During my free lesson today, I finally started to produce my logo. This turned out to be easier than I thought it would be due to the fact that the male and female symbols were already present in the "Custom shape tool." All i had to do was:

• Insert the shapes onto a new document
• Change their colour using the brush tool
• Draw an equal sign on top using the "Rectangle" tool
• Change the colour of the equal sign
• Add the text and make it curved using the "Warp text" tool

During the media lesson i continued with the magazine poster.

• I used the paint bucket to add the dark blue background
• I then created the title of the advert and placed it at bottom of the page
• Since i realised that the gold colour of the text would not stand out on "Alice's" pale yellow dress, i had to change the colour of the word "Man's" to the same dark blue as the background.

All i had left to do then was to add the logo and website in accordance with the previous two adverts.

In the lesson today i continued editing the billborad poster.

• I feathered the image of the trainers
• I then chose two shades of blue for the background of the billboard. The darker shade of blue on the right is the same as the one i used for the "Prince Immaculate" bus stop poster in order for the adverts to be consistent and actually look like they are part of one campaign.

• After that, I added the title of the advert ("Sandlerella") using the same font (Lucida Calligraphy) and the same font colour that i used previously for the bus-stop advert.
• Although I used the "Lucida Calligraphy" text for the writing on the dress, i had to change the colour of the text to dark blue because the gol colour did not stand out on the dress.

To finish off the advert, i will place the logo in the bottom right hand corner of the advert and the website on the left.

During a free lesson I took a picture of Miriam for my magazine poster of "Alice in Man's Land."

• After uploading the picture onto Photoshop, I cut out Miriam's figure with the magnetic lasso and pasted it onto a new document in order to get rid of the background
• I also used the "bright/contrast" adjustments to give her hair a lighter colour.
• I did not think that the black cardigan Miriam was wearing would suit the character of Alice, so i changed it's colour to pale yellow, and also used the "Artistic filters" to give it some texture so that it lookes realistic.

• I then outlined the image of the male teachers with the "magnetic lasso" and copied it onto a blank A4 document.
• I erased any small unecessary parts around the edges and feathered the image to make it look better against the background.

Today was the deadline for the planning folder, so during the lesson i completed the annotations on the Prince Immaculate "contact sheet," and generally finished my planning folder.
During my free lesson in the morning however, i started working on my billboard advert in Photoshop.

• I once again cut out the image of me wearing tracksuit and high-heels, and pasted it onto a new document.
• I then had quite a lot of diffculty trying to change the colour of the heels. Sam suggested that i should use the magnetic lasso tool to outline one shoe at a time, and them use the artistic filters to change their colours. I think the "Neo glow" filter shown in the print screen below is quite effective in making my high-heels look like like Cinderella's glass slippers.

• I then erased the pointy edge of the shoes to make them seem more like Cinderella's glass slippers.
• After using the "Neon-glow" Artistic filter on both the shoes, i cut out the picture of myself wearing trainers with a dress and transferred it onto the billboard document.

Today, i continued editing the "Prince Immaculate" picture in Photoshop.

• I had to erase any unnecessary parts of the image, such as the bit between his left arm. While doing this i accidently erased out part of Sam's shoes and the broom stick, which i then had to replace using the "clone stamp" tool.
• I then feathered the image to give Sam almost an angelic glow, which will emphaise his role as a fairytale prince.
• After that I changed the background of the poster to a navy blue colour as stated in my plan and added the title and the rhetorical question that can be seen on my sketch of the poster.

I still have to create the my logo, which i will put onto each of the adverts at the end.

I finally managed to take the "Prince Immaculate" picture today, which i think turned out quite well. Even Sam said he looked quite similar to the "prince" in my sketch. During today's last lesson, i started to work on the image in Photoshop. Since i have not used Photoshop before, i am currently finding it quite difficult to come to terms with it. It took almost the whole lesson to outline Sam's figure using the "magnetic lasso" tool, in order to copy it onto a seperate document!

I will be taking one of the Media departement cameras home over the weekend to retake the Cinderella images for my billboard advert, as they turned out quite blurry when i took them with my camera phone.

Today, i was supposed to take the photo of Sam for my "Prince Immaculate" bus stop advert. I had the apron with me, and had also asked the canteen kitchen staff permission to burrow a broom during the lesson, but i was not able to get hold the crown i needed. I asked David (theatre studies teacher) to burrow a crown from the Performing Arts department, but the head of the department who has the keys to the stock room was not in college today. Therefore, i will take the photo during last lesson tommorrow.
During today's lesson i will sketch the logo for my campaign on paper.

I also found another logo, this time specifically for sexual disrcimination, which i quite liked.

I like the simplicity of this advert, since it gets the message of sexual discrimination across to the audience without even the use of any text. However, for my own logo i have to include the title of my campaign.

Today, i looked at different fonts in Microsoft Word, and produced a document on typography, giving reasons why i thought the fonts were either suitable or unsuitable for my adverts.

I also transferred the pictures i took for my billboard advert over the holidays, onto the computer. However, i realised that since i had taken the pictures with my camera phone, they were not very clear when enlarged on the computer screen. Therefore, i will have to take the photos again using a digital camera.

Over the holidays, i produced sketches of all three of my adverts, which i will be putting into my planning folder, and annotated them. As well as helping me to put my ideas down on paper in the form of images, these sketches have given me an idea of the approximate scale of the text and all the different images for each advert. I now have to decide on the exact font i will use for the text on the adverts, and also produce a sketch of my campaign logo.

During todays lesson, i looked at some campaign logos to find out what the important aspects of logos are and what a logo generally requires.


This is an example of an extremely simple black-and-white logo.

As the image on the left shows, logos are usually circular with the title around the edge or within the circle.

Although this logo immediately informs people about the purpose of the campaign, i think for my own logo i will use of more interesting design and also some colour

• This is yet another simple logo for a campaign against drink driving. The coloured streaks represent the yellow and red cards people are issued with for committing a crime while under the influence of alcohol.


• However, unlike the previous logo, the purpose of the campaign is not clear from looking at the logo. There is not mention of crime, or alcohol on the logo
  
  



• I think this logo consists of far too much text and people would have difficulty reading it all from far. Therefore, i will probably just include the name of my campaign on my logo.
  
  The logo has a colour scheme consisting of green, navy blue and orange. This has reminded that i will also have to choose a coulour scheme for my logo.




• Personally, i like this logo, since it is simple, yet effective.


• Unlike the first logo i analysed, it uses three colours (white, black and green)
  
• The title of the campaign is in bold and stands out.
  
• There is a twist in the image, as the bracnhes and trunks of the tree seem to represent people celebrating. This image encourages the audience to consider joining the campaign, by connoting the idea of people keeping the world happy by protecting nature.

Today i continued with my written plan in lesson. I also found out the size of my billboard advert on the internet and measured a magazine to include the intended size of my magazine poster inmy plan.
I have also started to act on my plan by asking Sam whether he would participate in one of my adverts. Outside the lesson I asked my friend to ask her sister whether i could use her as a model for my magazine poster. If i receive a positive answer, i will take the image of the "Alice" in my advert over the forthcoming holidays. I will also take the two images i need for my biilboard advert over the frothcoming holidays, since i will use myself as the model for that.
And finally, college is finishing in about 10 mins! Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Started working on my 500 word written plan today. For now i have started to describe what i will include in each of the adverts and where they will be featured. I have been told that for the plan it is essential to find out the exact sizes we want our adverts to be. So i am planning to measure a magazine in the lesson tomorrow, and also find out the size of a billboard from the internet.

In order to gain a better ides of what a campaing requires and some inspiration for my own campaign, i tried to research some already existing campaigns that aimed to raise awareness of sexism. I browsed the following websites:

• http://www.umich.edu/~sapac/ (Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center)
• http://www.nsvrc.org/saam/ (Sexual assault awarness month)

However, i could not find any charities that were specifically focused on raising awarness of sexual discrimination. By the end of the lesson, i eventually found the follwing website, which was of a "Unit" working to "combat sexism in all its forms and to ensure that women’s voices are heard and valued."

• www.officeronline.co.uk/women

I previously thought that we had to use the logo af an already-existing charity or campaign, but after asking Sarah, i found out that we have to create our own logos.

Today i researched some statistics for sexism, which i cud perhaps use in my advertising. On the following website i found that 21% of women experience sexual descrimination in the workplace.

www.socialistworker.org/2003-2/475/475_07_SexistBacklash.shtml

I have printed and higlighted a page from this website, which i will include in my planning folder.

I printed and annotated some information from the "Women and equality unit" website, which i will also include in my planning folder.As Sam was away, Sarah told us to check her blog in order to find out what to do for our next deadline (which is this FRIDAY). Our next task is of a 500 word plan on describing exactly what our product is going to consist of and how we intend to produce it.

After finishing my brief, and asking Sam to check it, I uploaded it onto Moodle. I then continued searching for adverts from campaigns against sexism.

• This advert uses bold text in order to make the message of "equal rights" clear to the audience. At first glance i thought the arm on the left side of the advert belonged to a man, but on further examination, i found that it actually appeared to be a females, arm.
• The connotation of this is the female "community" sticking together against sexism
• The use of shallow focus, to blur the image of the man in the background, emphasises this concept and also draws more attention to the women, almost making them seem superior.
• The pink costume of one of the females, emphasises her femininity, adding to the purpose of the advert

• Although on first glance this appeares to be a billboard advert promoting a television company, it is actually part of a campaign in Lebanon to assert that women do not have to reflect the idealistic concept of the perfect woman in order to have self-esteem


• The campaign is sponsored by the 'Dicon' (a television company) and the use of the word "Flat" is extremely effective as it has a double meaning. As well as descirbing the flat-screen TV, it is also a reference to the flat-chested model, indicating that flat-chested women can also be beautiful.

Today i finally started to write my brief. After having only described ONE of the adverts i am intending to produce for my campaign, i realised that i have already used up 245 of the total of 500 words allocated to our brief! Suppose i have to cut down on my words, some how!

Today, i tried to research adverts that are specificly used to oppose sexism. I actually found it quite difficult to find adverts for such campaigns, and only managed to find two adverts today.

This advert is part of a campaign to prevent sexual discrimination against women working in air lines. The image of the woman and the plane in the background, coupled with the “No sexual discrimination” sign inform the audience at first glance that the aim of the advert is to appeal for a stop to sexual discrimination against women in this particular sector of work. The use of the “ban sign” although simple, is very effective, as it immediately gets the message of the campaign advert across to the audience.

Although this image is not part of an advertising campaign, I still feel that it breaks the conventional view of women. A weapon that is usually associated with men is given the feminine touch simply by changing its colour to pink. This image has prompted me to consider using items that are usually associated with one gender, and portraying them as unisex objects in my own advertising campaign.

I found another advert today, which portrayed females stereotypically.

The main purpose of this advert is to make the product "Noxzema" (some type of body product) appealing to women. However, in their attempts to do so, the creators of this advert have suggested that it is necessary for women to look beautiful in order to be noticed. The animated character on the advert, has a noticeably slim figure, indicating that the symbol of real beauty is a slim body figure. Although the blue background of the advert can be seen as a positive sign for women- since the colour blue is usually associated with men- the use of blue in this case, coupled the "construction site" sign, can be seen as offensive to blue collar workers, who are stereotyped as "women-crazy" men.

After analysing the advert for “Noxema” I started to research adverts for products and companies, in which women were not stereotyped. Finding and analysing such adverts will give me ideas on how to depict women in a non-conventional way when I finally start to plan my own campaign.

• A motorbike- a vehicle usually associated with males- is being promoted here by the use of a female model.
• The fact that she is using the motorbike as a mirror to apply mascara exposes her femininity through the rough exterior.
• The costume of the model is complementary to the image of the motorbike and the promotional subject of the advert.
• The lack of colour is also relevant to this particular advert, as it enhances the image of biker gang.
• Colloquial language (“Blah, blah, blah”) is used to make the advert appealing to the audience, who are most likely people in their late teens and their twenties.

• (The advert is supposed to be joined as one, but i am unable to put publish both the pieces side to side)
• Not only is this advert as anti-sexist portrayal of women in the work place, but it is also a good example of anti-racism and anti-ageism.
• The long shot of what seems to be some sort of corridor allows a large diversity of people to be portrayed in the advert.
• Having a female in the foreground diminishes any stereotypes of male domination in the workplace.
• The idea of having some people in the foreground while some in the background is perhaps something I could consider when creating my own adverts, as it can give a sense of power and control to people.
  
• 
  
• Through the use of quite lengthy text, these adverts show the two sides to most modern women; the conventional feminine side that dreams of “knights in shining armour,” and the completely independent side.
• The colour scheme of both adverts is quite dark, giving the models a mysterious look, and hence suggesting the enigma of women who choose to buy a “Diamond right hand ring.”
  
• It is worth noticing that these adverts belong to the same company, ‘A Diamond Is Forever’, whose advert I have analysed previously. The major difference between the previous advert and this set of adverts is the target audience. Whereas these adverts are aimed at women and therefore use female models, the text on the advert for males, appeared to be speaking directly to men.
  
• Likewise, I will also have to use models and language that is relevant to my target audience.

Today we had a lesson in the dingy, depressing, windowless room in the art block. We looked through and analysed some adverts as a class and were then left to do some independant research. I have decided to do an advertising campaign on sexism. Since I think that a major purpose of a campaign against sexism would be to break any stereotypical views of women, or even men, I first need to find out how such stereotypes are projected to people through advertising. In order to do so, today I will find and analyse some adverts, which may unintentionally portray sexist stereotypes, while promoting particular products or companies.

• This advert is promoting diamond jewellery from a company called "A Diamond Is Forever."
• It is targetted at a male audience who are provoked to buy diamond jewellery for their girfriends, wives etc.
• In its attempt to persuade the audience to buy the jewellery, the advert actually sterotypes women as being materialistic.
• In terms of format the advert is actually quite plain. The background is completely black with white contrasting writing on it which stands out.
• The image of the diamond bracelet is extremely small at the top, while the writing is at eye level, grabbing the attention of the audience immediately.
• In my campaign I could also perhaps use writing to make my point clear to the audience instead of just using imagery.
  
  
  

Unlike the previous advert, this advert for "sweaters" uses an image to portray a stereotype of women as being weak and dependant. The reason for depicting the female population in this way is not necessarily to undermine them, but to increase the confidence of men by portraying them as strong. As my campaing will be about sexism, i could use a similr image, but reverse the gender roles.

• This set of adverts for “Slim Fast” use a wedding scenario to expose the weight concerns that women supposedly have prior to their wedding day.
• The wedding cake, the figures of the bride and groom and the decorative backgrounds emphasise the situation portrayed.
• The adverts use humorous images, which invite the female audience to question their own weight and any issues it may cause in their own lives.
• A good technique used here is a rhetorical question at the bottom of the advert, next to which there is an image of the “Slim Fast” drink, suggesting that it is the answer to women’s weight issues.
• Since my aim for this coursework is to produce an advertising campaign, all of my adverts will have to be consistent like this set of adverts.

Last lesson of the week with Sam. He went through a presentation about textual analysis and the different things we need to include in our blog and how it will help us write the brief. He also showed us some advertising campaigns, and familiarised us with the socio-economic groups, which we will be important when we consider our target audience. I have changed my mind, and have decided to create an advertising campaign rather than a magazine.
The first thing i need to do is research and analyse some adverts, to familiarise myself with the codes and conventions of adverts and what they should ocntain. I started to analyse some adverts in a Microsoft Word document, which i will include in my planning folder.

Today we were introduced to our coursework in lesson and i created my blog for homework. I am thinking of perhaps creating a magazine for teenagers for my coursework.