COP3: Dissertation Presentation & Feedback

Today we had our essay presentation in order to get feedback and clearance about our dissertation project. I've compiled a very summarised idea and structure to my essay and practical plan following from the briefing we had before the summer and developed my essay further to a specific topic. I've had difficulty in structuring my question in a way that encompass the overarching idea that I wanted to write about, however I decided to go with "How significant is Graphic Design in Advertising and influencing the female 'standardised' ideal beauty?'. I felt that with this question, I could talk about a range of themes within beauty advertisements as well as link it back to Graphic Design in a concise manner. I also specified fields within beauty advertisements that I wanted to talk about: "Body Positivity/Image" and "Representation of POC", as the overarching theme of beauty has such a wide range of topics I decided that specifying it to these two main topics would help me have a clearer essay structure and argument. Within, the theme as well, I wanted to focus on two theoretical approaches which I think would be helpful in linking and creating tribulations and arguments within my question" "Idealisation of Beauty" & "Consumer Behaviorism (Consumer Theory). I have read an extensive amount and variety of resources that helped with my research, however I decided to showcase the main books that have helped me start my essay to show an idea of the kind of content that I have already. Though I don't have a concrete idea for the practical brief yet, I think focusing the practical brief towards the idea of 'empowerment' similar to femvertising would be a great way of answering my essay question (however, I still need to do more research and reading in order to get a clearer more definitive practical brief to work on. To help me work on the essay and practical, I created a time plan according to my own schedule in order to help me independently work on the brief and give myself enough time to work on both essay and practical at the same time. And, going back to the summer, I showcased a draft essay that I've written which helped me to start and indicate the direction that I'd like to go with, with my essay; though it is a draft essay I think that it massively helped me to think of the structure for the whole brief as well as ways in which I could link Graphic Design into the essay. 

Thoughts & Reflection:

Overall, I think the presentation went okay, though my presentation is very concise and summarised, I think I manage to relay the topic and essay that I wanted to write. Feedback:

• Be more specific - which area is more interesting to me/ either be more specific in terms of brand, theme (e.g. body image, or poc representation?), e.g. how does h&m represent poc in their advertisements, how are poc's represented in high fashion? BE NICHE!!!!
• AS I'VE MENTIONED I WANTED TO CONDUCT INTERVIEWS OR FOCUS GROUPS -> maybe through more reading and research I don't need to do interviews? maybe the questions I want ti ask are already answered and they'd be more beneficial towards my practical work rather than essay writing.

Out takes from other people's presentation:

• Maybe create a more detailed time plan (include PPP and Extended Practice - organise time properly). 
• Make sure essay question is specific enough and gives you enough content and information that could give good argumentative discussions in the essay.
• Choose relevant design examples for case studies in the essay. 

As Ive got a better understanding of what I should do next for my essay, I'll work towards a more specific field I want to talk more in depth about as well as choose more relevant case study examples and book and resource research that I could use to help me with writing my essay. Furthermore, through more research, I'll hopefully get a structured and planned practical brief by the end of this week that I can subsequently work towards, along with the dissertation essay.