Phase III & IV appreciation Tia Blunden grad project process book
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contents 7 intro 13 phase iii 20 iconography 50 testers 58 phase iii presentation 74 feedback 76 phase iv 84 messaging 90 identity 98 iterations 106 color 114 phrase crisis! 120 packaging 126 refinement 148 certified thanks (final presentation) 162 reflections
intro to increase the expression of appreciation for all the awesome people in our lives. In North America, the rates of depression have been increasing drastically over the last 50 years. In too many cases, this has lead to suicide. I believe that if we can increase the frequency of expression of appreciation we can increase overall happiness. This topic, appreciation is very broad, so I was figuring out where I wanted to concentrate on increasing our gratitude; for things, people, relationships, actions or services. so I soon decided to focus on appreciation intro of our relationships with other people and all of the things they do for us. So in my initial brainstorming sessions I began defining these relationships and figuring out which relationships I thought could benefit most from an increase in appreciation. I separated them into relationships with pets, friends, family, lovers, and strangers. As a result, I figured we could most extend our gratefulness to our relationships with strangers. We interact with so many people everyday, 7
but how often do we tell them how much we appreciate their help? If people could understand how much they are appreciated in their life, maybe this would give them a better sense of purpose and ultimately more satisfaction. Once I decided to focus on relationships with strangers I wondered if appreciation was really the problem or if it was the expression of this appreciation that we were most lacking. I asked many questions in the beginning stages of development. From Can design aid in making people happier without selling them a product? to Can design promote ways to express appreciation? My goal is to be able to say Yes. to these questions when I am done. This semester it is becoming increasingly more important that I am satisfied with the outcome and the development of the idea. I want to remind people of the benefits of these small easy actions, to bring understanding, and expression of appreciation. I don t want to inflict any feelings of guilt or fear. If you google the definition of appreciation, it is defined as the recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something or as an expression of admiration, approval, or gratitude. So what does gratitude mean? The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. and thankful is defined as the recognition of the benefits received. These basic definitions encouraged me to brainstorm the more abstract definitions of these words, and especially of the word expression. I was concerned with how this appreciation, or gratitude was already being expressed. I wanted to define the problems within the system so I could move forward with solutions of how we could better express this appreciation. In the end, it was decided that maybe we internally appreciate the actions people are often doing for us but we often lack expression of thankfulness. So my thesis is then, to increase the expression of appreciation between strangers. Expression is defined as the process of making one s thoughts or feelings known. I speculated that we do this: verbally, with our body language or facial expression, written in greeting cards, giving gifts it could be money, store-bought, or homemade, and through music and art. These have all been successful methods of communicating at times, but they are also vulnerable to becoming barriers for expression. While doing competitive research, the one campaign I thought was most similar to what I wanted to do initially was done by a student and was titled, the Workers Appreciation Campaign, it was basically a set of thank-you cards placed in the lobby of a building. It included small reminder posters, and it worked with the phrase Without Them.... This was quite simple to what I was expecting to do at first, so my first few concepts were variations of this theme. After thorough feedback in Phase II I was able to finally able to start moving forward with the idea of a campaign. It was still a very shaky process and my ideas took a long time to solidify and become concrete. In this book, you will be able to see how these ideas took shape in my notebook and hopefully begin to understand the reasoning behind my decisions. 8 9
Phase III 10 11
notebook 12 13
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iconography 22 23
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testers Take the extra second. Saying thank-you could make their day, and yours. TO GET WHAT YOU WANT, you ve got to appreciate what you already have. 52 53
show it feel it send it think it say it showit share it Try it Love it take it give it do it THINK it i serve over 200 people every day appreciation Gratitude 54 55
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Phase III appreciation Tia Blunden presentation
where were we? so now what? it s going to be a campaign! THANKS FOR HOLDING THE DOOR, BUT I M GOING TO BE LATE ANYWAYS. sarcastic thank-you cards uses sarcasm, insincerity, and backhanded compliments to force the reader to realize that maybe they shouldn t use that tone informative pamphlet for sharing informative brings social media sharing to life with stickers to post and like things, or share with friends why a campaign? target audience: teenagers 16-26 this is the best way to reach them gives me multiple points of contact and increases my chances of getting the point across binary book collection of stories takes two approaches to show the importance and value of expressing appreciation
showing your appreciation doesn t have to be this difficult. just say thanks. what s the point? to communicate the importance of appreciation to communicate how we can all benefit from more appreciation in our lives to basically just get people thinking about it more by making it cool, but not a joke so... started thinking about how this campaign would be applied considered a clothing line, or t-shirts Dear sir or madam, e would like to personally extend our appre- to you on the behalf of Tia Blunden, Wciation for excelling at continually clutching the portal for her on the dawning of October 25th, 2011. She is eternally grateful for your wonderful actions, and hopes to repay you for your services in the near future. Thank-you kindly.!$@* YOU VERY MUCH FOR WASHING MY DISHES FOR ME. Imagine a world with no gratitude. Show your appreciation. Take the extra second. Saying thank-you could make their day, and yours. but then... I got a little stuck. decided I don t really want to be selling anything besides the idea of appreciation goes against the idea of appreciating what you have & trying to be less materialistic
but I did like the idea of having a logo or symbol that would signify appreciation and link to the campaign and I saw this as an opportunity to finally start making something visual symbol goals simple targets 16-26 yr olds visualizes elements of appreciation such as: - it goes both ways (duplicity and karma) - it takes two people combining to create something new - how it can spread outward - uplifting, potentially relying on a previously established symbol
i serve over Giving back is as simple as, 200 people every day a thank-you GIVING BACK IS AS SIMPLE AS a nod still feeling a little? attempting to stay visual show it feel it send it think it say it showit share it Try it Love it take it give it do it back to writing... showit you look weak when you don t whatisit.com What is? What is? i t it wh what is it? Wh What is it? whatisit.com it is appreciation
THINK it appreciation Gratitude color palettes being considered right now, girly haven t implemented right now too much going on needs to be simplified make decisions about typefaces, slogan, logo, messaging, color palette, format scared of losing sight of messaging while visualizing
where does that leave me? campaign about appreciation includes: posters, pamphlet, buttons, magnets, stickers, facebook, twitter, website can combine different messaging tactics
show it feel it send it think it say it showit share it Try it Love it take it give it do it THINK it appreciation Gratitude thanks. { summary slide } What is? What is? i t it wh what is it? Wh What is it? whatisit.com it is appreciation
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