In the words of David Bowie: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Today we had a lecture/meeting about the proposed changes to the DJCAD programme structure, with several members of the academic faculty present, along with students from Textiles, Jewellery and Metalwork and Interior and Environmental Design - although a substantial amount of JMD students were unavailable due to course commitments. 

Firstly I'd like to point out to those who read this who study in a different discipline from myself that I voiced several issues from the IED perspective - some of which are not entirely my personal issues with the changes, but are talked about in great depth amongst my fellow classmates during studio time. However, after kicking up sh*t for a meeting so we could all be properly informed about the changes - people suddenly lost their voice when it came to voicing these aforementioned concerns. 

Enter Shona. 

When busy people such as Andy Milligan (our head of IED) and Jonathan, along with Mike and Frances from Textiles give up time out of their busy days to give us a chance to question all these changes - why does the powerful voice heard so much in class suddenly evaporate as if it never existed? In fact, people changed their tune in front of the masses - but yet back in the studio, the same moans and groans can still be heard. It made me feel like the big bad wolf from IED in that lecture and left me less than impressed with the lack of voice when it mattered. 

Frustrating.

Although I can see that everyone stands to benefit from the proposed change (use of other facilities, and knowledge from other disciplines etc.), it will always feel somewhat of an odd choice of grouping. Yes "craft" may be taken as a term meaning to belong to a creative profession, it's just craft in it's main sense is rarely what we do. I don't know what my personal distaste for the word "craft" is, I just don't like it. Perhaps it's because I "use software or computers and stuff" - the irony of being described as that amused me, as this was said while trying to convince me IED is a craft. Furthermore, having even more people using the woodwork workshop will probably render our furniture module obsolete as space is already an issue during this project - which ironically is the IED project that has the strongest tie to the damned "craft" word that's getting banded about. 

Another thing that is bothering IED more than the other disciplines is the loss of our first year. A huge amount is learnt during this crucial learning curve, and, on thinking back to the knowledge I came in with and the level of IED we are currently at now - it is difficult to expect newcomers to maintain 2nd-4th year levels when only entering in their second year. The "T" shaped graph of knowledge that was talked about is all very well, but we struggle to get our projects complete as it is. We have for example just been given an extension over the Easter break to accommodate for the masses of work within our discipline that is due, let alone a module here and there based in other fields. I guess what I am ultimately concerned for is the final outcome of our degrees, and not just for our individual years, but the course as a whole - by giving us these new options and opportunities to learn new skills across varying areas, are we diluting our specialised knowledge and therefore jeopardising the strength and quality in each field come degree show? This isn't even just from an IED perspective, the same goes for all disciplines.

It feels like a car sales man's trying to persuade me, sell it to me, make me think it's good - when really we've all got a sinking feeling and a knot in our stomaches, wether it's voiced or not.

I'm scared all courses will end up a mish mash of several inter disciplinary modules that leave you graduating a jack of all trades, master of none - and I don't think anybody, from any field, would like this to happen to what they are passionate about.

Techmas: Jesus? Who The Hell Is He - Where's My iPad!

It seems these days people are obsessed with gadgetry. iPhones, iPads, iPods, Blackberrys, HTC handsets, laptops, netbooks, PDAs, bluetooth headsets, computer chips in your head that communicate for you from your bed...the list is virtually endless. Okay, I perhaps made the last one up, but it really is just a matter of time until that too is available.

Christmas is often a time people use to get their hands on said gadgets - it's an excuse to rationalise spending £500+ on things that throughout the year they lived quite comfortably without. Now I'm sure by now the Church has been alerted through their online tabs on the sinful world (can you tell I'm both paranoid about the Church and also an Atheist? How ironic!) of my bad mouthing of Christmas, but at a mere 21 I am already sick of the tacky fiasco that surrounds something that few people care about, in it's original sense that is. Gifts were originally a gesture of goodwill, but it's now all about monetary value.

I'm aware that my above ramblings may be somewhat disjointed and out of the blue - but let me explain further.

I remember as a child looking forward to the festive holidays because you got to see your family, the whole day was a celebration and we would sit around the television watching Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins, It's a Wonderful Life and so on. Of course as a small child I was also highly enthralled to receive my Fisher Price kitchen - with an assortment of plastic groceries, but forgive me for that - I was after all, a child.

The older I have become, the more I have become a cynic. I go into town and hear people saying "I want that" every other second and it winds me up to no end. When I had a rant (me? Never!) to my Dad about why we even celebrate it in a completely Atheist household, he said that it's more of a winter festival than a celebration of Jesus Christ's birthday. I thought that was actually a much better description. People enjoy having something to build up to and work towards during the cold winter when it's dark and miserable. It helps pass the time, and it's a chance for people to get together I suppose.

I like that idea much more.

I think people should try having a Christmas where they all spend a small set amount on each other, but put the effort in in terms of what they are giving, as oppose to how much they are giving. Then, their day would be spent less focussed on their pile of gifts, and instead enjoy the warmth, food and relaxing break from their hectic daily lives. To some extent my family have decided to do that this year, as we all collectively do not care hugely for it.

I'm going to start celebrating Steve Jobs' birthday instead - I care more about him and what he has brought to the world than I do Jesus. At least I'm being honest.

Happy Hanukkah folks!

And A Merry Ecomas To You Too

What is everybody using as wrapping paper this year? Glossy printed paper, with bows? Metallic paper wrapped in string ribbon? All the aforementioned are attractive when wrapping up your Christmas gifts, however what about the eco option? Although collections of shiny presents attract people like magpies to pennies - at what price does this come in terms of damage to the environment? An article I came across in The Guardian questions what we can do.

Furoshiki gift wrapping may be the answer:

Several obvious benefits occur by choosing to take this route this Christmas - firstly, it saves money. This is a huge benefit with the obvious current climate, as you can reuse the material from gifts you receive. You can also recycle your old table clothes etc. by cutting them up to donate to your wrapping collection. Secondly, it entirely eliminates the paper waste that gets sent to landfill every Christmas. Win all round!

RecycleNow.com provide several tips as to making your Christmas more eco friendly. Aside from the above, they also have created a page, documenting the instructions needed to make gift bags from envelopes - something that also adds to the endless waste created at this time of year. Below is the video "how to" tutorial:

If wrapping your presents in a material alternative is not for you, and they are bigger than the envelope gift bag option, do not fear: there's always the homemade eco friendly wrapping paper option!

Furthermore, Yahoo! offer some ideas towards helping the environment and reducing your waste, including biodegradable stuffing - something that is regularly overlooked. Family gifts can be exchanged with a twist; as you can get the kids to draw their own patterns. Pathetically sentimental yes, but also quite refreshing - why do gifts have to be presented in a professional shop bought way? Homemade touches like that go down well with grandparents especially! 

At the very least - you can also use newspaper. It's waste anyway, and hey, if it's good enough for our now ex Prime Minister and family, then I guess it should be good enough for us too.

Aside from wrapping paper, there are many other aspects to Christmas. Decorations, Christmas dinner, and the gifts themselves. A novel idea I did come across was the Christmas tree made from 80,000 plastic spoons. The Telegraph shed some light on several of these topics, as well as on The National Geographic.

Lastly, I shall leave you with thinking towards the future. Tesco have provided 5 green resolutions to consider when choosing your New Years Resolution. Not only this, but there are links to the right concerning cutting your food waste levels, and 20 steps to greener living in general.

Happy Ecolidays!

Design Studies: Purple Cow And Other Stories

Throughout the Semester, I have been posting about my journey through research, amongst a multitude of other topics - ranging from academia to puerile nonsense. What appears to be nonsensical postings about research and references about viral adverts and how to kick start these have finally come to a point. A tipping point you could say!

At the beginning of the Semester we read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point - a book in which trends were discussed. Who starts them? How do they spread? Why do we bow down to them?

From there, I selected my own particular area of interest, which I derived from one of the case studies towards the end, regarding Airwalk's phenomenal advertising campaign that sent their sales skyrocketing. This lead to me to the more general term of viral advertising, from which I honed in on what particular people it takes to make an advert such as that work - how it spreads, and ultimately consumes the public. Below are my findings.  

Godin's Purple Cow is written in a similar narrative style to Gladwell's The Tipping Point, interlaced with supported research as well as personal opinion. An issue with regards to it's accred-ability is that some of the personal opinion could be read and interoperated as fact; however there is little evidence to support sweeping statements. This is also true for the fact that Godin also uses his own previous works as examples, which, as it is not an external source, provides nothing in terms of genuine credit, other than that he has previously published work. The Tipping Point has more accred-ability from this aspect, as the supporting evidence was stronger. Furthermore to the structure of the book; Godin has laced the chapters with summaries that helps consolidate a section, along with short statistical images. These may on a first read appear to be of use, however there is no reference to document the source of these, and therefore is rendered academically void.

Aside from the academic value, or lack thereof, there are some interesting points that Godin debates. The bulk of Purple Cow is based around creating advertising, or even a product itself that is "remarkable". Purple Cow features several tips and reasons as to why in the current industry of advertising old fashioned marketing strategies just do not pull in the crowd they used to. It makes for an interesting read, although as previously stated - it lacks the strength of evidence, even although valid points are made. It appears that it is a fantastic source to begin with, although in order to gain anything from it, the reader would be required to research further into the points made. It is, if you will, the tip of the ice berg.

One of the useful aspects however, is that there are a large amount of short case studies, giving examples of particular aspects of marketing strategies that have taken off, and caused exponential business. These read like an encyclopaedia of example business plans, however again, the reader would be required to pursue any one of these further to gain any sort of substantial information.

an example of "guerrilla advertising"  

Godin claims that "The obvious answer, [to be successful in advertising a new variety of a household product] if you've got the money and you believe in your product, is to spend all you've got to buy tons of national TV and printing advertising", however this is personal opinion. It is understandable and does appear logically correct, but Godin supplies no statistical evidence to draw on. Without substantial external surveys, statistics and figures, it may be, and I suspect is, far from reality - as good marketing strategies do not necessarily equal spiralling costs; see Guerrilla Advertising: Unconventional Brand Communication.

On a separate note; a strong supported point made in Purple Cow was the findings of Geoff Moore, in his book "Crossing the Chasm". His graph outlines the quantity of people that come under the early adopter sector, against those who are early and late majority. The early and late majority are mostly the general public, once a product has taken off in the mainstream. Godin makes the valid point that although Moore's curved graph is specifically designed to relate to technological products, it does in fact also mirror almost all products and services to almost all audiences.

As for Hill, Provost & Volinsky, they provide an academically approved study on how early adoption aids the marketing industry in their article on Network-Based Marketing; Identifying Likely Adopters Via Consumer Networks. There is immediately sourced evidence to support their explanations from the field, quoting the likes of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, and how it's success began. Each subcategory of ways in which people adopt a strategy is individually corroborated by outsourced papers and statistics. At no point is personal experience drawn on, nor any opinion from the authors. Texts such as this are highly useful in gaining authentication, as every topic is subject to scrutinised evidence.

The three main subcategories of early adopters are grouped into "explicit advocacy", "implicit advocacy" and "network targeting". Examples are given for each; to explicitly advocate a product you must publicly spread recommendation for a product or service through a word of mouth fashion. Implicitly advocating is to promote a product through action; such as using a product themselves, and lastly network targeting is to target past consumers social neighbours, in a bid to gain business from past happy customers' surrounding acquaintances. By understanding these sectors that naturally occur within society, marketers can build on creating the ultimate marketing strategy.

An extremely relative example of using multiples of the above is cited to be Hotmail's viral marketing ploy. It was based around a tag line at the bottom of every email that was sent from a free hotmail account - thus using network targeting, and implicit advocacy. This is a well documented example source of these aspects of marketing. The figures regarding the exponential growth due to this simple strategy shows that within a year, users had increased 10 fold, all because people contact like minded people. If the early adopter uses a product, and the product targets the surrounding audience, things are sure to spread. This is an example of a forced word of mouth epidemic. Not only this, but it means that the original user is an example of an early adopter; the epicentre who radiates adverts.

I first read about the term "early adopters" through Gladwell's The Tipping Point, and since then while reading in more depth into viral marketing; I have come to the conclusion that it is crucial to market towards this sector of buyers. Without this select group of consumers, word of mouth epidemics do not arise. With no word of mouth buzz, the message is not spread to the same degree of possible consumers, and therefore the viral advert slips into the abyss of advertising - never to be successful. This is of course, every marketers nightmare. Both Godin and Hill, Provost & Volinsky discuss the "early adopter" category of people; and how to advance your strategies aiming your advertising at this crucial group.

I have come to conclude that since Hill, Provost and Volinsky use varying types of evidence in their analysis, which cross corroborates all claims in their outcome - their evidence of early adoption is more beneficial to somebody who wishes to understand it with the intent of applying it their own business. As they drawn on several fields, including economics, computer science, sociology, psychology, marketing and statistics - with statistical evidence being deduced from six fields within, a would be viral marketer could rely more heavily upon this source. 

As for Purple Cow, it is more of a general interest and casual read. Undoubtably strong points are raised, however there needs to be further support for personal claims. 

If I were to read further into this, I would draw upon the information found in Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz and Word of Mouth Revolution. I would also possibly do a short survey with regards to a new product on the market that is still within Moore's early adopter stage - that also has a viral marketing strategy, and personally find out what level of interest there is. This would help indicate how regular in a given city, consumers look past the household products they blindly buy, and take heed of viral advertising. 

- Bibliography -

Dorrian, M. & Lucas, G. (2006). Guerrilla Advertising: Unconventional Brand Communication. London, UK: Laurence King Publishing.

Godin, S. (2005). Purple Cow. London, UK: Penguin Books. p.7, 31-32, 79-80

Hill, S., Provost, F. & Volinsky, C. (2006). Network-Based Marketing: Identifying Likely Adopters Via Consumer Networks. Institute of Mathematical Statistics: Statistical Science. Vol. 21. (No. 2.). p. 256-260.

Kirkby, J. & Marsden, P. (2006). Connected Marketing: The Viral, Buzz and Word Of Mouth Revolution. Oxford, Great Britain and MA, USA: Butterworth-Heinmann of Elsevier.

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On a lighter note - I will finish with some memorable advertising techniques, that I personally think should be exploited more:

Design Studies: Haiti's Cholera Epidemic - What Tipped It?

Image from BBC News 

An epidemic of Cholera has been reported to have broken out in Haiti. The earthquake in January is not thought to have caused the outbreak, however it is thought that is has contributed to it, as it has caused high numbers to live in very close proximity - thus causing the spread to be strengthened. The BBC News has said it is the first cases that have been recorded in 100 years. Given what I have recently learned from the fantastic read "The Tipping Point: How Small Things Can Make a Big Difference" by Malcolm Gladwell,  it would be safe to assume there are other factors involved that have caused this disease to occur, and then tip into what officials are calling an epidemic. 


Only two days ago, on October 22nd 2010, it was reported that there had been 135 deaths from the disease. A mere two days later, it has now been reported that the death toll has exceeded 250. Gabriel Thimote, of Haiti's Government Health Department has told reporters that 3000 people had been infected with it. The northern region of Artibonite has been the epicentre of the outbreak, where within two days reports of 1500 infected people has jumped to 3000. Food and water were at an all time low due to the earthquake which was highly publicised in January 2010; so with the outbreak likely stemming from the available supplies, victims of the earthquake will no doubt try to avoid what little contact they have with food and water to reduce running the risk of infection. This leads to other issues such as starvation.


Cholera - a disease that attacks the small intestine, which is transmitted via bacteria infected food and water, has not been seen in these regions for around 100 years, which begs the question of how it has occurred. Untreated victims are at high risk of death as it causes severe dehydration due to chronic diarrhoea and vomiting, although there are treatments available such as antibiotics and simple rehydration. 


This is clearly an epidemic as it is uncontrollable. Carel Pedre, an eye witness to the events stated "I saw over 500 people waiting to be treated. People were being treated on the floor. They were lying on boards, towels or just the ground." 


Aid workers from around the world are working as hard and as fast as possible to clamp down on the spread of it, as all ages are at risk. David Darg, an aid worker with Operation Blessing said "We were asked to mobilise water purification systems from the area as they suspect people are contracting the disease from the river - which is the sole source of water for some of the communities." If it is the only source of water to a community it is unsurprising that they have contracted it so viciously and has subsequently spread like wild fire. This is possibly how the issue has tipped from being a minor issue with relevant treatment being readily available into an uncontrollable epidemic - with aid being spread too thinly throughout the infected areas. Another issue is the speed at which the disease is spreading, with a 100% increase in a mere 48 hours. All these issues - the earthquake causing cramp conditions and poor services, the only water supply being suspected as the cause, and the minimal aid all accumulated together have exploded into what could potentially cost hundreds more people their lives, with the death toll rising exponentially.  

Design Studies: My Tipping Point

Epidemics.

When most of us hear that word we think disease. Media induced mayhem. Catch it, bin it, kill it. Quick, you might catch something. Keep your children indoors and immediately phone round all your elderly relatives to make sure they aren't feeling a little "off".

Swine flu. Foot and mouth. Sars. Even in my relatively short life I have been exposed to several epidemics.

But, after reading Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" I have come to understand epidemics in another fashion. Not only disease, but society's behaviour is also susceptible to epidemics, epidemics of trend. Human nature after all, is imitation.

Contagious. There is another disease ridden word. Again though, after reading The Tipping Point I have come to understand that epidemics of trends are contagious. Not unlike a virus. It takes over, spreading through the population, working it's way through vast distances.

The kid wearing the shoes you don't think are "cool" anymore. What are they thinking? Well, 5 months later those same so called "uncool" shoes are on your feet. Trends start by special people, rare people. People who don't mind being out there, different. The thing is, these trends may drift by, unnoticed in the business world. A huge opportunity missed, as not only did they miss a chance of propelling their own product onto the stage under the beaming lights of mainstream, but they of course, and perhaps more importantly to them, missed out on profit.

Airwalk did not miss out. They spotted it. Trendy Southern Californian teens were wearing their brand. They were making a reasonable profit out of this but they were hungry for more. But how to catapult you're brand into the mainstream, yet keep it's underground original cool-ness? Mainstream after all, it not where trends are set. Mainstream is where the lingering dregs of trends hang out. By the time it's in you're local mall, it's not the newest, coolest thing out there.

This was Airwalk's issue.

So they hired a marketing company to create innovative adverts. Not unlike the viral adverts seen today, they created odd, off the wall adverts, that were highly contagious. But this took a lot of behind the scenes leg work to make sure the right topics were brought up via the adverts. They needed the topics that the underground hipsters were interested in, before it hit the fan of mainstream. This is where DeeDee Gordon comes into the picture, as she was another special type of person. Infact doubly special as she was two types out of the three types that The Tipping Point splits people into. Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. These are the three categories rare people fit into, and the types of people who are required in order to tip a trend over the edge and into an epidemic. She is both a Connector - somebody who collects acquaintances and knows many more people than the average person - and a Maven. A Maven is someone who knows a lot. She is somewhat of a fashion Maven. Somebody who has the power of knowledge and has the ability to know when something is going to take off. Due to these traits, she was able to keep tabs on underground trends and use them through Airwalks adverts, early enough that it was new to Joe Public, but cool to the underground scene.

Thanks to the series of ad campaigns, Airwalk seen their peak profit tip $175 Million a year.

Pretty clever really. All by expoiting certain personality traits. This line of attack is seen every day in todays marketing world, although done subtly enough, you probably are blissfully unaware. Yet I'll bet you trudge as I do like a robot and buy whatever has been made into a fashion must have. Be it technology, fashion or a number of other things. Some epidemics are a matter of fate, such as the Baltimore Syphilis outbreak, yet others are constructed to happen with the benefits for the tippers themselves exponential.

Airwalk is only one of several topics brought up throughout Gladwell's "The Tipping Point".  It puts several example epidemics into the context of Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen, and explains why some trends take off, while others sink. The drop of crime in New York City during the 1990's. The Syphilis outbreak of Baltimore. The Hush Puppy trend. The Suicide epidemic of Micronesia. Paul Revere during the American Revolution, the examples are endless.

For Design Studies - part of our task was to mind-map the book and then select an area in which to mind-map further. Below is my joint one with Ross, with my own one to follow shortly. I have selected Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen as I find that the most fascinating area.