Reflection on achievements.

It is coming to the end of what has been a very long day!

Below I will list what I have achieved, in comparison to what I endeavoured to achieve. I will then reflect on my progress assessing how I may go about thing differently depending on any obstacles that arose over the course of the day.

Today’s achievements:

• Today I successfully completed in depth research into the brand Alessi.
• This research included secondary research via the Alessi website into areas of the brand such as: Environment, typology, colour and designer.
• I discovered a lot more about a brand that I was initially clueless about. For example Alessi products span across areas of your household, including: dining room, kitchen, office, bathroom, bar and living room.
• I also completed two attempts to try to contact Alessi. One for general information, and another for an Alessi catalogue I believed both would be useful in inspiring me to conjure up a product, whilst also providing me with further knowledge of the brand.
• Alessi’s promotional channel was particularly relevant. It included solutions for corporate gifts, incentives, promotions and meetings which I believed would be ideal for some in-house styling for a potential press event – if I were to carry on looking further into the Alessi brand.
• The Alessi brand logo and colour scheme have become prominent in my mind and I would be ready to utilize these in promotion if and when necessary.
• I discovered that Alessi has a trio character, in the respect that it is “three collections, one identity”. This in itself is a company USP.
• There is an Alessi museum which students can visit and also Alessi ‘Wonder Shops’, one being located in Manchester, therefore this is something I should look into.
• Today I also analysed four Alessi press releases, familiarising myself with the Alessi style which I soon realised was concise, accessible and above all – knowledgeable of the product. With regards to format, Alessi produced their press releases in a very similar style to a journalist’s news story, and therefore may be deemed a ‘friend of the press’, by making it very simple for the to use the information provided.
• My contacts, Alex and Ed, at WideWorld online magazine provided me with press releases which I analysed with regards to diction, imagery, placement, typeface and format.
• I analysed all of the above findings and prepared them for my portfolio.

In Reflection:

I feel today was very productive with regards to research into press releases, however not so productive in the respect that I did not get as far with the research into brands as I had anticipated.
Although the research into press releases taught me a lot, and certainly gave me knowledge needed to prepare my own, I am not content with the amount of research into brands that I achieved, therefore I will make this my sole focus of tomorrow.
I feel that I spend a lot of time on making my sketchbook neat and presentable, therefore I am suggesting that I should initially collate all of the information then analyse it and write it up at a later date, so that I am making steady progress in the field of decision making.