Social Action Evaluation

Swara Sawirs

1. Are you finished pieces fit for their intended purpose?

I believe that the finish pieces are fit for their intended purpose. I had a rough idea with what to do my posters and I believe that my final poster did definitely reach my standards. What I wanted in the poster was an action shot of domestic violence taking place or a beaten up women, and I did a poster with both ideas which had very few words around to have a bigger effect on the audience. Below you can see two of my posters with my intended ideas from the beginning, they pass the message very clearly, you can tell what my campaign is all about from looking at the posters.

1. Are you finished pieces fit for their intended purpose?

Other pieces of work such as my final logo, merchandise and my own merchandise went very well and definitely are fit for their intended purposes. I have no intended idea for different types of merchandise, however, it’s worked quite well. The badge is my own designed merchandise and you can clearly tell the purpose of my campaign. My logo clearly shows a women stood with a strong body language, and a woman leaning over to her side so straight away, we can see that the campaign is fighting for woman who are abused by men.

1. Are you finished pieces fit for their intended purpose? (Feedback)

In my questioner, I asked how each individual felt after viewing my products. I got 14 responds and 7 of them were that they felt ‘the same as before’ towards the subject, the other 7 felt ‘more sympathetic’ towards the subject.

From the results, it’s clear that my products have been fit for their intended purpose. I didn’t expect my products to take the world by storm, however, I wanted them to make more people aware and change how they feel towards the subject a bit more. Which clearly has worked.

1. Are you finished pieces fit for their intended purpose? (Comparison)

The one on the left hand side is the finished poster for End The Year campaign. My finished poster is on the right hand side. I think both of our finished pieces are fit for the purpose. We are both trying to raise awareness of the subject.

Our posters are similar in a few ways. One of them being the colours used, the red and black theme seem to always work for domestic violence campaign, it shows pain, sadness and anger. Both of our logos are red and white and they are both positioned in the same place. We have nearly the same layout.

My poster is very personal compared to their poster. I used people silhouette to show the movement of domestic violence happening to try to grasp people’s attention. Their poster is personal in a different way, they chose a hurt to be their main image then destroyed the edges of the heart, showing that pain starts small then get worse. Their headline next to the heart, finishes the image. So without that headline there, the poster will lose its meaning. Whereas, my poster with or without its headline, it will still make sense.

2. Do they communicate your message clearly?

In previous two slides, I said why they are fit for the intended purpose but I also mentioned what message they deliver. All my products deliver the same purpose and the same message, which is how domestic abuse is wrong and shouldn’t be allowed.

I believe that having your campaign deliver the right message with the right wording is such an important yet a difficult task to achieve. Having a campaign that fights against such as a sensitive subject means I had to be extra careful with what's being said and wrote on the posters, adverts and merchandise. I am trying to raise awareness of the subject as well as build a relationship with the subject, so therefor while I was creating each piece of work I got other people to review to see that it wasn’t too sensitive or off putting.

I believe my content communicates my message clearly. My posters have a simple layout, they let the images speak for themselves rather than having lots of wording around it. My merchandise is a silhouette of a man hitting a woman, I believe they communicate my message clearly because from looking at them, you will know exactly what's going on and what my campaign is about.

2. Do they communicate your message clearly? (Feedback)

I asked the audience if my products were appropriate for the subject, I got 14 replies and all of them thought that my products were appropriate for the subject, so therefor I know that they communicate my message clearly and appropriately.

I got a comment saying ‘they put the point across’, which is exactly what I want my products to do. I want my products to put the point across and make everyone think twice about the subject. By thinking about the subject, people will start to build a relationship with it, which may result in a decrease of how many women are getting abused.

2. Do they communicate your message clearly? (Comparison)

On the bottom right hand side is my badge which I created for merchandise, on the left hand side is a t-shirt which is also merchandise, however it’s not mine. I believe both of our merchandise do communicate our messages clearly, they are both trying to stop and fight against domestic abuse. They are both delivering the same message just in different merchandise. They are both fighting against the same subject and with the same purpose.

I like both pieces of merchandise because they are both similar in quite a few ways. They both pieces of merchandise have the ribbon, clearly the ribbon is popular with domestic abuse as well as other subjects such as cancer awareness.

Our colour schemes are slightly different, they used purple as their purple and black, whereas I used red and black. I always believe that red represents pain and blood, that’s why I agree with my colour choice and I disagree with their colour choice.

3. Are they appropriate for your target audience?

I believe my campaign and my work is suitable and appropriate for my target audience. The colours I've used are dull/dark-ish colours to represent sadness, loneliness and violence; dark colours usually show bad emotions. I wanted a simple layout for my posters so the audience don’t get overwhelmed by too much information or images that are getting thrown at them. I wanted something so simple that will stand out for being simple.

Underneath is a image of a full explanation of who my target audience is. All my products, I believe, are suitable for women at that age. I had people review my posters, merchandise and logos as I was going along with my project so I was sure I don’t go wrong.

3. Are they appropriate for your target audience? (Feedback)

I asked the audience what their gender was so I could see who my questioner would attract more. I got 14 responds, 9 of them were female and the other 5 were male. Even though I didn’t get all 14 responds being female, it still attracted more females than males.

I asked the audience if they ever suffered from domestic abuse, 2 people said yes and the other 12 said no. The two that said yes were a female and a male. One of them thought my products made them more sensitive towards the subject and the other one doesn’t feel any different towards the subject. Their answers were 50/50 really, which makes it quite interesting considering I was aiming my campaign at women who are suffering from abuse. This makes me think whether I should put this into place and try to aim my campaign at men as well as women.

3. Are they appropriate for your target audience? (Feedback)

I asked the audience how old they were in the questioner. 11 said they were aged from 15-20, 1 said they are aged from 31-35 and the other 2 said they are over 40. roughly, around half of the replies I got were the age I was targeting which is over 20.

The two responds that I got saying that they have suffered from domestic abuse, the female was aged from 31-35 and the male was aged from 15-20 years. Which means the male is quite young compared to the women, which makes me think if the male’s was slightly more family related, whereas the women was more relationship related. However, that could be a wrong assumption.

3. Are they appropriate for your target audience? (Comparison)

These are both different types of merchandise, the bottom one is my merchandise, the top one is a merchandise off cafepress.ca. both merchandise is appropriate for the audience, obviously I don’t know who their target audience is. However, I know who my target audience is and I believe my products and posters are appropriate for my audience.

My merchandise looks quite plain to the one on top, simply because they used colours, whereas, I stuck with my colour scheme which is red and black.

If I was to re-do my merchandise, I would add more colour to it.

4. Compare and contrast your original intentions with the outcomes you arrived

at.My original idea was to create a campaign fighting against domestic abuse by using posters and merchandise. I wanted my posters to be plain and speak for themselves through images more than words. I had a rough idea in my head with what to do with my posters, so therefor when I captured my images of the models, I went straight onto Photoshop and I knew exactly what I was doing because I and an idea in my mind of what I wanted the posters to look like. I believe I have gone on to achieve that, which means my outcome was very similar to my original idea. Some of my posters can be seen below.

5. How effective are the techniques you have used?

Some techniques I used were simple techniques such as photography. I used photography to capture the photos of the models which then helped me create posters and merchandise. I believe my techniques have been effective because my products and photographs turned out exactly how I expected them too.I used Photoshop to touch up some of the images as well as create a silhouette of some images. I believe Photoshop helped me create a clear image of the subject. In the next slide you could see the images before and after they have been edited on Photoshop.

5. How effective are the techniques you have used? (before and after pictures)

5. How effective are the techniques you have used? (before and after pictures)

5. How effective are the techniques you have used? (Feedback)

I asked the audience if they liked the style of my products and if they did or didn’t then why. I got 14 responds, 13 said they liked it and 1 said they didn’t. the one who didn’t like my style didn’t state a reason for their disapproval, which doesn’t help me because I’m unsure on how I could improve my work.

I got three comments regarding my work.

One of them was ‘the photographs were understandable, very plain and expressionless’. I thought my images showed sadness and pain if you looked straight into the models eyes. However, I could improve my work by capturing better images of models who are better at giving off facial expression. Another thing I could do is put the model in an environment, maybe on a bed or so rather than having a plain background.

5. How effective are the techniques you have used? (Feedback)

Another comment I got was ‘The shadows in the merchandise show how it can happen to anyone’. It’s not very clear what that person means by their respond, however it’s a good thing that my merchandise sends off the message that it could happen to anyone, anywhere.

The other comment said ‘I like the consistent colour theme you have gone with’. That’s a brilliant comment because someone has clearly thought that the colours have stuck out which means the facts and message is clearly sticking out to the audience.

I believe that my techniques have been effective. I’m aware that there has been one or two people who may not like my styles or the techniques I have used, however, overall I got a positive respond from the audience.

5. How effective are the techniques you have used? (Comparison)

On the left hand side is my poster and on the right hand side is a poster created by another campaign. We used a few similar techniques such as sticking with two or three colours so we don’t overwhelm the audience. However, we also used different techniques, however all the techniques we both used are effective. In their poster, they used candles to represent the victims, whereas I used a model with bruises and scars to show the audience exactly what it looks like. I believe that technique is more effect than their technique, simply because you get more personal with the audience and create a better relationship with the subject because they can see it happens to other people and they can see my campaign is trying to help them.

6.Is the content effective? When I first started this project, I had no idea what content to use. I did some research online to see what the most effective content for a campaign, the images on the side was the result of my research. So I decided to look more into it, due to my campaign just starting, I couldn’t create a article, video, blog entry or slide shows. I needed my campaign's name to get around the audience before dropping a large, well detailed piece of work. I needed to get the audience attention so then I could shock them in the future. Therefor, I started small by using campaign posters using real facts to create a relationship with the audience and the subject. After my posters were finished, I believed they were effective, they had facts, pictures and my logo. It was exactly what I needed to create a relationship with my audience and the subject.

After my posters, I needed to make more content. I decided I should make merchandise, which can be advertised in different ways to get ‘that maximum social media engagement’. I then went onto creating different types of merchandise, starting from mugs to bedding and clothing. I create a badge, with my logo on.

I believe the content I have started off with is brilliant, because it wont put people off, it wont scare them away, it’s not over edited. Its just the right content to pull the audience in, to make them research and wonder more about my campaign.

6.Is the content effective? (comparison)

I believe my content was effective. I used posters and certain merchandise to catch my audience’s eyes. Other campaigns have done this as well by using the same content as me as well as different content. Below is NoMore campaign, they are using a poster, however the difference their poster and my poster is, I used colour but they used black and white. They used a celebrity to be featured on the front to attract a wider audience, whereas I used a normal model. The model is looking straight into your eyes, it’s as if she is saying ‘NoMore’, however I use an effective photo that’s not as indirect as theirs. Both images are effective but in different ways, my image shows the event of the violence taking place, it’s making the audience see for themselves rather than just looking at a celebrity. NoMore will get more attention due to the usage of the celebrity as the front picture. There is quite a lot of difference, however, both content are just as effective. Our logos are in the same place, we both have quotes at the top of the poster which makes it more personal to the audience, it creates that connection with the audience.

6.Is the content effective? (comparison)

The logo on the top right is ‘The Hotline’ logo for domestic violence. My campaigns logo is on the bottom. The difference in our logos is simple, they used a tear, to represent the crying and the pain that domestic abuse results too. I used a ribbon, the same ribbon that gets used for cancer research and more subjects. I believe my ribbon is more recognizable than the tear. They are trying to make it more personal with their audience, whereas, I'm trying to make it recognizable with my audience.

Both my campaign and The Hotline campaign both have the red and black colour scheme. Even though they have used a different red tone to my campaign, they still used red and black. Red and black usually are the right colours to show pain, anger or sadness. So from looking at their logo, I can tell both of our campaigns are trying to grasp our audience eyes.

7. What impact do you think your advertising campaign will have on the

public?I think my advertisement will have a strong effect on the public. The way I used a beaten up model and a man hitting his woman will show to people that it doesn’t just happen to one person, it will happen to people over and over again but once you open your eyes, you will actually be able to see how common domestic abuse has become all over the world. It will make the public think twice about the subject.

In one of my posters, I included a question about how if you could see her fading from herself and having rhetorical questions within the advertisement will get the public thinking and they will start to think ‘what if I was suffering from domestic abuse’ and from there my campaign will build a strong relationship with people who are suffering from domestic abuse and people who are not suffering from domestic abuse will also feel attached to the subject because they will feel more sympathetic towards those who are suffering from it. So in a way, my campaign is reaching out to everyone whether they are suffering from it or not. The campaign isn’t just raising awareness, it’s teaching people facts about the subject.

7. What impact do you think your advertising campaign will have on the

public? (Comparison)The top poster was found on Google, the bottom poster is my poster.

I think the top poster is a bit too sensitive, whenever you bring children into the subject it always get too sensitive. It doesn’t give you any facts, it just gives you a sentence explaining a situation which may result in victims getting even more upset. Some people may not agree with that poster because of how personal it is. I don’t think it has a very positive impact on the audience.

My poster isn’t as sensitive as the top one, yes it is still sensitive but it doesn’t put people off the poster. Its showing an action shot with a quote from the male. All it’s asking you to do is reach out and get help, its making you see for yourself rather than telling you what’s going on. I think my poster has a positive impact on the audience because the poster is speaking for itself, its not telling them what to think, they get their own thoughts from looking at the poster.

8. What are the technical and aesthetic qualities of your work?

I think my work is more technical rather than aesthetic. If my work was not created by me and it was created by someone else, if I was to see my work on the street I would think ‘Oh that’s created really well and very defined’ rather than thinking ‘Oh that looks nice in my eyes’. My work has sharp ending, accurate cut outs, wording placed in the right place and most of all, I have tried to use the right colours to not create a distraction to the images featured on the posters. I prefer my work being more technical because I think it looks more neat and looks like it has had a lot of time and effort put into it, which it has.

I do think my work looks slightly aesthetic, I mean the images are so negative, you would look at them and think ‘WHAT IS GOING ON’ rather than thinking ‘oh look at her’. It makes the audience think more about what’s going on rather than just looking at it and looking away.

Personally, I would like to think that my work is more technical simply because I like technical work. I like work that looks neat and tidy, it’s appealing to my eyes.

8. What are the technical and aesthetic qualities of your work?

This is my final and chosen poster that I created. There is a lot of technical skills used in this such as feathering, burning and dodging to create the a darker/more yellow colour for the bruises. The feathering has gone so well, it’s creating a nice smooth edge without leaving her awfully faded out. The dodge and burn worked fairly well, I had to make her face brighter but her bruises darker which worked.

I think the poster looks good as well, but I think I should of used a better font so it looks smoother. The model looks really good (make up wise) and if I was looking at it from a different perspective (if it was created by someone else) I would say it looks fairly good to my eyes.

8. What are the technical and aesthetic qualities of your work?

To the right hand side, is my logo. I have used quite a few technical skills to create my logo. I used the selection tool to select around the people where they are currently placed on the logo and then cut them out making sure they had soft edges. I did that by zooming in and using the rubber tool. I think used a gradient overlay to create a shading side to the logo. I used the line took to create shading above and under where the ribbon crosses over.

I think the logo looks good as well, I think I have used the right colours, the right tools and the right wording. If I was to re do this poster, I would add a bit more colour to it or maybe take out some of the wording.

8. What are the technical and aesthetic qualities of your work? (Comparison)

On the left hand side is my logo and on the right hand side is HOPE’s logo which is a campaign against domestic abuse too.

My logo is a lot more technical than theirs, my logo is properly cut out with smooth edges whereas they have rough edges at the end of the pink lines. I have a gradient overlay where as they just used one solid colour. I have cut out people in my logo where as they have just layered up their logo. The edges around my cut out people are very smooth and subtle.

I think their logo looks better to the viewers eyes because its pink. Mind only has two colours which are red and black to represent the pain and anger, they used colours to try to grasp the audience attention without them having to read the logo.