Task 3 social action evaluation

TASK 3: SOCIALACTION
EVALUATION
By Sophie Baker

Are your finished pieces fit for their intended purpose?
I would say that my finished pieces are fit for their intended purpose separately, as a whole I don’t
know if they work in terms of continuity. They each have the chosen logo I had made for the
campaign but the theming of the posters design work is different throughout each besides to pairs.
I’d say that for the majority that they convey the message of encouraging people to read more over
putting down their phones but for some of the posters you see the opposite effect with there being
more encouragement of putting down your phone over reading as well. The only real indication of
reading being shown in those particular posters is through the logo in one of the bottom corners of
the poster. Each poster conveys one or the other message so when put together you understand
the purpose of the campaign being about putting your phone down and reading more, reading is the
key purpose overall but more of the posters talk about reading more than phone use. The logo is
also more targeted to the reading but this is due to it’s look and title as a whole. When
experimenting with different logo ideas the vast majority clashed with the design of the poster so
going for the logo that was the least garish and could be mistaken for a poster in itself was more
beneficial to the total look of the poster(s).

Do they communicate your message clearly?
I think the message has been communicated clearly by the use
of wording and graphics. For two of the posters I used two well
known storybook characters, Peter Pan and Luna Lovegood
from the Harry Potter franchise, to connect the message of the
poster to reading and to the audience. Having the two
characters looking at a phone instead of finishing their famous
quotes applies to the message of them stopping their story
because phones have interrupted them which links to the
audience and how the campaign is about putting your phone
down and reading more. Hopefully having storybook characters
do it will be unappealing to the audience eventually
encouraging them to follow the meaning of the campaign.
Whereas with other posters there were more subtle ties to the
two topics together such as with the book shelf there is the use
where books should normally be stored with a tablet on it
instead. Using the word bookshelf to be the main instigator of
the posters message and using a tablet to take up the space
will hopefully translate to the audience as either a Kindle or
iPad taking the place of books on a bookshelf. I feel like
without the slogan the poster would work well on its own but
then the poster would look to barren so the adding of the
slogan helps push the message further. Tying in the two sides
of the campaign, putting down technology, mainly your phone
because that is the key piece of technology people are
attached to, and reading more.

Are they appropriate for your target audience?
The target audience that I was aiming for with my campaign was for two main demographics. One
was young adults to adults aged from 16 to 30 years plus. As well as children aged 6 to 12 years
old. Putting down your phone and reading more is aimed at the children side of the demographic
because there is a rise in children using technology more than any other medium so aiming at a
younger age will put a decline in that from an early age. Whereas with the adults within the
demographic were aimed mainly with the reading element of the campaign because technology
being interlinked with many jobs nowadays encouraging reading on the side is the more realistic for
work schedules. The posters show a mix in age and appeal. For some there are posters that show
storybook characters, whereas others are more intent of messages through working and facts.
However I made sure not to make one poster more obvious to an age demographic to another so
that I didn’t loose either. Such as with the, ‘1 in 10 People Don’t Own a Single Book’ was one of the
more quick and smaller facts that could be used in a clear poster that translates easily to all ages.

Compare and contrast your original intention with the outcomes you arrived at:
For a lot of the poster they ended up the way I had intended and more. Such as the storybook characters posters.
My main intention was to make one with the Harry Potter character, Luna Lovegood, which was inspired by the
Literary Foundation’s campaign about, ‘When a child doesn’t read, imagination disappears’ with an images of
Cinderella in human form ill and distressed as if she’s fading away because children aren’t reading her story
anymore. The idea behind my own was to have the characters using phones to link the two causes of my
campaign, putting down your phone and read more, but having there being a new look on these well known
characters which is thought provoking and inevitably effective. However the Peter Pan one was up for debate to
whether or not I would have time to make it and if it would work. In the end I tried using more techniques to
develop the look and experiment with how I could make it different the first poster in this, ‘Don’t Put Your Reading
On Hold’ posters. One of which was trying the put a glow on the characters face from the screen. This was to
match the nighttime setting of the poster and to create a more real and sinister twist on the image. This glow was
accompanied by a lack of features on the characters face so that there wasn’t too much detail on the poster so it
didn’t look too cluttered. Plus the lack of features added to the sinister turn on the poster as a whole. This idea
came from how your phone lights up your face at night but there was an image by Banksy where a couple hugging
but on their phones which are lighting up their faces but not fully so there are curves and indentations on their
faces to look more realistic. There were other poster that I had intended to make when making the idea generation
for the campaign, such as the, ‘What Happened To The Power Of Imagination?’ and the, ‘There Is An Issue Here’.
However, the two final posters I made about the facts on reading were improvised after creating the posters I had
intended to make. Taking facts from offline that were from reliable sources I tried to find a way to make them as
informative as possible. Making one very simple and one more detailed was the way to go. I had tried to make an
inforgraphic but the poster ended up being too busy and cluttered for information to be taken in. A lot of the facts
were to do with the brain and it’s development so making the message clearer by using a rotoscoped image of a
brain to convey the message clearer. The facts match the segments of the brain which power this elements, such
as emotions and imagination which would appeal to children but the facts are still informative enough for an adult
audience. The intention that I had for one of the final posters I made was originally from a logo I made tried when
coming up with a potential logo. This particular one was too detailed to be a logo. The name I had used for a
potential campaign name worked but the graphics and the text together was far to detailed to be simple and eye-
catching in the corner of a poster so I converted it into a full poster with the more simple logo that was later chosen
to be in the corner of this new poster.

Original logo to poster:
Inspiration given from another poster from the Literary Foundation using the character
Cinderella in new context for my, ‘Don’t Put Your Reading On Hold’ posters:

A lot of posters about reading were either very simple and mainly consist of the word, ‘Read’ with cartoon
characters. Whereas the ones that hold information are mainly infographics that are packed with different images
and pieces of text. Taking facts from offline that were from reliable sources I tried to find a way to make them as
informative as possible. Making one very simple and one more detailed was the way to go. I had tried to make an
infographic but even when sketching potential ideas for that poster the layout didn’t work and I knew it wouldn’t
have fit. So I converted the idea of an infographic to be factual posters but with a reduced amount of information
so that they would be more eye-catching and easier to read off the bat. One of the posters is about the health
benefits of reading, when researching further into the facts I found that they were all connected to the brain in
some way so this allowed there to be an easier way in which to separate the facts adding more colour to the
image making them more appealing and noticeable still. The second poster was one more of a simple fact so the
less there was on the page the better. I had originally planned for the representation in numbers to be done with
people but it had been done before and it took up too much room. When making the representation into books it
allowed there to be more of a link between the facts to graphics but the main differences in the intentions to the
result was the placement of the graphics to be clear. Once done, with the colour scheme in tact, the text didn’t
need to be busy because the fact from the Daily Mail said, ‘10% of people do not own a single book’. With a slight
change in wording the fact was simplified further not needing any other context other than, ‘Let’s Change That’
with the ‘Start Reading Today’ logo.
Final Posters:

Already made infographics which show
a lot of information and graphics:
Change in intention and
placements to make it work on the
poster in the most effective way
possible.

With the logos I originally tried to make it as simple and obvious as I could to start with to see what that particular
logo would look like. The majority of the reading posters and campaigns that I had found online had the word,
‘Read’ in the title with books involved in the graphics so putting two books, four pages, together with one letter to
make the logo of, ‘Read’ made sense for a poster but as a campaign were I could create my own campaign name
wasn’t developed enough. I had tried when making this logo to make it that it matched the campaigns meaning
and name as well as I can, such as the Apple logo, but that proved to be less affective so I further developed the
logos. I went on to try and make a visual with the graphics so making an arrow indicating to start reading, with
‘Start Reading’ as the title, which worked well because of the colour scheme being bright and showed a clear
message.
When working further on the logos I came up with a new name, ‘Put Down, Pick Up’, to indicate putting down your
phone and picking up a book to read using the graphics of a hand putting down a phone and another underneath
picking up a book with the text in-between. This was one of the better logos but it was too detailed to be used
small in the corner of the posters. It didn’t work because of the detail becoming too small and not noticeable
enough. Taking the name again I tried to make a less detailed logo, that similar to the first logo matched the
theming of the text relating to the graphics, by making a half and half of a smartphone and half a book with the text
matching each object. ‘Put Down’ on the phone and ‘Pick Up’ on the book side.
I continued to make developments taking a new name of ‘Start Reading Today’ on a phone which was inspired by
a poster idea for, ‘What Happened To The Power Of imagination?’ This title continued to connecting the time
element of ‘now’ to a clock which eventually worked into a pocket watch but I didn’t think the graphics turned out
poor so when changing the layers it turned into a new logo which was sharper and simpler for it to work along side
the posters. It was a simple name and design in the end but the posters were much more detailed that anticipated
so having a simple logo cleared up the combination of the two together.

Working with the idea of trying to
make a logo match what the
campaign and the title of the
campaign resulted in a simple title
and graphic of, ‘Read’ on books to
represent the meaning behind the
campaign. This was mainly due to
other companies logos being one
symbol of the title of the company
and reading campaign posters
saying ‘Read’ for the majority.
However, it was too simple but
matched my intentions and
worked well as a starting point to
my development for my logo.
Further development depended on the previous logo I made in some way. I had come up with a few different ideas for
campaign names but I only went with a few during the production on the logos.

How effective are the techniques you have used?
Rotoscoping was the main technique that I had used on all of the
posters. Using original photos from the Internet and modifying to be my
own versions so that they were copies but still recognizable. The
modifications were meant to change the characters to fit the theming
and meaning behind the posters and campaign. The posters with the
storybook characters modifications were to the positioning them so that
they were using phones which meant taking one of their arms and
copying it in to another layer to rotate it into a position that would be
fitting to rotoscope a phone placed in their hand. Other modifications
came with the development of the second storybook character poster. I
added more detail through the settings of the Peter Pan poster by
adding a roof scene with stars around it using the Brush Tool 42 to make
the stars in different sizes to make the poster more detailed overall.
Another detail added to this particular poster was to take away the facial
features of the character and adding light to indicate the glare off of a
screen so that there was more of a stand out with the phone in hand.
This also meant adding a shine off of the phone to carry the image using
the Brush Tool 100 on a medium Size and Harshness to have it fade out
like light.

Original images to my rotoscoped versions:

One of the techniques that was effective was the placement of text using the ‘Text’ and ‘Character’ tools. When re-
evaluating the final posters for potential corrections the texts placement was one of the main points with a few of
them. It could have been as simple as making them more central so that there is more symmetry and continuity for
the poster collectively. However, with the shelving poster putting the words on the shelves shows more of a
connection between the image and the text which in the end makes more sense. When the text was outside of the
shelves and on its own the shelves did look more sparse and barren which was the aim of the poster but you
couldn’t really see the words as clearly as when they were on the shelves and could be white. Outside of them
they couldn’t be because of the background and the colour scheme worked with the black, white and brown
shelves. Putting the text in yellow like I had done for previous posters didn’t work for the colour scheme of this
particular poster. I do think that the the word ‘happen’ does block the tablet and looses the effect of a barren
bookshelf so making the slight change put the tablet more in the foreground of the poster but you do loose that
loud element of the text. Without the change from the original black text being on the side you would loose the
engaging quality of the white text.

Another of the techniques that I had used that effected the posters was the colour scheme so that the
posters collectively work together as well as they can but also so that they are bright and engaging to the
audience. One of which was the, ‘1 in 10 People Don’t Own a Single Book’ required me to change the
colour scheme of the poster a lot because of the background and wanting to have one of the books a
different colour to represent the 1 in 10 people. This worked with experimenting with different colours for
the background and the book. In the end I worked to fit the logo on the poster, which I had done with the,
‘There Is An Issue Here’ poster until the colours on the poster collectively worked.
This particular poster was meant to
have a more chilling atmosphere to
it to evoke the seriousness of the
message behind it. At first I tried
matching the text to be yellow like I
had done in previous posters and
for one of the logos but the circular
logo works better along with the
white text to add to the chilling,
darker mood of the posters
message.

Is the content effective?
I think the content will show effects in good and bad terms because the topic of technology against
reading usual ends up with a debate on which is better. For this campaign in particular the aim isn’t
to have people argue on what is better but rather the encouragement of reading which shows
health benefits. The effect this is given however will inevitably get people thinking and in a debate.
With the, ‘What Happened To The Power Of Imagination?’ poster shows irony given that I used my
own to make the poster using technology but the overall message is that imagination is strongly
shown in books. But there is the argument that a lot of art and creative mediums are created
through technology which will cause a debate with people. However, other posters, such as the
more factual ones can’t really be argued with because there are studies behind the facts on the
benefits of reading. However, due to my lack of benefits behind technology, such as the
opportunities that come from knowing how to use many forms of technology and the skills
developed behind them. The ‘There Is An Issue Here’ poster impacts not only the children who are
represented in the poster but the adults who will view the posters, mainly the parents. Due to the
parents being the ones who allow their children to use and play with smartphones and tablets the
poster may effect them out of seeing it in a different light. However, the could be an opposite effect
where the parents could become defensive towards the poster. Something I found with my
questionnaires when doing the primary research for the project. In comparison to other campaign
posters on reading and phone use they tend to be very simplistic, which is the style that I have
gone to for a lot of my posters styles but they were mainly with cartoon animals, not necessarily
characters from storybooks as well, as well as not being very informative, just saying that people
should read and that tends to be the amount of wording on the poster. If there is information on the
posters for reading they end up being an infographic which ends up being too busy so I think that
my poster with information on them, such as the ‘1 in 10 People’ and ‘The Benefits Of Reading’
posters, showing less information is more effective because there is more focus on the one fact
which is more eye-catching.

What impact do you think your advertising campaign will have on the public?
I think there would be an positive impact from my advertising campaign because there are a vast
community of people who love to read and will spread the word about the campaign. Reading is also a
large topic of conversation with many people which grabs attention when brought to the foreground,
particularly with schools. I think that there would be a big impact with this campaign within schools
because of how it has targeted not one age group in particular. Given that one of the posters show a
little girl on a swing holding a phone with the caption, ‘There Is An Issue Here’ effects children and
adults that view it. The children are represented and the adults may see this and want to prevent this
from happening. Schools and colleges would also benefit with the factual posters that are quick to
provide information to students who are a key demographic in the lacking of reading. Unlike a lot of
infographics having one to a few facts in a bold font will be easier to read and more eye-catching to
pull people in to read the information on the posters. And rather than having heavily negative facts and
figures for the factual poster there is one on the multiple benefits of reading and the other on one
negative fact about how 1 in 10 people don’t own a single book (in the UK). Rather than trying to scare
people into the campaign, given that the overall effect is supposed to be a good one, I’d rather people
follow it through with good intentions in mind more than darker facts to make people follow the
campaign. Having With the, ‘What Happened To The Power Of Imagination?’ poster I think there would
be more of a negative impact from that through the backlash of many creators who use technology as
their medium. However, I think a positive impact would be through the lack of dark messages through
the posters. There are ones based on my, and others, negative opinions on using technology,
particularly phones, too much and the decline in reading because of it. Although, because they aren’t
used out of fear and harsh messaging but rather visual impacts to change people perspectives in the
way they think of these facts and day-to-day things, such as a child on a phone at a park rather than
playing or an tablet taking over a bookshelf, is working against technology but isn’t a radical use of
visuals to the messages. I think people would appreciate that more than how it could have been
handled through showing hate to technology and it’s usage over reading which would give a negative
image to a subculture of people and an interest, reading, for people.

What are the technical and aesthetic qualities of your work?
The technical qualities of my work are mainly
shown through rotoscoping which has helped
me interpret the elements featured in the
posters. This can be seen in my, ‘Don’t Put Your
Reading On Hold’ poster with the storybook
characters arms so that the positioning of them
so that they can be holding phones to give a
different perspective of the characters to match
the theme of stories being put on hold when
technology interrupts it. Other technical qualities
are shown through the different tools I had used
on these two posters. Such as the glare and
shine on the character Luna Lovegood’s
glasses. Using the Magic Wand Tool to select
the circle lens on the glasses and double
clicking on the new layer and going to Gradient
Overall change the colour and angle of the glare
on the glasses to give a more realistic look to
them so that they didn’t look as flat. In the Peter
Pan poster there was more detail in the
rotoscoping on the character and the
surroundings, being careful not to overly
rotoscope the features on the setting and the
character so it wasn’t too busy and wasn’t an
interpretation anymore.

For a few of the posters I added Drop Shadows
to add more depth the image. Such as with the,
‘1 in 10 People’ poster with the books. And the
‘Don’t Let This Happen To a Bookshelf’ poster
which originally looked flat against the wall but
adding a Drop Shadow added more texture and
depth the image as a whole. This also happened
with the colouring of the shelves to show the
shelves not being flat.

The use of the text on the posters doesn’t show continuity with all of them. For the majority the text
is the same block text that is clear and in all capitals to make it easier to read up close and from a
distance to provide a sharper message for the more serious matters involved in the campaign.
Such as wit factual posters and making slogans such as, ‘There Is An Issue Here’ more upfront and
prominent. The only time there were a different use of text was for the storybook character posters.
The text was to add the more fantasy feel to the fictional quotes, so the use of calligraphy font was
better suited. This does make it harder to read, especially if you don’t recognize the characters
rotoscoped on the poster or/ and the quote used, but it adds better to the aesthetic of those
particular posters. The element that tied all of the posters together was the logo and there was at
least one piece of text that showed that block text to show that these posters were apart of the
same campaign.

However, with the merchandise there isn’t that evidence which makes them all look like they’re apart of different
campaigns and not the same one. I couldn’t use a lot of the poster designer on a lot of different types of
merchandise, such as t-shirts, because of the detail of the posters there wasn’t a way to simplify them down all the
way to fit on a lot of products. Instead I used some of the previous elements of the project, for instance a previous
logo of the smartphone screen saying, ‘Start Reading Today’ and only one of the posters to simplify onto different
merchandise but taking away the coloured background to work on more products.

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