OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Concept Development

There have been many campaigns to improve education. A major player is the Campaign for Real Education, that was founded in 1987 by teachers and parents who were concerned about the falling standards of education. The group aim to raise the standards of state education and in their campaign produce a variety of printed works including flyers and a monthly newsletter. Since it's formation, the campaign has been a focal point for information and offers advice to parents, teachers, governors and the media.

The campaign, although very important, has a very clinical design. The campaign's newsletter is a simple pdf file with no clear intent to engage on a visual level but to clearly deliver information. The website is also, in this style, lacking in visual engagement. Because this is not a web based campaign, it is arguably not in need of visuals however it can often benefit a campaign to have engaging visuals targeted at it's target audience. Knowing about it's newsletter and pamphlet production is a positive and will inform what is produced in this body of work.

Veolia is a company that works in West Berkshire encouraging waste minimalism in schools and other educational campaigns in education establishments. Veolia is committed to making awareness on the environment and waste management. It works with children, mostly key stage 1 and 2, to encourage the awareness of environmental issues. It organises activities for children to take part in. Their produce promotional material is more engaging than the material from the CRE, however it is attempting to reach the younger audience and the design is a mis match of design techniques that would be considered child friendly but may not be successful.

BBC Bitesize is an educational interface used in schools to help educate children. It educates on a range of subjects at primary and secondary education level, it also offers a revision programme to help pupils revise for GCSE's. The interface uses the BBC website design treatment with added colour to engage with the younger audience who's target it is. It's layout is clear and legible with use of complimenting colours and a bold typeface. This interface is successful in engaging a wide demographic, aimed at key stage 1 and key stage 2 students.

Codeacademy is another educational interface that teaches code online. It's interface is clean and simple which is necessary to suit it's purpose. It's use of colour and typeface suits its audience and information is clear and legible. This targets a more mature audience, maybe older than the audience I will be targeting, with it's use of dark colours and purely with the nature of it's purpose.

 

The league of young voters was formed to address the issue of young people not engaging with politics and not registering to vote. Formed in 2014 by a coalition of smaller groups, they aimed to get 1.5 million more young people on the electoral register, and 1.2 million more voting. The group's website is clear and concise and does dress their target audience with use of colour. The group holds events to speak to young people and encourage them to be proactive.

It is clear in most cases that the design has been used to target the audience it is addressing. The campaigns use websites frequently to hold all their information. These websites are followed by print material to promote their cause. The designs in some cases seem to go over the top in and use overly playful design. The educational user interfaces are good examples of interfaces that have appropriately chosen design choices that dress the target audience but ensure information is clear and concise.