Being a fresher and Summer Project.

Carrying on from Fridays activity, we were put in groups of 8 groups of 6 or 7 students at random, and each group was randomly assigned a problem. We were given a brief that stated we were to solve this specific problem via some method of graphic communication.

The problem we were assigned was “staying fit and healthy on a budget”. We immediately as a group identified that this could be split into 3 clear but slightly overlapping categories, “fit”, “healthy” and “budget”. We started brainstorming what we needed to research in order to create a fitting and suitable outcome. We decided to research the following.

-          Gyms                                   - Discount cards

-          Activity groups                     - Takeaway vs Homecooked

-          Free exercise                       - Weekly meals

-          Calorific figures                    - Cupboard essentials

-          Markets                               - Hangover cures

-          Major supermarkets             - “Fun” ways to eat healthy

We then paired off to do our research into the 3 different categories. Poppy and I were researching budgeting and money issues, and while she was creating a survey designed to find out what sort of budget most students have for food and how they spend it, I started comparing the price of popular fruitss in the major supermarkets. I managed to find prices online for Tesco, Sainsburys and Asda. By doing this I found that the average price of an Apple, Orange, Pear or Banana is around 20p, so really students can't say they can't afford to eat fruit.

Another thing I have considered is that a local market has a very good reputation for well-priced fruit and vegetables. I do however think that the convenience of being able to get multiple things in the same place outweighs the fact that a banana may be 3 pence cheaper at a market than at a supermarket.

As a group we identified that the main aim of the brief was to inform, but educating may be appropriate in places. Because of this we as a group agreed a leaflet of booklet would most likely be the most appropriate and effective method of communicating the information.

One Of Our Planning Sheets When Dividing The Research.

In the groups we were put in, we presented our Summer projects to each other. We'd all briefly seen each others work before the presentation and knew that we'd all done very different things as we'd each interpreted the brief very differently. It was interesting to see other peoples work as it gave me an insight into how other people think within my course group, as well as it giving a slight indication as to what other peoples strengths were in my group, which could potentially be useful given that we're working together on a group brief currently.