AAD011: CW1

Sustainability

Being aware of the environment in this day and age and the damage we cause is very important, so we can provide a better future for the upcoming generations to set a good example for them. There are several groups of people, organizations, etc. that actively work to prevent pollution in all its forms. One of the less well-known and only came to light very recently was food waste. Food waste is a serious matter because it is energy, pollution, money, and especially food going to waste(4)(15). Two women, Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One got together, and with a vision and an idea to reduce food waste and give perfectly fine products a second chance, they came up with OLIO(14).

It’s an app that lets individuals, small businesses as well as larger ones, offer free food to people nearby via the app(18). It does not only provide you with the choice of giving away food that you don’t need or want anymore, but it also gives you the choice to give you away non-edible items, which is also another way to battle our carbon footprint.

(OLIO, 2015)(14)

Identity

Being surrounded by social media, with different focus and functions is a great way to engage with the world and meet new people. We’re building our own identity online. We have a choice and the power and be who we want to be or stay completely anonymous.

The identity users have online is more or less a figment of their own imagination. The vast majority of “influencers” on social media are heavily edited to fit today’s beauty standards, be their body or face.

This behavior from individuals that are being seen as role models to quite a big audience has a very high possibility to cause body dysmorphia, which is a mental health disorder that causes you to perceive yourself differently, in a negative way(5)(6)(10)(12).

There isn’t a specific age range or group getting especially affected by this, it’s everyone. Being fed from people they look up to that the perfect body image is impossible to achieve is not healthy for anybody, even the individual posting it.

(Instagram, 2010)

Innovation/Provocation

In November 2017, an app that could remove makeup from images, videos, and in real-time surfaced. The app MakeApp was released in early 2017 but only got traffic later the same year(1). But, the traffic and acknowledgment it got were not positive.

The Augmented reality/Artificial Intelligence focused company Magic Unicorn Inc. released this app in May 2017 on the app store for apple products. It was an app that could apply and remove makeup from the user with pictures, videos, and in real-time. An app that can apply and modify your appearance is nothing new. What gave this app a massive amount of attention was the fact that it was used as a weapon. Users abused this app to provoke anger in women by taking their pictures online and modifying them using the filter that removes makeup(8)(9)(16).

It’s a groundbreaking feature, to add and remove makeup and make it look realistic, but the developers were too naive in terms of the user base. The app had to be made unavailable since users weaponized it.

(App Store, 2017)(1)

 Communication

Espresso House is the largest coffeehouse chain in the Nordic countries as of today(3). But the reason I chose this is because of how the logo really stands out in relation to other coffeehouse chains. A café or coffeehouse logo is not very common, since a lot of businesses chose to have a name rather than a logo.

A logo speaks more than what words do, and that’s what this one does. With the chosen color scheme and the illustrated coffee bean, you can tell it’s a coffee house. Whenever you create a logo for a brand, it needs to be something special and unique, and that’s exactly what this logo is. It’s an impressive logo that people recognize when seeing it in the north of Europe. It’s a logo associated with a high-quality freshly brewed coffee and no more than that. It doesn’t have to be more than that. Less is more most of the time, and something as simple as a logo can make a massive impression.

(Espresso House, n.d.)(3)

My logo

I chose to make a logo related to what I wrote about; coffee. I wanted my icon design to be featured on the web and on apps when purchasing the product. There were several things I wanted to lift with this logo, like how coffee is represented from its origins with vibrant colors, making it exotic, and how we perceive coffee visually. I also kept in mind how it would look on a website, keeping it minimalistic with very limited colors.

Gender

Whilst gender isn’t inherently a new thing, the internet is. Tumblr is a blogging website that started in 2007 and has been seen as a safe place for the LGBTQIA+ community and much more ever since(22). It’s a blogging website where you could create your own personal blog and befriend people with similar interests.

With personal blogs, Tumblr has helped loads of teenagers and young adults to find themselves and build their own identities. It is a place that encouraged people to explore their sexualities, their true gender, and who they are(17). With this encouragement, it helped a lot of individuals to find out who their true self is. It made them realize why they’ve been confused for so long or unsure, because of certain terms that didn’t really exist in their previous reality(19). 

(Tumblr.com, 2007)(22)

Place

With a constantly evolving technology that’s getting more and more advanced every day, we’re bound to work the digital world into reality to make life easier and more comfortable. Ikea launched an app called Place to help people see what certain furniture they were planning on getting looked like in their living room, but on their phone using AR technology(7).

AR is not new but has only recently become more popular and advanced(21). It’s a technology that enhances reality with the help of your handheld device through the camera, even with the use of products like google glass(13)(20).

AR technology is used in several other instances, rather than just if furniture would fit in your room. It’s also used in training for engineers to help them understand easier with repairing and building with the help of either an AR guide or a video that they will see while doing said task. Helping them understand and complete the task faster, easier, and better(2). 

Ikea app, Place (Lewalter, 2017)(IKEA, 2017)(7)(11)