Evaluation

It is evident through the research of the explored social enterprises that there is a lack of identity to the social enterprise status, this being a weakness of the business strategy. Another weakness being that social enterprises are open to manipulation and exploitation for commercial terms, as explored in The Body Shop example. This contrasts the explored theory that states identity and concept is key for a successful brand (Klein 1999).

The Social Enterprise Certification proposal takes into consideration each of these aspects, providing a succinct identity for the organisation and because of  the investigation that takes place before certification is received, the term will less likely be manipulated in the incorrect way. 

When producing the identity for the proposed organisation, a key limitations did arise. This being that for the proposal to be fully completed, the collaboration with an animator is required. However, this opportunity was not successful due to peers having their own deadlines. This is a limitation that would also occur in the professional environment. This was overcome by producing a sample illustration and a full storyboard of the desired animation.

Another evaluation point is that there is a need for further, more extensive research into how an organisation such as the one proposed would run, specifically looking at the role of design and social responsibility. 

Due to effective time management, the completion of this module occurred with sufficient time to explore and produce an outcome that is succinct with the critical writing investigation. Having an aim for each tutorial ensured that the work was completed prior to the meetings, keeping the progression on track as well as being able to work on other briefs. 

Time Plan

Evidence of time planning can be seen on the blog post date entries. A calendar was also used to keep track of tutorial dates and personal goals throughout the module. 

At the start of this module, a calendar also allowed for time keeping for other briefs (603). One brief that is not shown is the completion of a personal brief that involved completing a print a day for 100 days. This ended on January 12th. This meant that each day had to be planned to ensure sufficient time for work to be complete and the completion of the illustration. 

Proposal

This is a proposal for the Social Enterprise Certification, clearly stating the aims of the organisation. A more developed proposal would be needed in the professional industry. 

Social Media

As found in research of the millennial target audience, social media is the largest platform that individuals engage with brands. The research is a collection of data from We Are Flint, Statista.com and Rose Mcgrory. 

This graph shows that the platforms with the most users are Facebook and Linkedin, closely followed by Instagram. 

The above data suggests that the platforms with the highest number of users and daily activity are Instagram and Facebook. For businesses to reach this market, they would require a social media presence. 

Qualman, E. 2010. Socialnomics. [pdf] Available at https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=yAqD19i2U0UC&oi=fnd&pg=PT13&dq=businesses+and+social+media&ots=AxHhN_wY5H&sig=Y3Vi6wH65WSgJv1XK-c10bvmDqk#v=onepage&q&f=false 

'Social media touches nearly every facet of our personal and business lives. In business it isn't just for the Marketing and Public Relations departments. Rather, it is imperative for social media to be integral part of a company's overall strategy. Whether a business is large or small, its overall success will be partly owed to its success within social media.'  This indicates that a successful business model is one that includes the use of social media to promote and reach the target audience. In terms of how this relates to social enterprises, it would be key for the success of the promotion of social enterprises for this to be published through social media. 

Social Media Profile

Influenced by the research into business and social media, the certification of being a Social Enterprise will be promoted through social media. 

Experimentations of the possible posts to the Instagram/Facebook page to provide understanding of social enterprises. 

Feedback: 

The general comments given were that the colour scheme works effectively with each of the vector illustrations. It was said that the tree illustrations reminded the peer group more of the forest than the whole environment. this is better achieved through the use of the globe. The social image suggestions were also positively received. However, the first set of speech bubbles were said to be unrecognisable and that remaining with the traditional shape ensures that the audience recognise the symbol. Suggestions were made towards making some of the images into an animation. Although this has been considered it would require the input of an animator which is currently unavailable. 

Instagram Mockup:

The Instagram feed of the organisation would be used to raise awareness of the organisation to the everyday consumer as well as advertise those businesses that have been certified. The above screenshots are mock ups of potential posts. 

Website

This is a mock up design of what the website would look like. A website is one of the most common ways that the public find information and it is therefore essential to have a functioning website platform for the organisation. 
At initial start up the website would mainly contain the organisations rational and a page to display information on those who are certified Social Enterprises.

Mobile View:

There is subtle use of the colour scheme to ensure that the website reflects the authenticity of the organisation. As identified, colour draws attention to various areas of a page and therefore ensures that the information presented is legible and received by the audience. 

The font used is Spinnaker, a free font available for use on the web. This sans serif font reflects the authenticity of the logo through the curved edges of each letter. A sans serif typeface also adheres towards the modernist movement. 

Final Logo

Feedback:

Feedback:

- 'The balance between icon and type has been met.' This reflects back on a previous feedback comment.
- 'Versatile' 
- 


When asked if the logo appears official and trustworthy the following comments were received:
- 'The logo works effectively alongside the Fairtrade logo.' 
- 'The colour scheme of the logo reflects its corporate nature with the shapes demonstrating the approachability and connectivity of the brand'
- 'Yes but it is not obvious what it representing.' Although I would agree with this comment, each new logo requires learning of association. To aid this, including the name of the certification has been tested and concluded that it does not work effectively with the chosen logo. Alternative methods such as advertising are therefore important to improve the number of individuals who recognise and understand the logo. 
-

Logo Development

After reflecting on the feedback comments, experiments in incorporating type to form a logo were tested. 

Feedback:

- The letter form in the circle breaches the gap between type and symbol, experiment with this further
- Look at line weight
- The incorporation of the S and E in the fourth design is effective. It has the ambiguousness of a logo as well having the recognition factor of the word initals
- The simple SE doesn't have the features of a logo
- SE not visually stimulating

I agree with the feedback comments made, in that the SE doesn't represent the qualities of a logo enough and that there is room for further experimentation with the fourth design.  

Further development, influenced by feedback comments:

- 1st column was the prefered designs

- The thicker design looses the effectiveness of letter shapes

- 'The square edges are harsh and make the logo appear more corporate' This is an important comment to have recieved as it is something that has been highlighted and wishing to avoid.  

Development of rounded edges:

The rounded edges reflect a more softer appearance to the logo. Showing it in positive and negative demonstrates that it can work on a variation of backgrounds. Having the logo with text placement was one of the successful features from the previous designs. When placed with the logo, the combination is not so successful.   

Animation

Test Animation:

This animation was completed to test different techniques of animating text and determine the most appropriate through feedback.  

The overall feedback comments made were that the speed of the contents was too quick and therefore reduced the readability. This could be solved through adjusting the speed or using a different effect to introduce the type. 

The final animation has been influenced by the Honda advertisement.
Edits to the storyboard have been made to provide a demonstration of what the final outcome would be like. 

Collaboration

In discussing the outcomes, it has became evident that there is the opportunity for collaboration with producing an animation to advertise the organisation and ensure a clear definition of the term, Social Enterprise. Having been previously approached by Basheer Ridha in the workshop run by Christina Elliott, I contacted him again and expressed my interest in collaborating. After meeting and discussing the project with Ridha it became evident that he had insufficient time to work with me to complete the planned animation. Due to this, I reached out to other animators through a Leeds Arts University collaboration page however received no enquiries. It has therefore been decided to animation elements of the full video and have a completed storyboard to accompany the proposal. 

Critical Writing

Through going through the feedback comments provided by the tutor, it has been made clear that further research needs to be completed on the counterargument for social enterprises in order to fulfil the aims of the critical writing piece. This will provide a counter argument for the positives that have already been outlined in the text. 

Doane, D. 2014. Social enterprise: can it succeed where traditional development has failed? [ONLINE] Available at https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2014/feb/25/social-enterprise-succeed-traditional-development-failed  2.1.18

In this article, social enterprises are criticised for providing a service to the public for a fee. If this service were provided by the government then this would be free to the public. This is a point that can be raised in the writing piece as a negative against social enterprises. It can be compared to the points made by Christina Elliott in the Social Enterprise workshop. The main point being that if social enterprises were to be funded by the government, then if this funding were to be lost then so would the service. It would also take away many of the starting foundations of social enterprises.

Smith, F. 2017. Profits with purpose: can social enterprises live up to their promise? [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jun/15/profits-with-purpose-can-social-enterprises-live-up-to-their-promise 3.1.18

A counter argument against the above point of social enterprises taking away from government schemes is that they are providing a goods/service that may typically be bought by consumers anyway and are therefore for the fee paid, money is being put back into society and/or the environment.