OUGD505: Visual Strategies

• Targeting both audiences of children and parents.
• One way to do this would be through schools.
• Paper promotion and advertisements, tactile objects, leaflets to be sent to schools, where they can then be handed and shared out between both target audiences. 
• One main focus would be on social media and advertising the app online, with changing the tone of voice and imagery for both parents and then children. 
• Looking at social media apps such as Instagram, Facebook and Youtube and how best to advertise on these and in what tone of voice. 
• Another approach would be to encourage children and parents to refer friends and/or other parents, maybe an incentive to do this. 
• Research taken place into how to advertise to children and where they will see/ the adverts will be most effective. 

• Sketches of initial ideas, mainly for social media campaigns and adverts, focusing on instagram and youtube. 
• When advertising to adults from research the use of guilt and incentive is most successful, parents want anything that will help their children. 
• Making the app look serious and sensible, whilst also being appropriate for children and also suggesting how the app can help both them and their children together. 
• Another idea and a different approach would be email, this is suggested to be successful when contacting schools, therefore this is another aspect that can be looked at to be designed with the target audience in mind.
• Another angle would be paper advertisements, creating a tactile pack, which schools can give out, which contains collateral which is appropriately designed for each target audience of parents and children, taking into consideration what would interest and engage each of them. 

Micro Music Genre: Outcomes

Micro Music Genre: Process - Ironing off the Wax

The process of ironing off the wax was also difficult as there were many different techniques and ways of doing it. Traditionally it should be melted in boiling water, however this would have desaturated all the designs and colours and also wasn't safe. Another method was ironing off the wax, but the first few attempts burnt the tote bags and melted the wax into the bag and left an oily stain around the design. 

Due to this different materials had to be experimented with to see which would best soak up the wax, newspaper, newsprint, baking parchment and kitchen roll were all experimented with as those were all absorbent. Kitchen roll worked the best, as it absorbed the wax much better than the other materials. 

After ironing off the designs, there was still one issue is that the pencil from the initial sketching of designs was still visible. Therefore the tote bags were then washed and rinsed and although they lost some of their colour, most of the pencil disappeared and was successful. 

Micro Music Genre: Process - Dyeing

Below shows the process of dyeing the tote bags, the first practice design didn't work well at all. This was because the dye that was bought wasn't deeply saturated or strong enough (Figure 9) and the dye got underneath the wax so the batik effect didn't work. However after repurchasing different Dylon Dyes (Figure 1) which were a lot more pigmented the designs started to work better. However on a few of the designs especially the text or smaller motifs, the dye got underneath the wax and therefore the design wasn't as visible. This could have been because the wax wasn't hot enough, therefore it didn't penetrate through the cotton bag properly (5,6).

Different dyeing techniques and colours were experimented with. The colours chosen were green, red and yellow which are colours associated with West Africa where most of the salves came from. They are also very bright, celebratory colours to contrast the bleakness of the history of slaves. 

Solid colour was experimented with, this worked well, the green was the most pigmented however when the bag was left too long in the dye the dye started to seep underneath the wax. The yellow solid colour worked the best, as the red was quite pink as well. 

Dip dyeing and multiple dye colours worked well as it replicated the flags of the likes of Kenya and Ghana, it made use of all of the colours and made the tote more interesting and celebratory in nature. (2,3 and 7). 

The tote bags with text on didn't work very well, probably because there was too much detail. However it could still work as the concept of the designs were hidden messages, therefore maybe it doesn't have to be completely legible. 

Figure 1

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Figure 9

Micro Music Genre: Process - Waxing and Designs

Below the images show the process of melting the wax and painting the wax onto the pencil drawn designs on the tote bags. This process seemed to work well, different ideas and designs were developed and changed to experiment how each would turn out on the tote nags when dyed. Ranging from type and text to repeated patterns and larger images of symbols. The designs were traced with wax using a paintbrush, rather than the batik waxing tool, as these were expensive. However in hindsight, it maybe would have been better to use that for the wax to be hotter and more accurate when placed onto the tote bag. It was hard to keep the wax hot enough, using a hot plate would have been better, however these resources weren't available at the time. 

Micro Music Genre: Initial Ideas

Micro Genre - Andrika Symbols - West Africa

Adinkra are visual symbols that represent concepts or aphorisms. Adinkra are used extensively in fabrics and pottery among the Ashantis of Ashanti Kingdom of Ghana and Baoulés of Cote D’Ivoire. They are incorporated into walls and other architectural features. Fabric adinkra are often made by woodcut sign writing as well as screen printing. Adinkra symbols appear on some traditional Akan goldweights. The symbols are also carved on stools for domestic and ritual use. Tourism has led to new departures in the use of the symbols in such items as T-shirts and jewellery.

The symbols have a decorative function but also represent objects that encapsulate evocative messages that convey traditional wisdom, aspects of life or the environment. There are many different symbols with distinct meanings, often linked with proverbs. In the words of Kwame Anthony Appiah, they were one of the means in a pre-literate society for supporting the transmission of a complex and nuanced body of practice and belief.