Learning Agreement

Today we handed in learning agreements for our profesional project:

Synopsis of study

This proposal links closely with the planning and preparing of my professional project map which stated the area of design and communication I was mostly interested in: graphic design, animation and advertising. I would like to produce a viral advertising campaign based on a social issue I feel strongly about which is social behaviour, communication and interaction. If there is no communication or interaction within a family, it leads to future behaviour problems. This campaign will promote family values, encouraging the family to sit down and eat together, communicate and interact.

I plan to research into 1940-50’s advertising which tended to be very family orientated. During that era there did not seem to be an issue with family values, as most families would sit down and eat together, women were housewives and stayed at home looking after the family. Whereas, now both men and women go out to work, families are time starved and therefore there is a lack of family values.

This approach on the part of the parents as well as the children growing up without the healthy stability of a ‘good’ home, which is necessary for developing into a respectable member of the community, is leading to an increasing anti-social behaviour. I am not assuming that the 1940-50’s advertising was the cause of better family values, but as it worked to a certain point due to their increased sense of family and community being stronger than it is present day, I want to encourage these values so that they will be relevant again.

I want to bring the advertising style up to date into the 21st century; the advertising in this time was very illustrative and I would like to make it more graphic as the campaign would be aimed at a wide audience, which would have to include the youngest to the oldest members of each family. My campaign will try to encourage families to sit down and eat together, to communicate and interact and in turn this will improve future behavior, as I do not want to focus on the ‘housewife’ and ‘stay-at-home-mum’ part of the advertising campaign that went on in the 1940-50’s era.

I have researched into viral advertising by watching DVDs showing examples of different campaigns in the form of television commercials and short films or animations. I have looked at the work of ‘Fallon’ who are a renowned advertising agency. I found it interesting researching into the making of the Sony Bravia and BMW viral adverts. I was particularly inspired by the Sony Bravia (Fallon) concept of the multi coloured bouncing balls which resembled the colours of the world shown through their new TV. BMW did a sequence of short action packed films, all shot inside the BMW estate car; the interior was subconsciously recognizable and because of the subliminal snippets of part of the logo and wheels, it was clear it was BMW.

I intend to further my research into print based viral advertising and I have researched into other areas of social issues. I will also research into the statistics which show family interaction and the lack of it.

I would like to further develop my knowledge of advertising and marketing. I can already design having worked in the industry for some years but am aiming to further develop my organisational and time-management skills and knowledge as a designer allowing me to work in the industry as well as continuing to develop my own business. I wanted a challenge so I have chosen an issue that I feel strongly about which you don’t always have the time to do when working in the industry. This project also gives me a chance to explore other areas of design, and design styles.

For this assessment I will present a short viral advertising campaign which will encourage families to interact and communicate well together. This will either be in the form of interactive, print based or both.