Study Task 5 - Research

This research stage is to helps me to gain original research to give me ideas of the way in which I should design my product to in fit with the brief and resolve my problem.

Task 1:

Political beliefs:

The green party have some political beliefs that remain constant yet are adapted each time there is a new campaign to bring them to modern relevance such as their #decenthomes policy that was realised just after the housing crisis hit the media, therefore the release of their solution gave them more support using a current issue. This is something they do with all of their policies, which are they’re actually policies but their key 6 are always relevant to current or recent events.

Social Media:

The green party have a very active social media presence which is constantly updated, and growing amongst a young community of supporters. It is kept current and talk about current issues as they happen as well as talking about the down falls of their opposing parties. Giving the world an insight into how they would improve the community.

Past Adverting:

Past advertising for the green party has not been as successful as opposing parties, as it doesn’t seem to make such a concise impact in what it is saying. As can be seen on the example here, the doors colour represents the 3 other major political parties. It states “one party will convert 350,000 empty properties into affordable homes”, rather than saying the green party will and actually highlighting the way the opposing parties really have done things against their policies.

History:

The green party used to be known originally as the PEOPLE’S Party, which started in Coventry in 1972 by four members. It Ecology Party in 1975, then to the Green Party ten years after.

Task 2:

Target Audience:

Geographical:

As the basis of my designs are to promote the Green Party beliefs and brand identity I believe it is important to aim my pieces towards a younger market, who are effected by their key policies i.e. student areas, this would provoke interest with issues relating to the students that the Green Party want to fix such as freeing education.

Demographical:

The demographic that the Green Party currently aim towards and gain the most attention from is middle class, younger generation, first time voters. This is something I want to broaden with my campaign opening up their audience to new types of voters and have them engage with the party, raising awareness of the brand identity.

Psychographic:

The people who vote for green are environmentally conscious, and have the interests of the people at heart, rather than the interests of the political leaders, which can be seen in other parties. This is something I will need to take into consideration with my design. I will also be trying to convert existing major party voters into voting for Green, therefore there will need to be a sense of opposition in my work.

Task 3:

Figure 1 – this labour promotion poster is mocking the opposition by morphing the (at the time) current leader, with another past controversial leader of the party; therefore, persuading people to not vote for them again. Due to the recognisability of the face and the head there is no need for any explanation in the text. This poster plays on the emotions of people that were affected by this past leader to change their minds on who they are voting for, the past link would be successful in reminding voters who to vote for if they were affected by the conservatives in the past, although it does not appeal to a younger market. The lack of informing or persuading younger voters could be a mistake and may lead to them voting for another party in the future.

Figure 2 – this billboard on the other hand is from the conservatives. They are using a similar technique to the labour party, as in the are picking up on the oppositions downfalls. Although, this poster more clearly identifies who was responsible and what happened. This poster could also be adapted, as changing the text would change the whole concept of the billboard. This billboard also directly tells the audience to “vote conservative”, this assertion may improve the lasting impact the audience takes away from the image. Although the only thig linking this billboard to the conservative party is the writing which is the smallest part of the print, therefore if it was missed you would know this is against the labour party but not by which party it was created. This is something I will need to avoid in my work, I want my promotional material to be instantly recognisable as being related to the Green Party.

Figure 3 – This UKIP print uses patriotism and imagery to give the audience a certain feeling towards a particular group. The poster does not directly target any other political party, rather the country as a whole. It blames the countries EU involvement for “British workers” being “hit hard” without giving any supporting statistics or information supporting such. Making the poster seem untrustworthy and there for making the political party as a whole seem untrustworthy. This is something I want to avoid in my work as I don’t want to make the Green Party seem less of a reliable party, as this is already many people’s views.

Figure 4 – This itself is a Green Party campaign poster, it is giving the audience a rounded idea of what the green party stands for, although has some vague statements such as “Vote because you’re not your parents” which is relevant to their political stance; rather to their target demographic. This is the only solely typographic poster, the lack of imagery is made up for by every other work in the type being ‘Vote’ both obviously and subliminally planting in the audience’s mind that they should vote for the Green Party. I want to watch out for putting none political voting justifications within my work as I think by presenting facts people will trust more in the party itself.