Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2001.

Thesis (MTech (Graphic Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / In the South African advertising industry, blame is often cast on the designer for a failed campaign. However, human interactions are multi-faceted and deserve further exploration, particularly if the designer is expected to be socially responsible. If this is the case, one has to consider society as a whole if potentially life-saving or socially transformative advertising campaigns are going to be impactful. This study focuses on a specific public awareness campaign related to HIV/Aids education, the loveLife campaign, and how its billboards were interpreted. This study employs a qualitative research design and semiotic analysis with student participants from schools in Cape Town, South Africa, to investigate how the target audience understands and interprets campaign billboards.

M.Com. (Marketing Management) / The marketing research industry is a highly competitive environment with over one hundred marketing research firms competing for business in the South African market. Literature suggests that one of the biggest challenges the industry faces is poor positioning. Marketing research firms are seen as data suppliers rather than business or strategic thought partners. This is mainly the result of marketing research firms traditionally providing masses of data with no or limited insights, practical use and strategic value (also known as actionability of research results). This state of affairs in the industry needs to be addressed, otherwise marketing research firms will become less profitable and effective data / research information suppliers. To warrant future business and increased revenues, marketing research firms need to position themselves as professionals who can deliver actionable research results that assist clients strategically. Literature suggests various methods in which marketing research firms can achieve this; amongst which data visualisation and storytelling are identified as two such methods to deliver actionable research results which impact clients’ business. Therefore, the primary research objective of this study was to uncover the strategic use of data visualisation and storytelling by marketing research firms in quantitative research reports. To address this objective, this study was conducted in two phases, first literature on the topic was presented, followed by an empirical study. The empirical study independently followed an exploratory and descriptive research design where two samples were used. The main study (qualitative phase) sampled individuals, working for South African marketing research firms, who oversee teams who create quantitative research reports by means of indepth interviews; and the small-scale complementary study (quantitative phase) sampled clients of marketing research firms who receive these quantitative reports by means of an computer-administered, Internet-based survey. The studies were conducted sequentially; the small-scale complementary study followed after the main study had been completed. The Morse and Field approach was used to analyse the empirical research results of the main study which indicated that marketing research firms do not claim to have a traditional approach to quantitative reporting; the focus is not on data supply, but rather on providing actionable research results to clients which adds value to their business decision-making. The results also indicate that marketing research firms use storytelling to deliver actionable research so as to increase the strategic value thereof, while data visualisation is not used strategically. The results of the small-scale complementary study indicated that although 62% of clients feel that current quantitative research reports (received from marketing research firms) can be used to make strategic decisions, clients also feel that quantitative research reports need improvement regarding the delivery of strategic and actionable research reports. The exploration of the current quantitative reporting landscape and the evaluation of whether South African marketing research firms strategically use data visualisation and storytelling, have helped in identifying barriers to adoption of these methods and recommended how these could be overcome; it also identified specific measures to bridge the gap between data supply and strategic (actionable) research. The study found that marketing research firms should continue and strengthen their focus on actionable research as client demand therefor will continue; this can be achieved through a number of ways such as by focusing on understanding the client’s business, demonstrating thought leadership, being future focused, strengthening storytelling capabilities and developing / possibly investing in data visualisation capabilities.

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The industrial safety posters produced by Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) during WW2 are evidence of a politically progressive, socially engaged and mass-produced graphic communication in Britain. These characteristics allow the RoSPA posters to qualify, by Walter Benjamin’s criteria, as exemplars of Modernist cultural production in the age of mechanical reproduction. The emergence of these images, within the unlikely context of war, is evidence of the social change identified by George Orwell as a necessary condition of victory. Furthermore, the presence of this material, within an English context, counters the prevailing orthodoxy of an English resistance to Modernism. The thesis describes the administrative and technical determinants of the posters, as indicated by the structure of RoSPA, the personalities behind the campaign and the technical expertise of the printers; Loxley Brothers of Sheffield. Quaker and Nonconformist antecedents are revealed to define the values of both administration and printers. The thesis explores the RoSPA posters’ use of Surrealist techniques and iconography and also their appeal to a wider and international Left community. The address of the RoSPA posters to the neophyte industrial worker offers the opportunity, exemplified by the special case of women workers, to project an “imagined community” beyond the normal tribal and class distinctions of British society through “Social Vision.” The RoSPA posters make explicit a connection, within English Modernism, between community, technology, progress and dissent. A catalogue of posters is appended to the thesis. The RoSPA posters reaffirm the progressive, emancipatory and radical quality of the popular experience of the Home-Front in Britain during WW2. The social changes, precipitated by the circumstances of war, of which the RoSPA posters are a manifestation, alter the role of graphic designer in relationship to community through an embrace of technology. The concept of graphic authorship is, in consequence, irrevocably changed.

Visual communication (VC) resources can be seen as playing an increasingly important role in delivery and learning systems in today s design and technology education. The performance of current tools and resources is the primary concern of this research, and particularly whether they take full advantage of VC when delivering technological information to industrial design (ID) and engineering design (ED) students. This thesis sought key principles behind the visual communication of technology (VCT) and its association to designing, creativity and innovation through a literature survey. The findings concluded that there were many such assertions made with little evidence concerning the associations suggested. Some guiding sources and key emerging principles (KEPs) for good VCT practices were established. A miniature-kite-designing exercise was conducted as a case study for the purpose of examining the links between VCT, designing and creativity and/or innovation. Kite-technological-information posters were used as the VCT tool for the kite-designing case. A comparative study of kite-designing was conducted in Malaysia to check the reliability of the study, and another validation study was carried out for the purpose of establishing the validity of the data gathering. Visual technological information (VTI) for kite design (or a kite-poster) was refined accordingly to the KEPs established from the literature review, and its visual impact was tested through the use of eye-tracking technology. Some selected current and historical visual tools, which have been used in design and technology communication and were recognised as having positive impacts were analysed and articulated in order to reveal a deeper understanding of the KEPs. These were further validated through eye-tracking of reading patterns of participants on those selected visuals. The perceptual responses toward those visuals were also recorded and analysed. A theoretical research framework was established to investigate VTI representation used in books by Ashby (1999) and Ashby and Johnson (2002), in new authors scholarly papers (METU, 2010), and of the author s analysis and redesign of some of those studied VTIs based on the KEPs emerging from the research. A questionnaire survey was conducted within a number of higher education institutions in 3 regions around the world in order to achieve reliable data gathering. This third case study was validated through experts discussion of the findings and related issues. Within these three case studies, a mixture of scientific (using the eye-tracker device) and conventional methods (questionnaires, interviews, discussion group and comparative studies), and also others methods such as design workshops, analysing existing resources, using own practice of design-and-redesign activities were conducted to provide quantitative and qualitative measurements to empirically validate the literature search. Evidence of links between VCT, designerly activities which involved knowledge, skills and values within the technological communication, and of facilitating creativity was obtained. Empirical evidence showed that VTIs were effective in communicating knowledge, skills and values; where the KEPs criteria had played essential roles in enriching the visual emphasis of VTIs. The redesigning exercise using the author s own practice, which articulated the KEPs through the redesign of the existing VTIs for the purpose of more effective VCT, again obtained significant evidence of visual effectiveness and easy understanding capability. Evidence from the analysis of 2 books on materials technology for ID and ED students, views from the 2 materials experts, and the literature review suggested that ID and ED students require difference types of representational models and graphical strategies of VCT in their learning. However, the empirical data from the research, which was supported by one of the materials experts, suggested that ID and ED students even with different cultural backgrounds did not require different VTIs or the use of different VCT strategies for effective communication.

In pursuing my aim to provide a methodical easy to follow ideation to creationprocess didactic instructional tool to be used both for design and art projects, ledme to produce a multimedia film.An A2 poster with 3 5 step tried and tested hybrid methods started action research,acting as a didactic teaching tool and point of reference.Further to an interview with gymnasium (high school) art and storytelling teacher,the defining process began by editing live test case documentation from her finalyear 2013 art and design class. Audio clips from a creative director and teacherinterviews’ along with still picture quotes added valuable process method narration.Practical hands on experience in addition to the gymnasium class usability findings,led to final stage development in the form of a digital mobile application, "id'8." Anend sequence animation illustrates simplified, refined and combined 2 5stepprocesses in action, as I work the id’8 process tool interactively.