art set to ignore all the conventional rules stablished in art at the time and instead have a more hand-made feel to it, hence the construct in the name. The style gained traction around the end of the 1910's as a form of social commentary towards issues like class divisions, social inequities, and revolution.
In my opinion, this layout of poster is something I really dig, the use of red and dark grey help grab your attention to the poster and what it's message are, which I will also add that the message is easy to get and not convoluted in the slightest. Going back to the layout, the positions help make the art stand out more and help grab your attention, which you can also appreciate while also understanding the message it is trying to send out.
The second poster is called "Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge". created by Lazar Markovich Lissitzky back in 1919, the main intention for this poster was to show both sides of the conflict, with the Red triangle meant to represent revolutionaries attacking and dominating the other side of the army, represented by the White Circle.
This poster is a perfect example of how an image speaks louder than words, as when you look more into the poster, the understanding of what the Red and the White are meant to represent, you'll be able to grasp what what the poster's main intentions are, which were to touch on social issues plaguing Russia at the time, which this poster touches specifically on revolution and military.
The Tatlin Tower, also known as Monument to the Third International, is a wooden model created by Vladmir Tatlin during the early Soviet era (1919-1921). The model is a symbol of the future for Communism, as the model leads into the ideology of a utopia that gets better and better in the future, which the model would reflect that with new materials and advancements made to signify a bright future for Communism.
Lighting
Natural Lighting
The mood this photo has can be best described as having a sense of nostalgia, as the beautiful scenery by the sea may remind you of a time that saw something similar to this and associate that time with good memories, it's comforting due to the high contrast, while also touching on you from this picture being similar to good times.
An alternative I would've done for the photo is to potentially have the sun peeking out the high point of the rock, signifying a bright future looming over the horizon, while incorporating the nostalgic undertones, by adding a message on how the future may be brighter than you think.
The mood of this photo seems to follow the same tone as the previous photo, only this time, instead of associating good times with scenery, it associates it with memories with your family, as the silhouettes are of a family walking along a beach, with a ball being visible, which implies this is what the family brought to entertain the kids. This is another take on touching on your good moments in life, by implying playing on the beach when your family went there one time.
An alternative for the photo would be having the sun in the background being more in the middle, and making the silhouettes more 2D instead of 3D, that way, it would resemble more of a painting than a photo, strengthening the meaning behind the photo.
The mood of this photo is calming in a simple way, as seen on top, it is a relatively harmless image of a dog looking outside, with bright lighting to signify the photo's cutesy aesthetic. One thing that can get you to look more into the photo is to figure out why the dog is like this? Could it be his owner returning? Or is it something special we don't know? Theorising helps add a new layer to the image that helps add depth to the dog's position.
Key Light
Key lighting uses a broad amount of lighting, so in these side-by-side images, these are known as High and Low-Key lighting. These two lighting are juxtapositions with one another, where High-Key represents bright happiness, Low-Key represents more serious gloom. This is also reflective on the expressions of the subject's shown, with one smiling and one having a resting face, which makes the differences between the two lighting's more noticeable.
Another lighting technique associated with Key Lighting is Fill Lighting, which removes the contrast in a photo, which makes it more clear and natural to people. As you can see in the picture above, the fill lightning makes the skin and shadows more clearer compared to the first photo, which slightly changes an image's tone.
The final example of Key Lighting is the Back Light, which as the name implies, places the lighting source at the back, this makes the main subjects of the photo more darker and almost devoid of colour, in the example of this photo, it shows a trumpet player playing in what seems to be an underground silo. The back light creates more contrast as it makes the subject unidentifiable, which leads to a bunch of questions you will have for the photo.
An alternative I could use for the photo is place the guy farther back, up to where the head of the shadow is visible, which would make the man more unidentifiable but also add some depth to the photo.
Hard Light
The mood of this photo is meant to shown something normal looking, as seen by the girl just reading a book not doing anything note-worthy, but the hard light makes the photo more visually appealing with the added contrast to the girl's shadows alongside the random furniture next to the chair. This is an example of how lighting changes the final look of a photo.
This mood of the photo could be interpreted as a sense of dread, as the photo depicts a noir-looking man looking back with a sense of uncertainty in what appears to be an alleyway. Judging by the contrasts in the photo, the lighting would indicate that something bad is going to happen, which would make lighting a component on telling a visual image.
An alternative method I would use if I were to create a photo like this is to add more shadow to the background, like making the side of the wall a little more darker, which it progressively gets more darker before being full on black, which signifies danger as the darkness starts to overpower light.
The mood of this photo is style, seeing as outside of the shadow patterns present on the face, there seems to be no deeper meaning behind the photo.
Soft Light
The mood of this photo appears to be unnerving, judging by how the background is blurred around the subject, alongside the subject having an expression that indicates uncertain fear. This is to tell the audience that this is a moment that is meant to be viewed with uncertainty on how it plays out later on.
The mood for this photo is the opposite of the first photo, which is meant to show soothing calmness. The subject in the photo staring at you with a blank face while her hair is blocking the sun which reflects back on her, this could be interpreted as what an average person would picture a moment where they're contempt with their life.
The final photo is another example of showing the difference between soft and hard light, the left side is the soft light, while the right side is the hard light. These same photos show a different mood, where the soft lighting one has a more natural look to it, while the hard lighting one has a more stylish look, judging from the shadows.
Bounce Light
The first photo shows a woman looking over to her right side with her hand holding what appears to be some form of jewellery. The bounce lighting is used to make her right side of the face appear more visible while making the left side more darker. The photo is clearly going for a stylish look, only elevated ore by the use of black-and-white, which causes the shadows to stand out more.
The second photo is more in line with the first photo I showed off, except this one utilises colour instead of black and white. The bounce lighting used in this photo helps make the colours contrast with the light and the shadows, as seen with the forefront being bright and shiny, while the background is more gloomy.
The final photo that uses bounce lighting is this shot that shows off two people in a dimly lit room, the characters express both surprise and disbelief. The use of bounce lighting not only is used to make the characters more visible, but also highlights the unconventional setting these characters are supposedly in.
Side Lighting
Surrealism
Surrealism is a type of art form that combines a range of things relating to the real world and the human imagination and meshes them together in a strange and unnatural way. Surrealism is often used in campaigns for a variety of reasons, but the two most important are how surrealism allows designers to be creative with their advertisements, which helps as surrealism offers more staying power than an advertisement that uses real life as the main subject, it helps as a way to stand out from a crowded market wile also allowing a lot of creativity to the person creating it.
This is the poster I created for Surrealism that links to a social issue. The issue the poster is spreading awareness to is addiction to nicotine and how being addicted to it can cause lung cancer which can result in death.
The main subject for the poster is the cigarette to the right, which is shown to be already lit, where the smoke comes out as usual, but then it forms a pattern of 3 different types of grey, going from light, to moderate, and then to dark, until the dark grey forms a gravestone with the words R.I.P on it. My main intention with the poster was to showcase the dangers of nicotine addiction without making it out too obviously, so I decided to draw a lit cigarette and make a pattern that darkens, eventually turning it into a gravestone. The pattern can be best represented to as the light being the first time you try a cigarette, the moderate being the middle part where you are addicted but can still function, and the dark represents being terminally addicted with no way back, and the gravestone obviously represents death.
Another detail I want to talk about for my poster is the main tagline for the poster "It's all fun and games, Until it isn't." The meaning of the tagline is the 'fun and games' is meant to represent when someone starts smoking for the first time, it's meant to signify how euphoric it feels smoking for the first time, mostly due to how nicotine releases dopamine into the brain, giving it the euphoric state.
The second part is referencing how while smoking is fun, later down the line, it will cause you to get a nicotine addiction and will make you develop lung cancer which can you kill you, which is the whole message about the poster, seeking help to combat a nicotine addiction.
Campaign Pitch
My campaign will be focused on Men's Mental Health, where it focuses on both the stigma surrounding men seeking help, alongside deconstructing gender norms and how damaging these norms are for men. The key message of this campaign is to make men more aware of toxic masculinity and the causes it has on mental health, alongside making women more aware on how men suffer with mental health, due to how different both genders deal with mental health.
The biggest concern currently surrounding men's mental health is the concerning amount of suicides happening to men. It is often reported that men die from suicides 3 times more than women, which is mostly from men using more violent methods like guns, drugs, alcohol and hanging. In 2023, it was reported that men aged 45-49 had the highest suicide rate, which was at 25.3% per 100,000 and that the suicide rate for men was at 17.1 per 100,000 compared to women's where it was at 5.6.
The main concept on what I want to do for my campaign is I want to advocate for men to speak up about their mental health. The big cause of men's mental health being not taken seriously is because societal norms teach men that showing any form of emotional vulnerability is considered weak, and how they have to be both strong and stoic. According to sources, the top reason why men don't seek out help is not wanting to be a burden to anyone, not wanting to admit support or having a mindset that they deal with it in silence.
These particular reasons for why men's mental health has a huge stigma around it is why it is important to advocate for not only men's mental health, but also going against societal norms and advocating for people to speak up. Luckily, there are a lot of originations in the UK that advocate for this, some examples include Andy's Man Club, Men's Minds Matters, and Movember.
I believe this campaign will succeed because I believe we are living in a very progressive society, where we focus a lot on tackling racism, sexism, homophobia etc. Allowing men to open up about their mental health will be a huge step for society, considering how men are the dominant gender, and how often they are the leaders in society. Having them open up about mental health while advocating for other men to follow their footsteps may influence society in some way, allowing both genders to live in peace altogether.
Campaign Name
The name for my campaign will be called "Strong Hands". The meaning behind the campaign name refers to people supporting each other, which in the case of my campaign, refers to men and women supporting each other and vice versa. A deeper meaning behind the campaign's name is a slight nod to the gender norms for strong men. A problem that my campaign intends to tackle is what it means to be a strong man. What I consider a strong man links to the campaign name, where strong men are ones who support each other while supporting himself and isn't afraid to open up to someone.
Relevant Research
When discussing about mental health, it is important to understand that anyone can suffer from it, even celebrities have been open about their mental health and how they deal with it.
The first example of a male celebrity being open about their mental health is Ryan Reynolds, most known for his as the titular character in the Deadpool movies. Ever since he has risen to A-star stardom, he has been very open about his mental health, specifically his struggles with anxiety.
One of these struggles include feeling like his personality is spilt into two separate identities, leading to events like when he is about to step out on stage to partake in an interview, he has a side to him that says this is a bad idea, and another that tells him to go out there.
Ryan has also used some methods in order to cope with anxiety, one of them is when he is partaking in any press event, he will put on a character in his own mind, one who acts almost like the Ryan you usually see in his movies, which to him helps make events like this less daunting. Other forms of coping include using an app called Headspace and partaking in exercise like lifting weights and running.
Another example of a celebrity sharing being open about their mental health problems is comedian Pete Davidson, known for his tenure at Saturday Night Live between 2014 to 2022, and for his roles in films like The King of Staten Island, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies and The Suicide Squad.
Pete has been very open about his BPD (borderline-personality disorder) and PTSD, with the latter stemming from his father dying when he was only 7, as his father was a firefighter who was helping people during 9/11. Pete also has opened up about how this incident affected him personally, with him saying how he would have trust issues to people around him, using recreational drugs when was just a teenager, alongside acting out in school.
Pete wasn't diagnosed with BPD until he was 23, which at this point in his life, he started having episodes where he was full-blown anger, but then would continue like nothing happened. He then checked into rehab believing his drug use was the cause of the behaviour, however it didn't help him very much. Ever since his diagnosis, Pete has frequently visited mental health clinics for wellness checks in order to cope with his BPD.
Planning of campaign items
For my campaign, I intend to create two different videos about mental health.
The first one wold be a very simple video, where we see a man who is shown against a brick wall, we can see that he is feeling low, while text appears on the screen about issues men face in society, after some text, the words "But it doesn't have to be this way." appears, and we see another man join next to the man, and we can see the other man uplifting the one a the beginning as they start a friendly conversation, though this isn't heard. The video ends with a voice-over explaining how you can be the change in a man today before cutting to a black screen with the campaign logo.
The second one is one I call "Mirror", it is a video with a narrative-like structure to it, with it opening with a sad-looking man who then stares at a mirror, while a voice-over explains how whenever you see yourself in the mirror, you see a better version of yourself, specifically one who aims for their goals and never gives up. It ends with the man looking at a mirror slowly starting to form a smile before the video fades to black and ends like the first video.
In addition to the videos, I will also create posters related to the videos, though they wouldn't be directly ripped from the videos, rather it will be more original looking to help make the photo more interesting and to also give more of a style to it than if it were directly ripped from a still of the video.
Experiment with campaign items
The first experimental campaign item for my social campaign is this simple poster design about suffering in silence. The different colour shades shown in the poster are meant to represent the different types of severity with the issue presented, the black represents someone who feeds into the idea that they should suffer in silence, the grey represents a dichotomy between black and white, and the white represents someone who rejects the idea of suffering in silence. The different types of fonts used also illustrate this detail, as the black side is messy and unfocused, the grey is a lot more cleaner but not perfect, and the white is both polished and easy to read.
Campaign Logo
This is a rough design of what my social campaign logo will look like, just a generic image of two people joining hands with one another. This image was drawn by tracing an existing stock image of what my rough logo looks like, and only took around 30 minutes to fully create.
I was initially scared of tracing over the stock image, mostly from fears on how it would not turn out great. I initially tried to trace it over using the line tool in Illustrator, however, my friend Denis (who I got inspired by to trace over images) saw what I was doing and showed me the basics on tracing. While the rough one shown has some oddities here and there, I can confidently say the end result turned out a lot better than I expected it to, and was definitely better to challenge myself rather than to cop out and design it the easy way.
This is the second edition of the logo, as you can see, I have coloured in the rough drawing and also added both the title of my campaign alongside a tagline on the bottom. I coloured it by exporting the Illustrator file as a JPG, then loading up Photoshop where I used the Paint Bucket Tool to colour in the rough drawing.
The font used for both the title and the tagline was Futura Bold. I wanted to use a font that combined both coolness while also appearing more consumer-friendly, and I believed that Futura Bold was the perfect combination of what I wanted for my logo.
This is the third and final iteration of my logo for my social campaign. As you can see, I drastically made some modifications to the logo to make it appear more cleaner. The first noticeable change is the second arm is a rehash of the first arm, which fixes the issue in the original design where the second hand looked like it had a huge lump that stood out horribly.
Other changes include improving the colour palette, making the skin more brighter to make it natural, while I keep the same colours for the arms, with one new detail about the sleeves under being the same colour, which is a reference to my first experimental poster with the black, grey, and white.
The final detail I changed was the title, which is shown at normal length instead of slightly crushed, alongside mostly finding the issue that the tagline and the title did not have the same relationship when it came to composing, making it very disorienting to look at.
Final Items
Social Campaign Video
Social Campaign Ad
Campaign Evaluation
For my campaign, the main subject I chose was Men's Mental Health, alongside Mental Health in general. The reason I chose this subject was because it was the one that connected with me on a personal level, alongside wanting my campaign to stick out among the others, such as addiction, homelessness, and drunk driving. While these things are inherent social issues that should be fought for, I think my topic allows for more open conversations about the topic, mostly from mental health affects a lot of areas in society, whether from the inside or the outside, which is why I though mental health was a perfect topic for my campaign.
The research I did for the campaign was looking at particular mental health charities and taking notes of the art style of their posters and website, alongside what kind of issues they tackled. The research was necessary as the main intention was to help get an idea wha an average charity of this topic would present itself, while also coming up with a different spin on it to make it believable at best. Other research I did was looking up male celebrities opening up about their mental health, this one took a particularly long time as I carefully analysed lists of celebrities who did open up and narrowed it down to the ones I felt were the best ones to represent and add to my research.
The items I made for my campaign included one video and one poster. My original intention was to film two videos and make two posters, however, I was also working on my Vox Pop while working on my items and I wasn't really wanting to push myself to make two posters and one video in a span of a week, so I halved it for my own well-being.
The video I created for my Social Campaign is in the style of a mental health ad you usually see on either YouTube or on TV. The video itself is very basic in structure, basically showing a person feeling down, then another person shows up, they form a friendly bond, and then the end. Meanwhile, the video is accompanied with text in the first half discussing the issues with mental health, while the second half features a voice talking about how mental affects everyone, and how together we can break the stigma around it and make a better place for both men and women. The message is very easy to digest in the video, as it's simply about helping people who feel down rather than ignoring them.
The poster I created for my Social Campaign shows a person split up into two showing two different emotions, sad and happy, with them being represented by black and white respectively, with the grey part serving as the middle ground for both sides. The message of the poster is that not matter if someone is either happy or sad, mental health can affect anyone and everyone, and how you can help fight the stigma and provide a better world for everyone. This poster was based off on the experimental poster I created when I first started developing for my social campaign, as the black, grey and white work the exact same way as the experimental poster, but with more design to it and a more stronger message illustrated with human emotions instead of illustrated by text.
In terms of the message these items present, I believe the messages in them are very clear and straightforward on what the campaign is supposedly aiming to do, which is to help people who you believe are feeling low and don't feel supported enough, alongside not forgetting that the person who may appear happy may also need someone when he feels down. The main audience for the campaign is predominantly male-orientated, although it is more open for every gender, whether it be a man, woman, or non-binary, for my campaign, everyone will be welcomed with open arms.
There are some things that I am most proud of for the items I produced for my campaign. Two that are note-worthy for me include the shot compositing for the Social Campaign video, which the only real negative I have is that it's almost way too dark, though I believe the darkness sort of enhances the mood and tone for the video depending on how you may look at it. The other note-worthy thing is the poster, as I intended the face to be almost connected at the middle-point, but I had trouble pulling this off, so I decided to split them on both black and white, which allowed me to not only insert the logo without it feeling tacked on, but also to strengthen the message of the poster, which allowed for the 'Mental Health Affects Anyone and Everyone' message to be inserted into the middle.
Vox Pops
My Vox Pop will be focused on Men's Mental Health.
The questions will be linked to the topic by asking questions that range from why this is an issue to what can be done to combat it?
The best place to gather opinions would be to interview men, I would want to present my questions as more of a way to open up about themselves, seeing as men are usually told to hide their emotions in order to be considered a man.
The location I would like to film my Vox Pop would be outside, preferably around a wall to add more substance to what both I and the interviewee have to say.
The equipment used for the Vox Pop is very simple, utilising just a camera, a microphone and a sound recorder, though that would require another person present with me.
I expect to start filming the Vox pop around early December and to be potentially completed around mid-December.
The Vox Pop will be conducted through 5 interviewees asking 5 questions related to the topic of men's mental topic.
Questions:
1. What makes it hard for men to open up about their mental health?
2. How exactly do you define 'poor mental health'?
3. How often do you deal with things like depression?
4. Do you believe the discourse around mental health has improved over the years?
5. What could be done to improve the stigma around mental health?
Vox Pop
Vox Pop Evaluation
Last week, I created my Vox Pop surrounding Men's Mental Health. In the video, I interviewed three people, Denis Gabriel, Thomas Robinson and Eoin Daly, who are part of my friend group in college.
My original intention for the Vox Pop was to interview 5 people, with the ones in mind were Taren and Noah. Unfortunately, they weren't present when it was time to record, and I had already recruited my friends to my Vox Pop, so I had to settle with 3 interviewees. One good thing that came out of this was that it was easier to make the questions flow more naturally than if I were to interview 5 people, as the second and fourth question were ones that weren't included in the final project, which I believed felt like it was only there just to hit the 5 question limit.
The Vox Pop was filmed using my iPhone 13, alongside using a sound recorder to capture the audio via the mic you see in the video. The reason as to why I chose to use my iPhone instead of a camera was I wanted my Vox Pop to be more akin with the type of street interviews you usually see on YouTube, another reason was that I didn't want to go the generic way of booking the studio, setting up the camera, mic, and lights, and letting the interviewees talk while I listen, instead I wanted to make it stand up out by not only filming outside, but also recording it all with a phone, which is usually inferior to a camera.
When I brought this up to my friends, one of them was very against the idea of what I wanted to achieve, as this was when the weather wasn't particularly great as it was very windy outside. Nevertheless, he eventually agreed to be part of the Vox Pop and after getting everything I needed and properly co-ordinating how to pull off the set-up I wanted, it was ready to film.
My original intention was to have the background be a brick wall, which the one I had in mind was right round the corner of the Larch building, but it was changed on a whim when we went out the fire-exit way and we found a spot that was both far from where people were, but also allowed for more space between the cameraman and the subjects on screen. The location had one disadvantage though, for the shot I had in mind, the cameraman had to be wedged under the staircase, which meant the cameraman had to be filming in an almost 90 degree way, and considering it was very cold outside and that the takes were usually 30 seconds top, it did prove uncomfortable if you were one of the cameramen.
During the production, because of there being only 4 of us, my friends took turns on both being interviewed, handling the sound, and handling the camera. We could've brought other people in just to keep the jobs consistent for every take, but it didn't affect editing in any way. The only problem I really had with editing was that the interview with Denis didn't have the sound file from the mic, so I had to upscale the audio to make it audible, which is why the audio sounds different compared to the other interviews.
Speaking of editing, the intro where all the interviewees appear to form the sentence "Let's get right into it." The reason for this intro was I thought it would be an interesting way to start the Vox Pop, as I find it captivating while also well-paced and allows you to digest what the meaning of the video is about. When it came to integrating music, I used a track called 'Pop 5' by Grigoriy Nuzhny, which I found at mixkit.co. The track stood out to me compared to the other ones so I ended up using it in the final video, and I'm glad I stuck by my decision, because of how the music syncs well with the intro, almost like I caught lightning in a bottle. It also helped with me using 3 people instead of the original 5, as I believe it wouldn't have worked with what I envisioned happening before going out to film.
One final thing I can mention about the Vox Pop was Denis and I agreed to film our Vox Pops back-to-back, so I film my interviews first, then Denis takes my place and conducts his interviews, which is why the Vox Pops look similar in both location and style. While the filming went not as bad as I thought it would, one massive issue came when I transferred the footage over to the Mac, for the iPhone, I filmed it in 4K 60 FPS in order to ensure high quality footage, however, one consequence that came was that the quality when extracted came out extremely low-quality, almost like around 240 to 360p at best. I was scared for not only ruining my Vox Pop, but also Denis', however, he didn't mind this too much and I eventually had the same opinion as I was editing it.
In conclusion, I thought the Vox Pops was a nice change of pace in testing what I am capable of terms in terms of video-making. And while there are aspects that I think could've been avoided by not flying too close to the sun, there are aspects I think really show off my artistic integrity and what I am capable of when making a video.
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