evaluation for social action

1. Evaluation for Social Action
Alis Rose

2. 1.Are your finished products fit for their intended purpose?
2.Do they communicate your message clearly?
3.Are they appropriate for your target audience?
This is the first poster that I created for my social
action project and I think it is fit for it’s intended
purpose because it emphasizes the negative aspects
of being part of the LGBT community and the
problems they may face. The red against the white
background is harsh and the font fits the seriousness
of the piece. The soft light blending mode of the logo
I have used is to represent the struggle that members
of the LGBT community may have to go through. The
message is communicated clearly with the text
anchored by the image – the stern look on their faces
helps emphasize the serious tone. I think they are appropriate for my target audience as I have
pictured people of the same age as my target audience in order to help them relate. I chose to
target teenagers as they are less likely to be aware of the types of words that can be used to harm
someone and just use them in normal conversation rather than to spite someone, they are less
likely to be educated on the subject through life experience and run the risk of adopting their
parent’s views on the subject due to being impressionable at a young age. They are also the people
that are in the schools that could be a part of this behavior so targeting these people would directly
help the problem.

3. 1.Are your finished products fit for their intended purpose?
2.Do they communicate your message clearly?
3.Are they appropriate for your target audience?
This was the second poster I designed for my campaign, I chose the
same colour scheme and font to show continuity throughout my
campaign. However I chose a different purpose as the first poster
was focusing more on making my target audience think about their
personal experiences, this poster is aiming to make them think
outside their environment where the problems may be worse, which
from my peer feedback I know I achieved. I again chose to place the
logo behind the world map because I wanted to show that these
types of people can be hidden and you may not realise that they are
struggling which also fits in with the purpose. I chose red again
because it has negative connotations which is what the campaign
aims to highlight. The image of the world map with all the countries
that still have laws against gaypeople helps anchor the text and express it in a more intense way and helps communicate the message clearly
aswell as the use of font and colour scheme. I think this is appropriate for my target audience as it is easy to get
trapped in a bubble of your own world and I think this serves as a good reminder for them.
Without anchorage, this image from a Czech LGBT rights campaign wouldn’t be
understood as it would just look like a transparent man. This shows the importance
of communicating your message clearly. This works in the same way as my poster.
The differences are that in this poster they have used an actual image rather than
show the information in an infographic-type way that I have. However both are
pointing out the problems this community may face.

4. 1.Are your finished products fit for their intended purpose?
2.Do they communicate your message clearly?
3.Are they appropriate for your target audience?
After exploring the ideas of making a campaign focusing on the issues that some
people from the LGBT community have to face I then decided to create a
campaign that focused on the positives to show how far they have come in the
hopes that this will make the people with negative opinions change their minds.
To achieve this I had to change colour scheme to softer tones and decided to go
with a different fonts to achieve a more positive approach. I used the same name
for both campaigns as I felt that the name “FREELGBT” could have two possible
meanings and I have shown both through both campaigns. I used images of
empty and beautiful spaces to represent that the LGBT community are free -
which ties into the name and helps convey the message. I wanted to integrate the
logo into the image to make it seem as natural as possible to again represent that
the LGBT community belong free. I feel that this is appropriate for my target
audience which is the older generation who are more likely to be prejudice toward
gaypeople. I have made this image look quite modern to contrast their old fashioned views on the subject and hopefully bring them up to
speed. I have also chosen to use a positive fact because then my target audience will realise that despite their negative views, progress
has still been made in terms of legislation to improve the lives of people from the LGBT community.
This infographic is from the It Gets Better project. This is a
project based in America which involves older people that
are gay and are now living happy lives tell their stories to let
the younger generation which may be struggling with
coming out or homophobic bullying that life does get better
and it will get to a point where it stops being an issue. I
picked this to use as a comparison because both these
campaigns shed a positive light on these issues. They use
words such as “inspire, hope, change” to convey a positive
message, along with the colour scheme which is bright to
connote joy and happiness.

5. 1.Are your finished products fit for their intended purpose?
2.Do they communicate your message clearly?
3.Are they appropriate for your target audience?
This item’s purpose is to be worn at an event such as Pride to show support for the LGBT
community and therefore I think they do fit the purpose as they show the campaigns logo
which features a rainbow and the words “free lgbt” imply that you support the cause. The
reason I chose to put the logo on the hood and not on the front like stereotypical hoodies is
because this campaign is all about achieving freedom for this community and by putting
your hood up to make the logo visible you are hiding your face and this is to represent how
trapped some gay people can feel when subject to prejudice. The younger generation are
more likely to wear hoodies and therefore this is why I chose to use this type of
merchandise.
With this piece of
merchandise I aimed to be
fashion conscious as then it
is more likely to be worn
outside of events and
therefore raise more
awareness because it will be
seen everywhere. It has the
campaign’s logo on it which
will make it more
recognisable and therefore
communicates the message
clearly. Stripes are in
fashion and therefore the
younger generation are
more likely to buy it
because they care more
about fashion than anyone
else.
I chose this t-shirt from
Stonewall to use as
comparison as both
campaigns have similar
objectives, however the
designers of this t-shirt
have chosen to use a quote
on the front to be blatant
and obvious - this is clearly
to be worn when attending
events such as Pride or
governmental protests. The
logo is a key feature of both
my designs for clothing,
which is where they differ,
as I managed to think of a
name that was obvious and
embodied everything my
social action campaign
stood for.

6. 1.Are your finished products fit for their intended purpose?
2.Do they communicate your message clearly?
3.Are they appropriate for your target audience?
This item’s purpose was to be a functional bag which could be used everyday
that also promoted LGBT rights. The design is aesthetically pleasing and
would go with any outfit due to the rainbow colours. This will make it more
likely for more exposure for the organisation as it won’t just be used for
events. The logo says “FREE LGBT” which allows people to understand the
cause without any need for other text and communicates the message clearly
as it is clear from the name that this is an LGBT rights campaign. This is
appropriate for my target audience as it is big enough to put books and
folders in for studies that people between 16 and 30 may be doing and tote
bags are fashionable.
This is a tote bag sold for £6.95 from Lush and the reasons I used this for
comparison as although they are from different campaigns focussing on
different issues they are similar. One similarity is that the message both
convey is clear and concise - they are both in bold text. One difference
between the two is that mine uses colour rather than imagery to make the
design aesthetically pleasing, this is because i feel that the rainbow flag is
heavily associated with the LGBT rights campaigns, and bunnies are heavily
associated with animal rights campaigns due to them being the most popular
(and cute) animal to test chemicals on.

7. 1.Are your finished products fit for their intended purpose?
2.Do they communicate your message clearly?
3.Are they appropriate for your target audience?
Although this campaign is aimed to shock the older generation, it could also appeal to 16-
30 year olds too. I have achieved this through the merchandise I created for this campaign.
This t-shirt is very fashion-forward and includes the logo of my campaign put along the
sleeve - this would appeal to the younger generation as it is something a little different
than just putting it on the front like a standard tshirt. This therefore communicates the
message clearly as when you see “freelgbt” it is obviously going to have something to do
with lgbt rights. I used pastel colours to connote positivity and let people know that this is a
campaign aiming to highlight the achievements that activists have accomplished - this
campaign takes a “kill them with kindness” approach. The intended purpose of this product
is to be something that is more likely to be used everyday rather than just for rallies or lgbt
events.
I have made this campaign more accessible to 16-30 year olds through this phone case - it is
appropriate for my target audience as younger people are more likely to have a
smartphone and therefore are more likely to buy this. I made it aesthetically pleasing by
the choice of colours in order to encourage more buyers. I included the logo to make the
message as clear as possible as the logo will hopefully be recognisable by the launch of this
campaign. The intended purpose is that this will become an everyday item - once people
buy phone cases they don’t often change them until they break and most people take their
phones everywhere with them meaning that I would hopefully get very good publicity just
by someone walking past on the phone.

8. 4. Compare and contrast your original intentions with the
outcomes you arrived at.
When deciding which topic to chose to create my social action project on, I made a quick decision to chose LGBT rights because it
is a topic that is close to home and I have grown up with people that I am close to experiencing this type of discrimination and
also it is therefore the topic I am most comfortable with campaigning for. Once I knew which social issue to base my work on I
then researched existing organisations to look at which issues they were tackling within this topic. This allowed me to then focus
mine on which topics I thought were the most important. It helped me to see other campaigns as it gave me ideas on how to
execute my intentions. I then went on to create mind maps and moodboards to further develop my ideas such as colour schemes,
font choices and which angle I chose to base my campaign on. My original intentions reflected in my planning was to use a
rainbow colour scheme with red text as I chose to use a negative approach to these issues. Once I had done all of this design work
I then had the opportunity to think of new ideas and different ways of putting my point across which then led to the development
of the second campaign. I started off by taking the work I had already done and developing it with different fonts and colour
schemes - however I realised that the first version was the best for the angle I was going for. This then led me to creating a
second campaign in which I focussed more on the achievements that LGBT rights activists have already accomplished and I had
an outlet for the new ideas I had developed whilst changing the first. The outcome was then two LGBT rights campaigns - one
that fit my original intentions and the other as a development.

9. 5. How effective are the techniques you have used?
I tried to use a range of techniques when designing my work to
keep things fresh and interesting. For example, I experimented
with different blending modes when creating my first poster
for the logo. This meant that the logo was slightly muted
against the subjects which was in order to represent that the
LGBT community can sometimes be unheard, especially when
it comes to bullying at school. This technique is meant to
mirror the meaning of the fact that is coupled with this image
and I think this was achieved.
When creating my second campaign, the purpose was to show
how far the LGBT community have come and to show that
they are free and are the norm, rather than being
discriminated against. In order to communicate this in a simple
way I chose to make the logo look like it belongs in the
backgrounds by rotoscoping parts of the image and laying it on
top of the logo rather than just dropping it on top of the image.
This required both the polygonal lasso tool and sometimes the
quick selection tool too. I also warped the logo to make sure
that the lines weren’t straight and that it followed the flow of
both images.

10. 6. Is the content effective?
This is an image from UN free and equal, their
campaign was also focussed on LGBT rights. Most use
search engines on a daily basis in this modern age and
therefore are familiar with suggested results, this
image uses the juxtaposition of a modern tool
showing old fashioned opinions to shock the
audience. Another way they have achieved this is by
producing an image where the person on the front is
staring directly into the camera. I used this in my
poster because I think that is what draws the
audience in first before you see anything else. As in
both images the people have blank expressions it
adds a more serious tone to the posters. There is not
much colour in the UN poster as it is mainly blue to
coincide with the logo, whereas my image uses a lot
of colour in order to grab the audience’s attention. I
chose to put the text in red as it connotes negativity
which is the aim of this image.

11. 7. What impact do you think your advertising campaign will
have on the public?
I think the first campaign will have a negative impact on the public as each
of my images are of that nature, this will not however hold this campaign
back from raising awareness on the issue. This is because the negative
nature will be used to shock the public and make them think about the
issue a lot more. This was achieved by the facts that I chose to use on each
image.
My second campaign will have a positive impact on the public as this
campaign shows the positives of what LGBT rights activists have already
achieved in terms of legislation. This may however have a negative impact
on the members of the public that don’t agree with this issue but
hopefully it will make them see that despite their efforts, progress has still
been made.

12. 8. What are the technical and aesthetic qualities of your work?
I think this is a good example of the aesthetic qualities of my work.
The colours are vibrant and happy to reflect the tone of my campaign
and although it is a simple design, I think that this is one of my pieces
of work that could actually be seen sold if I put it up on somewhere
like RedBubble. It also is more likely to be bought because phone
cases tend to be cheaper than any other form of merchandise and it is
a good way to show your support not just at LGBT rights events, but
everywhere that you go.
I think this is a good example of the technical qualities of my work
because I first had to shoot the models with the restrictions of that
the studio wasn’t long enough to be able to fit all five students
alongside eachother. This meant that I had to stitch the two images
together myself and make the shadows behind them look natural in
doing this. You would not be able to tell from looking at this image
that I did that. In my feedback, I was told to try a different blending
technique for the logo at the bottom to make it look more like a
watermark, however when I tried this I didn’t like the way the colours
came through so I reverted it back. This is another technical quality of
my work. Finally I chose to use a drop shadow to make the text have
more depth and also mirror the shadows of the people I used in this
image.

13. 8. What are the technical and aesthetic qualities of your work?
This image I think is another example of the technical
skills used throughout this project. In my feedback it was
pointed out to me that I should change the opacity of the
logo to make it look less vibrant. However I chose not to
do this because I feel that the logo behind the world map
represents that even when there are people against the
LGBT community they will still stand strong and as
vibrant as ever, not changing for anyone. I used the quick
selection and magic wand tool to cut out this world map
and find the countries and the paint bucket tool to colour
them in red. I used an outer glow instead of a drop
shadow because I think it makes the font look more
impacting and scary. The purpose of this image is to
shock people and I think this technical quality contributes
to it.
This image is an example of both the technical and
aesthetic qualities of this campaign. I used a polygonal
lasso and magic wand tool to make the logo look like it is
part of the image. It could have however benefited from
making the front bit darker to give off more of an
impression of a shadow coming from the logo. However I
think this image is aesthetically pleasing because all the
colours give off positive connotations which when
coupled with the image used makes you feel good when
you see this image.