What's The Reason?
This summer, two Saginaw Valley State University graphic design students were offered the opportunity to travel to Shenyang China in order to complete a study abroad program. While in China, we, Brian Raymond and Lina Davis, decided to expand on our schooling and education opportunities and create an independent study that allows us to apply our graphic design training and teaching into a real world research project.
In this graphic design research study we will compare and contrast the branding, including both logos and signage as well as menu items and over all consistency, of two major companies that can be found both here in the United States and mainland China. The companies that we have decided to research are prominent fast food restaurants in both the Eastern and Western cultures. The restaurants that we will be researching are McDonald’s and KFC. Our research will allow us to understand the reasoning behind the differing ways in which these companies brand and market themselves to local cultures in both China and the United States.
Being graphic design major’s, the research gathered in this study is not only something that our degree will benefit from, but it will also be something that we can carry with us throughout our future careers. This study will help us become better designers not only in the classroom but also around the world as we will be able to apply our knowledge and our findings to other aspects of our design careers. This study will help us to become well rounded designers in many aspects and give us an international sense of how important graphic design it and what can be done with it.
Timeline Breakdown
This seven week independent study will be divided into seven separate parts:
Research and Document Branding in United States
Week 1: McDonald’s
Week 2: KFC
Week 3: Additional Information on both restaurants
Research and Document Branding in China
Week 4: McDonald’s
Week 5: KFC
Week 6: Additional Information on both restaurants
Compiling Information
Week 7: Create a cohesive booklet for presentation of all research gathered.
This blog will follow the week by week research and findings of the independent study. Pictures and in depth explanations will accompany the weekly researched topic.
