Friday 23 September 2011

Major Project: Concept Development: Swapping - Better Than Ownership

Through out major project research l have developed many concept on the way to the right one. The first one l have worked on was Better Than Ownership campaign, which carried my explorations to another level. The concept behind those series of posters was to give the audience the idea of strong and well connected Swapping network, however the language was too formal considering brand's service field. Yet, the layout was the stepping stone of the final concept and branding guidelines constitute themselves during the process.




Thursday 22 September 2011

Swapping International Organisation: Promotion Posters

Swapping International Organisation was a complex project with multiple aspects, however promotional posters played a critical role while l was building the whole concept. The key point in both posters design was to create a human-friendly approach for a newly launching organisation and capture harmony between two sections: Individual and Retail. I have designed the posters double sided in order to be environmentally friendly, they can be folded into eight B5's and create a small catalog explaining organisations big idea: collaborative consumption. The colour palette formed itself during the design process, I decided to use spot colours to underline Swapping's warm and modern spirit and I was extremely careful to carry the same illustration language on other tools of the campaign like Swapping branding and orientation booklets.

Swapping's typography was very important, in this project the illustrations are the headlines so l didn't want types to block it. To avoid this situation l choose a typeface which has a nice rhythm with the main language and l switched it a little to make it more coherent with the design. 
All in all, Swapping was a very enjoyable project to work on, and l strongly believe that it will play an important part on my portfolio. It helped me to build my own illustration style and allowed me to experiment with the shapes, colours and  characters. Most importantly, l learned how you can blend your design knowledge and get different results from experiences.


Swapping International Organisation: Critical Reflection

Research
The main idea behind my Major Project was to develop a solution, which takes a human ‘centered,’ design ‘based’ approach to helping both individuals and organizations in the public sector innovate and grow. After developing two projects concerning environmental issues, l believe that l have improved a certain level of accumulation of knowledge about social problems, especially natural contamination. In this manner, I strongly believe that design is a way of thinking and it should be a deeply human process that taps into abilities that we all have but overlooked by more conventional problem ‘solving’ practices. It should motivate our ability to be more intuitive and responsible by constructing ideas that are emotionally meaningful as well as functional, and to express ourselves through means beyond words or symbols. Considering those facts, I have narrowed my research to particularly environmentally concerned issues and changing human behaviours.

At this point of my research, I have decided to create a solution over the using up of resources, a global problem, that can only be solved by changing our approach about the way we consume goods. Subsequently l discovered the movement of Collaborative Consumption, which is a social revolution that allows people to create value out of shared and open resources in ways that balances personal self-interest with the good of the larger community. When I focused my investigation to this subject, I find out that, the term is used to describe an economic model based on sharing, swapping, bartering, trading or renting access to products as opposed to ownership. Nowadays, technology and peer communities are enabling these old market behaviors to be reinvented in ways and on a scale never possible before. From enormous market places such as eBay and Craigslist, to emerging sectors such as social lending, peer-to-peer travel and car sharing, Collaborative Consumption is an amazing way of disrupting outdated models if business and reinventing not just what people consume but how they consume it.

Planning
From my point of view, the only problem about this well constructed ideology is the lack of design thinking. My research proofed me that, the movement has been generated mainly by social innovators, strategists, economists, speakers and consultants with no contribution of any designers. For that reason, when I met with Collaborative Consumption, besides its groundbreaking context, it was not in a marketable state. Therefore, the most successful brands start an ongoing dialogue with people through a compelling mix of seamlessly connected products, experiences, spaces and digital interactions, that fosters curiosity, trial, love and loyalty.

Operating from this perspective, l decided to use a mix of analytical tools and generative techniques to design how Collaborative Consumption operations can look in the future and I build road maps for getting there. My goal is to deliver appropriate, actionable, and tangible strategies, resulted by new, innovative avenues for growth that are grounded in business viability and market desirability. Mean time, the main inadequacy of the movement was an effective brand value, which is essential for building meaningful relationships with customers that evolve over time. Consequently, I came up with a catchy, dynamic and expressive name: Swapping.

Design Concept
After I finished writing bylaws and constitutions of Swapping International and planned my road map for the rest of the journey, l started developing the Swapping design concept, my true purpose was to design an identity that can express brand position through every available touch point. In this manner, l started with forming an approachable, warm and distinctive color palette, and Swapping International Organization’s official font family, which combines various type faces in harmony. This process helped me deeply to construct a logotype, forming from the crucial points of Swapping, like: time, money and space.

Through out my research, l observe that the main issue of the Collaborative Consumption was to providing platforms for building trust between strangers. Therefore, it was essential for me to craft a humanize system, that will give target audience the comfort and confidence to move beyond prejudgements and really innovate. Thus, l decided to support Swapping design concept with sets of illustrations, both for emphasizing the importance of the Big Society, that Swapping aims to build and increasing customer engagement and participation.

Concept Testing
When I completed the Swapping International’s brand structure and design concept, l tested my solution on organization’s target audience. Since the main tool of the Swapping campaign is online applications, l put together simple surveys to observe the average social network user’s profile. The profile l ended up with lead me to divide Swapping target audience into three sections, which are mainly: Generation Z, between age 12 to 17; Generation Y between age 18 to 40 and finally Generation X between age 41 to 62. Considering this evidence, l exhibited Swapping International branding solutions to selected subjects from three different age groups. When Generation Z was enjoying the colorful illustrations, Generation Y was focusing on the technical aspect of the network, meanwhile Generation X was more interested in the social opportunities and outcomes for the bigger picture. This survey proofed me that the Swapping identity can speak to variety of audiences from different age groups and backgrounds.

Moreover, the concept testing gave me a clear mission about developing another delivery model, which is Swapping Retail. The retail section of the organization will focus on creating a business community and shops, that individuals can swap their excessive goods, time or money and experience Swapping adventure in a real environment besides the online applications. Swapping International Organization’s supporting elements are also essential to launch a successful brand. When an individual or shop owner signed in with Swapping through Website, an orientation package will deliver to their home or shop in short period.

For retail section the package will contain a welcome letter with a Swapper card, a booklet explaining the movement of Swapping, constitutions and bylaws of the organization, a promotional poster and a flayer guiding them how to get more involved with the organisation. Individuals will also receive a welcome letter with a Swapper card, constitutions and bylaws of the organization, a promotional poster explaining the movement of Swapping and again a flayer guiding them how to get involved. In conclusion, Swapping orientation package have every necessary element to help the receivers to adopt the essence of the ideology and take action.

Conclusions
While l was searching about Collaborative Consumption examples, I was so surprised by the quantity of the companies adopting this movement. From product service systems to redistribution markets, there are hundreds of renting, sharing or swapping options all over the world. The only negative aspect about this situation is the lack of communication and organization among those companies, that is where Swapping International comes in to action. The constitution of the organization intended to bring all the companies under the same roof to help them develop effective solutions, create not only services, but also the entire system that supports the basics of Collaborative Consumption in a practical, culturally appropriate, and scalable way. By embracing the Swapping ideology, companies are better able to interpret people’s needs in new ways for the development of innovative, financially and sustainable solutions.

I strongly believe that changing our behavior patterns is essential to reach permanent solutions over hyper-consumption. Yet, we are moving beyond an era of defining ourselves by the goods we possess. Now we express who we are by what we join, sharing what we are doing, what we are reading, what we are interested in, the groups we belong to, and who our friends are. We are feeding our social self, the part that seeks connection and belonging with collaborative actions. During the process of the project the success of the main idea was confirmed by those powerful roots that Collaborative Consumption has been built on.

Furthermore, if I were to do a similar project again l would pay particular attention to developing an effective online collaboration and activism between the organization and its target audience. I would like to establish a global network of creative, conscientious thinkers considered different ways of engaging people in community challenges. Providing an open platform for Swapping users and creative thinkers can design better, together where all contributions will be used to help address some of the toughest problems faced by modern society. Eventually Collaborative Consumption is all about creating value. Any kind.

References
Books

Bell, G. (2009) Building Social Web Applications: Establishing Community At The Heart of Your Site, O’Reilly
Bingaman-Burt, K. (2010) Obsessive Consumption: What Did You Buy Today, Princeton Architectural Press
Botsman, R. & Rogers, R. (2010) What’s Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, Harper Business
Gansky, L. (2010) The Mesh: Why The Future of Business Is Sharing, Portfolio Hardcover
Haque, U. (2011) The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business, Harvard Business Press
Howard, T. (2010) Design to Thrive: Creating Social Networks And Online Communities, Morgan Kaufmann
Liedtka, J. & Ogilvie, T. (2011) Designing For Growth: a Design Thinking Toolkit, Colombia University Press
Porter, J. (2008) Designing For The Social Web, New Riders Press
Shirky, C. (2011) Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers Into Collaborators, Penguin Press
Walljasper, J. & McKibben, B. (2010) All That We Share: How To Save The Economy, New Press

Websites
NESTA, Collaborative Consumption In Action
Available from: http://www.nesta.org.uk/
assets/events/collaborative_consumption_in_action

Open Source, Collaboration And Technology
Available from: http://opensource.com/
life/11/5-collaborative-consumption

RSA, The Rise of Collaborative Consumption
Available from: http://www.thersa.org/
events/audio-and-past-events/2011/

Shareable, Collaborative Consumption
Available from: http://shareable.net/blog/
What’s Mine Is Yours, Collaborative Fund
Available from: http://www.collaborativefund.com/
What’s Mine Is Yours, Collaborative Hub
Available from: http://collaborativehub.com/
What’s Mine Is Yours, The Collaborative Lab
Available from: http://thecollaborativelab.com/
Where We Blog, Collaborative Consumption
Available from: http://whereweblog.wordpress.com/
2011/07/29/collaborative-consumption/

Wikipedia, Collaborative Consumption Origins
Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Collaborative_consumption

Wikipedia, Social Peer-To-Peer Processes
Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer

Articles
Bauwens, M. (October 7, 2010) Offline Sharing Economy, P2P Foundation
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/New%20Study.ShowFoundation.pdf
Botsman, R. (November 1, 2010) Shared Access to Replace Ownership, CNN
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/Sharing%20is%20replacing%CNN.pdf
Bryant, B. (February 7, 2011) Internet Hiring is The New Buying, London Evening Standard
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/buzz/Don%20t%20splash%20the.pdf
Clinton, L. (November 12, 2010) Developing Collaborative Economies, Good
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/buzz-and-press/Forget%20the%20AmericanGOOD.pdf
Dobbie, P. (April 11, 2011) Consumption You Can Share, BNET
Available from: http://www.bnetau.com.au/blog/aussierules/consumption-you-can-share-btalk/7254
Flintoff, J. (February 6, 2011) The Smart Way To Live, The Sunday Times
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/assets_c/2011/02/SundayTimes-377.php
Frean, A. (December 30, 2010) Social Network Generation In The Driving Seat, The Times
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/Times%20of%20London%2C.pdf
Gebilagin, L. (April 16, 2011) All About Me - We, CLEO Magazine
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/buzz/All_About_Me_We_CLEO.pdf
Green, M. (March 28, 2011) Share And Share Alike, The Age Magazine
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/buzz/hare_and_share_alike_SMH.pdf
Hickman, L. (June 14, 2011), The End of Consumerism, The Guardian.
Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jun/14/collaborative-consumption
Howell, A. (January 4, 2011) General Aviation Needs A Zipcar Of The Air, Forbes Magazine
Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/wheelsup/general-aviation-needs-a-zipcar
Knight, A. (March 16, 2011) Co-ops Make a Comeback, Sydney Morning Herald
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/buzz-and-press/Co-ops%20make%20a%20comeback.pdf
Macken, D. (March 5, 2011) Sharing Is The New Shopping, The Weekend Australian Financial
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/buzz/Sharing_is_the_new_shopping.pdf
Mueller, A. (November 30, 2010) Share And Share Alike, Project Magazine
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/buzz-and-press/RB_PROJECT.pdf
Rowan, D. (February 4, 2011) The New Ownership In The Network Age, Wired Magazine
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/Rentalship_WiredUK_Feb11.pdf
Sacks, D. (April 18, 2011) The Sharing Economy, Fast Company Magazine
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/buzz/The%20Sharing%20Economy.pdf
Schumpeter, H. (June 27, 2011), The Bottom of The Pyramid, Wired Magazine.
Available from: http://www.economist.com/node/18863898?story_id=18863898&fsrc=rss.pdf
Sheridan, B. (December 9, 2010) Online Rental Markets Are Thriving, Bloomberg Business Week
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/Online%20Rental%BusinessWeek.pdf
Shapley, H. (April 21, 2011) Consumers Share In Savings, Bankrate
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/buzz-and-press/Borrow%20%20barter%20or%20share%20to%20save.pdf
Stround, S. ( May 2, 2011) Rent Your Neighbor’s Ride, Sustainable Industries Magazine
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/buzz-and-press/Rent%20your%20neighbor%20s%20ride%20Sustainable%20Industries.pdf
Walsh, B. (December 9, 2010) Trend Alert: Collaborative Consumption, Time Magazine
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/Trend%20Alert%21%2.pdf
Webster, F. (March 21, 2011) Can I Switch Shopping for Swapping, Daily Express
Available from: http://www.collaborativeconsumption.com/switch_shopping_for_swapping.pdf

Swapping International Organisation: Project Brief

Introduction
The convergence of social technologies, a renewed belief in the importance of community, pressing environmental concerns, and cost consciousness are moving us away from the old top-heavy, centralized, and controlled forms of consumerism toward one of sharing, aggregation, openness, and cooperation. We now live in a global village where we can mimic the exchanges that used to take place used to take place face-to-face but on a scale and in ways that has never been possible before. The inherent efficiency of the Internet, combined with its ability to create trust between strangers, has created an unbound marketplace for efficient exchanges between producer and consumer, lender and borrower, and neighbour and neighbour, with no middlemen in between. This ideology is called Collaborative Consumption, a big shift from the 20th century, a time defined by hyper-consumption; to a 21st century age of commons.

Yet, social networks are an indispensable part of our lives; we are sharing our personal pictures, hours of videos or politic opinions at online platforms. In this manner, my original idea was to create software that will connect all the networks we are using into one common platform and channel people to swap or share their experiences, time, objects, events and many other things. In order to make a radical difference and speak to a larger audience, I am treating this project as a campaign with a complex structure.

Better Than Ownership
We are communicating in new ways. We are more connected to each other more than ever before and it’s opening a very real and new mode of possibilities. The Internet is now truly global, you can use it to send your mother flowers or a computer virus, in every case it changes the way our society speaks and swapping is the language. As it often is revolutionary ideas are not so distinct at the surface but if you look passed that it is a complex system interconnecting every single element of the brand concept with accessibility to everybody through variety of medias. With swapping we aim to create a two-way dialogue and change the perception of consumer and the brand to consumer over the brand. Together lets create a new system called Swapping…

Design Objectives
The proposition for the project is to develop a fresh solution, which will help people get awareness about hyper-consumption. Therefore, I am designing an identity for Swapping, to make this abstract term more tangible, place it into our daily lives and give it a real brand value. In this manner, what I am trying to communicate is the trend of the 21st century, collaborative consumption, peer-to-peer revolution based on trust because I strongly believe that this ideology is not temporary and it will help us to live a more sustainable lifestyle.

Target Audience/Market
I decided to separate the campaign into two main sectors, which are “individual” and “retail”. The Individual component of the campaign is at the centre because the main purpose is to offer a practical, culturally appropriate, scalable, and sustainable solution that will create a chain among people. And the retail sector is going to be a part of private companies CSR policy and a platform that will support the campaign and make it more accessible for individuals. Moreover, each sector will have its own design elements and business plans in order to address them properly. To expand my research and see what I am dealing with, I put together a survey of social network users, which gave me clear focus of my target audience. According to online activities, age groups, ethnics and language, I divided the individual section of the campaign into three different age groups. Moreover all the age groups have different interests and they all require different treatment. Consequently my target audience ranking is the following:

a. Individuals
a.1. Generation Z 12 to 17
a.2. Generation Y 18 to 40
a.3. Generation X 40 to +62
b. Retail - Local & Charity Shops

Competitors
There is no similar campaign focusing on collaborative consumption, so far. Authors, sociologist, ecologists and economist have produced the research related to the subject, and despite it’s great potential, it has not been developed as a design communication concept until now.

Design Elements
The deliverables will be developed during the research, however the must haves are the following:
1. Branding, a catchy identity for the abstract ideology.
2. Launching campaign with printed promotional materials.
3. Interface design - to connect social networks to each other.
4. Booklet that will explain the ideology and introduce people to the brand.
5. Packaging design, for both individuals and shop owners.

Project Plan
I produced, analyzed and developed my research and branding during May, June and July, and tested my concept on target audience. Currently I am concentrating on developing Swapping deliverables. Moreover, my plan is to finish my project around 25th of August to be safe because the printing process might take more than I have planned. Consequently, the whole Swapping project will be ready for submission before the deadline.

For More Information
Swapping Research.7
http://dilsahdesigndiary.blogspot.com/2011/
07/major-project-final-research-swapping.html

Swapping Research.6
http://dilsahdesigndiary.blogspot.com/2011/
07/major-project-concept-development.html

Swapping Research.5
http://dilsahdesigndiary.blogspot.com/2011/
06/major-project-concept-development.html

Swapping Research.4
http://dilsahdesigndiary.blogspot.com/2011/
06/major-project-research-social-networks.html

Swapping Research.3
http://dilsahdesigndiary.blogspot.com/2011/
06/major-project-research-gotta-share.html

Swapping Research.2
http://dilsahdesigndiary.blogspot.com/2011/
06/major-project-research-more.html

Swapping Research.1
http://dilsahdesigndiary.blogspot.com/2011/
06/major-project-research-collaborative.html

Sunday 17 July 2011

Major Project: Final Research - Swapping Project Plan

So here is the my final project mapping and path way for the major project. My main goal is to developing an innovative language rather than designing all the items below. However, I will try my best to finish them all in time. Moreover I came with a copy for the Swapping concept, which explains the basic principles of the ideology to the target audience, I am hoping to use it on promotion materials during my further concept developments. All in all the new Swapping slogan is "Better Than Ownership!". I am glad with my recent progress, hope I can finish all design elements on time.

Major Project, Collaborative Consumption Brand, Swapping, Map, Vol. 11

Major Project: Concept Development - Swapping!

Currently I'm thinking that I am done with the research process for the major project. In this manner, I have started to focus on necessary concept developments for the Swapping project. I feel that the major project should be the signature, the stepping stone for my portfolio, that is why it is crucial for me to get out of my comfort zone and create something that I have never done before. Unfortunately with the designs below, I couldn't achieve that goal yet, so I am still working on the concept research, however I believe that they were necessary steps for research to figure out how my results look like.

Swapping, Illustration for Store Glasses, Sticker

I decided to design two separate web sites, which are mainly focusing on individuals and retail. Therefore, swapping is the language of the 21st century, it is aiming confident, caring and open minded people, so the interface design must reflect this spirit to its users. My illustration approach is more close to the vintage style with my color palette and shapes, therefore I changed my mind about using illustrations with the design concept. I will try to develop a more typographic language for the project.

Swapping, Web Site Home Page, Individual


While I was working on the layouts below and above, I figure out that merging all social networks in one platform is quiet challenging because of the lack of space and distinguishing the lines between different platforms. That is why I decided to design a separate interface to create more user-friendly network. Consequently, Swapping brand needs a totally innovative, futuristic, and a peculiar language in order to speak to the right audience. From this point I will focus on designing a voluble typographic language and build my concept around this modern language.

Swapping, Web Site Home Page, Retail