Culture & Design

The popularity and hype of “Going Green” is a trend that has been shaping the market in the past few years, encouraging people to pursue a more environmentally friendly lifestyle, as well as becoming more aware and responsible for our ecological decisions. Its focus is on protecting the environment and sustaining its natural resources for our future generations. The “Go Green” campaigns have evolved from creating a healthier lifestyle for yourself and family to that of increasing popularity within business sector and consumer shopping trends. It has become an influential factor in our society and how we market and brand our products to reflect this new “Green” outlook.

Greenpeace “an independent, nonprofit, global campaigning organization that uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems and their causes” has produced a new online ad that targets those who are environmentally conscious, and those who want to see a “Greener” planet and who have a desire to bring recognition and awareness to current environmental issues. The campaign entitled “NEW RAINBOW WARRIOR” encourages supporters to take part in there cause in a new and innovative way, by actually purchasing a piece of the New Rainbow Warrior Ship, currently in production in Germany. With contribution you will receive a certificate of purchase, and your name will be added to the dedication wall on the ship itself as one of the Warriors who helped make the ship possible, and which in turn will be helping our planet Earth.

The design of the ad is reflective of today’s society for it takes into consideration our cultures increasing use of media devices and social media sites. The ad itself is an interactive website where you can view the architectural plans for the ship, as well as follow the construction live via a webcam that has been installed at the shipyard where the ship in under construction. The site also allows you to monitor the construction process for it updates its percentage of completion each time another contributor purchases a piece, allowing another section to be constructed. You also have the ability to search and see who has already contributed to the project Prominent links to both the projects facebook and twitter social media sites allowing you to share your interest in the project with other friends and family who may or may not express the same concerns as you, however this is a great way to inform people of an issue that you think is important to our society.

Overall I have learnt that when designing it is important to be aware of the trends and issues that are currently taking place within our society, for this will help you to better target your audience and understand what is important to them. Capitalizing on our social media sites is also a crucial marketing plan, for this is an opportunity to reach a large target market in a short amount of time. With our society so media savvy and dependant targeting this outlet with your designs will be crucial.

Media Usage Infographic

Over a 7 day period we were asked to record our media usage in different areas of our personal lives, and from there we would design an interesting graphic to represent the data collected. The following is my information graphic regarding my own personal media usage and judging my my records I feel that I am not as connected as many of my classmates probably are for there were many areas in which I do not participate in such a twitter, IM, and chat for example. This was an interesting assignment for I don't think we really know how much time we actually spend using these media vises on a daily basis.