Expelling School Violence by Carolyn McCarron

It is such an important issue to talk about. School violence is a big thing that can’t be shorted in just a paragraph or two. I really think that this was a successful presentation maybe because I have kids and I wanted to know more about violence between children.

My opinion is that children can effect from every thing around us, their parents, friends and different media such as videogames, TV, Internet or even mobiles weather in good or bad way. Children of this new generation are having different behaviors than the old generation because of the changes around theme. I think that media is the most affect thing on them. They see such violence in TV or video games and try to apply it without knowing if this is right or wrong. Also, there are many researches have done in such issue and concluded that children who consumer high level of media violence is likely to be more aggressive in the real world.

For example, when the famous cartoon Pokémon started to show and spread all over the TV channel and even in videogames, children looked at it and try to copy what the see from violence and play with their friends the same way that they saw. Even the unrespectful seen they get effected by it.

In conclusion, a designer can change this violence because the visual image is a very important thing that can have an impact on the child, so designers can change the bad image on the child mind by communicate with them in the right way and attract them to see good and beautiful things which can be affected by them in very positive way.

links:

http://onlinepsychologyadvice.com/?p=35

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/violence/effects_media_violence.cfm

Ethical Design Education by Susan S. Szenasy

I think this is one of the best articles that I read about; it is a very important issue to us as a person and as a designers. Keeping our environment in our mind is a very important aspect especially to us “designer” because our field can change the world easily than any thing else. In the article, the author was talking about the Deterioration of our nature and how we as a designer must have ethical aspects to deal with this problems more.

The first thing comes to my mind is our environment here in Jeddah. Unfortunately, if you go to the beach, you can see trashes all over the place wherever you go and that is really make me very sad. If one person just clean up after himself, all the people will do the same thing. It is something embarrassing that such a country like this having all this technology and high economy with this dirties all around the street, malls, beach even next to garbage’s. 

As a result, changes that happened in our self’s can affect a lot of things around us.

Mental Whiplash by Leslie Becker

I really like this presentation; it’s about us as a graphic design student and how we can benefit from our projects and our teachers to improve our skills in the future. Students must be satisfied of any project that the teacher asked them to do it even if they didn’t like the project so they can have a challenging chance.

Regarding to what the presentation was talking about, teachers are the most impact elements on the students. If the teachers are more experiences and more welcoming to help the students in their designs and even the research, the students will become more responsible and have more chance to have a very successful design.

Talking about Dar AlHekma teachers especially in the graphic design major is really an important point that made a big debate between the students. Some of the teachers are not qualified enough to teach us because they only want to see what they like and not accepting what we like to do and that make the students more depresses and not proud of their works.

Finally, students in any working field must research well to have a good result and good project done based on a good research.

Reality Branding Addressing Real Concerns and Real Needs by Nancy Bernard

After this presentation I realized that branding is a big field that companies must have a strong strategy behind their branding. The more your company services is real and honest, the more your product is sell and successful. If the branding is successful, it will build a strong and good image on people’s mind and convince them in indirect cleaver message.

I think here in Saudi Arabia we are facing this problems of having many companies that build a good image in the people’s mind while this services is not real therefore they give bad reputation for the company. For example all the travel agencies here are following the same strategies for giving that kind of offers where you can travel to any country with less prices and when you go to their offices they tell you that the ad they did is not contains all the thing they want to say. By this way, they decrease their businesses because they weren’t honest in the services that they marketing for or promoting for.

In conclusion, being an honest company is increasing the businesses and gets a good image in the consumer. Also it is important to know and observe what is your client’s needed and be honest with them.

links:

http://www.realityinbranding.com/how-we-work/paint-the-picture/

Who Gets to Say What to Whom? by Maud Lavin

As a graphic designer, I believe that having a strong concept behind any design in any designs field is a very important aspect. The more your concept is strong, the more the design will be remembered. The strong concept can play a big roll of any successful project or design in any field.

I think that having a strong concept and bad design is not working because design and concept cannot work separately. If for example, a big company had a bad logo but their logo based on a strong concept behind it is not strong enough because people are judging visually from what they see, the company will not put a description of what their logo is about. That is what I mean by having really powerful concept and powerful visual design as well.

Finally, we as designers have to have that impact on people by our designs and try our best to achieve the point of having strong concept as well as strong designs in all graphic designs field. 

Socially Responsible Advertising Altruism or Exploitation? by Judith Schwartz

In our presentation, I was talking about Niche Marketers. Niche Marketers is when you have a special product with special characteristics and it is focusing on what you want to sell and tend to be idealist products

In the book, the author was talking about international brand that goes under this specific kind of marketing like The Body Shop company which considered famous with their beauty product and using natural things to satisfy their target audiences. They shared in many campaigns to keep the environmental clean by using these natural substances in their product

The local example that I have talked about in our presentation is Nectar. Nectar have many branches around KSA, and they are also very famous for their beauty product: perfumes, make up, shower jell and others. Women who are taking care of their body and skin and always want to be shine and fresh are their target audiences. Nectar has also the same way of The Body Shop in keeping the environment clean because they believe in their product and what the product contain of natural things

As a result, we can be socially responsible by doing small things that can change a lot of things around us

links:

http://trmep.tamu.edu/cg/factsheets/rm1-2.pdf

http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/values-campaigns/community-trade.aspx?

http://www.thebodyshop.com/_en/_ww/values-campaigns/defend-human-right.aspx?

Healing with Design An Educational Approach by Chase A. Rogers

This presentation was really good and successful because it is very relate to our field “ graphic design”. It is very important to know the main element of the design that makes the design work better and have impact on our bodies. Color, sound, light and image have different impact on our emotions, body and soul and it plays a major role in setting up a particular mood or state of mind and emotions as well. It can really affect people if they know how to use it or how to get benefit from.

From my point of view, sound and light can had that effect on the person weather this effect is positive or negative. For example: if you go to a spa center they always put on that kind of alternative music, with soft lights that you can feel relax and comfortable. Also, it can effect you body reactions like you hear it without feeling you are going to close your eyes or sleep as a result of listening to that kind of music. Furthermore, the kind of lighting that in the spa centers makes you feel more luxurious and make the person less stressed or nervous. That is why most of the people who want to get red of the stress is recommended to go to the spa centers.

Finally, all kind of art elements “sound, light, color or image” can obviously affect our body’s emotions and can affect us as a designer in our designs. Therefore, designer must take these elements into considerations and research about it more then apply it.

 links:

http://www.spasounds.com.au/c-4-traditional-relaxation.aspx

http://clubspa.spafinder.com/2010/04/spa-light-on-lomi-lomi-authentic-hawaiian-massage.html