ETHICS

My project doesn't have any sensitive information so does not require an ethics approval form. The interview with Ian Thursfield was just casual and didn't actually require me to use him as research it was simply addressing the motivations of his shop, it didndt effect anyone else. 

PROJECT STATEMENT

The theoretical research started with looking into different aspects of social design; it opened me up to the facts that our all consuming society was having on our planet. I feel that I answered my original question quite quickly but I discovered the reasons that designers need to take action and became quite passionate about it. I discovered literature on the importance of green design such as Design For Society by Nigel Whitely. This highlighted the importance of the issues as well as showing how designers can take steps to factor sustainability into their designs. 

Initially, the practical research was looking at sustainable products and the ‘Eco aesthetic’ that has come about. My theoretical research entailed analysing examples of greenwashing and how companies use certain jargon and plaster designs in green and brown and natural imagery in order to look green. This linked to the practical element as I started looking into products that appeared sustainable but on closer inspection were not. I had to reevaluate this idea after receiving feedback and realising that the idea to build a product that looked sustainable but wasn’t, was not ethical as it goes against the morals of sustainability all together. One quote used in my essay was 'one could argue that the greatest harm caused by shoplifting or burglary is not the loss of the property stolen but the damage to the self-development, karma or soul of the thief, or to the unwitting receiver of the stolen goods who has been duped into participation in crime, or society as a whole.' (Heller, 2003). This quote uses an analogy about stealing and karma of the thief to talk about how creating bad design will effect the karma of the designer and therefore made me establish that I must create something good to put out into society. 

From this I started looking into the new wave of green design and businesses that had changed their business model to incorporate sustainable morals. Shops such as The Body Shop and Lush were key players starting out small, 30 years ago but now global brands. Their success has inspired new businesses to start up. I found the concept of zero packaging shops and discovered there were two zero packaging shops recently set up in Leeds. I went down and visited the shops to have a look at how they sell products and what their branding entails. It became apparent very quickly to me that their branding was in need of updating. The concepts of the company were really strong but the branding is holding them back from developing. They appeal to a small customer range but i think their ‘eco’ branding holds them back. I decided that I would rebrand the Jar Tree based in Leeds Kirkgate Market. The brief was to change their logo, and alter other components such as their website and labels and loyalty cards. ’it has become painfully clear that the standards defining good design must be updated.' (Stephens, 2009, p.1). I wanted to challenge myself to put myself to the test or creating good and sustainable design. 

I feel that my essay answered the question well. As I established the motivations for designers to take responsibility and how this could be put into effect with examples of companies that have done just that. Talking to Ian from the Jar Tree was really beneficial and helped me establish why people should take steps to being more sustainable. This led into my practical element as using the jar tree as a case study in the theory helped me link it to the practical. 

I think improving the design would require a closer relationship with the owners of the Jar Tree in order to create something that they were also happy with. Also having a budget would allow me to incorporate more realistic thinking to the branding and production. Also with more time I think that i should have spent more time on production in order to create better physical components such as the labels and the loyalty cards. 

THE JAR TREE FINAL LOGO

INITIAL ESSAY PLAN

Do Graphic Designers have a responsibility in the industry concerning Social Design? - 5000 Words

1-Introduction- social issues -politics -health -sustainability 

Why is green design Important?

• saving the environment, greenhouse gasses, water, raw materials, landfill, oceans, sea level rising, 
• being ethical
• ways to be sustainable (Multipurpose, reuse, Recycle, green materials)
• design for society byNigel Whitely quotes 
• -green design handbook

500 words 

2-Social graphic design campaigns and how and why they have worked effectively

• political-Obama hope election campaign
• health-NHS public health campaigns
• swine flu motivation, incentive, action 
• green-Iceland advert palm oil- why has it been banned/ worked 
• analyse how the campaigns use audience, information

1000 words

3-Greenwashing 

• examples of greenwashing coca (cola life, McDonalds, Fiji water, Huggies nappies, BP)
• argument that greenwashing gets publicity (branding strategies)
• Does Graphic design boost awareness of greenwash?

500 words

4-Semiotics-graphic design hierarchy of signs and symbols 

-how do these adverts make people engage using semiotics 

-buzzwords such as green and natural

-colours use of green and brown

-triangulate semiotics idea with the social campaigns and greenwashing ideas

1000 words

5-Graphic Designers recognise they have a responsibility to create good design

• Positive (social change, power, work is more than just to look nice
• Negative (pressure to create work when its hard enough to get work anyway, the big bad clients pay good)
• quotes from citizen designer

500 words

6-Consumerism- Client dictated design 

-consumerism leads to greed its about the money not what is being put out there 

sometimes designers cant have their say 

-capitalist practices quotes problems

-consumer effect on the environment 

500 words

7-Move away from this and new wave green design

• minimalism movement
• zero packaging 
• obscelcence for brands, need to have a market for graphic design, no packaging would make this industry shrink
• manipulative design made to look sustainable- water bottles and coffee cups

500 words

8-Conclusion- triangulate the ideas discussed

500 words

THE JAR TREE WEBSITE

I found out some facts on the energy consumptions of different coloured backgrounds. From this research I discovered that black coloured screens use less energy than white ones. From this information i will design my website accordingly. 

I designed the site using readymag.com which was free and easy to use to quickly mock up the site with a simple navigation. I created a desktop site and a mobile version in order to fit the needs of various customers. 




Link to the published website:
https://readymag.com/u86140271/TheJarTree/

The final design was sleek and much more appealing than the old website. Unfortunately Readymag limited the navigation of the website as its controls are pretty basic. 

THE JAR TREE LABELS

The Finished labels were printed onto clear plastic and intended to blend into the container and see the contents behind it. On some size jars this does work but it is not as effective as it could be. The labels are also not very eco friendly as they use plastic. If i had more time i would like to have explored different materials in order to make them more sustainable. It would also have been useful to have more information on the labels for promotion purposes. 

JAR TREE LOYALTY CARDS

The loyalty card designs started off using circles where the stamps could be placed, but i soon realised that circles didn't fit into the rectangular shape of my design. so i started experimenting with squares. These fitted much better as it allowed me to follow a grid throughout  I decided to follow the typography of the Logo through the design to keep in the theme. It also became clear after some feedback that i should not use any fill text in order to use the least ink possible. The typeface was Kenyan Coffee which is a bold sans-serif font that is fun and playful to draw customers in.

Finished product

The final outcomes were printed on recycled card using as minimal ink as possible. The shape was a long ting rectangle that look and feel nice. The cards don't shout about the fact that they have eco intensions. 

RISO PRINTING

A possible option for printing my labels and Loyalty Cards for The Jar Tree would be Riso printing. There is a company based in Leeds called Footprint that do Riso but it is expensive to print a small amount. If the Jar Tree wanted to use my work in the future, i would definitely to advise them that this would be a good option and very sustainable as Riso Printing uses soy based ink that biodegrade safely. 

ECOVER

 Ecover produce ecologically sound cleaning products made from plant-based and mineral ingredients. Their branding is based around their eco morals but they don't flaunt it in their branding. Although you can tell that the company is green it is not over the top like some brands. They use bright colours to draw the customers attention in and use bold colourful typography to appear friendly. The company was set up in 1980 in Belgium. The company is a successful global brand even though it has a business model based around sustainability thus proving it is possible for other companies to do the same and survive. 

SEMIOTICS

To aid my research so far I have looked into semiotics and visual perception. I hope to use semiotic theory to analyse case studies in the essay. The functional matrix in Fire Signs is something i will look into. looking at semantics and syntax. 


The book also discusses theories surrounding graphic design and how they all feed in to it. 

THE BODY SHOP

The Body shop was founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, they sell cruelty free cosmetics. In its early days the idea was zero waste, the packaging was plain and and was designed to be used and refilled rather than buying a whole new product. Over the years the company has taken part in many forms of social activism including collaborations with Greenpeace. 

LUSH

LUSH cosmetics started out as just one shop in Poole, England, in 1995. They sell all sorts of natural cosmetics and fight to stop animal testing. In recent years, lush have started a campaign to reduce their packaging. They encourage their customers to bring their own wraps and containers to put products in. In tern they are reducing their waste. They also have a nice neutral sans-serif font that allows them to use bright imagery of any colour and it will always match the logo. 

PRODUCTION

With my finalised logo i wanted to experiment with printing methods rather than just digitally printing it. Screen printing would mean i could transfer the logo easily onto labels, bags, T-shirts, and any other components the company needed. I thought that a screen printed effect on the logo would add some depth to the design as well but when i tried it it just looked messy. 



Another idea for production would have been lazer printing, this would have meant the design didn't use any ink so therefore more eco friendly but i wasn't sure what the energy consumption of a laser printer was, but from seeing the machine work, i thought it might be an awful lot. 

LOGO DEVELOPMENT

Development on the logo lead me to trying out putting in a jar instead of the A. I started off this experimentation by simply taking the A and turning it around, this creating a simplistic jar shape but i received feedback that it wasn't very realistic to the shape of a jar. Also the designs where i had included the contents of the jar were too distracting from the typography. From this I drew out some designs of different shape jars in order to try out a few different shapes to see what looked best. The original A, along with the other typography, is long and thin so the jar shape needs to be like this as well. The finished jar shape should look good outlines or fill to fit the digital and analogue components. 

INTERVIEW WITH THE JAR TREE LEEDS

I spoke to Ian Thursfield, The owner of the Jar tree, about why he started the business and what his motivations were about it. And also how he gets customers through the door. 

Me: Hi There my name’s Jess, I study Graphic Design at Leeds Arts University, and I’m doing a project on sustainable design. I’ve been looking into zero packaging  and I'm really fascinated by your business!

Ian: Thanks!

Me: Can I ask you a few questions about your motivations?

Ian: Yeah sure, what do you want to know?

Me: Well firstly, what made you start up the Jar Tree?

Ian: I got into the idea of zero packaging when i had kids a few years ago and i realised just how much waste, specifically plastic, i was using. Things like nappies, wipes, food- literally everything has unnecessary plastic. Plastic is so stupid! People started using plastic 40 years ago without much thought, it’s only now that we are realising that it doesn’t disappear. The plastic we made then hasn’t gone anywhere!

Me :I know! It's ridiculous when you think about it.

Ian: Yeah, so i decided to do something about it, and went zero waste! I had always wanted to start my own business and so when i got left some inheritance money I decided to set up a zero packaging shop!

Me: That's so great! So what motivates people to shop here?

Ian: So people are doing their bit for the environment, obviously, so you bring your own reusable container and fill up however much you want. Without buying a packet of something you are reducing your waste. Also shopping local, the food hasn't travelled miles to get here.

Me: Are there any motivations that aren't eco-oriented like maybe the price?

Ian: Yeah i suppose the price could be a factor, our costs are quite low because you don't have to pay for packaging, you can also buy exactly how much you want of something, so instead of having a cupboard full of spices, that you have only used once, you can buy a small amount and save the cost and the waste!

Me: It’s a great idea! Thanks for talking to me!

I also emailed some questions to Ecotopia in Leeds but they never responded to me...

I plan to use Ian's words in the essay so I must take in ethical considerations.

My participant doesn't fall under any vulnerable person categories. 
The project doesn't mislead Ian in any way. I told him that i may use his words in my project. 

INITIAL LOGO IDEAS

I started playing around with different typefaces to see what style would suit the name. I played around with serif and sans serif fonts as well as fill and outlines. Also experimenting with  capital letters and lowercase letters to see what fits best within the logo.  












I then started to play around with composition and layout of the words. I realised that the more basic layouts were most effective. And sans serif added too much personality into the logo when i wanted something more minimal and fresh. 















The serif fonts are too formal and don't fit with the low price-point of the shop. The typography should be plain and simple but still fun. 

I played around with a few designs to see how they look on labels and bags. I wasn't really happy with any of them as they didn't really stand out as a way to promote the company due to the  ones that used the least ink were barely visible.  

WHAT THE JAR TREE NEEDS...

From my research i have established what the shop needs in order to revamp and appeal to a new audience and lead away from an 'eco' aesthetic.
The jar tree needs:

-A new Logo 
-Labels for the jars and shelves
-Loyalty cards
-An improved Website
-Bags

CRIT FEEDBACK

I presented my work in a peer led crit this week in order to gain some feedback on my work so far and how i am going to move forward. I presented my research so far and my initial logo ideas to see what they thought. some of the people in my group were also doing projects surrounding sustainability so it was interesting to hear their viewpoints on my ideas.

-The idea to use outlines type to save on ink was very popular and they think i should continue with this. 

-They think maybe a jar could be made from the letter A to add some depth to the logo.

-I had questions regarding how simplistic my idea was and they said a good way to overcome this would be to mockup the idea in as many formats as possible in order to show how the branding will be used in all of these avenues. 

- They also said it would be really beneficial to go and talk to the shop to get some feedback on the idea and see if there was anything they would suggest

- They also suggested going to talk to customers and why they shop in zero packaging shops and what they like about it, also the opposed side, why people don't want to shop in these places. 

WAYS TO MAKE AN ECO LOGO

• Outlines- no block colours that use unnecessary ink
• Size- keep the logo small so it uses less materials to print
• Ink Usage- keep the logo as minimal as possible in order to keep ink use down
• use of colour
• shape
• resolution 

ECO SHOPS IN LEEDS

I am planning to rebrand an existing zero packaging shop in Leeds, i have found there are a couple of shops in the area all with pretty average branding behind it. 

Ecotopia Leeds

The shop opened 31st October 2018 in the Central Arcade, Leeds City Centre. Their logo uses all of the generic 'eco' aesthetic. The colours brown and green, show people obviously that they are eco. They also use a hideous natural font, along with an obvious graphic of a tree with leaves. It features a slogan at the bottom 'a utopia for the eco-friendly' which i feel is is quite unnecessary as it is stating the obvious as the name already shows this. They also have a smaller logo design, featuring yet more green and brown with a leaf and the letter E which i feel is even more unnecessary and quite distasteful. 

The logo is effective to a small audience but i think shuts off a large portion of people from following too much of a strong eco image. The logo is actually not very eco friendly if it is being printed out for merchandise. If it was to be truly eco it would use minimal ink to save on more materials. 

audience

purpose 

The Jar Tree Leeds

The Jar Tree was Leeds' first zero waste shop. They are based in Kirkgate Market. Their logo features similar handwritten style typography that is too obviously natural and quite boring. The colours used are green and natural and trying hard to look eco friendly. They also use a pictogram of a tree that adds to the obvious eco aesthetic. I think the name is quite relevant as it incorporates the idea of jars compared to that of ecotopia wich i think is completely over the top. 

Ecotopia and the Jar Tree both sell their own locally sourced glass jars, these do not include branding which i think they are missing as having their logo on the jars will provide publicity for them. They also use simplistic labels with hand written prices which i don't think is very clean and professional and wont encourage people to buy it, Simple printed labels will be an easy thing to print and they can be printed on recycled paper with soy inks. 

The Jar Tree uses a lot of the colour brown and they use ribbons and other crafty aesthetics. This appeals to a very select customer range and i don't think it enough of an audience when they have the potential to be reaching many more people. Just because they are eco doesnt mean they need to brand themselves as 'twee'.

These shelves are not as visually exciting as they could be, they use nice jars but the labels are not exciting and not even eco, white bleached paper is used which is not good for the environment even through they are trying to make the labels look like they are eco. 

SUCCESSFUL BRANDING

Planet Organic is based in London and has a number of shops around the city, although they are not zero packaging, they are a health food shop and have eco intentions, I like their branding as they incorporate a bold sans serif font in black and white which i think looks fresh and contemporary and doesn't scream 'eco worrior'

Unpackaged is a zero packaging shop based in London, their branding is also sleek and monotone, and they don't shout about the fact that they are eco friendly. I really like their illustrations in their guide to shopping zero, they are simple but effective in delivering the message. I would like to do something similar for my branding. 

COP3 PRACTICAL BRIEF

For the practical element of the module i am following on from my research into sustainable design. I have been looking into greenwashing and how companies manipulate people into thinking that their products are sustainable in some way. I want to create a product that appears to be sustainable using the methods i have examined such as using certain colours and language, but is actually not that sustainable and uses unnecessary packaging methods.

I had a crit of our ideas so far and i presented to the group my current idea to create this unsustainable packaging. After talking in depth about my research and the idea, the feedback i received was that i should scrap the packaging idea as the fact that its unsustainable goes against the whole ideas and ethics behind sustainability. they said i should find another way to address this issue without going against its core values. We started talking about my research into zero packaging products. And they decided that instead of creating a product i should create the branding for a zero packaging shop. 

I have rewritten the brief to fit my new idea as the last one was specifically for a sustainable product not a brand. 

ZERO WASTE SHOPS

Zero packaging shops are popping up around the world in protest to the amount of packaging that most products have. These shops encourage you to bring your own reusable containers and put their products in them to be weighed and then taken away. 

POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

Obama Hope Campaign

Designed by Shepard Fairey this poster has been successful for the Obama Election Campaign due to its powerful, radical look. The poster uses patriarchal colours and includes the word 'hope' signifying what Obama would bring if he was elected. 

NHS PUBLIC HEALTH CAMPAIGNS

NHS Swine Flu Campaign

This campaign features a humorous picture of a man mid sneeze, it is quite disgusting to look at due to the spray coming from the sneeze, but it is trying to highlight how the virus spreads and why people need to address the issue. It is successful at making people think about the issue and the striking image along with the slogan 'Catch it. Bin it. Kill it.' The poster uses a big image to address the issue as well as a powerful paragraph stating the facts of how your virus can spread and how to stop it. and also places you can find out more information.
This campaign is successful because it gives out information that people otherwise didn't know about the risks about germs and how long they can last. It also helps to increase skills in order to prevent these germs spreading.

 NHS Skin Cancer Campaign

This campaign is successful in raising awareness about skin cancer as it tackles the belief by so many young girls that they need to have a tan to look good and it increases the knowledge of the risks. It also changes motivations and attitudes of these young girls and it will make them think differently about using sun beds in the future by showing the damage it can do to the skin. The ad also tries to change the social norms  and help people to take a step back from using sunbeds.   

NHS Drinking Campaign

This campaign uses facts about drinking that people may not know and will try and change the public opinion on drinking. By focussing on weight it will also change the motivations of people to stop drinking which will get more people involved.