Manufactured Landscapes

When Ms.Baichwal directed this documentary, i don't think she had any idea what amazing insight she would gain. The concept was all about observing Mr.Brutensky's work as a photographer. Shooting him at work in China and in Afghanistan and trying to make the audience feel the intensity of the shoot and the depth of the experiences they went through.

The documentary was shot in 2005 , it shows the working people of china were suffering from inhumane working hours without decent pay and the amazing and unfortunate footprint they are leaving the environment with. The film captured a very important issue and portraits a message that i think people around the world should be well aware of. The earth is being destroyed by man. Big corporations are well aware of the damages their factories are producing but that doesn't stop them.

That is exactly what the photographer was trying to convey through his photographs. In my opinion, The documentary is much, much stronger than the photographs. Mr.Brutensky is without a doubt an amazing photographer but i think the subject matter is what made his photographs that strong . However, the documentary gave the people of china and Afghanistan more attention and was way more affective in getting me thinking about how important of an issue it is. It had the power of portraying the intensity of the situation and that made it much more intense than the stillness of the photography.

link:

http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/06/20/movies/20land.html

Responsibly Answers Absurdity By Michael schemidt

As Graphic designers , are we responsible for globalization or not? Globalization is the strategy of making an international influence therefore getting global control. That is a pretty huge thing to be responsible of if i am just a graphic designer working for a company to make a living. However , as designers , if we are exposing our work to the world , we do play a small part in globalization.

The reason why companies want to globalize is because they realize that the consumers have control. They get to decide what's worthy of their money and what's not. Therefore, in order to be worthy of their money they need to meet their needs; find out exactly what their looking for and provide it. especially when it comes to national holidays. Brands realize how important holidays can be, especially religious ones. That is why they wait for opportunity they get to take advantage of that influence. For example, when it comes to ramadan ; the religious muslim holiday , Brands attack it with adds and campaigns, aiming to link their brands with this holiday. The holiday should be all about our islamic and arabic culture and celebrating our muslim heritage so when a brand like Mcdonalds ; an american brand, makes an add of a certain product linked to ramadan that is simply absurd in the author's opinion. However , brands don't look at it from that point of view, they look at it as reaching to that certain society so that they would be appreciated.

In my point of view, those brands can't be blamed or frowned upon because it is their job to reach to the costumers in any way they can and i don't see a problem with Mcdonlads or burger king or any other foreign brands making adds for ramadan , i see it as a respect for our holiday even if that not what they aimed for.

link:

http://kissmyblackads.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

The Cultural influence of brands By Chris Riley

As designers , when it comes to designing for brands, we understand that the consumers of this generation have fulfilled their basic needs and are now looking for luxury products. What i mean is, years and years ago, people didn't have much choice when it comes to choosing a product, whatever that product may be. industrialization was limited and monopoly was widely spread. People needed necessities so they go out , find that one and only shop that sells that product and buy it, they didn't have choices at all. However, especially in the last century , the industrial world has expanded beyond imagination and that made the consumers stop and think carefully about what they wanted. They have the choice now , they have the power to be picky and expect more from brands. They demanded to get what is promised in the adds or they will switch to another brand. That power made brands put all their efforts into costumer satisfaction. Not only that, but they had to convince the consumers that they absolutely must go with their brand. How? By influencing their ideas into the culture, making the culture feel their brand is the coolest choice they can make. For example fashion industries use famous and lovable celebrities as their models in order to make their fans believe that it is what they think is cool therefore it is. As designers we do influence culture by working for these brands but in my opinion, its not such a bad thing, when used right of course. By that i mean , it would not be ethical for a designer to influence a culture to go for certain brand , when he knows it's harmful. However, when a designer is involved in marketing a product aimed towards the betterment of the community, it something to be proud of.

link:

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2009/06/behold_emma_watsons_burberry_c.html

Who gets to say what to whom? By Maud Lavin

Design is a powerful means of communication. People of authority realize that , but are they using it to the people's advantage? are they communicating the right message? Do designers nowadays put themselves in other stalk holders' positions and view their design from different points?

First rule you learn in design school is before you start any design, you need to research. Research is the first and most important step of designing. It gives you an idea of the market your designing for in order to realize how they are going to view your work.

Designers nowadays have lost their ethics when it comes to culture sensitivity, and they go ahead and broadcast their message to the world without consideration. The Unilever " Fair and lovely" campaign for example raised a lot of rage because people took a negative message from it that the product is trying to say that fair skinned people are more beautiful than dark skinned people, which harmed the product's sales.

As designers we shouldn't take the fact that our work can be viewed broadly so lightly, we should be careful of the message that we want to send out , and the message that could be interpreted because we do have the power to speak out so we need to use it right.

link :

http://www.fairandlovely.in/

Timing is everything, by Peter Hall

Timing is everything in Graphic design, and by that i don't mean time management. A designer can be greatly appreciated for a certain piece at one time but hated by the same piece at another time. That is because people are naturally affected by the events that they are living through and especially when you are working on a political design, you should consider the events or the situation that the people are in at that certain period in order to be effective. Not only that but you need to be sensitive to people's feelings at that stage so that you don't offend anyone or be misread.

An example of that situation was given in the article, the " Wish you were here" issue by sphere magazine in 2001. That year, the most unpopular president of america yet has been elected and it was a big issue that he was so shockingly unfit to be a president. The editors of the magazine decided to make the issue about it , by making artists and designers around the world design postcards of issues that they think the president should be aware of. At the time they thought it would be a huge hit and wouldn't be a problem since their country is all about freedom of speech and opinion. Unfortunately for them, the timing couldn't be worse for them to publish that issue. They published it just days before 9/11 and that changed things completely. Instead of people reacting positively to the issue and giving feedback about the issues that were addressed in the magazine, they attacked the editors for publishing such negative criticism of the american government at a sensitive time and they accused them of being terrorists themselves! The editors replied by explaining that they started the project months before 9/11 occurred.

The point here is that, if the timing of the publishing was different, that issue would have gotten a completely different reaction from people. That is why political designers have to be very careful and extra sensitive to the era they are living in.

The writer concluded by quoting socrates when he said : " The unpopularity of an idea does not prove it's false. It does however prove that it's unpopular" and i completely agree.

Ethical Design Education

" Good design is responsible design"

The presentation discussed how we should decide what to design, or if we should design it. How will it effect the community? the world? Are we responsible for that?

I think that we defiantly are, each individual gives something to the society and as designers we play a big role in that. I am a big believer of design changing the community and therefore the world, and if we go about it the wrong way and the results are bad, we are defiantly responsible for that. Unfortunately, being ethical or environmentally responsible isn't always easy, for example , if you want to buy recycled paper in saudi , you cant find any and you have buy from abroad which makes it very expensive.

However, I still think we can change some of our approaches when designing to make our society a better place. Fortunately saudis are starting to realize their mistakes. For example a campaign by the name " friends of jeddah" started last year, where a group of divers cleaned the red sea. ( I included a picture of the red sea to show how its worth saving).

At the end of the presentation, they asked " how would you encourage people in saudi to be more responsible towards their community?". In my opinion, we should start from the very beginning. We cant ask a 30 year old thats been littering all his life to suddenly stop, but we can teach our next generations what's right and wrong and imprint that way of life in them so that they grow up being ethical and environmentally responsible without thinking twice, and by doing that we will at least change our world.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=119768&d=2&m=3&y=2009

Socially Responsible Advertising, Altruism or Exploitation?

The presentation discussed Cause-related marketing and how it could either be:

Altruism: As in actually supporting the cause , or Exploitation : As in taking advantage of the cause to help promote their company without actually helping.

The presentation raised a lot of questions not just generally but personally, as in what would each one of us do or how would each one of us think when it comes to cause related marketing...

In my opinion if the company really wanted to help the cause, they would simply donate enough money from their profits without making special offers on their products. However, these company want to publicize their good deeds in order to win over consumers and they have a right to that but are they going about it the right way?

As a consumer , I would like to research if the company actually does help first before i buy anything from them, but when i go in a supermarket, i don't have the time to do that.

When it comes to Saudi Arabia, the marketing scene is just booming fast. Our society is a very people friendly society and that comes from the teachings of our beautiful religion ; Islam, and so companies realize that. They realize we are week when it comes to the chance of helping other people in need. Thats why the use of cause related marketing in saudi has spread and is working very well for companies.

They gave really good examples in their presentation of both local and international companies with cause related adds such as , " Body shop, Pampers, Benneton and Al-Baik".

Personally, as a consumer,when i go into a supermarket and want to buy shampoo for example, if i see two kinds of shampoos that i would use but one has an offer that says if i buy it 5 S.R. of it will go to a starving family somewhere than i would automatically go for that one. It wouldn't cross my mind that they might be lying about it just for publicity. However, as a designer, if i had an offer of designing for a cause related company that payed me less than i would research that company first and find out if they are honest enough and if they are i would go for it.So the question is , are companies actually helping the cause? and if so how much?

http://www.unicefusa.org/hidden/pampers-usfund.html

My willingness to lie

This is my list of 12 steps that increase to some major indiscretion:

1. Designing a package to look bigger on the shelf

2. Designing an ad for a slow, boring film to make it seem a light-hearted comedy.

3. Designing a crest for a new vineyard to suggest that it has been in business for a long time.

4. Designing a package for children whose contents you know are low in nutrition value and high in sugar content.

5. Designing a jacket for a book whose sexual content you find personally repellent.

6. Designing an advertising campaign for a company with a history of known discrimination in minority hiring.

7. Designing a promotion for a diet product that i know doesn't work.

8.Designing a medal using steel from the World Trade Centre to be sold as a profit-making souvenir of september 11.

9. Designing a brochure for an SUV that turned over frequently in emergency conditions and was known to have killed 150 people.

10. Designing a line of T-shirts for a manufacturer that employs child labor.

11. Designing an ad for a political candidate whose policies i believe would be harmful to the general public.

12. Designing ad for a product whose frequent use could result in the user's death.

* The reason i think "Designing an ad for a political candidate whose policies i believe would be harmful to the general public" should be # 11 on my list is for multiple reasons. To begin with, in harming the public I would obviously harm myself, not to mention my friends and family. I would be responsible for harming possibly an entire generation and maybe even future generations, I could never live with that kind of guilt or face the consequences. In addition, if I don't believe in that candidate, by designing that ad I would be a complete hypocrite and that's not something I want to be known for. As a designer I have a goal of changing the world for a better place through my designs and that ad would steer me in the opposite direction of that road. Also as a designer, I don't want to be known for designing misleading ads, I would loose clients that way because people will loose trust in me and wont believe in anything I'm trying to sell with my designs.Paul Arden said in his book ( It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be) that if you are involved in something that goes wrong, never blame others. Blame no one but yourself.