The specific area in which I am going to study, is a mix between photography, maybe cinematography and advertising. I am going to be creating marketing and promotional materials for mine and my mums business called Millie's. I will be making posters, leaflets, business cards and potentially packaging or a website. The whole project revolves around our own business that sells homemade and non-animal testing products such as candles, bath bombs, freshly cut soaps, bath crystals and other unique bath products. The idea is to create these advertisements to create an influx of new clientele once we have been able to put our business out in the industry more.
What is the historical and social context?
"The world of the play means a variety of things. It's the relationships between the different characters, their personalities and the situation in which they find themselves. It's also the social, historical and cultural context of the play when it was written – the background or setting." - https://www.bbc.co.uk/education/guides/z2pc2hv/revision
"The social environment, social context, sociocultural context or milieu refers to the immediate physical and social setting in which people live or in which something happens or develops. It includes the culture that the individual was educated or lives in, and the people and institutions with whom they interact." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_environment
The History of Bath Bombs and where they came from
Bath bombs first came about in 1989. Mo Constantine was the first person who invented the bath bomb during 1989. He is one of the Lush co-founders.
"The term ‘aromatherapy’ was invented in 1937 by the eminent French chemist René-Maurice Gattefossé. The story goes that, in the laboratory one day he plunged his burnt hand into a vat of lavender oil instead of water. Surprised at the rapid healing effect the oil had on his skin, he began research into the medicinal benefits of other essential oils on the skin and mind, and with the publication of his book Aromathérapie: Les Huiles Essentielles, Hormones Végétales, the concept of aromatherapy was born."
"A bath bomb isn’t just a way to treat your skin to beautiful butters and essential oils; it creates a unique bathing experience filled with wonderful uplifting fragrance and vibrant colour. We draw much of our inspiration from aromatherapy and how essential oils can affect both your mind and body."
"Lush were the first people to bring some luxury to boring baths: mood enhancing fragrances, flower petals, colours, moisturising butters - all manner of surprises to make bath times worthy of spending your hard-earned relaxation time enjoying. Our fizzing, non-foaming baths are made with essential oils that were chosen especially to brighten up your day and lift your mood."
The first bath bomb created by Mo was created for people to feel 'relaxed and happy'. This is how Lush was born. It first started off in Australia.
How did Mo make the first bath bomb?
This video shows you step by step of how he had created the very first bath bomb. Bath bombs are now made from machines which work a whole lot faster than doing every one by hand although Lush has a lot of handmade workers still in the factory today. Machinery just steps up the man and women's job due to it being very time consuming.
It is said that Lush is the biggest and the best bath bomb company in the world due to their wide range of products that are all non-animal testing. The Lush bath bombs are created in the Poole factory in the Uk, Ireland and some European countries. 19 October 2015 was Lush's biggest day so far. They created 182,890 bath bombs in the factory. Over 13.5 million bath bombs were made during the whole of 2014. The workers in the factory say that they get so used to the smell that they no longer notice it. Each and every bath bomb is made by hand by using the factory machines.
They make sure to match each bath bomb name to the scent. They say that this is technical flair.
Political views on bath bombs
"A large chunk of the handmade cosmetics company's time and money is spent on political activism."
"Far from carefully choosing a few business-friendly good causes, Lush has backed a plethora of controversial causes from Guantanamo prisoners, to hunt saboteurs and the anti-fracking campaign. It does this through financial donations – totalling £5m a year in 2015 - and in-store products such as the May Day bath bombs, which supported activists opposed to the badger cull. It also supports groups in favour of peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation of Palestine."
"Such blatant politicisation is a tactic few other businesses in the UK seem willing to replicate. The renewable energy firm Ecotricity has produced anti-fracking films, but this makes sense for a company that benefits from consumers switching away from fossil fuels. Lush admits a lot of the campaigning it does has nothing to do with its own business."
“Right from the inception Lush has been political. We’ve always employed people, because of our principles on animal testing, who were politically aware, including animal rights activists,” says Simon Constantine, head of buying at Lush and son of co-founder and boss Mark Constantine. “Yes, it’s risky but these are issues we feel strongly on and that we understand,” he adds."
As Lush have clearly stated here, their political views on animal testing is strong. This is how they have stood out in the cosmetic industry due to having all their products handmade out of all natural substances. They also raise money to several charities such as Justice for Domestic Workers, Stop the Arms Fair, Climate and Migration Coalition, Exeter Scrapstore, UK Centre for Animal Law, Horse Sense Wirral, Human rights groups and finally Animal welfare groups.
"During our last financial year in the UK, we donated over £1.6 million to small charities, campaigns and organisations working in the areas of environment, animal protection and human rights. Globally, we donated £6.3 million."
We created Charity Pot hand and body lotion in April 2007 in order to raise money for charities and other good causes. Every penny you pay, except the VAT, goes to helping these carefully selected groups and the work they do.
In our last financial year, our generous customers in the UK and Ireland raised £833,265 for vital and important grassroots campaigns and charities by buying Charity Pot. Thank you.
Globally, Charity Pot is now sold in 35 different countries and in our last financial year, sales raised over £4.8 million – all of it given away to frontline campaigns for animals, human rights and the environment."
During the year 2016, Lush gave £20,000 each to:
Sea Shepherd UK
Hunt Saboteurs Association
War on Want
Reprieve
Animal Protection Agency
Frack Off
Fresh Start Foundation
Save Me Trust
Global Justice Now
All Out
Raptor Persecution UK
This list of donations shows the clear ethical beliefs that the co-founders of Lush have for the environment and wildlife due to wanting to help this much.
This video shows the different charities and political campaigns that Lush supports.
Ethical circumstances for Lush
"Here at Lush we have never liked to call ourselves an Ethical Company. We find the term rather a difficult concept, because it seems to us that it is used to describe companies who try not to damage people or planet with their trade practices – when surely this should not be regarded as ‘ethical’ but as normal business-as-usual."
Shown below are the different campaigns that Lush have policies with:
Fighting Animal Testing - https://uk.lush.com/article/fighting-animal-testing-0
Tax
Ethical Buying Policy - https://uk.lush.com/article/ethical-buying-policy"At Lush we pride ourselves on our creativity, and this doesn’t stop with our products. Since the beginning our aim has been to use the best, safest and most beautiful ingredients."
The Lush specifically hires their own workers that go out and seek the best ingredients to use in their products. All ingredients are natural and found in the strangest of places. This involves the workers fighting problems such as sourcing essential oils, raw materials, safe synthetics, removing palm oil from their products or creating 100% recycled packaging. They feel that their ingredients should be bought in a respectful way, taking care of the environment and be respectful to the holders of the packaging and ingredients. For proof of the handmade and natural ingredients Lush really use, here is a list of ingredients that the company tends to buy and collect:
- "1/6th of the world’s harvest of Orange Flower absolute from small orange groves in Tunisia.
- 1/8th of the world’s Neroli oil, hand harvested from the Bitter Orange trees of Tunisia
- 1/10th the worlds crop of Turkish Rose absolute, gathered by the nomadic Roma people
- 5 villages worth of Benzoin resin from the inaccessible climbs of Northern Laos; one of the poorest countries in South East
- Fair trade Shea butter, supporting 400 women in remote areas of Ghana
- 55 tonnes of organic, fair trade cocoa butter from Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic
- Nearly 1/5th of the UK’s henna imports, a whopping 50 tonnes
- One island in the South Pacific’s worth of sandalwood oil (to avoid kidnappers, mafia and smuggling in India.) it is sustainably felled by the indigenous Kanak tribesmen.
- 1/3rd of Hungary’s entire crop of their best blue chamomile oil
- 150 bunches of flowers a week or about 8,000 bunches a year for use in our fresh products.
- 25 tonnes of organic fruit a year and 50 tonnes of fresh fruit and veg a year, both organic and conventional, locally sourced weather permitting
- Lush has also stopped using approximately 250 tonnes of Palm oil in an effort to save the Orangutan and its threatened habitat in indonesia’s rainforests."
External Auditing - https://uk.lush.com/article/external-auditing
Compliance with the Law - https://uk.lush.com/article/compliance-law
Campaigns
Charity Pot - https://uk.lush.com/article/bit-about-our-charity-pot
Lush People - https://uk.lush.com/article/lush-people
Products - https://uk.lush.com/article/product-policy
Environment - https://uk.lush.com/article/environmental-policies
Customer Care
Ethical Considerations when buying:
"Workers rights - unions, collective bargaining, health and safety, freedom to leave, fair pay, working hours, discrimination, no child labour.
Environment - organic, sustainability, endangered species, production emissions onto land and water, use of resources to process ingredients, no Genetic Modification...
Animal protection - No animal testing of ingredients. Vegetarian ingredients only.
Transport - The distance ingredients travel, minimum air freight, packaging materials used."
Ethics in Graphics Design
As we already know, graphics design has a huge responsibility for how the audience interpret products. Graphics design has increased communication towards social responsibility ever since the beginning of when graphics started. Designers are becoming far more careful when advertising and designing because of the people in the world we live in. They do not want to encourage bad habits or copy cats. It is the creators responsibility that they study the visual communication and ethics movement when creating a product due to it potentially being taken the wrong way or encouraging bad habits.
This image shows the steps of research in which you have to take as a creator to ensure that your product will fit its target audience and the visual communication is clear. Research is one of the main factors about a product to ensure it is going to be successful. This image indicates just how important and in depth you research would have to be.
"Through partnering with community organizations, activists, researchers, scientists, institutions, politicians, and artists, designers become an essential piece of the collaborative process needed to inspire and create change." Meaning your product would need to stand out and have importance of meaning. The only way it is going to stand out in the industry is if it is different than anything else ever created.
"Roberts (2006) stated that ethics is a relatively unexplored territory within visual communication. As with many other professions, visual communication does not necessarily presents us with significant ethical dilemmas. However, as visual communication is part of the fabric of society, even seemingly small design decisions can affect other people and reveal something about a designer’s broader approach to life."
It is important for designers to consider the ethics of their work professionally and personally in order to not be too judgemental.
"Clients act as an interface between us and an unseen consumer, but their interests are not always the same as the consumer’s. If client and designer do not communicate their needs effectively and are not mutually respectful, the resultant design is likely to be less successful. Roberts (2006) mentioned that behaving professionally is an ethical concern. This means that in accepting a commission we agree to do the job to the best of our abilities, on time and within budget. In exchange, we have the right to be paid as agreed and not be hindered in our job. Designers need to understand that from their client’s point of view, design is a small, but not invaluable, contribution to the world.
Within graphic design, there is debate around this subject. Most designers fear that in order to achieve access for all they will have to adhere to creatively restrictive guidelines. Clients, meanwhile, are anxious about the financial implications. (Roberts, 2006:86)"
Environment
"Designers and artists are at the forefront of trends and have a glimpse of tomorrow’s messages today. There was a time when environmental responsibility was a niche for a few select clients. That time is gone. The environment is everyone’s responsibility now.
Abusow (2008) stated that the design community is a part of this, too7. Environmental options for paper are much greater than in the past because of the hundreds of paper producers and printers who play an active role in responsible forestry through Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) certification8."
Designers need to be concerned about how they may affect the environment.
Culture
Designers communicate through cultural whether they realise it or not. It is up to them to embrace culture rather than making divisions and stereotypes. It is said that "culture creates a world that makes sense". Depending on the advertisement or design, the cultural and social aspects of the design bring everything together. It gives meaning and subliminal messages through the visual communication of culture.
Do you think we need specific guidelines for graphic design?
The guidelines in graphic design are now prepared by ADGI but this is not easy. It is the main responsibility of ADGI to prepare guidelines for creators to follow so that only positivity is put out in todays society without society and divisions being made. However, it is difficult to persuade graphic designers to join the association due to it limiting them on the products they can make.
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