OUGD603: Presidential Campaign- Evaluation

Let's start by saying this: I didn't win and quite frankly I was pretty devastated. I think as a whole I did a good job and I really did put a lot of work and effort into this brief so, despite now thinking that I maybe wouldn't have been so great at the job it's still a massive blow to my pride and confidence that I came last out of two people.

That over, how well did I think this brief went? On reflection I can see some areas where I went wrong and needed improving and I can see what I got right. Although I can see how important it was to get my message across to students and discuss my manifesto I can also see how having a very over complicated set of 6 posters (especially with the restrictions in budget) can make for a broken and scattered message. If this had been a campaign on a much larger scale then multiple posters in a similar style would've been appropriate but with our campus, and students potentially only seeing one or two posters on their routes around the college, too much variety makes for a muddled message. Also on the design- I expressed how I wanted my manifesto to be at the forefront and I still think this is a good idea, though not one that is really appropriate for my target market. It was slightly naive of me to expect students to stop and look at the slogan posters long enough, or get close enough to see the smaller 'vote Roz for president' at the bottom of the design. As good or bad as the designs may be, if audiences only catch a glance and the main message in their face isn't 'vote for Roz' they probably aren't going to remember to vote for Roz. I also think I overestimated how much people pay attention to manifestos and policies, of course in an ideal world students would've stopped and read everything, but it's not their job to stop and read, it's my job to make them want to stop and read and I don't think I quite got it.

Like I said before if I had a larger budget, or perhaps if this were a larger scale campaign then maybe my tactics would've worked. If I was already known as a figure then perhaps it would've been smart to push my values and my manifesto, however in a small institution where only people in my class know me it seems I should've been promoting myself, not just my opinions.

That being said I managed to acomplish a great deal in a short space of time, from research to production the whole process took two weeks, a time scale that, when I set it, I didn't believe I could get everything finished and yet I did, even with the usual problems setting me back. I managed to spend an entire week campaigning, talking to students, and arguing my case, even if I didn't win I am still proud of what I managed to achieve and if nothing else it was all a valuable experience.