Typography and fonts

I am now going to begin looking at different fonts and colours that I can use within my practical piece and also explore the different techniques within affinity designer that I can use to create the best possible graphics on my infographic.  I am also going to look into the connotations of colours and fonts , what they mean when you first see them but also the deeper meanings behind them and what can be decoded from them.

Type faces and the way that they are used evoke great emotion which is why i want to focus on using them in the correct way in my posters .  Type can be seen as mirroring the emotions we display in the real world. I want my target audience to understand my infographic and be interested in it from the first glance.I don’t want to be using lots of elaborate text within my posters that I create as this isn’t suitable for my target audience. I need it to be reader friendly and also clean and easy to read due to the fact that infograhics are a way of condensing lots of information. I found out that by using different types of fonts the audience can determine the most important points of your presentation just by looking at it. This also makes it easier for them to follow along.

Font choices are what people see at first glance and people may judge the rest of the poster purely through the font choice. They often set the tone for the whole design and they can also influence people who are looking at the posters in terms of interacting with the design. ‘bad typographic choices always distract from your design’s message and intentions.’ Type influences what we read and affects our choices because we all instinctively understand what it is trying to tell us.

Typefaces have their own personality and its important that I determine what font fits best with what I want to achieve with my target audience. My target audience is mainly people aged 18-24 as this is the biggest demographic who use Instagram, therefor I want something that looks fun and eye-catching but also serious at the same time due to the fact I am aiming to raise awarness of the negative effects fashion is having on the environment. I am going to create a moodboard full of different type faces , colours and images to use on my infographic.

The best typography for infographics

People are definetly more likely to be inpsired by visual based things that look good rather than big chunks of text on a page. 40% of people respond better to visual pieces rather than plain text. In addition to this , including an infographic on social media creates a higher potential of going viral. This is key for me and what I want to achieve out of my infographic as I am aiming to spread brand awareness and raise awareness of the negative impacts fast fashion is having on the environment.

There are three main font families: serifs, sans serifs, and display fonts. Each font family has different purposes and common uses among designers.

The reason why people tend to use these type of fonts is because they are easier to read. Our eyes are almost accustomed to reading them because its the type of font that usually appears in newspapers and books that we read on a regular basis.

Sans serifs are best for section headers and large titles. Since I am producing an infographics I am going to use these types of fonts to try and draw engagement because they are larger. They are really easy to read which is certainly suited to my infographic as it is based at a younger target audience.

Display fonts are a type of fonts that are playfully designed. Designers agree display fonts should really just be used as headers to set the mood and theme of your design. Some popular display fonts are Alfa Slab One, Lobster, and Chewy.

The font used on the Infographic is really important as it has to match the theme and what you are trying to show. I want to inform my audience of the pollution that fashion is causing for the planet without us realising it. With this being said , I think I am going to take a more professional but simple approach with the font I am using. This makes it a lot easier for my target audience to read and understand.

Here is an example of an Infographic. The cretaor is using san serifs throughout and it is extremley effective.

It is very futuristic and it has an informational design that compliments the topic which is encouraging battery recycling for our planet. This is a very similar topic to mine so I can take inspiration from this in terms of the layout and the fonts used throughout. As I found out in my research on colour theory and colours alongside marketing , different shades of green are used on the infographic which is what I decided I was going to use on what I produce as it is not only in keeping with RE-gains logo , but it also represents a new lease of life.

References

Hyndman, S. (2016). Why fonts matter. London: Virgin Books.

Blogger, G. (2020). How to select the best typography for your infographics. [online] Marketing-partners.com. Available at: https://www.marketing-partners.com/conversations2/how-to-select-the-best-typography-for-your-infographics [Accessed 8 Jan. 2020].

academic theory

I am now going to discuss academic theory to do with my audience. An example of a theory is the uses of gratification theory. The uses and gratification is an audience centred approach that focuses on what people do with media, rather than what media does to people. There are four elements to do with the theory. Diversion , Social interaction , personal identity , and survellience. Diversion is all about how

Diversion is all about how people use media to escape reality almost. Social Interaction is how people connect with others and discuss their views amongst one another through the use of media. Personal idenity relates to products seen on social media and how people see themselves using the product or how they can relate to it. Surveillence is how people use the media to seek out information.

The product I am producing has apsects of both social interaction and surveillence. This is because, the focus for me is to not only raise awarness of the brand Re-Gain , but also to raise awareness of the impact fashion , fast fashion in particular , is having on the environment without us knowing. I am planning on creating an infographic for my client. Infographics are a great way of condensing large amounts of information that engage an audience well due to the fonts and colours they consist of. Through posting the infographic on RE-gains instagram , this should hopefully have the targe audience reacting to the post , ineraction with eachother through comments and likes and as a result, looking into re-gain as an app and a method for recycling. This therefor falls under the category of social interaction because it is people connecting with others and discussing views. However , it also falls under the category of surveillence because people are also seeking out information from the infographic. Furthermore , they are finding out all about the app RE-gain through clicking on their Instagram.

Maslows Hierarchy Of Needs

Here is Maslows hierarchy of needs. It is a motivational , psychological theory comprising a five tier model of human needs , often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pryamid. Needs lower down in the hierarchy must be satisfied before individuals can attend to needs higher up.

This theory applies to my idea in 2 ways. Physiological needs and esteem needs. Warmth is a necessity for us to stay alive , so we as people naturally buy clothing for ourselves, it is something we have always done. Esteem needs comes into this through the recycling aspects of clothing. We are more tempted to buy clothes from fast fashion brands, for example Primark, because they are cheaper , however we can persuade ourselves not to buy from them brands in order to feel good and to feel as though we have accomplished something. This is because they are key factors when it comes to fashion polluting the environment so not contributing to this , is fulfilling. This is also achieved when recycling fashion because you know you are doing good for the environment and this is what RE-gain want to encourage.

infographics

I conducted primary research and spoke to the brand I am producing promotional material for in order to decide what kind of poster I am going to create. They decided they would like me to produce an infographic for them due to the fact they are fresh looking and engaging to see on social media.

When designing an infographic there are lots of factors to consider in order to make them accessible for your audience like formats , fonts , sizes and colour. Since my infographic is going to be on social media , I am going to do it in a portrait format. The title is also going to be easy to remember because its on social media.

content

• It is important to design with my target audience in mind. I am designing for a younger demographic age 18-24 and the infographic is going to go on Instagram. I am going to have their existing knowledge in mind and use the infographic as a way of extending their knowledge.
• It is adviced to keep the poster count between 200-300 words. I am thinking of producing 4 smaller infographics so there won’t be as much information crammed onto one poster. Since I am tracking engagement and analytics I am producing 4 to be spread out over time to see which ones recieve the most engagment. I am going to keep the style the same but vary the look of them and change the content obviously on each different one.
• Focusing on the big idea and the aim throughout is key – I want to raise brand awareness so re-gains logo , colour scheme etc is going to be distinctive throughout , however I also want to create awareness of the issues that the production of fashion is causing to thhe environment.

layout

• it is important to organise the content into columns , sections and headings. This creates a well balanced infographic that is clear and easy to navigate around for my target audience. It is an opportunity to navigate the audience around the infographic.
• its important to use plenty of space and not cram things in. That is why I am using 2 different mini infographics to spread out over a period of time in order to gage which ones recieve the most engagement. They are supposed to be carefully curated and give users the opportunity to understand the overall message of the research in a quick and visually pleasing way.

here is an example of an infographic.

design

• keep a consistent style – having a well balanced and limited colour scheme and using no more than 2 fonts and three sizes. One for the headings and title , one for the body and copy. Google fonts have over 800 free , downloadble fonts to use.
• it is advised to use high resolution images
• the colours used should be quite limited. I dont want to limit my colours to for example pink because it screams fashion as I feel like some male consumers will switch straight off.
• limit colours , light and bright colours can be used to highlight main points. one main colour and a lighter version of the same colour, with no more than three accent colours

images and text

• people are more likely to remember content on an infographc when its paired with an image
• 65% of people are visual learners so images are a great way of engaging people

reference

DoctoralWriting SIG. (2019). Using infographics to communicate your research. [online] Available at: https://doctoralwriting.wordpress.com/2018/12/10/using-infographics-to-communicate-your-research/ [Accessed 17 Dec. 2019].

news articles

As part of my research , I am looking into what young people around the United Kingdom are doing currently in order to help the environment. Looking at a news article based on world environment day in 2019 , The majority of young people feel that their generation is under pressure to help save the environment and solve environmental issues such as climate change and plastic pollution. It is clear from previous research I have carried out on fashion and the environment that it is one of the worlds biggest polluters and a lot of us are oblivious too it.

Young people are the new generation and are therefor one if the key factors in being able to raise awareness. In the UK , clothing has the fourth largest environmental impact after housing , transport and food. As a country we throw away more than half of our fast fashion items within less than a year. Universiy students especially according to the guardian , are good at recycling mending and accessorising clothes in order to re-use them.

An article on fast fashion written by the bbc in June 2019 , dicusses what sustainable fashion experts suggest that we do to reduce the harmful effects of our shopping habits. Fast Fashion is a major contributor to green house gases and expert Tolmeia Gregory states that buying less is more. She says that we need to get rid of the culture and idea that most young people have about buying new clothes for every new occassion. She recommends that re-going through your wardrobe , recognising what you have and accessorising it is a much better and sustainable method moving forward. This is true however , not realistic. ReGAIN acknowledge as a brand that they will never be able to stop people buying clothes and shopping at fast fashion brands however theywant ro raise awareness of the negative impacts and potentially encourage people to change their recycling habits.

Another source called Ms Fletcher who writes about sustainable fashion says that the high street offers very limited and restricted pieces that people endlessly choose from. If new clothes and constant change is what you want then try shopping in a second hand store. ReGAIN certainly encourage this through the recycling of clothing in exchange for discount codes. There are second hand apps that lt you tailor searches for example de-pop.

Choosing natural materials also always helps. Fast fashion brands use polyester and other recources that can take up to 1000 years to biodegrade and are also really bad forthe environment. We should also extend the longevity of clothes through looking after them properly and following the washing instructions.

platform research : Facebook

It is important to look at different platforms rather than just the one I am focusing on in order to gather even more information about what works and what doesn’t. Although Instagram has the highest average engagement rather over any other social media platform , Re-gain have a facebook page as well as instagram , so it will be interesting to see wether the promotional material I produce for them will recieve the same level engagement.

Founded in 2004 and going public in 2012, Facebook is one of the biggest internet companies in the world  with influence that goes beyond social media. It is widely considered as one of the big four tech companies along with Google, Apple, and Amazon. Facebook is the most popualar social media platform worls wide and the company also owns three other billion-user properties: mobile messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, as well as Instagram.

As of October 2019 , it was found out that 10 percent of global active facebook users were women between the ages of 18-24. (This is the largest demographic on Instagram) . And male users between the ages of 25 and 34 years constituted the biggest demographic group of Facebook users.

Facebook overall has 2.38 billion monthly users which is too large of a figure for any small business to ignore and not try and take advantage of the marketing opportunities it has to offer. Of course Facebook may not be as successful for me in terms of trying to get engagement as the more popular demographic is older people and my target audience is younger people.

Facebook statistics

• 2.38 billion  monthly active users
• 96%  of active user accounts accessed the social network via a mobile device
• 40%  of consumers said that they watch the most videos on Facebook
• 65 million small businesses have Facebook Pages
• 89%  of marketers say they use Facebook as part of their brand’s social strategy

Instagram vs Facebook: which is best for your brand’s strategy?. [online] Sprout Social. Available at: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/instagram-vs-facebook/ [Accessed 19 Dec. 2019].

Here are some facebook demographics of 2018. I have found out that over the past year , teen usage of Facebook has definetley dropped and there are now a larger percentage of people aged 25-29 using facebook instead. With this in mind it will be interesting to see wether my infographic recieves more engagement off Facebook , rather than Instagram like I have predicted.

As much as it is important for brands to be in-keeping with the voice they are portraying to customers , many brands make the mistake of uploading content that is very repetive and often too associated with the brand , too often. There is only so much that can be said on a day to day basis about a brand or a product and as soon as this becomes to repetitive , the target audience won’t be as interested and will tune out.

I have found out that Infographics and shocking statistics are prime for discussion and debate, both of which are huge pieces of Facebook engagement. This certainly supports my idea of creating an infographic and will hopefully give me the best opportunity at recieving engagement from my target audience. It will give people things to discuss and to be interested in. I have noticed that on RE-gains facebook page , they do not post as often or recieve as much engagement as they do on Instagram therefor , it will be interesting to see wether an infographic drives more people towards their page.

Who Are Re-Gain

Re-gain are a fairly new recyclable fashion company promoting text tile recycling. Their aim is to encourage people to recycle clothing through rewarding them with discount codes to online retail brands such as missguided, Pretty Little Thing , Superdry. The digital takeback scheme, designed to drive the fashion industry towards becoming a more circular economy, will allow anyone with the app to ship their unwanted clothing free of charge from more than 20,000 drop off points across the UK. They have worked closely with big e-commerce brands like Pretty Little Thing who as a result , created a recyclable collection.

My aim is to create some promotional material in the form of a poster for their brand in order to create brand awareness and also awareness of the impacts that the fashion industry is having on the environment currently without us knowing.

Of course because I am making content for a brand that already exists , it is crucial that I ask if I can use them and their social media to display the poster I produce and also in order to get access to their analytics as this is a key element of advertising and marketing.

Here is an email that I put together with some existing work that I have produced for a campaign that I created .

Luckily they responded willing to let me create some material for them.

I told them what it is I am planning to do and that I think what they are doing is amazing and people should be made more aware of the brand itself and also whats happening to the environment.

They confirmed everything with me and said they would be happy to publish a range of posts created by me. I gave them choice out of photography or infographics and they stated that infographics will look more refreshing , therefor I think I am going to produce an infographic. However I am still going to ask my target audience what appeals to them more as the key element is engaging an audience.

The cost of fashion on the environment .

In order to get some content onto the posters I am putting out , it is crucial that I get some facts and statistics about the vast amounts of pollution and unethical processes that the fast fashion industry go through in order , to make their clothes , and how this effects the environment in a negative way. The Fashion industry is one of the largest in the world , accounting for 2% of Global Gross Domestic product. However , unfortunately it is now one of the biggest polluters in the world , the reason being fast fashion. Fast fashion certainly makes shopping more affordable , however it certainly comes with some risks. We know that during this era , there are lots of things as people that we do daily that have an impact on the environment , however when it comes to fashion , it is less obvious to us what actually occurs.

As consumers worldwide buy more clothes, the growing market for cheap items and new styles is taking a toll on the environment. On average, people bought 60% more garments in 2014 than they did in 2000. Fashion production makes up 10% of humanity’s carbon emissions, dries up water sources, and pollutes rivers and streams. What’s more, 85% of all textiles go to the dump each year, that’s enough to fill Sydney Harbour annually. Also washing some types of clothes sends thousands of bits of plastic into the ocean.

The term ‘fast fashion’ refers to cheaply produced items of clothing that have been copied from the latest trends that are walking the catwalk. They get pumped through factories at an extreme speed , often before the original , high end retailer gets the chance to put it in stores on the high street. It is relatively recent however it has become rapidly larger over a short period of time. We now consume around 800 billion pieces of clothing per year and the more we love buying clothes , the more we end up disposing of them in the future. I found out that the average UK shopper only wears 70% of what’s in their wardrobe and throws out 70 kilograms of textile waste annually. RE-gain as an app are wanting to help make at least a small change to peoples textile recycling habits by encouraging people to recycle unwanted clothing in exchange for discount coupons of retailers.

As a country overall , the UK now send over 85% of the textiles we buy to landfill every single year. The impact this has on the environment is significant and is something RE-gain are trying to make people aware of and I want to do this too. The clothing and textile industry is depleting non-renewable resources, emitting huge quantities of greenhouses gases and using massive quantities of energy, chemicals and water. The synthetic fibres often favoured by fast fashion brands, such as polyester, nylon and acrylic, are basically a kind of plastic made from petroleum, which means they could take up to 1000 years to biodegrade.

Fast fashion is harmful from a social perspective as well as it damaging the environment. According to an April 2016 Oxfam report, more than 60 million people work in the garment industry to fuel fast fashion: more than 15 million of those are based in Asia and more than 80% are women, often young and from poor rural backgrounds. Asia supplies more than 90% of the garments imported into Australia.

References

Wbur.org. (2020). The Environmental Cost Of Fashion. [online] Available at: https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/12/03/fast-fashion-devastates-environment [Accessed 8 Jan. 2020].

Instagram photography

Since I am going to be using photography to create my piece of promotional material , I am going to understand the basic pinciples of taking good Instagram photos on a mobile phone.

1.use natural light

Lighting is the foundation of a good photo. Understanding how to use light is the first and most important rule of getting great photos using only your phone. Avoiding the use of flash allows the ability to create photos that are richer and brighter.

A flash can flatten out a photo and wash out the key subject of the photograph , of course depending on the look you want to achieve. I am going to try and take my photographs outdoors or in well lit rooms near window sills.

2. Dont over expose images

With the filters and editing tools on Instagram it is possible to brighten up a picture that may be a little too dark however there is no way of fixing something that is overly exposed. You can prevent this exposure by tapping the screen to control how the camera is picking up the lighting.

3.Shoot at the right time

Shooting Midday is probably the best time to take a natural , good Instagram photo. It is difficult to get a direct shot under sun light and it can be quite harsh in photos , Clouds diffuse the light from the sun and create a softer, more flattering effect.

4. Follow the rule of thirds

Composition refers to the arrangement of a photo: the shapes, textures, colors and other elements that make up your images.

The rule of thirds is one of the most well-known composition principles, and refers to a simple method of balancing your image. It divides an image into a 3×3 grid, and aligns the subjects or objects in a photo along the grid lines to create balance.

I am going to take some photographs using depth of field and macro-photography on pieces of Fabric with different textures and colours. I am also going to look at visiting a recycling plant and getting some depth of field images of the vast amount of items. Depth of field is the distance between the closest and farthest objects in a photo that appears acceptably sharp. The poster will consist of facts and statistics to do with fast fashion , unethical fashion and the pollution that is happening around the world in order to engage with consumers. Re-Gain have a section on their instagram page that is dedicated to facts about recycling so this is in-keeping with their theme and the authentic brand voice that they have distinguished already.

I am going to get some primary research in order to be able to consolidate my idea and ask them wether they like this style of photography , wether this would be engaging to see on Instagram over the likes of an Infographic , and what information they would like to see on the posters , what would grab my audiences attention the most.

I showed my target audience an image of macro photography of some fabric , and also an infographic based on fashion.

Almost all my audience said that the infographic grabbed their attention at first glance over the photography style image. The statistics colours and fonts were engaging for them and this is what I want to achieve out of my infographic. Infographics are a way of condensing information onto one page in a visual way thats for appealing for people. Colours are definetley a better way of engaging an audience rather than a huge chunk of information for people to read. From gathering these findings , it is consollidated that I want o create an infographic rather than a photography piece. This is because the poeple that I have asked are of a younger demographic and my target audience is at the forefront of my decisions I make to get the most engagement possible.

Instagram photos / print

There are some images on instagram that are more visually and aesthetically pleasing than others. Instagram allows companies to tell a visual story. Engagement is high , because Instagram plays to the fact A) most people usually have their phone in their hand constantly B) people with short attention span find a photo based app an easy way to process information.

• Images that have a background are favored over those with no background or an extremley limited background.
• Images that have more visual texture perfrom better than those that are percieved to be more smooth / flat
• images with a single dominant colour will have a higher engagement rate than those with multiple dominant colours
• Bluish images are preferred over redish images and light images are favoured over dark images.

I am going to create a poster using photography however , I am going to look at the types of posts on Instagram that recieve the most engagement , likes etc regardless of wether it is the same style I am going for , I can take inspiration from the different aspects and apply it to my work.

Quotivational Instagram Posts.

Although they seem quite corny at times , they can often be motivational and inspiring. Theyre simple , easily digested , catchy and applicable. When looking for a fast and successful to convey bite sized pieces of information , this is the way forward.

Re-Gain do this on their Instagram but intertwining this with what the brand believe in , trying to encourage people to recycle more but also promoting their app at the same time.

Keeping the message short and relable helps keep the likes and the engagement pouring in.

Organizational Instagram posts

but perfectly crafted pictures of neatly arranged objects filling the screen has always been a popular tactic among many instagram influencers. It appeals to the human urge of order.

utilizing hashtags

Using a hashtag on a post is simply adding the # sign before a single word phrase and hashtags on Instagram posts in 2019. They originiated on twitter however every social media platform began to utilize them due to how effective they are. A post with at least one Instagram hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement  than posts without a hashtag.

Instagram hashtags work by organizing and categorizing photo and video content. Every post created can be accompanied

By using lots of hashtags , The post is catalogued and this means that more people can easily see it.  When having an Instagram business profile , it allows access to insights and Instagram added the ability to see how effective your hashtags really are in terms of getting more views on your posts. Knowing which hashtags work best to get more views on posts is extremely important and it will allow me to eliminate the ones that aren’t really working.

Keeping Instagram Hashtags Relevant is More Important Than Ever

Instagram recently rolled out the ability to follow hashtags  which means that instead of a user having to search for an Instagram hashtag and scroll through an endless feed to hopefully land on content, the posts you upload could now show up automatically in the feeds of potential new followers. Since the aim for me is to raise brand awareness as well as awareness about recyclable fashion , it will be important that I use hashtags so that people can potentially

While Instagrams algorithm  has always favored the use of specific and relevant hashtags, this new feature makes using hashtags that make sense an even bigger deal.

That’s because users now have the power to mark hashtagged content as something they don’t want to see!

here is a great example of a hashtag I could use for my content.

The maximum number of hashtags allowed by instagram is 30 , some people say that you should always maximise the use of all 30 because it gives you a greater chance of being discovered as a brand in this instance. Its important that every hashtag used is relevant to the content being posted. Adding random and irrelevant hashtags can backfire on what you want to achieve. Their is an option on Instagram that allows you to find other relevant hashtags being used. Tapping on a hashtag that has already been used on a post you have uploaded opens up a search result page in the Instagram Explore tab, with related hashtags displayed right above the feed of tagged posts.

One of the best ways to gain valuable hashtag inspiration is by looking at what successful brands in your network are doing.  I will Look at brands with similar content, products, or target audience — and carefully assess their content strategy. focusing on their top performing posts in particular, and highlight the hashtags that could be applicable to your brand for future posts.

Once finding a selection of relevant hashtag , its important to consider the volume of posts for each one. If a hashtag has too many posts , the content will get lost amongst the large amount of posts that have already used the hashtag , however if a hashtag is too small , no engagment will be recieved at all. For a safe middle ground , it is advised to use hashtags with between 10k-200k posts. This indicates that there is activity around the content but not too much that it wont be seen by anyone at all.

When it comes to curating hashtags on instagram , its good to categorize them into the following , brand , industry , audience and location. For brand hashtags, it is important to consider the hashtags you would like your audience to use when they talk about your brand online. Re-gain for example could use #recyclingrewarded or simply just #regainapp.

For industry hashtags , I need to consider what is relevant to the specific target market. Since re-gains aim is to promote ethical fashion and recyclable fashion, you could simply use the hashtags #ethicalfashion , #recyclablefashion. It is about delving into hashtags that represent the sentiment of the audience.

Location hashtags are also important. Re gain is based in Milton keynes in London. By using various hashtags that cover all of these bases , I can ensure that I hit every potential audience with them.

Although hashtags are the best way to grow your following on Instagram , if not careful with them , they can easily make posts look cluttered and untidy which is certainly off putting and looks unprofessional for a brand. Its a good idea to add line breaks inbetween hashtags if using a lot of them. You can also add hashtags to instagram stories too and is a great way of giving content a chance to reach even more people. When people search for a hashtag on Instagram, if it’s popular enough, they’ll be able to see a collection of tagged stories on the search results page. You can add as many as 10 hashtags to each Instagram story, including 1 clickable hashtag sticker.  I am going to use hashtags on the promotional material that I create to upload onto Instagram in order to get the up most engagement from my target audience.

Later Blog. (2019). 6 Ways to Optimize Your Hashtags on Instagram – Later Blog. [online] Available at: https://later.com/blog/optimize-hashtags-on-instagram/ [Accessed 11 Dec. 2019].