In Richards context of practice lesson we looked at The Shannon-Weaver communication theory, one theory of hundreds of how communication works.
'The Shannon-weaver Mathematical Model, 1949'
*made under the employment of the military.
It is one of the most famous, early attempts at explaining the process of communication. It's very simplistic but this can be used as a strength.
They split communication into five distinct stages:
We were asked to use this theory and apply it to the process of Graphic Design, in groups we discussed and came up with the five different stages:
Gathering research - Designing - Print/ production process - Who receives it - Impact made
In our group we focused more on the production level of graphic design, as you can see above.
We then as a group defined and agreed on what we thought the five stages could be in graphic design:
Info/ brief - Encoding/ research - Medium - Understanding - Audience
We discussed problems which could occur at each stage:
Info/ brief: Wrong information, Bad communication, Problems with the idea, Not enough research.
Encoding/ Research: Not considering the audience, Wrong scale, Bad concept, Time scale, Bad at designing.
Medium: Wrong scale, Cost, Wrong stock, Bad quality, Printer breaks, Wrong colour prints, Wrong format.
Understanding: Wrong idea, Causing offense, Wrong situation/ destination, Tone of voice.
Audience: Lack of feedback, People don't care, People be-little your work.
As a class we discussed the different stages and the barriers which would affect each stage. The point of the task was to help broaden our knowledge of the path in which communication follows, improving our overall skills as a designer, allowing us to think more in depth.
We then discussed how we could prevent the problems which could occur at each stage:
Stage 1: Ask more questions!
Stage 2: Ask for feedback, thorough research, practice.
Stage 3: Consider limitations, plan ahead.
Stage 4: Correct tone of voice, make sure you know the exact audience
Stage 5: Learn from your mistakes
On the diagram of the Shannon-Weaver theory there's an added box called 'Noise'. As the theory was devised under the employment of the military, noise to Shannon and Weaver would of been literal noise, I.e. white noise. As we are looking at it from a design perspective we labelled noise as things which would interfere with your work, and have an effect.
Stage 1: People with the money behind your design could disagree with the ethics of the client, the client could be boring, you may not agree personally with the ethics of the company.
Stage 2: Your own personal style could be completely different to the company/ client there for completely different to the way you work, The client could be always interfering asking to change things.
Stage 3: Your work could be vandalized or ripped down, Technological problems, Not enough money.
Stage 4: People not understanding the actual concept, Your work could be positioned in the wrong place.
Stage 5: Marketing issues, brand being belittled, bad cultural opinion ending in the brand having a bad name.
Shannon and Weaver also categorized their problems (noise) into three levels:
Level A - Technical problems - How accurately can the message be transmitted?
Level B - Semantic Problems - How precisely is the message conveyed?
Level C - Effectiveness problems - How effectively does the required meaning affect behavior?
In pairs we categorized the problems we'd come up with:
Level A: Broken equipment, Bad printer, Broken Laptop, Problems with technique.
Level B: Lack of research, rubbish concept, people not understanding, brand being belittled, tone of voice, colour, font.
Level C: Peoples opinions, marketing issues, client ethics, cost, wrong location, wrong medium.
Noise can also be used as the source you communicate through - doesn't have to be a bad thing:
Richard then explained to us Redundancy and Entropy.
Redundant: Provides no resistance, smooth communication, no problems (no noise)
Entropy: A leak, communication changing into something different, white noise.
Further explained, in terms of design:
Redundant: Our society is based around - someone interested in designing for a wide audience, easy to read, conventional - Low information but high predictability. An agreed conceptual code that our society understands. Doesn't challenge the codes.
(Shaking someones hand)
Entropy: Low predictability, unconventional, high information. entropy is used to shock! Get the awareness.
(Shaking someones hand, with a buzzer)
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