Communicateion is a Virus- Research

Taken from The Homeless Monitor 2011-2013 by The University of York

This is a concerning time for homelessness in England: the simultaneous weakening of welfare protection and the national ‘housing settlement’, in a context of wider recessionary pressures and growing unemployment, seems likely to have

a negative impact on many of those vulnerable to homelessness.

• In particular, welfare reform – in combination with the economic downturn - seems certain to drive homelessness up in England over the next few years, as it will undermine the safety net that usually provides a ‘buffer’ between a loss of income, or a persistently low income, and homelessness, and will restrict access to the private rented sector for low income households.

• Statistical analysis indicates that some aspects of ‘visible’ homelessness – including rough sleeping and statutory homelessness – have commenced a very recent upward trajectory.

We need to find out what the most effective vehicle to encourage people to give more, sympathy is usually the first choice for most charity adverts. Personally I'd rather give because I want to rather than because I'm being guilt tripped into it. Here are a few adverts for charity.

I think it would be most effective to appeal to peoples camaraderie and working together side rather than a bleaker approach:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TDVuRBl-1g

We will open a survey so we can get an idea of why people would decide to give.

Communication is a Virus- Direction

After reconsidering our idea to give homeless people signs to help the money they gain we began thinking what would be the most effective and productive way we could get people involved and help the homeless. We decided that the most realistic way we could do this was to promote a collection in college, encouraging people to bring in a can of something that we can go and donate to St Georges Crypt, this will allow us to design and print a range of materials that we can put around college to get people involved. We could also set up a Facebook/ twitter page to raise awareness. We will be able to measure the success of our campaign by the amount of donations we receive.

10 pieces of source material

1.Post Modernism

I like the reaction of post modernism to modernism, I like how it pushes the boundaries of clear communication, and the purpose of the poster isn't immediately obvious. I would like to research more and find where communication becomes secondary to aesthetics and the boundaries get pushed into deconstructivism and confusion. I am also interested in how post modern design applies itself to other applications apart from concert and film posters.

2.Furturtle

Furturtle show prints make really good screen prints

3.Type

Solely Type Posters are something I am interested in,
Fromupnorth.com

4.High Society/ Low Society Lecture

If people dont understand the work of an artist its the peoples fault, if people dont understand the work of a designer it's the designers fault.
This could be something that I could research further.

5.Film Theory Posters:

6.Blog, Marry Avoid

Richard Perez


I am interested in the line between illustration and design.

7.Tim Enthoven

8.Super Expresso

9.Audience

It is interesting how designers design to suit a specific audience. Designing something that I dont particularly like but the target audience does is something I haven't explored yet, it would be good to have a look at a set of work from one designer and see how his 'style' changes to suit a different audience.

10.Type Personality

I find it interesting how certain type says certain things.

Existing Design

Signs that direct the homeless to a shelter

Design work promoting the work of 'Crisis' - a charity helping the homeless

Design by Caravanstudio

Free bin bags given to people that communicate when waiting to be taken away

Communication is a Virus

St Georges Crypt

http://www.stgeorgescrypt.org.uk/sgc-info/people/clients/real-life-stories.html

One of the biggest problems we face by trying to encourage people to give to beggars rather than a charity is that the people donating don't know where that money is going, it could be spent on drugs or alcohol.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1009634.stm

I have emailed the administration at St Georges Crypt to see what they think would be the most effective and appropriate use of the public's money, we are planning on visiting on wednesday as well to research further.


It is interesting to find out a homeless persons history, as most people would assume that they are responsible for their own situation but the reasons that they are there may surprise many.

http://www.stgeorgescrypt.org.uk/sgc-info/people/clients/real-life-stories.html

• Approximately 32% have been in prison, 10% in care and 6% in the armed forces at some point in their lives. Some individuals may have experience of more than one of these.

• There is a constant flow of people onto the streets, but most people are not on the streets for the long term. In 2009/2010, 61% were new to the streets. 26% were also seen rough sleeping in the year before, and 13% of people had slept rough in the past but not within the previous year.

St George's Crypt's Overnight Service accommodated 549 inidivduals, in our 12 funded bed spaces, from April 2010 - March 2011

Of these 549 - 457 were successfully helped into further suitable accommodation.  However, 92 of our residents could not be helped.  Some of the reasons for this are: refusing suitable accommodation, breach of alcohol/drug/smoking rules, verbal and or physical abuse of other residents or staff or just abandoning the service.

This demonstrates that we have successfully helped 83.2% of our customers onto secure accommodation.

Over the same period we had available 3 compassionate bedspaces each night, a total of 1,095 for the year, for vulnerable people who have no recourse to any public funding.

As part of the Severe Weather Protocol last winter St George's Crypt made available 6 extra bed spaces per night from the end of Novemeber 2010, the first snow falls, to the end of February 2011.  Within this period there was a small period where the Protocol was withdrawn by LCC.

D&AD research

Erik Kessels

At first Kessels seems to be in to his Swiss style, helvetica stuff, but he's a bit of a fine artist as well - filling rooms with millions of photographs. 

I am more interested in the social side of 'why rain is good'- how it makes people feel and act, which is generally negative and annoyed, so my posters try to flip this on its head by trying to find the fun in the rain, which might not be up Kessels street, but who knows.

Fun Rainy Activities

Rain Artistry: Take a paper plate and sprinkle a few drops of different colors of food coloring on it. Then get into your rain gear and wander around the yard. As the rain hits the plate, swirls of color form. Just like a snowflake, no two plates will ever be the same.

Chalk Painting: Do your kids like drawing on the driveway or sidewalks with chalk? They'll love doing it in the rain too! Drawing on wet cement turns the chalk into a more paint-like form. And if the area they are drawing on is sloped, you get the added fun of watching a rainbow of colors flow off downhill.

Rain Showering: Next time your kids complain about bathtime, have them put on their bathing suits and give them a bit of shampoo. The novelty of taking a shower in the rain is sure to make smiles appear.

Puddle Walk: See who can make it all the way around the house (or the yard) in the least amount of time. But you can only move by jumping from puddle to puddle. If there isn't a puddle in the direction you want to go, you can either wait or choose another route. And of course, if you jump in the puddles hard enough, you may wash them out so the person behind you can't use them!

Rainbow Bubbles: Put a few drops of food dye into different puddles, then add a squirt or two of dish soap. Give your kids a straw or long hollow tube to blow through and watch the bubbles explode up from the puddles.

Count the Frogs: Go someplace that has a pond or stream, then have your kids see how many frogs they can find. You can also catch tadpoles and raise them, see if your kids can figure out what kind of frog they will become by what the tadpole looks like.

Good Quotes:

A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in.
Frederick The Great
And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
I don't believe in pessimism. If something doesn't come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it's going to rain, it will.
Clint Eastwood

I like rain, actually. 
Bill Rodgers 

I'm not a big fan of Swiss Style graphic Design (mainly because I'm not very good at doing it), but I do like this kind of thing:

this kind of work sort of borders graphic design and illustration, but it's stripping an image down to a simpler form which is the same idea of modernism and swiss style. its like 'graphic illustration' clean and interesting.:

Tad Carpenter

From Modernism and Folklore in Graphic Design:

I love busy and energetic images like this, you can look around them a few times and still see new things that you hadn't noticed before

D&AD

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8339647.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/debates/3414682/Moaning-drinking-and-queuing-are-what-make-us-British.html

http://www.infobarrel.com/10_Facts_about_Rain

1. The umbrella was originally invented to protect people from the hot sun.

2. Rain drops can fall at speeds of about 22 miles an hour.

3. Rain starts off as ice or snow crystals at cloud level.

4. Light rain is classified as being no more then 0.10 inchese of rain an hour.

5. Heavy rain is classified as being more then 0.30 inches of rain an hour.

6. Louisiana is the wettest state in the U.S, which receoved an annual rainfall of 56 inches.

7. Rain drops range in size from 0.02 inches to about .031 inches.

8. Rain drops do not fall in a tear drop shape, they originally fall in the shave of a flat oval.

9. Rain that freezes before it hits the ground is known as frozen rain.

10. Rain is recycled water that evaporated from our worlds lakes, rivers, oceans, seas etc.

Our top national characteristic is talking about the weather, just ahead of a passion for queuing, but other qualities in the top ten are not so endearing; sarcasm, a love of television soaps and curtain twitching were all identified as central to the British identity.

Obsession with class was also high on the list, along with more modern ills such as pandering to political correctness and road rage.

Working long hours, fascination with property prices and the love of bargains also made it into the top 50, suggesting that our behaviour during the financial crisis may be more ingrained than we think.

1. Talking about the weather

2. Great at queueing

3. Sarcasm

4. Watching soaps

5. Getting drunk

6. A love of bargains

7. A love of curtain twitching

8. Stiff upper lip

9. Love of all television

10. Moaning

11. Obsession with class

12. Gossiping with neighbours over the garden fence

13. Obsession with the traffic

14. Enjoying other people's misfortune

15. Inability to complain

16. Love of cheap foreign holidays

17. Working long hours

18. A soothing cup of tea to ease worries

19. Eating meat and two veg

20. Looking uncomfortable on the dance floor

21. Feeling uncomfortable when people talk about their emotions

22. Clever sense of humour

23. Obsession with property values

24. Pandering to political correctness

25. Road rage

26. Being unhappy with our weight

27. Wanting a good tan

28. Being proud of where we live

29. Not saying what we mean

30. The ability to laugh at ourselves

31. Washing the car on a Sunday

32. Taking the mickey out of others

33. Asking people about their journey

34. Inability not to comment on how other people bring up their children

35. Jealousy of wealth and success

36. Being overly polite

37. Texting instead of calling

38. An inability to express our emotions

39. Obsession with the Royal Family

40. Fondness for mowing the lawn

41. Love of rambling through the countryside

42. A love of all things deep fried

43. Emulating celebrity lifestyles

44. Leaving things to the last minute

45. Irony

46. Keeping our homes neat and tidy

47. Take decisions and accept the consequences

48. Achieving against all odds

49. Wanting our sportsmen / teams to fail

50. DIY on a Bank Holiday

In a bad mood? Don't worry - according to research, it's good for you.

An Australian psychology expert who has been studying emotions has found being grumpy makes us think more clearly.

In contrast to those annoying happy types, miserable people are better at decision-making and less gullible, his experiments showed.

While cheerfulness fosters creativity, gloominess breeds attentiveness and careful thinking, Professor Joe Forgas told Australian Science Magazine.

The University of New South Wales researcher says a grumpy person can cope with more demanding situations than a happy one because of the way the brain "promotes information processing strategies".

Negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world Professor Joe Forgas

He asked volunteers to watch different films and dwell on positive or negative events in their life, designed to put them in either a good or bad mood.

Next he asked them to take part in a series of tasks, including judging the truth of urban myths and providing eyewitness accounts of events.

Those in a bad mood outperformed those who were jolly - they made fewer mistakes and were better communicators.

Professor Forgas said: "Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, co-operation and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking, paying greater attention to the external world."

The study also found that sad people were better at stating their case through written arguments, which Forgas said showed that a "mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style".

His earlier work shows the weather has a similar impact on us - wet, dreary days sharpened memory, while bright sunny spells make people forgetful.