Semester 2: Assignment 1 Snooping

Over the Christmas holidays we were asked to read more books for the upcoming assignments in design studies. One of the books we had to look at was Snoop. Snoop covers the research carried out by the author Sam Grosling in which he can, and shares with us, how we can tell so much about a person by simply looking at their possessions and rooms in their home. According to Grosling, people leave clues everywhere that if you look hard enough can tell you so much more about the real person than anytime spent speaking with them.

For our first assignment of semester 2 we are going to put his theories to the test. To do this everyone in our year has been partnered up with someone random from another course, hopefully someone we have never met. We then exchange photographs of either ourselves growing up or photographs of our living space, as they are without tiding up. After the exchange has been made, and without talking to each other, we have to try create a profile of our partner simply by looking at their photographs. Once we have finished this, we then meet face to face and discuss our findings. This is my encounter...

Having received the email containing the name of the person we would be working with it turned out that my own was and old friend, Szani, from college. Luckily enough we did not know each other that well so we both agreed to carry out the project as if we were strangers. For what we did know of each other it gave us a chance to took what we knew and back it up by what the photographs were telling us.



Szani had sent me pictures from all round her
house. The first one I looked at was of her bookshelf. The majority of books on it were not in English and at the bottom left hand corner there is a book titled 'Skocia' which, from my travelling days, I knew meant Scotland in Hungarian. I already knew Szani was from Hungry so this picture backed that up for me. The rest of the books were in English with some of them being books that we were asked to read for design studies. At the top of the book shelf I noted a Lego game. Owning a similar game to this I know that it is for 2 or more players, I felt that this may have been an indication that Szani liked to have fun and socialize. At the top of the bookshelf there were 2 identical sleeping bags and near the bottom of the shelves there was a Henry's Python. A Henry's Python is a piece of juggling equipment that requires a lot of space do use, usually outside. I began to think that Szani quite possibly liked the outdoors or preferred to be outside and that the sleeping bags suggested that this was an activity she did with someone close. Perhaps a boyfriend or flatmate.

The next set of pictures I looked at were from Szani's kitchen. On the worktops i could see there was an abundance of ingredients and fresh fruit. On the wall there was a full spice rack and bottles of vitamins. I got the impression that she preferred to make her own food as opposed to buying ready made things from the shops. I think she likes homemade food more and wants to eat healthy. The fresh fruit and vitamins backed up this idea. Another photograph from the kitchen showed a bottle of Ecover washing up liquid next to the sink. Working in a supermarket I know that this is not the cheapest washing up liquid you can buy and there is other brands for a similar price. This along with her possible home baking suggests that she tries to cut down on unnecessary things to help the environment, such as packaging.


There is a picture with her dinning room table in it that grabs my attention next. The first thing I notice is that there is two bikes against the wall and there is two near identical cups on the table. The cups do not look like your usual 'Ikea' purchase, they have been bought for a particular reason. I would say certain that she lives with her boyfriend and not a flatmate as the cups look like something a couple would buy and because there was to sleeping bags on the bookcase and two similar bikes in this photograph I think that they are a couple that enjoy being outdoors together. They enjoy spending a lot of spare time together. The bikes could also suggest that she likes to cycle a lot and again do her bit for the environment.

The next pictures I looked at were of Szani's living room. On the wall there was lots of artistic looking fashion pictures, i presumed taking from magazines due to the ad hoc nature of how they had been stuck up. Along with these there was posters and postcards promoting music events and bands. I started to get the feeling that Szani was an open creative person, not someone who would be overly fussy about things, for example as precious as her sketchbook is i think it would be creatively messy. I would link the band postcards back to spending time with her possible boyfriend. Music may be important in her life as I do not see much sign of a television or DVDs. The only thing I can see is an old Hi-Fi in the corner. Other pictures from the living room revealed a gigantic stack of Vogue magazines and a sketchbook tucked to the side of them. My immediate thought was she really loves fashion and wants to be kept up to date with it.

In a lot of the pictures there was lots of fabrics in the living room like a through over a box and a very ornate cushion. I think Szani has used these to give the flat her own personal touch and that she really is into her fashion that it has come into her home. On the walls above the mantle piece there is lots of pictures of nature inspired designs that were very bold and colourful. This helped back up my idea that she loves fashion (patterns and clothes colour). The last picture in the living room is a table full of plants and beside it stands a blow up dinosaur. I felt the plants, and the amount of them, just confirmed from what I saw that Szani loves the outdoor and this is her way of bringing the outdoors inside. The dinosaur shows us that she has a sense of humour and is not afraid to show us.

In a picture from her bedroom there is to things that grabbed my attention. Firstly a giant map above the bed (okay it was not hard to miss) which along with the learning Spanish book from her bookshelf suggests that she is a keen traveller or is interested in travelling. Secondly at the top left hand corner of the wall about the bed there is from what I can tell the only photograph in the flat and that is of Szani and a boy, which I take to be her boyfriend. I decided this as with the 2 bikes, 2 cups and 2 sleeping bags it felt more like a little flat for a couple rather than a flatmate.

The final picture I want to comment on is another kitchen picture. Here we have a shelve that is full to bursting with lots of boxes of different tea. The first thing I took from this is that she enjoys her tea ha ha. Secondly I think that she is a real calm person, her home is a place of Zen like calmness. I say this because the plants, the tea and the fact that her walls are covered in the hings she likes will make it someplace she enjoys to be in. A sanctuary to escape to when things get to much.

So me and Szani meet the other day and
I have to say I was quite impressed by what she had to say and how much I had got right. It turns out that Szani does live with her boyfriend, Daniel and that she loves the outdoors quite a lot. I was really pleased I got this one right as it was the main thing i took from the photographs. Szani does textiles at university but I was a little bit wrong on what i said about the Vogues in that yes she likes fashion but more individual fashion and that she is more into textiles, which i did slightly hint on. She is not that fussed about keeping bang up to date with whats current but patterns, especially nature inspired patterns is what she is very passionate about as long as it is not floral. Another thing that i got right was that she likes to be sociable and have people up and that she has a dream to go travelling but it was just a dream due to cost so I was not to far form that. I was spot on again when I suggested that she liked to do her bit for the environment as she mentioned she recycled as well. As for cooking i was right again, she loves home cooking and is always trying to keep healthy. Finally she agreed with me that she was a very calm person but elaborated and said that shes not very extrovert as she speaks when she has to and that she is very quiet. She can be quite sociable but it depends from group to group.


We then moved on to me and I thought my results were brilliant. If someone had asked me to describe to them me as a person I would never have said half the things that Szani said, not because I do not think its true but rather I have never thought of describing myself in these ways. Szani started off buy say that she felt I was a very open person and that I was friendly and understanding. She suggested that my favourite colour might be blue and it is. I had not realised I owned that many blue things ha ha. Looking at my clothes she said I was stylish and that was something that is important to me. I would say that this I am pretty much correct, just that I would not say i was at the height of fashion but I try to buy things that look good on me and that I like. Due to a picture I gave her that had my Dundee FC pillow and football scarf in she hinted that i was a proud Dundonian which was spot on, I love city! A picture of my bookshelf and wall revealed lots of photographs of my family and friends and Szani said that they were important to me. This is true, I can be the worlds worst at keeping in touch (ask my mum) but I like to be around them all as much as I can. One thing she hinted big on was the amount of alcohol that I have in my room which was mostly whiskey and vodka and she said that she though I liked to party and rather be out than spend time in my room. Well when she read this out I just about fell of my seat with laughter. It is so true, I love to socialise, though it does not have to involve drinking all the time but it usually does. I laughed because she was able to pin point one of the main things about me from a "few" bottles on my bookshelf. She managed to pick up on my love of travelling from my little Eiffel tower on my desk and travel books and VW campervan on my bookshelf. That I love winter sports due to my "In snow we trust" poster and my large collection of Whitelines magazines (snowboarding) that sit on my window sill was correct. Through the pictures of my desk, bedside cabinet and computer desk she was able to see at least 3 set s of headphones which she suggest ment that music was a factor in my life. Again this is true, I always have some form of music device with me or have it on in the background when i am doing most things. One thing that I had never though of much was when Szani said I was practical. The reason she said that was the picture of my television and underneath the table I have a an old Doritos box that I store wires and ariels and manly electrical things in. As i had left it as a Doritios crisp box and not painted it or covered it showed that i was happy to use it was it was, a box plain and simple. Finally Szani had notice that, from pcitures in my bathroom and my bookcase that I was i posseion of many toiletries and aftershaves. She had said that i as someone who cared about their apeearance. Looking at pictures from of my computer desk and television she saw how dusty it was and that I had a good few things lying around on the desk and my bed was nlt made. She hinted that I took more care of what I looked like than I did of my own room. So that when I am outside I have a "mask" on to the real me. I could not agree more with her on this but I had never thought of it like that. My room is dusty sure, I hate dusting ha ha, but they fact when I leave the house I always try to make sure I am presentable. Even when I am having a bad day I will stick my hat on to cover the state of my hair. But when I come home it is my little place to be me and relax. This out ovf everything I was told, this last fact has made me think a lot about myself and where it is I fit in with the world. I like to think I am my own person, love me or loath me but at the same time I know I try to be something I maybe are not. Kind of hide the real me incase I am not liked or that I do not fit in with the people I want to. I know that is so absurd because I like to think I get on with everyone, find the goodness in people when others put them down and yet I feel I have to become someone else, reinvent myself. But then maybe I am thinking about this to mcuh, after all it is only a theory and opinion...right?


**The last 3 photographs are of my bedroom and the rest are of Szani's flat.**

Japanese Food Typography

There isn't many days that go by that whilst I'm on the internet I won't check out one of my favourite site, notcot.org. My brother sent me a link to this a good while back and I love going on it to find out what new posts have been added. To put it simply it is a design and art blog. Everyday roughly ten or so new pictures are posted and once clicked on they take you to that particular site so you can have a better look at the building, painting, typography or whatever. This site is literally crammed full of fantastic ideas and precedents that I'm sure everyone could find useful. I have found myself looking at things and thinking to myself that I'd like to give that ago. Everything is covered, it is just a case of searching through the vast amount of pages until you find something that will catch your eye and trust me that doesn't take long. Warning, however, time can slip away very quick when on this site ha ha!

At the top of the sites page there is a little Polaroid with the word random on it. Give it a click and a random post is present to you. You can look at it, scroll let or right for something else that takes your fancy or hit random again. Things you come across can sometimes take your breath away or leave you green with envy! I would like to think I have a good eye for what I myself would consider good design and I feel that the majority of posts on this sites are of things that are good quality. It can sometimes be hard to stay on top what the rest of the world is up to not only in your own discipline but in the rest of the creative scene. notcot.org takes a selection of works from right across the globe which is fantastic. One of the great things I get out of the site is that it keeps me in the loop of some exciting builds that are taken place or have been completed. I previously studied architecture at DoJ for a good number of years and since started jewellery I've lost contact with a world I once held very dear to me. I urge you to take a look, I can pretty much guarantee you won't be disappointed!

On one of my many daily stops at the sites I came across a post about Japanese typography that had been designed with food symbols in them. I then remembered a lecture from JB right at the start of the year and he had mention a similar story about Chinese typography incorporating pictures into the words. As my memory recalls JB had been learning Chinese and he felt that people may get mistaken by these designs as, forgive me if I have this all wrong JB, but in Chinese there is one word for animal that you use every time you say the animals name. So if people saw the symbol for a monkey with a picture of a monkey then they might think that extra word/symbol used would refer only to the monkey. But in fact you would use that word/symbol if you wrote dog, for example.

I really like the Japanese typography that I came across. They are different and a bit of fun. I'm always interested in people taking existing objects, etc and putting a new spin on them. Looking at these, on the surface I don't know if they could be seen as confusing but then are the food symbols used to replace strokes or is it a simple case of symbol and image like you would find in a baby book? I have been wanting to learn Japanese for a while now and think I might start by looking at these and seeing if there might be similar problem to them as there was with the Chinese Manadgrams, as they were called. At the bottom of the Japanese typography they make reference to the Chinese version which turned out to be a nice surprise. I've added a couple of links if you are interested. Let me now what you think, would be interesting to hear another opinion.

Japenese typograhpy

Chinese Managram

Assignment 4

For our last assignment in this section we had to choose a book and a journal from assignment 3 that we had found using the cross search system. We had to write about them and compare them and finally say what areas we would lack at to find out more information or to give point a balanced argument.



For the previous assignment I had started out searching for any books or journals that looked at eye movement research with respect to children’s television. After a fruitless searches I noticed that children’s advertising kept appearing. Having just watched a Czech Dream, a film about two students opening a fake supermarket, I was already interested in the power of advertising. For this assignment I have chosen to read chapter 7, Who’s Messing with My Mind? from the book Consumer Kids by Ed Mayo and Agnes Nairn and a journal called Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing by Sandra L. Calvert.

Chapter 7, Who’s Messing with My Mind looks at how marketing from television adverts and online media can effect young children both consciously and subconsciously. Mayo and Nairn begin by asking the question that if children know how adverts work could they, with the help of older people like parents, actually be able to stop themselves falling for coy business marketing? They use evidence from two books that say that yes this is possible. The first is Why TV is Good For Kids by Catherine Lumby and Duncan Fine and the second is It’s Not the Media by Karen Sternheimer. Both books argue that young children can defend themselves from what Mayo and Nairn describe as “profit-hungry business”. Lumby and Fine even take it a step further and suggest that with children being so young they do not remember adverts therefore they could not possibly be influenced.

Chapter 7 then continues this debate by looking at a report made by the American Psychological Association which disagrees with both books and make it very clear that unlike adults, young children lack a high level of cognitive skills. They argue that because of this “children are more vulnerable to advertising than adults.” and therefore, “they do not comprehend commercial messages in the same way as do mature audiences, and, hence are uniquely susceptible to advertising influence.”

This point of view is backed up as the work of development psychologist Jean Piaget is looked at. During the 1960s Piaget established that children’s cognitive skills increase through stages as they grow. As young children grow they, Piaget states, “develop the ability to see the world from the perspective of other people.”

Consumer Kids then delves into research carried out by researchers in consumer socialization that have carried on the work of Piaget and developed his theories. The chapter expands on their work and explains to the reader that children are very vulnerable and can be somewhat influenced by marketing.

Even though television is highly regulated the chapter explains that with expanding technology children are finding new ways to become exposed by adverts such as the internet. The internet is far from being anywhere near regulated as television is and adverts are only looked at on an advert to advert basis. There is not set standard for them and action towards them is not usually carried out until a complaint has been put forward. Such problematic marketing can be found in advergames like Kellogg’s Fruit Loops Toucan Sam game. Advergames are, according to Mayo and Nairn, “interactive computer games paid for by big brands which heavily feature their product.” In the fruit Loop game users have to feed a monster food to earn points. The food on offer is Fruit Loops and pieces of fruit. Sounds straight forward and fun enough but the gamers is awarded 10 points for every Fruit Loop eaten and % points for every piece of fruit. We then learn of and experiment which involved a group of children playing this game and another group that did not. After it all the children were asked what they thought was healthier, Fruit Loops or fruit, they all said fruit. But when both groups were offered both as a snack, over half the group that played the game choose the Fruit Loops compared to only a quarter of the group that had not. What they found after this experiment was that even though children do not think advergames changed their minds they had actually changed the kids behaviour.

The chapter goes on to show more example of this by telling us of other experiments that evolve product placement in movies and showing their effects on kids which showed similar results to the Fruit Loops test.

Nairn and Mayo take children’s advertising to another level and look at Cordelia Fines book A Mind of its Own. Fine has put together covering psychology, neuroscience and marketing research. What she found showed that the power of children’s advertising was so great that children would be effected emotionally by things that would stimulate them and they would not even realise it. Basically what this is saying is that it is not what you say or think it is how you associate it with things in your head. An example given here is that when young men saw a clip of Bruce Willis smoking none of their views had changed on smoking. But for those who looked up to him they made an association with smoking and how they saw themselves.

With such concerning evidence mounting up on the dangers of advertising the chapter looks at legislation and education. For legislation they have a brief look at several countries and find out what they have done. Sweden, for example, have banned adverts to under 12s but companies have found away around it by advertising on UK channels that broadcast in Sweden. The government try to protect their children but the companies want to make as much profit as they can.

For education they look at a few websites set up to educated children in understanding media. However what they found was to very different types of sites. Some had been sponsored by the advertising industry and set about painting a positive image of advertising. Whereas another site, operated by the Food Commission painted a picture of the industry that was that we should question everything about it and that it was dangerous.

The end of the chapter ends by revealing to us that the question that was first asked has evolved into something different which require more debating. This debate would be steered towards the effects of, as Nairn and Mayo say, “marketing which works on children’s emotions at an emotional level.” It suggest that the government needs to step in as they are they as a whole would be able to challenge the issues throughout the whole country. Nairn and Mayo end by putting forward the suggestion that the real issue is whether or not we can make sure, as they say, “children understand advertising messages,” but rather, “how the commercial world with its all embracing, wrap-around presence affects how children feel about themselves and others.”


The journal Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing looks at in more detail cognitive development in children and the effects on behaviour after being exposed to advertising such as how they interpret the adverts purpose and if they actually remember what they have just seen.

Just like the book Consumer Kids this journal looks at Jean Piagets theory of cognitive theory, but in slightly more detail and gives us examples of each stage so we can understand better. For example when children are between the ages of two and seven they are in the preoperational stage. At this stage children believe what they are viewing is, so during Christmas they really think Santa is coming to give presents.

The journal then continues to explain the work of Deborah John who created a model, using Piagets theories, of social consumerism. It also looks at the work of Patti Valkenburg and Joanne Cantor who, also using Piagets theories, created their own model of the stages of a child’s consumerism developments.

Calvert then briefly touches on media interaction such as online games. She talks about the positive side of them, like the learning as they play. These games create a conversation with the user but the type of conversation is dependant on that users age. Very young children might think they the character on screen is real whereas someone older can tell the difference between a fictional character and reality. These games evolve as the user plays along so that the messages getting received are tailored to that particular age group. This then allows advertisers the opportunity to bombard children with adverts to buy their brand.

Next we are told, as like the book, that many companies back online sites in which their product can be a part of it. It also goes on to say that the time in between seeing an internet advert and actually purchasing the product is significantly smaller than if viewed on television as they can be taken to an online shop straight away with a simple click. This is a real danger as Calvert believes that shortening in purchasing timescale will “have major implications for children,” because they, “are more vulnerable to commercial messages than adults are.”

Children as Consumers then proceeds to explain how a child understands marketing. This is broken down into 5 subheadings; attention, recognition and retention, comprehension of commercial intent, product requests and purchases and finally advertising exposure and children’s behaviour. Each of these are given a brief description of what they are and how they contribute to encourage children to buy products.

The author loos then at typical behaviour of a child after being exposed to adverts. What was found was the more exposure they had the more wanted and if they were denied this request by their parents the child was more likely to argue with them. Research also found that even if the children know that celebrities were used to make people buy things, if they were exposed to it enough through repeated viewing they would eventually still find themselves wanting it.

Calvert went on to look at research carried out by the National Academies panel that were looking at the link between adverts for food with obesity. She also looked at research from the American Psychological Association that are worried that adverts will turn children into being more materialistic. The problem so far is that younger and younger children are buying things that are usually aimed at people much older than them, like make-up for example.

The journal finishes off by looking at what parents could do to help children understand marketing. Researcher Leonard Reid found that there was 3 ways you could parent with regards to the television. These were co viewing, active mediation and restrictive mediation. Co viewing had little success whilst active and restrictive mediation had some success when it came to certain types of adverts. Reid found however that with restricted viewing there was a smaller chance that children would ask for something.


Both texts where very interesting to read and not knowing much about advertising and psychology I found them as a useful introduction to a new subject to me. Consumer Kids was full of sources and other books that not only supported the authors claims but also gave us a balanced view by hearing the other side of the argument. I appreciated the fact that Nairn and Mayo named the texts they used as I have and opportunity to further my reading on this some what controversial topic. My only slightly negative comment would be that they never had the opportunity to look at points in greater detail, but in all great fairness they only had a chapter to write what could easily become a whole book by itself.

The journal contained much of what I had read in the book and repeated itself by explaining Piagets theories three times, albeit with variations and improvements. Calvert gave us more examples when explaining the more complex ideas which did however help me understand the topic better. This paper was written purely from an American perspective and does not look at advertisement from around the world, which the book does. My biggest complaint about Children as Consumers is that the writer does not tell us anything about the people she talks about and at times we have to guess whether people are researchers. I do not know if she is using their names to help her assumptions or if it is actually their own research.

Next for me I plan to read Consumer Kids in its entirety as I found that single chapter really interesting and has shocked me that these companies can manipulate children at such a young age purely so they will buy the toys they make or the sweets they sell. I would also like to read a few of the book mention in Consumer Kids to get a wider understanding of this topic. This will however have to be put on hold until I can get through the mountain of books that has appeared on my desk recently!


Bibliography

Calvert, Sandra L. (2008). Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing. The Future of Children. 18 (1), p214-220.

Gladwell, Malcolm. (2010). The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York: Abacus.

Mayo, Ed and Nairn, Agnes. (2009). Consumer Kids. London: Constable.

Assignment 3

For assignment 3 we were asked to look for 5 journals for jewellery and another 5 for general design that are available to us in our own library at Duncan of Jordanston (DoJ). We were also asked to compile a list of websites that were for jewellery design and another list of useful website that could aid us in our studies.


Jewellery Journals

Craft Arts International Review
Metalsmith
Goldsmith’s Review
MJSA
Lapidary Jewellery


Design Journals

ICON
International Journal of Design
New Design
Cabinet
The Design Journal


Jewellery Websites

www.klimto2.net
www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk
www.craftscotland.org
www.dazzle-exhibitions.com
www.new-designers.com


Design and other Useful Websites

www.newscientist.com
www.notcot.com
www.guardian.com
www.designcouncil.org.uk
www.iconeye.com


This assignment also introduced us to the library's cross search system that allows us to be quite specific when we require journals or books for essay and seminars. It also allows us to cover a wide range of subjects, like medicine for example, that might be involved with our own discipline. We have had a few lectures recently that by people who are say jewellers by trade and are working with medical care or hospitals to help improve peoples quality of life.

To get us into the hang of using the system our lecturer, Jonathan Baldwin (JB), asked us to search out journals and books that would be connected to a topic that we were interested in from the chapter we picked in assignment 1. We would then use the cross search system to find the material we require. After we had completed this we were then required to put the list into a bibliography in the Harvard system used in the university.


Bibliography

Calvert, Sandra L. (2008). Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing. The Future of Children. 18 (1), p214-220.

Journal looking at the effects that advertising has on the behaviour of children. It looks at both television and online marketing schemes and looks closely at new stealth advertising techniques that the author feels that children and to some extent adults are venerable to.

Gladwell, Malcolm. (2010). The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York: Abacus.

Book that we have been reading throughout first semester. Looks at the Malcolm Gladwell’s research into the ‘tipping point’. A moment when a situation or idea tips and spreads like a disease.

Kilbourne, Jean (2000). Can’t Buy me Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel. New York. Touchstone.

Book that looks into the world of advertising and marketing. It gives us an insight into how much businesses know about human weakness and how they use this knowledge to make them profits.

Lindstrom, Martin (2003). Brand Child. London. Kogan Page.

This book looks at how children identify with brands and what their relationship with them is. It gives the reader useful tips and advise on how to create a brand children will go for. This book is the opposite of the other material as it gives the reader advice on how to sell to children. Interesting book as it is like seeing the argument from the opposite point of view.

Mayo, Ed and Nairn, Agnes. (2009). Consumer Kids. London: Constable.

This book looks at the techniques used in the marketing industry. Looks into television advertising and the increasing amount of child orientated adverts that are appearing on the internet. The book looks deeper into the psychology of advertising and what effect this has on children. Very good book, filled with plenty of sources and opportunities to further your reading into this topic.

Pieters, Rik and Wedel, Michel (2008). Visual Marketing. New York. Lawernce Erlbaum Associates.

Book that looks at visual marketing and where it is headed to in the future.

Schor, Juliet B (2005) Born to Buy. New York. Scribner.

This books looks into the research carried out by Juliet Schor on how children are bombarded with a mass amount of adverts and marketing that they are turning into materialistic children. The book then goes into looking at what effect this will have on these children as the grow.

I originally started looking at eye movement research with respect to children's television but then changed to looking at children and advertising after I struggled to get any material that was specific to what I was looking for.

Assignment 2

For our second assignment we were asked to get together with other people from our seminar groups who had chosen to do mind map the same chapter as ourselves (The Stickiness Factor in my case) . Once we were all together we had to brainstorm all the ways in which the things we had produced for our Stickiness Factor mind maps would relate to our own discipline (jewellery and metalsmith design).

I have never really been a huge fan of group work in the past but this was really fun and we got to work with people we perhaps never had talked to as much previously. It seemed to be as much about team building and working as a group as it was to come up with our conclusions. Once we had finished sticking our thoughts on post-it notes and covering the wall we then created a new mind map from this exercise.

kirtsy and me

cat and sam

brainstorming


post it notes are so handy


mind map on design and stickness factor

Assignment 1

For the first semester of design studies we have been asked to read Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point. It looks at the research he carried out into the ‘tipping point’. A moment when a situation or idea tips and spreads like a disease.

For the first assignment we have been asked to mind map the whole book and pick a chapter of our choice to mind map in more detail. I have chosen to do the chapter on the Stickiness Factor.The final thing we were asked to do was to create a bibliography of the sources used within ourchosen chapter and produce them in the Harvard method of referencing.

mind map of tipping point

mind map of stickness factor chapter

Bibliography

Anderson, D and Lorch, E (1983). Look at Television: Action or Reaction? Children’s Understanding of Television: Research on Attention and Comprehension. New York. Academic Press. Page 100

Tests carried out to see what would take children’s
attention away from watching television
and what could keep it.

Flagg, B (1982) Formative Evaluation of Sesame Street Using Eye Movement Photography. Experimental Research in Televised Instruction. Montreal, Canada. Concordie Records Vol 5

Tests that would work out if children were absorbing
the information given to them. It proved however that
they were more interested in the Muppet Oscar the Grouch.

Markman, E (1989) Categorization and Naming in Children. Cambridge. Page 115

Explains that children as they learn associate a word
with the object (e.g. elephant is and elephant)
but get easily confused when extra words are used
to describe it (e.g. an elephant can be described as big).

Nelson, K (1989) Narratives From the Crib. Cambridge: Harvard. Page 118

Project that followed a pre-schooler called Emily and the
recordings her parents made of her talking in her sleep.
What the results found was that Emily was having significantly
more advanced conversations with herself that with her parents.

Palmer, E (1972) Formative Research in Educational Television Production: The Experience of CTW Quality in Instructional Television. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii 165-187 Page 102

Test called the Distracter that would show whether what was
being shown on television was actually being viewed by the
people watching it or a series of slides playing next to it.