I really enjoyed this project and was really happy with my end product. If I had a chance to do this project again, there are certain things that I would do differently to get an accurate account of what my audience said. I found it really hard to write everything down whilst interveiwing. It would've been really helpfull to have had a dictaphone in order to record what they said. I would like a chance to tackle the reportage brief again, it was my first time doing this sort of project and I really enjoyed it.

I wanted this information to be legable so I had to find a way whereby the text was readable without losing my background. I initially wanted to blackout the background but this meant that I would lose the sense of placement which is a key part of my project.

I went out and interviewed the public about their views on what people wear. I got a really good response from most people. I tried to ask specific questions in order to get the answers that I needed. After getting all the information, I had to think about the layout and how I wanted my audience to read my book.

I was researching some fashoin designers while doing Reportage and I tried to imitate the style used in their images.

What's Your Fashion

Our first project for this Visual Communication was the reportage brief. I decided to go and find out what people wear in Leeds and see if I could find some conventional stereotypes. I illustrated this image for my front page because that was my representation of fashion. There are many ways in which this image could be portrayed. I used this image because there is so much pressure in our society to wear certain thing or to look a certain way which should not be the case.

Where Do I Fit?


It is hard to determine the true definition of visual communication. Some might conclude that the main purpose of visual communication is to project a thought, message or meaning onto your audience in order to convey your intention. I think that every individual is unique and therefore will interpret images and texts differently. This can result in the audience not always recognising the intended meaning. As a designer, it is our responsibility to insure that we communicate our ideas clearly and effectively. In order to achieve this goal, there are steps which we have to follow. This is called the communication process. Every designer has his own individual way of following this process. We follow this process in order to achieve a quality end product.

The start of this process is being given a brief which we have to follow. This is like the rules and regulations of the set task. The research process gives you an added knowledge of how to communicate your ideas as well as giving you an idea of potential disasters and how other designers have tackled the problems. Thumbnails are the next step of the communication process because they help generate ideas through rough and quick sketches. This gives you the opportunity to compare the ideas and select which you think are better than others. Trial and error is the next key stage. This determines which idea best fits the brief. “Form follows function”, this is a quote which I think that all designers should abide by. It is a wasted effort to design objects which are pleasing to the eye but do not satisfy the required function. After this stage, you are left with your final idea, which can be critiqued by your target audience to see if your product serves its function.

There are many factors involved with effective communication that a designer needs to be aware of. Problem solving, Reportage, Persuasion and Narrative are all practices of visual communication which we explored in the studio.


Problem solving is something that we are all faced with as designers. An example of this that we covered was the problems involved when designing a bin. The main problem was the fact that food was getting on the bin lid. Our idea was to invent a bin which had a lid that disappeared completely, therefore preventing this from happening. This was an adequate solution but there were further complications with the construction and the costs. These are also problems that we have to deal with when we are giving a task to do. This exercise was valuable to me because it gave me a good understanding of what to expect in the future. Another task we were set was the task of inventing a device that could be useful to a stranger. Our group decided that the most frustrating thing that we are faced with at university is writing essays. We therefore decided in invent a device called the ‘X-Tractor which is able to extract information from your brain onto a computer in a logical order, meaning you no longer have to write essays. Although this idea is desirable, in practice it would actually be impossible to make.

Reportage is a process which I find very rewarding. It involves going out into the world and gathering information which later is used to form a book or a film. The information required ca e gathered using a variety of means, from sketching to taking photographs or using a Dictaphone. I was faced with reportage during my first project and having not done this ever before, the task seemed daunting. I imagined that collecting the information was going to prove the most difficult part of the project because in some cases it requires the cooperation of the general public. However I found that on the whole people were willing to participate. After collecting the data I was faced with organising and presenting it in a logical order so that my audience would be able to read and understand what I was trying to purvey. Reportage is something that I have never done before but after doing my first project, it has become a process that I am very interested in. I particularly enjoyed collecting the information. I have also gained valuable experience which has led me to develop my style of recording information. For example it is difficult to record everything a person being interviewed is saying using pen and paper so I have decided to use a Dictaphone next time to improve the accuracy of my information

Narrative is a process which I am interested in but have not actively participated in yet. This is a way of presenting an idea in the form of a story in order to present an order of events in a compressible way for the audience. We were given a task in the studio to create a character that we ourselves know well. We gave them a name, personality, sexuality, physicality, emotional drives and even a special power. We were also instructed to sketch out our character to bring it to life. After doing this, we made up a short incident which disrupts the characters life then illustrate the events on a story-board. I found the later part hard to achieve. This was because I did not have any experience on how to structure a story-board. I found that I have learnt a lot from this exercise which included how to sketch out and narrate a story-board.

Persuasion is probably the hardest process to grasp. We were asked to illustrate a piece of memory from our past. It had to be presented in an attractive and eye catching way so that we were able to catch the attention of our audience. After this, our piers came into the room for a few minutes and tried to remember as many pictures as possible. We then set out a survey to find out which images stood out the most. We used different strategies in order to determine which of those images were most memorable. It took four attempts in order to actually get the sort of information that we required. This task gave me an understanding of what is needed when you are in need of other opinions and suggestions. It also gave me an understanding of what I needed to include in my picture to make it stand out to my audience.

Altogether I have found this project very interesting and also informative. It has given me an idea of what processes I fid interesting as well as finding out what my strong points are. I have always thought of myself as a graphic designer because that is what I studied previous to this course. Now I can only call myself a designer because I have now got the opportunity to experiment with different processes to see which one I am most comfortable and happy to work with.

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