Product ResearchOn the Surfers Against Sewage online shop they have a range of women’s clothing, men’s clothing, children’s clothing and accessories.

This is a product that I found on the SAS’ online shop. I found this T-shirt in the women’s clothing section. The T-shirt features SAS’ logo, which resembles an image of an eye incorporated into an image of a wave. Their logo is typically 2 shades of blue, however for this T-shirt they have incorporated images of marine litter collected by artist Steve McPherson. This is very much representative of what SAS are fighting against. All of the litter that Steve McPherson has collected is very grey. I think that this is perhaps trying to be reflective of how dirty and grey this litter is making the sea. The logo is large, and situated in the centre of the t-shirt. I think that this is quite a simple way of placing the logo on the t-shirt, however it will be more effective at advertising SAS as people from a distance will still be able to see the designs.

One thing that the logo design on t-shirt doesn’t feature, which the logo normally does is the organizations name. I think that the t-shirt perhaps looks better without, as you would need to make the design smaller in order to fit the organizations name on there. Although, the organizations name might have made the t-shirt more effective at advertising.

They have stated in the information section that the T-shirt is made from 100% organic cotton. Just like the surfboard bag form my pervious example they have put emphasis on the environmentally friendly materials that their product is made from.

By featuring the brand logo on the T-shirt, they are promoting themselves to anyone who sees the T-shirt. For example, a person who sees a friend wearing this T-shirt and likes it, might ask where they got it from. They might purchase the T-shirt for themselves, and they may gain an interest in the organization.

This towel is also on sale on SAS’ online shop.

Like the T-shirt, the towel features the logo, however this time in their more classic style. As well as the main image they have featured the organizations name. This makes it more effective in promoting themselves to anyone who sees the towel. People would be able to search the organizations name in Google if they are interested in finding out about them. They haven’t used the typical colours for the towel. They have used a much darker shade of blue for the background, and off white for the logo. I think that they still used blue for their towel because it is a colour that resembles the sea, and may still remind people of the usual logo. In their usual logo they use 2 shades of blue, a light blue and a darker blue. The logo featured on this towel is very large, the logo itself almost covers one half of the towel, and the organizations name almost covers the other half. Two edges of the design are slightly cut off due to the logo taking up so much space. I think that they did this to fill up space of the towel to make it look more interesting.

I think that choosing to sell a product such as a towel was a good idea, as it is a product that would perhaps be relevant to surfers, and surfers are their main audience.

This is an example of one of SAS’ campaign posters.

The imagery that they have used for this campaign poster is very powerful. They have set a load of surfboards in the sand in a way that makes they resemble a grave yard. They state underneath “Sewage, litter and offshore developments are threatening to kill our waves.” The word “kill” I think has been used to back up the imagery, and emphasize their message.

The photograph is extremely dull and grey looking, making it look even more morbid. The dark clouds are something that you don’t often associate with surfing, people tend to think more of warm sunny days, so the surfboards in the image look quite out of place and a bit sad. All of the surfboards are quite dirty, indicating that they have been disused for some time. This might tell the viewer that if they don’t act on the issue they might not be able to surf.

Further to the bottom of the image, it fades out to black. This darkens the image quite a bit to give it a much more morbid feel.

In the top right corner they have featured their logo, however it is in black rather than blue. Again, I think this is to make the poster look morbid. The logo is placed right at the edge of the image, in a place where not much important is going on, and it is quite small. I think that this has been done to stop it from obstructing the image. I think if it were to obstruct the image in any way it might diminish the impact it would make on the audience.

There is some text in a very simple, square white font in the bottom right corner of the poster. Again, it is small and tucked away to not obstruct the image. They have put the text in white so that it stands out against the dark background, but doesn’t look bright or colourful. The font is very simple as there is no need to do anything exciting with it because all of the focus is on the image. Using a more eye catching font might diminish the morbid feel that they were going for.

As well as trying to create an emotional response in the viewer, this poster provides you with information.

Down at the bottom of the poster it explains to you how you can get involved and help the organization. They state “Sign our petition to save them” and they provide a link to the website. This might encourage people to support SAS as they know how to find them.

Here is what the SAS logo normally looks like.

It looks as if they have taken an image of an eye and tried to incorporate an image of a wave into it. The logo is in 2 shades of blue. They have also used their organizations name in their logo to give people some context.

The logo is quite effective in reflecting what their organization is about in their imagery and use of colour. The logo definitely reminds me of water due to the colour blue that they have used, and also the curled around shape that looks like a wave.

The font is very readable. They have used quite a bold black font that covers almost the same amount of space as the image. This might enable people to see the organizations name at a distance, or perhaps to show the importance of the organizations name. While they are still quite a small organization, it is probably better for them to feature the organizations name in the logo, otherwise people might not know who’s logo it is. Having the organizations name in a large font will enable people to be able to see the logo on a poster or other product, without needing to stand close to look at it. For example, if a person sees an SAS poster out in public, they will be able to see who’s poster it is without needing to stop and look closer.

One shade of blue that has been used for the logo is quite a bright, cheerful looking blue. This might create a positive image of the organization in the publics mind, making people feel more inclined to get involved or donate. The other shade of blue that they have used is a slightly duller, darker blue. I think that this have been used to represent shadows created by the wave.

As this logo is every clear and straight forward, it would definitely work in a range of sizes. It is still recognizable in a smaller size, and you can still read the organizations name, which is useful for adding onto small posters or leaflets. As you can see above, I have images of the logo in 2 sizes. The small logo is still clear, and the organizations name is still readable.

Here is an image of an old SAS logo.

As you can see the logo is following a similar idea to the current logo. It incorporates in image of an eye into an image of a wave. They have used the organizations name in the logo like the current logo, however with this logo they have incorporated it better into the image itself. The font is a lot more rough and unreadable than their current logo. It looks as if it has been hand written perhaps. They have used a font that is more reflective of the image content, so it blends in.

For this logo, they have only used black and white, unlike the current logo where they have used 2 shades of blue and black. This could possibly make this busy design a little more simple.

The logo has lots more detail to it, making it I think less effective. The other logo is straight to the point and memorable. I think because of its detail it would be less recognizable. I also think that the font wouldn’t work in all sizes. At a smaller size the logo is unclear. The current logo is clear and bright, and works in a range of sizes. I think the same goes with the font. With this logo, at a smaller size the organizations name is completely unreadable, but the font for the current logo is bold and clear and would be readable at many sizes. Also, because of the font, people might be less likely to remember the organizations name because they are less likely to be able to see it. Unlike the current logo, as the name is in bold clear writing.

Due to the large amount of detail, and how unclear it is in smaller sizes, it would be very difficult to use on most of SAS’ products, such as merchandise and campaign posters. SAS often change up their current logo for merchandise, but I think that this logo would be very difficult to change up for merchandise.

Below is a screenshot of SAS’ membership form.

As you can see it has been very well designed. The images are definitely there to be seen and make an impact, taking up the majority on the screen. The page is split up into 3 parts. There is the form in the middle and 2 large images on either side.

The images feature a surfer stuck in a jar of water. I think that these image create a sense of danger and urgency. The lids of the jars are banded up tightly, so the surfer would be unable to take it off from the inside. It almost makes you want to take the band off. I think that by creating this sense of urgency and danger, its making people associate that feeling with the issue. It could make people more likely to donate more if they develop stronger feelings about the issue.

They have used really dark, nasty grey colours for the image. The room outside the jar is a really dirty brown-ish grey colour. The water inside the jar itself is also quite murky. I think that this is reflective of the dirty sea water that SAS are fighting against. It also makes the image look more morbid and sad looking.

In the image furthest to the right, you see the person in the jar looking as if they are struggling. It might be that they have passed out from holding their breath, or they may have died. I think that they are trying to make people see that this is the impact that dirty sea water could have. It might make surfers think that this could happen to them. This again will create this sense of urgency, and perhaps fear. They might feel as if they need to donate more in order to feel safe surfing again.

At the top of the form, you can see that the default setting is to donate £10 a month, though you have the option to edit. This might catch people out if they forget to edit, or don’t realize, and they might end up donating more than they would have. It might be the case that it shows people what they are expecting people to donate, and that expectation might put people under slight pressure to donate more.

The layout of the form is very effective, it places the most important thing, the form itself, at the centre of the page. Your eye is immediately drawn to that. The images on either side are both exactly the right width and height as the form, making the page layout neat. The 2 images that they have used, have been used to tell a story. First he is alive, trapped in the water in the jar, then he is dead or unconscious as he has been unable to free himself. In our culture, we read left to right, and so the images placement means that we look at the story in the right order. The images wouldn’t work as well if they had been placed the other way around.

Looking through Greenpeace’s merchandise I found this magnet.

The magnet is clearly aimed at children. They have created a little whale character to encourage children to be interested in whales, and want to learn more about whales. They have included a website link that children would be able to go to to find out about whales. On the website, perhaps they will provide information about whaling, and how to help whales, which may persuade children to want to donate.

They have named the whale character Mr Splashy Pants. They have also featured an image of the whale character, and its wearing a pair of pants. This is very childish humor, that Greenpeace’s young audience would perhaps find funny.

The whale character has been made to look very small and childlike. Children might find this character more relatable than an adult whale. The characters design is very simple, which I think makes it more appropriate for children, and for a magnet. The magnet is probably quite small, so something very detailed would perhaps not be clear.

I think that by creating a character they have also made “Save Mr Splashy Pants” sound more like a game. Children might think its more fun to get involved with saving whales if they think of it as a game.

They have used the colour blue for some of the magnet, such as the words “Mr Splashy”, the whale character, and the picture of the big splash of water in the background. The blue is bright, and so might be interesting to children. The colour is associated with water, and also with whales. The splash of water in the background might have been used to illustrate the word “splashy”.

The font they have used for “save Mr Splashy Pants” is very bold, square and in all capitals, which makes it readable. It has also been made to look 3D, which I think is another detail that has been included to make the magnet interesting for children. The words are also all at jaunty angles, making it look more messy, perhaps making it more relatable for children.

I have noticed that “Mr Splashy Pants”, and the image of the character itself all have slight colour gradients, rather than just block colour. It makes these bits of the magnet really stand out. The colour placement on “Mr Splashy Pants” is also reflective of the colour placement of the character. As you can see from the image above of the magnet, “Mr Splashy” is in blue, and “Pants” underneath is in orange. The whale character is also blue on top and orange on the bottom.

In the information about the product they have again tried to be appealing to children. They suggest to “Collect ‘em, trade ‘em”. This makes it seem even more game like, perhaps like Pokemoncards that children collect and trade.

As well as children’s merchandise Greenpeace also make a range of other merchandise, such as mugs, cards, mouse mats and fridge magnets aimed at an older audience.

Here is another piece of merchandise from Greenpeace.

Similarly to the SAS beach towel, Greenpeace’s mouse mat just features their organizations name in their signature font and colour. The background colour chosen for the mouse mat is white, enabling the text on it to stand out, and making it very simple. This product might be more appealing to an older audience than the previous product as it doesn’t feature the childish humor or design. It is just a simple product, that enables people to own a piece of merchandise from Greenpeace, but without a fussy design.

The mouse mat also features a link to their website. As the person is probably seeing this mouse mat at a computer, this is a good opportunity to provide them with a link. It might remind them to go and visit the website, perhaps to find ways to get more involved with them, or to make a donation. The website link is also in a darker shade of green, which matches with the type of organization the mouse mat is for, and fits in with the logo, without being exactly the same. Describing someone as “green” would imply that they were eco friendly, so the colour green for one of Greenpeace’smerchandise items is very appropriate.

This is one of Greenpeace’s campaign posters against climate change. They have based this campaign poster in the future, as if they are looking back on the mistakes of the past that have lead to catastrophic climate change.

They have used an image of Barak Obama, though they have made him look years older so it looks like an image from the future (specifically 2020). The poster was made back in 2009, so I think that they were trying to make people feel as if catastrophic climate change was only about 11 years into the future, so in a lot of peoples lifetimes back then. They state on the poster in the made up quote from Barak Obama that “We could have stopped catastrophic climate change”. They also say “Act now- change the future”. These will make people feel a bit less doomed, and like there is something that they can actually do about it, but they will have to act before its too late. This creates a sense of urgency, that might encourage people to donate or get involved with Greenpeace after seeing this poster.

They have used lots of red in this poster. For example, for “2020”, for the speech marks around the fake quote from Obama, for “Copenhagen 2009”, and there is also a red boarder. Red has connotations of danger, which is why I think they might have used it. They might have also used it as red is an eye catching colour. It is important for the poster to be eye catching so that people in the street for example will take notice of it and might stop to read it. The text is also very bold and large, especially the words “I’m sorry”, this makes people think that the writing is important and might encourage them to read it. The majority of the poster is quite straight forward. The background is plain white and the layout is clean and simple. This draws the focus to what the text says, rather than anything else, as the text is the most important thing on the poster.

Greenpeace has put their name on the poster at the bottom, along with another organization tcktcktck, who are also fighting for against climate change. This provides the public with information on who the poster was designed for, and lets people know where to find out how to get involved or to donate to stop climate change.

Here is an example of one of Greenpeace’s logos.

One thing that stands out to me is that the logo is very recognizable. The font is quite distinctive I think, and without reading it, just looking at the shape, I can recognize what it is.

They have also used the colour green for the whole of their logo. This is appropriate as “Green” in in their name and also green has connotations of ecofriendliness and nature, which are things that Greenpeace are definitely in favor of. The shade of green that they have chosen for the logo is bright and I think this makes it seem very positive, friendly and happy. I think it’s a good idea for Greenpeace to build up an association with friendliness and positivity as that might make it more likely for people want to get involved.

This logo features an image of a hand holding up the world. I think this might make people think perhaps that the world is in our hands, and that we need to look after the world. There is little detail to the logo design, though it is still recognizable what the image is representing.

Like SAS’ current logo, I think that logo is effective in that it would be recognizable in a range of sizes. Its bright, and it has a simple shape which means that even at a small size it is visible. This is very useful for putting on small posters, flyers and leaflets.

This is Greenpeace’ membership form.

As you can see, its a lot less emotive and engaging than the SAS membership form. They have only included the form, some key information about signing up, and a big orange button there to encourage you to donate to one of Greenpeace’ causes. Unlike the SAS membership form, they are not trying to encourage you the sign up and donate with emotive images, but with information on the benefits of signing up. For example they state that you can “Join a local group”. For people who are really interested in the cause, this might be very appealing to them.

Like the SAS membership form, all of the information you need to provide is in order going down the page, making it clear, readable, and so easy to fill out. The text boxes containing the form are also in the same style as the SAS one. The background is grey, the text is black, and the boxes to fill in your information are in white.

Next to the form there is a little advert for a particular Greenpeace cause that you can donate to. This is quite a good place to promote a cause as when they are first signing up is probably the time when people are most likely to be looking to donate.

Looking at Friends of the Earth’s (FOE’s) online shop, I noticed a lot of candle products on sale. For example these beeswax candles (top) and a make your own candle kit (bottom).

The information provided by FOE states that the beeswax candles are Fair Trade, and the make your own candle kit is organic and eco-friendly. These are both things that are important to the organization, and would be important to their audience.

The designs for the packaging of the product look a lot more high quality than the designs for most of Greenpeace’ products. The top candles packaging is light brown and earthy looking, though has some pretty details to it, such as the detailed boarders around each size of the lid, the pretty hand written looking front, and the little designs on the top of the lid. The beeswax candles themselves are in nice pots too. The make your own candles kit at the bottom has darker, more modern looking packaging. The product comes in a black and silver metal tin. The font that has been used is similar to the font that they used for the beeswax candles, some of it is pretty and hand written looking, and some is a little bolder and simpler. I think that the fact FOE’s products come in such nice, high quality packaging, is perhaps suggestive of what the audience for FOE cares about and would like. I think the fact that FOE sells candles, and non of the other organizations I have looked at so have have, is again suggestive of who the audience is, and what they like.

Unlike SAS and Greenpeace who use their logo and name on a lot of their products, FOE haven’t. They have chosen to sell other brands. Perhaps their audience cares about those particular brands, and would be more likely to buy from the FOE shop because of them.

This is one of FOE’s campaigns, aimed to raise awareness of how we are harming bees, and what we can do to help. I think that this campaign poster has been aimed more towards children.

This campaign is a lot more friendly and inviting that the previous 2 I looked at by SAS and Greenpeace. Theirs were designed to make people feel shocked and perhaps emotional. This campaign has used bright colours, and an almost hand drawn looking font which makes the poster look friendly and childlike. I think that the hand drawn look to the font might make people, especially children, feel more connected with the organization, like they are on the same level as them. Some of the font they have used is huge, the title takes up almost half of the page. I think that this has been done to make it readable from a distance for children. They have also included some imagery, such as the black grass at the bottom of the page, a little cartoon-like bee in the top right corner, and a photograph of the packet of seeds near the bottom right. The imagery had been used to illustrate the points that they are making, but also to make the poster more interesting for children. The images of the grass and the bee have very little detail, making it more visible, and perhaps more appropriate for children.

The poster is quite effective as they have provided plenty of information. They have provided information about why they should donate to the cause, information on how to donate £3, and even give you a clear step by step guide. They offer you a gift of some ‘bee-friendly’ flower seeds for donating, which might appeal to some as it means that they can do more to help than just giving money away. They have also provided you with the FOE logo. It is typically in green, however for the poster they have made it orange, in order to fit in with the colour scheme.

They have chosen a colour scheme that reflects the colours of a bee. They have used bright yellow for the background, and black for some of the text, and the image of grass at the bottom of the page. They have also included some orange in the poster, keeping it bright. As this poster is mainly aimed at children, I think that they might be trying to get children interested in helping the planet from a young age so that the future generations know about how to help the planet.

Here is FOE’s logo. The logo is very similar to SAS’ and Greenpeace’s logo’s, in the way that it’s very simple and readable. They also use a colour that is associated to the nature of their cause, in this case its green.

FOE are associated with eco-friendliness and nature, which are things that are also associated with the colour green. The logo features their name, a little image of a green circle, and unlike SAS and Greenpeace it features a slogan. Their slogan “see things differently”, is perhaps reflective of what FOE are trying to achieve. They are trying make people realize how the planet is being damaged, and trying to teach people how they can stop it, so therefore making people see things differently. It might also be them trying to separate themselves from other organizations, making people choose them over another similar organization. Their slogan might make people think that they have something new and different to offer that the other organizations don’t.

Like SAS, the logo includes the image on the left, and the organizations name on the right. As we read left to right, our eyes are going to be drawn to the image first. FOE might see the image as more important. Also, the font is similar to SAS’. It is bold, big and simple. Although, SAS’ font is in black, though FOE’s is in dark green.

Typically, you put the first letter of a name in a capital letter, though unusually, FOE haven’t. Perhaps they have done this in order to seem more down to earth, like they aren’t a big name. This might make them seem more friendly, relatable or trustworthy. However, they may have just done this for aesthetic purposes.

I think that the circle used for the logo is there to represent the earth. It looks hand drawn, and so might make FOE appear more relatable and friendly.