Week 10+ Report Development

Report writing

Beginning report – Week 1

• Starting to scope out the categories and what sections are to be included. Have begun writing report with each topic I have explored weekly on my blog and used them as headings to begin to scope out the layout and discussion points of my report
• I am aware not all content needs is relevant at this stage, but as I am continuing research I will amend as I go along and add to/delete content I do/do not need

Report progress – Week 2

• Significant headway with organising the content into colours representing each week of my research so far, ensuring that I am going to elaborate on topics I have discovered and my findings relating to my strategy behind my project

Report and research progress is developing so far as follows:

Phase 1 – fundamental underlying research of the industry today (up to week 10)
– Key identification was the gap between designers and sustainable manufacturers; a bridge needs to be built

Mid phase – week 10-13 is typing report and adding more into research above

Phase 2 – application and interactions of findings and the customer journey (week 13-21)
– Key identifications are that I want to build a database to aid with sustainable collaboration

Report progress – Week 3

• Added in more text to bulk out report and define my points made in each section
• Added in discussions/phone calls with sustainable manufacturing companies to back up my statements and project development

Report progress – Week 4

• Now separated bibliography and starting to create headlines that flow into one another as ongoing, linking topics

Some interesting findings during these weeks which has me thinking about how to shape my report:

“At sustainable design consultancy Circular&Co, Dan Dicker also questions whether greenwashing is always a deliberate act. ‘A lot of it is led by naivety,’ he says. ‘There’s no definitive guidebook or industry bible that explains what to do. A certification scheme might be a good idea.

Dicker is a former Dyson designer and innovator with 17 years’ experience in circular design. He warns that companies shouldn’t assume that consumers will lead the change to more sustainable business practices.

‘You can’t rely on consumers and consumer behaviour being the silver bullet for change. Consumers don’t change overnight, and they can only recycle what they’re given and with the infrastructure around them. The UK is one of the better territories for recycling but, even here, there’s still a lack of infrastructure for capturing, breaking down and recycling materials.”

Source

Tutor and Peer Review – Draft 4 continued

Tutor feedback is as follows:

• Remove all abbreviations such as ‘don’t’ ‘won’t’ ‘isn’t’ ‘hasn’t’ and make them ‘do not’ ‘would not’ etc. as this will improve my tone of voice and academic writing throughout the report
• An elevator pitch would summarise the report in a nutshell for the reader very rapidly as the report is a bit confusing as not entirely sure how as a reader, I am going to tackle the project, therefore I need to create this
• Add in an Appendix at the end of document as I have done so much research/will continue to do so, but not all will be relevant for the reader, but the Appendix is there for the reader to read further if they wish to
• Remove bullets or elaborate on them as they look like notes, therefore need to be presented better

Report progress – Draft 5

• Starting to shape the elevator pitch. This was great feedback because until this point I had struggled to ‘summarise’ my report quickly and felt like I wasn’t ‘quite’ getting to the point – this is why! From doing this I can already see how it is shaping my report and my objectives/end goals

Report progress – Draft 6

• Starting to refine bulleted lists and remove those that are not relevant in the report
• Refining the contents and introducing subsections with numbering

Report progress – Draft 7

• Inputting blueprints to symbolise the customer journey and highlight the disconnect as my discussions with contacts have shown in my research
• Input recycling symbol terminology to highlight confusing messaging that I address in my writing

Report progress – Draft 8

• I wantto include more images at this stage of the business of Eco-Collective and thought potentially including examples of trademarks/logos just to show design progress. I’ve mapped this out in this draft as putting this towards the end of the report
• Reshuffling text and recycling symbols information at the beginning of report

Final report submission

• Redesigned the blueprints to be corresponding with my brand, and more professional using the required colours of Eco-Collective and have included more diagrams to represent business collaboration and customer journey
• Made Coca-Cola diagram horizontal as it is a detailed image and needed to be large to demonstrate Coca-Cola’s broken sustainability promises
• Design of overall report is minimal to allow text space to be easily read, and I opted for minimal colour due to using less ink when printing and less data when loading on screens. I wanted to factor this in as I have talked about this in my report – about how using less ink is a sustainable option for businesses
• I also used masters to create my titles and automatic page numbering which I have never done before, so learnt something new. I have also linked each header in contents to the relevant page number for ease of navigation for the reader
• The colours I have used are the brand colours but subtle gradient (teal, orange and grey which represent each of the three collaborators in Eco-Collective: Clients, Manufacturers and Graphic Designers)