San Francisco

Hi

I’ve been in San Francisco for over a week now and I’ve been so busy!

On the conference I was on explored the city and went to all the tourist attractions. I’ve walked the Golden Gate Bridge, been to Alcatraz, driven across the Bay Bridge and fed the homeless at Glide Memorial Church. In the city it isn’t very green because it’s an industrial city but where I am now everything is blooming for spring.

I’m now staying in Oakland with a host family and going to school at Athenian in Danville; which is about 1 hour out of the city. The Athenian School last year was voted the ‘Greenest School in the Country’ and I think this ties in nicely with my theme of green. The school is heavily into recycling, gardening and saving power by using solar panels. The school is situated just below Mt. Diablo and many other grassy hills; everything is so lush and green.

While I’ve been here I’ve also been into the department stores we’ve been researching. I’ve been to Bloomingdales, Nordstrom’s and Macy’s. I also went into Zara; which was looked at in one of the case studies.

Colour Research

I’ve done a basic search on the colour green using ‘Wikipedia’ and my own general knowledge. Definitions and symbolism can differ depending on religion, beliefs and culture.

The word green is closely related to the Old English word growan, which means to grow. Used to describe plants or the ocean.

Green can describe someone who is jealous, envious or sick.

In the United States green is a slang term for money.

In some cultures green symbolizes hope and growth, where as in others it is associated with death, sickness, envy or the devil.

The most common association with green is nature, ‘paradise full of lush greenery’. Also can be associated with regeneration, fertility and rebirth, which connect to nature.

Political groups have taken on the colour green as a symbol of environmental protection, other campaigns use green in advertising, which promote environmentally friendly products or messages.

Chlorophyll is responsible for the green colour in plants.

Animals typically use the colour green as camouflage.

Green can communicate safety to proceed, as in traffic lights.

Idea Generation

To start off my idea generation I've brainstormed a list of things I relate to the colour green:

-Nature

-Calm

-Mint (herbs)

-Grass

-Emerald (jewel)

-Lime (fruit)

-Capsicum

-Leaves and vines

-Four Leaf Clovers

-Lepricorn

-Go (traffic lights)

-‘On’ button

-Hospitals

-Frogs

-Cucumber

-Peas

I've also researched companies that use the colour green for their logo or advertisements:

-Coopers

-Celtics (NBA)

-Packers (NFL)

-Oakland athletics (MLB)

-Army

-Australian Coat of Arms

-Milo

-Smiths Chicken Chips

-Lipton Green Tea

-Starbucks

-Recycling Bins

-The Greens political party

-BP

-Woolworth's

-John Deere

-Mountain Dew

-Tic Tac

-Land Rover

-Sprite

I also found that practically all environmentally friendly companies and organisations use the colour green to promote their message or products.

The Project Brief

For our second assignment for the semester we have to create a merchandising display to sell and promote a particular colour. This assignment is supposed to be done in groups, but because I'm going to San Francisco on Friday i chose to do this individually and chose the colour GREEN! The display can be of any products we like in the chosen colour, but we are limited to the space on the academy work tables. There is a slight twist! We must also include ourselves of form a part of the display and be styled in the chosen colour when presenting the final display.

I'm really excited about getting started on this assignment and you'll be able to follow all my progression and documentation here on my blog :)