Networking vs cronyism new improved

Fina l M a jor Pro jec t N e t wo rk ing v C ron y ism

Name:

Branka Kovacevic

Student ID:

21230016

Module Code:

AD60148E

Module Leaders:

Brian Whitehead / Ben Dunning

Ne t work ing v Cron y ism My final major project originally derived from a YCN Rethinking Economics brief, where they asked creatives to encourage the audience to ‘take ownership of economics.

While looking at this brief it linked to my desire to do a project based on a political issue and no better than taking an economical route.

The reason I had chosen to take this economic route is that after looking at the YCN brief i listed economic factors that impacted people in society and more so graduating students.

While looking at these factors I realised they were very much personal factors that impacted everyones lives publicly and privately. The list of factors were, Income, Job Opportunities, student loans, housing, travel, income and many more.

These factors were big in terms of how they ‘personally impacted’ individuals and therefore I went into more depth researching to find out if any factor has all these topics in common.

After extensive research I realised that the YCN brief was not the direction for me however I decided that I would use it to rewrite my own brief keeping the most important part of the brief within my own.

Encouraging people ‘to take ownership’ of instead just general economics I wanted to represent individuals taking ownership of their ‘own personal

economics’. Therefore my research in all these topics lead me to the term Cronyism.

This term was a factor that tied in all my economic topics in one. The word itself is used to explain exploitation and favouritism mainly in governments.

However though my research I found out that cronyism happens in all aspects of society and all my economic factors from income to travel fell in this trap of exploitation/favouritism.

Therefore I rewrote my brief to look at the positives and negatives between networking and cronyism and how individuals can take ownership of their own economy by realising the difference between both and where they interlink.

In the brief I am including networking as a counter attack to cronyism as though anything we do to get jobs, go to school ect... we network.

The project is to show individuals and make them aware that both networking and cronyism have their positives and negatives but to realise where exactly they occur and how. This is to place some hope for individuals in themselves to take control of their personal economic factors and not allowing themselves to potentially be exploited.

c ron y isM r es e a rc H:

Thought researching it has been hard not to focus specifically on just the negatives of cronyism.

The campaign hopes to find a levelled distinction between both good and bad to show both sides to the coin like night and day.

The research on this page highlighting looking at both how some people do benefit from cronyism and how others don’t. But it also shows the inevitable line that cronyism is a way of a society functioning in order to ‘keep its balance’ between the classes in society.

This balance is known as wither a blessing of successful networking equality or an unequal favouring state of cronyism.

Sketchbook notes understanding what cronyism is and what makes it a negative meaning.

Researching into what a campaign is and looking at other ways of approaching my topic specifically using simple shapes, signs and icons rather than extensive complex imagery.

v isUa l r es e a rc H:

Though researching I have looked at different approaches and techniques to incorporate in making my campaign work.

I looked at political cartoonists such as Zapiro and other campaign movements like the WWF and The Economist campaign.

From the past and present and after much though I decided not to use a cartoonist approach as it was something I personally didn’t think that I could achieve to make my topic clear as my illustration ability is not at its highest level.

Looking into visual successful campaigns and political styled cartoonists to help me see how campaigns and important information is translated visually.

The first campaign/advertising though my research that made an impact on a direction I wanted to go to was the ECONOMIST identity.

Its simplicity and engaging ways of getting peoples attentions is exactly what the campaign should aught to do. The use of playing with text and simplistic icons and symbols along with the bold red v white is what makes this campaign stand out and send its message across clearly.

Therefore I hope take this approach into my campaign and hope to make it simplistic but informative using limitations of colour and imagery.

The second campaign that impacted the direction I was taking for my campaign was the World Wide Fund For Nature. The foundation has been around since 1961 and though creating many different campaigns over the years they have finally gained the perfect chance to go simple.

They have long tried to establish themselves as a leading nature foundation to raise money though lots of complicated visuals and advertising using photograph with graphics.

However in the last five years the WWF has made itself completely minimal without loosing a inch of their identity. If anything now their identity is stringer as just a single image makes them recognisable in second within looking at it.

Therefore the WWF campaign similarly to the Economist uses simplicity and works on perfecting a story within their visuals rather than just making them pretty to look at they have meaning and this is something I hope to take on for my campaign.

Most important sketchbook page marking a finish to researching and a understanding of my topic and a start of marking my campaign.

Sketchbook pages of research into the personal economic factors that impact everyone ... » Income, » Housing, » Job Opportunity, » Entertainment, » Travel » Student Loans.

Along with research on the topics themselves I have given each topic two synonyms one deriving from the word Networking and one from the word Cronyism in order to show how they interlink and change path from good to bad.

Sketchbook research into my six economic factors that impacted individual and students economic ownership.

Sketchbook pages, finding synonyms to explain the words Cronyism, Networking and Crony. As well as paring six chosen words from Cronyism and Networking with the list of economical factors

logo r es e a rc H a nd d esigns:

The logo for the campaign came about by experimenting with the words cronyism and Networking. After coming up with predominantly typographic logos I came across one that drew me in for its ambiguity and its complexity in meaning.

This was a moon logo which at first was used in a typographic approach representing the C in Cronyism. This instantly sparked an idea of doing a sun that goes alongside it to represent two halves. Dark v Light/Day v Night ect...

Establishing a set logo and colour scheme for the logo and the campaign. Also testing out whether the logo works in miniature scale as it does for larger scales.

Choosing most successful logo and improving it, also testing out typefaces to go alongside it.

The logo for the campaign came about thinking about the blurred lines between both good and bad as both networking and cronyism have positive and negative traits to them. The idea of the logo is not to have the two halves meet in a complete circle to show there is way for either side to exploit/improve the other and to also represent unity.

Out of all my logo ideas this specific logo at top of the left handed image was the most successful as it had potential and it was perfectly simple to what I wanted my logo to show/mean/represent.

The problem however what that it didn’t work at a small scale therefore I had to think of a different design approach to keep its identity but make the thin complex lines more appropriate to small scale printing and placing with keeping its image.

The moon and sun had to both be tweaked a little.

The sun’s rays had to be simplified the most as the thin 1pt line was too thin to even be seen at an 15 cm scale. The moon was given a mouth to make the distinction between seriousness and a little humour as it looks like a little character.

Playing with where the black and white goes was useful with few interesting compositions but in the end I found it personally to work best with the moon staying black and the sun white as their meanings and the reason I included them in the logo fitted together. Both the moon and sun eye has to also be changed and made thicker as the small thin lines were impossible to see.

Many experimentations with my logo however the massive image to the left is my final logo design.

A map evaluation of why I chose the specific elements, colours, shapes and type to represent my campaign as the final design.

w eb si t e d esigns:

My campaign is an awareness campaign therefore alongside posters and maybe badges I thought that it would be appropriate to create a website for the campaign itself. This website will be as a go-to for information point for the campaign. I hope to create visually simplistic ideas that make individuals feel intrigues to find out more.

Therefore this is what the website is for, to go into a little more detail of just what cronyism is and how it interlinks with networking. It also gives individuals who are interested to find out exactly which factors have different effects on them personally so that

they know the areas they need to take more ownership in. It also will allow the individual to hopefully after seeing both posters and the website to understand the importance of taking ownership.

However I hope that it also allows the individual to want to take control of their economical factors and for them to see its not just a bad thing but that both sections can be good if they approach these ways of networking correctly without giving way to favouritism.

The website is not to dictate but to inform.

http://networkingvcronyism.me

For the website I wasn’t sure whether to choose the colours grey and yellow or to simply go black and white. The way I have made my logos identity is that it would work... » White on Black. » Black on white. » Yellow and Grey on black. http://networkingvcronyism.me/take_ownership/

» Yellow and Grey on White. » Black and White on top of an image. » Grey and yellow cannot be placed on top of an image as the colours are not strong enough to see.

I used white on black with a mix of red and the logo being grey and yellow to represent the different sections of it within the economy that make sense when the content ion the website is seen.

P os t er d esigns: The first attempt to visualise the campaign and its ideas has not worked to plan as seen here and in the next four pages. The idea was to use loose abstract idea photography of which all the images are my own to express what each factor is trying to translate.

The photography is not the best way to go about it after making this I have realised as I am unsure if anyone will get the ideas translated to them or even be captivated enough to go look up the words.

The biggest weaknesses of all the posters are predominantly the typography used and even though typography is not my strongest point I think that for these posters to work they need to have stronger maybe more decorative typefaces.

I have purposefully not added definitions for the fact that I don’t want it to be too obvious, yet these failed attempts suggest that maybe the way that the idea was translated has been to vague and there needs to be more of a terms in reference approach taking place.

The circles in the centre of each is to represent a unity as my logo is also circular for that exact reason, to show both sides can be united and it’s only the choices made that breaks that unity between both sides. However I think the circles can be removed and maybe the tagline put underneath along with the logo on the bottom right. The tagline also needs to be changed slightly on how its read.

w eb si t e d esigns:

For the posters I used my own images that I personally thought that were appropriate for the words that I had chosen to represent.

However I have asked a few individuals and the posters are confusing to them especially with the way its laid out and the typography isn’t strong enough on its own. The colours are not bad but the background may need to be slightly lighter.

Some images for example the cracked walls are strong however the type ruins it therefore I might try new techniques burning into the type into the wall and making it a part of the image instead of another thing just sitting on top of it.

W eb si t e d esigns:

Realising the photography posters were not working as well as I had hoped I created a set of icons to represent the words that I was suing in the posters.

The icons are as simple as I could get them but I do believe the icons for plexus, webbing and complex could be simplified further.

These will also be includes in the website as a navigation tool for the separate sections that I am looking into concerning Cronyism and Networking.

I believe these icons could be of good use and could be a dominant part of my poster revival if they work as I can imagine them if not they will work well for the website instead.

My next step is now to revisit my posters, experiment with typography and try to experiment using these symbols as a substitute to the photography I have used in the previous attempts.

I created three QR codes using a QR generator and tracker, all linking to the site under the domain called; http://networkingvcronyism.me This then allows the individual to enter the section of the campaign they need more informations about.

The reason I made the QR odes were so that individuals if they wished, knew that there was another platform/place to help them understand the concepts/ideas behind the campaign.

But to also lifting the definitions of the words I have used as I am not including these definitions on the posters themselves to make people want to know more about what they mean and how they link.

As each poster will be on a different economic factor I was thinking of creating a separate QR code for each poster so that the individual didn’t have to go thought the whole website just to find one piece of information specific to what they want to know.

Instead they could scan the code and it will only take them to that specific topic wasting virtually no time in going though piles of information.