Activity 2E The E.N.D

For the final stage of Activity 2 I added a word to my 4 images to furthermore enhance the message or story it was trying to communicate. I was in fact pleasantly surprised. I am starting to, or at least think I am beginning to see what Barthes was talking about.

I added the word REWARD to my images, I still didn't get a full return on the stories but the majority of them were along the same lines of someone catching cattle to be transported and being rewarded with a glass of milk. I found that if they were rearranged with the glass and the word coming last that this was the way to get the best results.

I believe to a certain extent that this was what was asked of us in the task, however as much as I enjoyed the physical task, I found the whole idea of the Barthes essay baffling. I didn't understand it properly in all honesty on a number of points, even after extensive discussion within my seminar group, although this did shed a bit of light onto it. I feel that the exercise would be on the whole better without Roland Barthes' influence as I feel it slowed the whole process (that I'd imagine would have the same outcome without it) down.

In relation to the picture activity however I do see this as a helpful task especially in Graphic Design, when understanding text and image, as it is a very important part of the subject. The whole idea is that an image has to communicate its message in the most powerful, effective means in a short space of time. When we discussed as a group, Sophie brought up the Diet-Irn Bru adverts where you are to spot the difference in them. We proceeded to have quite a lengthy discussion to what we all felt this advert was meaning. As an advert I think in terms of this task it would have failed as it wasn't immediately clear what the message was. This perhaps enhances the need for strong text and imagery.