Saturday, January 25, 2020

Affordable Wallpaper In The Industry Design Essay

Affordable Wallpaper In The Industry Design Essay My aim for my final project is to have a professionally finished wallpaper design. Along with this idea I would like my wallpaper to be displayed in a house, perhaps in a show home, so people can see my work and see what it looks like in a room. This is because many aspects can affect the appearance of the wallpaper, for example, the lighting. If the light is very harsh and bright it can cause the colours to appear different and not look as effective. However if there is a soft glow it can appear warm and inviting. Within a show home everything is new and the home is developed to a high standard in order that it will appeal to prospective buyers, therefore presenting wallpaper within this environment would be and excellent promotion medium. I am also going to look into interior architecture and aim to master new skills within this subject so I can transfer them into my project. Once I have my wallpaper design and found a space in which to display it, I then plan to create the space using interior architectural programmes such as Auto CAD in order to create a virtual room. I will also introduce furniture, fabrics and colour alongside my wallpaper design. This virtual room will provide a prototype of how the finished room should look. In order to create a wallpaper design I need to look into the history of wallpaper; Where do they come from? How are they made? Do people still buy wallpaper? What are the consumer demands? Current styles and trends, are they cost effective? Is the economic climate affecting the wallpaper industry? I also need to find companies that will print out my design and at what cost? What is Wallpaper the History behind it? When looked up in the Oxford Dictionary the term wallpaper, means paper for covering the interior walls of rooms. Wallpaper is a kind of material used to cover and decorate the interior walls of either homes, offices or other buildings. It is not essential, however it has become a very popular method in which to style, create a mood or inject colour into a room. Wallpaper can be used for either residential or businesses purposes. These differ from each other for instance; they differ in weight, serviceability and quality standards. Residential wallpapers are commonly made from various materials and can be bought either pasted or pre-pasted. However when it comes to the commercial grade wallpapers they are divided into categories based on weight, backing composition and laminate thickness. All commercial wallpapers must have a vinyl surface and successfully undergo rigorous physical and visual tests as mandated by the Chemical Fabrics and Film Association. According to the Made How website, there are four popular methods used to print wallpapers and designers have chosen the printing technique based on the cost and aesthetics. This suggests that cost is a major issue when it comes to making wallpaper. The progression of wallpaper can be found going as far back into 200BC, in China where paper was originally invented. However the earliest wallpapers used within Europe was as early as the 13th century. Designs involved painted images of popular religious icons and were commonly used within the homes of those which were religious however they were also used to liven up the bleak, dull homes of the poor. Religious prints only remained popular with the poor over the following centuries. By the 16th century more expensive wall coverings such as depicting tapestries began to hang in the homes of the elite. Tapestries included repeated images which were block printed in various colours spread over multiple sheets of fabric. They added colour to the room as well as providing an insulating layer. Tapestries however were very expensive therefore implying only the rich could afford them. Due to the cost of these the less well off members of society turned to wallpaper in order to lighten up their homes. Wallpaper designs featured scenes which were similar to those in the tapestries, however printed onto large sheets of paper; these were either hung loose on the walls, or pasted instead of being framed. By the mid 18th century Britain was the leading wallpaper manufacturer in Europe, exporting large quantities to Europe but also selling within the middle class market, subsequently this trade was greatly interrupted due to the seven year war. Yet, slightly previously before the war, in 1748 the English Ambassador to Paris decorated his office with blue flock wallpaper, this in turn then became greatly fashionable. Within the 1760s designers began to work with silk and tapestry to produce subtle, luxurious wallpapers. Near the end of the century the fashion for scenic wallpaper revived in Britain once again and led to vast panoramic views of antique architecture, exotic landscapes and pastoral subjects as well as repeating patterns of stylized flowers, people and animals. During this period of time two problems arose, one problem was producing long sheets of paper for printing, the other was printing attractive wallpaper inexpensively. Until the mid 1700s their techniques included making rag-based paper which was individually printed in sheets, these were then applied to the walls. However in 1785, Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf invented a machine for printing coloured tints on sheets of wallpaper. Then in 1799 Louis-Nicolas Robert created a machine to produce long and continuous lengths of paper. This ability to produce long lengths of paper therefore allowed the wallpaper industry to flourish. By the 19th century printing costs had finally been reduced, this occurred by discarding manual block printing and replaced with cylinder printing. Wood block printing was a technique which involved applying a colour to each separate block by hand, then pressed down onto the paper, tapped in order to ensure the quality imprint, the block was then lifted up and re-inked and the process would be repeated, this was a very expensive and time consuming process. However with the cylinder printing the, technique involved the paper being mechanically fed between cylinders until the paper had been fully printed, therefore no hand printing being involved. This therefore led to the successful reduction of cost, consequently resulting in it being cheaper to wallpaper a house than it was to paint it. The development of the steam powered printing presses also had a great impact on the wallpaper industry as this allowed manufacturers to mass produce wallpaper, again cutting the costs and making it affordable to the working class. Wallpaper benefited from a high boom in popularity in 19th century and it had established itself as one of the most popular household items across the western world. Todays Styles Trends Wallpaper has changed greatly since it was first developed, in todays industry it comes in multiple patterns, designs and textures. Wallpaper manufacturers like Cole Son have realised the consumers needs for bold attractive wallpapers. As hubpages.com has pointed out, todays homeowners today want their walls to be more than simply covered they want them to make a statement. Arguably a wall covering is a piece of art and an expression of ones personality. By just browsing through the internet for popular wallpaper designs there are numerous different styles and textures available. However hubpages.com provides some of the industries offerings: Hubpages.com suggests that metallic wallpaper is one of the popular modern styles today. It is produced in a variety of colours and patterns. Due to its rich visual texture it instantly creates a focal point for a room therefore grabbing attention. Although this style of wallpaper is a modern technique, the patterns which are used are quite traditional, often with a floral repeat print. The colours used within todays market are bright and bold which have a modern feel to them. This therefore suggests to me that the current market trends are a mixture of traditional designs with modern bright colours. However it can be argued that in the 1970s bright orange was injected into the world of interiors. As Lesley Hoskins (1994 p.226) points out, The first few years of the 1970s were bright in every respect, Also according to hubpages.com, The most popular colour palettes in the seventies were based in nature dark woods, mossy greens, bright pumpkin orange, daffodil yellow and the ubiquito us harvest gold dominated the interiors of suburban seventies homes. Therefore questionably are bright colours a modern trend? Or have they just remained popular since the 1970s? Metallic wallpaper varies in price depending where you purchase it from it can range between  £10 a role in stores such as Focus and up to  £50 a role from Cole Son. Therefore showing that this type of wallpaper is affordable for everyone and it is also a popular style due to the wide range of stores selling it. Flock is a traditional style of wallpaper and has been around for countless years, it became very popular in the mid 17th century. It has a slightly raised textural pattern that has a soft velvety feel to it. This can be supported by hubpages.com as they state, it is rich in both visual and tactile texture. This style is elegant and luxurious. In the 1760s it was greatly respected within the industry as noted by Charles C. Oman and Jean Hamilton (1982 p.21) The flock papers of this period on the other hand, are, almost without exception, the work of very capable designers. Their decorative qualities were such that their suppression by other types of wallpaper later in the century was clearly due to a change in taste, rather than to the growth of greater artistic appreciation. Although Flock is a traditional wall covering it has remained to this day a fashionable choice of wallpaper, as it is sold by manufactures such as BQ, Cole Son, Osborne little and Zoffanny. Flock wallpaper is very expensive compared to other wall coverings. My research has identified that prices start from  £44.98 in lower end stores such as BQ and can range up to  £150 by Cole Son, increasing in price to  £253.95 by designers such as Antonina Vella. This style is very highly priced and therefore suggests only the greater cliental would be able to afford it. However it can be argued that a fashionable trend within the industry today is the feature wall, being the decoration of one wall only. This would subsequently cut costs and allow more homeowners to buy luxurious styles of wallpaper. As in a article published by the Guardian, Review of the Decade, Humi Qureshi makes the point that, with some designers saying feature walls offer recession-proof style (buying one roll of wallpaper or one pot of paint, to cover a single wall is more affordable than decorating a whole room), therefore supporting the feature wall current trend. An interesting design of wallpaper I have researched is glass bead wallpaper, after looking into this I have discovered that it is a moderately new product, it is very rich in texture as it is built up of thousands of miniature glass beads stuck onto the paper backing. The three dimensional surface makes this wallpaper strikingly unique. A positive to this wallpaper is that it can be developed in a variety of colours however when it comes to cost this product is very expensive compared to the others as it can be up to three times the price of regular wallpaper. This again makes me think this style of design would be more suited for the more affluent buyer. I love this technique I think its very eye catching and unusual, it would look great in a grand, luxurious bathroom. I can also see this design being used within upper class hotels and perhaps restaurants. However, although this is a very luxurious wallpaper, if too much was introduced into a room it would become tacky and unattractive therefore I would keep it to a minimum and use small amounts to add accents and create a unique look to the room. By adding only small sections of the beaded paper it would reduce costs therefore making it affordable to more people. Todays Economic Market According to keynote.co.uk in 2009 outgoings on wallpapers amounted to  £315 million. However total market value has dropped by 6.4% from the previous year. Is this due to the economic climate? Or is the consumer spending elsewhere? Keynote.co.uk states that wall coverings and ceramic tiles account for 10.3% of total expenditure on materials for maintenance and repair of dwellings in the UK, trailing other home dà ©cor and improvement products such as paint, this statement shows home owners are opting to use other methods for decorating instead of buying wallpaper. Arguably the cost cuts for the wallpaper industry may be due to the feature wall trend implying that the consumer is still buying wallpaper albeit not in large quantities as they did before, thus explaining the cost cuts. Although the market value has dropped keynote.co.uk also points out it remains popular with the C1 and E socio-demographic groups, as well as consumers based in particular regions such as the West Midlands, the North, the North West, Yorkshire and Humberside. This statement is interesting as to quote from Wikipedia, Socio groups C1 and E are; lower middle class and Those at lowest level of substance, suggesting, home owners of all classes are able to afford wallpaper and signifies, wallpaper is not just for the affluent buyer. According to keynote.co.uk Recovery within the UK retail market for wall coverings is not expected to start until 2011 By 2014 market value is expected to have risen by 7.3% Thus implying there is still going to be a demand for wallpaper in the UK for the fore coming years. marketresearch.com points out A key market influences, construction sector- historical trends and current performance of housing and commercial construction markets, house moving this statement shows the possibilities for wallpaper and its future. Through my own primary research, using surveys and asking a variety of consumers, their opinions based around wallpapers about their profession, thoughts on cost, design, colours and techniques, along with their outlook on the feature wall trend. Has allowed me to find out the current consumer demands; along with assisting me to answer the questions: do people still buy wallpaper in todays economic climate? Are they cost effective? What are the consumer demands/what do they look for in wallpaper? What styles do they like?

Friday, January 17, 2020

Concept, nature and limitation of financial accounting Essay

Accounting is the process of recording, classifying, summarizing, analyzing and interpreting the financial transactions of the business for the benefit of management and those parties who are interested in business such as shareholders, creditors, bankers, customers, employees and government. Thus, it is concerned with financial reporting and decision making aspects of the business. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Committee on Terminology proposed in 1941 that accounting may be defined as, â€Å"The art of recording, classifying and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events which are, in part at least, of a financial character and interpreting the results thereof†. FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING: The term ‘Accounting’ unless otherwise specifically stated always refers to ‘Financial Accounting’. Financial Accounting is commonly carries on in the general offices of a business. It is concerned with revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities of a business house. Financial Accounting has two-fold objective, viz, To ascertain the profitability of the business, and to know the financial position of the concern. NATURE AND SCOPE OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING: Financial accounting is a useful tool to management and to external users such as shareholders, potential owners, creditors, customers, employees and government. It provides information regarding the results of its operations and the financial status of the business. The following are the functional areas of financial accounting:- Dealing with financial transactions: Accounting as a process deals only with those transactions which are measurable interms of money. Anything which cannot be expressed in monetary terms does notform part of financial accounting however significant it is. Recording of information: Accounting is an art of recording financial transactions of a business concern. Thereis a limitation for human memory. It is not possible to remember all transactions ofthe business. Therefore, the information is recorded in a set of books called Journaland other subsidiary books and it is useful for management in its decision making  process. Classification of Data: The recorded data is arranged in a manner so as to group the transactions of similar nature at one place so that full information of these items may be collected under different heads. This is done in the book called ‘Ledger’. For example, we may have accounts called ‘Salaries’, ‘Rent’, ‘Interest’, Advertisement’, etc. To verify the arithmetical accuracy of such accounts, trial balance is prepared. Making Summaries: The classified information of the trial balance is used to prepare profit and loss account and balance sheet in a manner useful to the users of accounting information. The final accounts are prepared to find out operational efficiency and financial strength of the business. Analyzing: It is the process of establishing the relationship between the items of the profit andloss account and the balance sheet. The purpose is to identify the financial strength and weakness of the business. It also provides a basis for interpretation. Interpreting the financial information: It is concerned with explaining the meaning and significance of the relationshipestablished by the analysis. It should be useful to the users, so as to enable them totake correct decisions. Communicating the results: The profitability and financial position of the business as interpreted above arecommunicated to the interested parties at regular intervals so as to assist them tomake their own conclusions. LIMITATIONS OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING: Financial accounting is concerned with the preparation of final accounts. The business has become so complex that mere final accounts are not sufficient in meeting financial needs. Financial accounting is like a post-mortem report. At the most it can reveal what has happened so far, but it cannot exercise any control over the past happenings. The limitations of financial accounting are as follows: 1. It records only quantitative information. 2. It records only the historical cost. The impact of future uncertainties has no place in financial accounting. 3. It does not take into account price level changes. 4. It provides information about the whole concern. Product-wise, process-wise, department-wise or information of any other line of activity cannot be obtained separately from the financial accounting. 5. Cost figures are not known in advance. Therefore, it is not possible to fix the price in  advance. It does not provide information to increase or reduce the selling price. 6. As there is no technique for comparing the actual performance with that of the budgeted targets, it is not possible to evaluate performance of the business. 7. It does not tell about the optimum or otherwise of the quantum of profit made and does not provide the ways and means to increase the profits. 8. In case of loss, whether loss can be reduced or converted into profit by means of cost control and cost reduction? Financial accounting does not answer this question. 9. It does not reveal which departments are performing well? Which ones are incurring losses and how much is the loss in each case? 10. It does not provide the cost of products manufactured 11. There is no means provided by financial accounting to reduce the wastage. 12. Can the expenses be reduced which results in the reduction of product cost and if so, to what extent and how? No answer to these questions. 13. It is not helpful to the management in taking strategic decisions like replacement of assets, introduction of new products, discontinuation of an existing line, expansion of capacity, etc. 14. It provides ample scope for manipulation like overvaluation or undervaluation. This possibility of manipulation reduces the reliability. 15. It is technical in nature. A person not conversant with accounting has little utility of the financial accounts.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

A Critical Discourse Analysis ( Cda ) And Argumentation...

The current empirical study constitutes a critical discourse analysis of part of the discourse that surrounds the New Caledonian independence issue. It aims to explore audience response to political speeches, to investigate how politicians attempt to persuade people to follow a particular course of action, to link the notions of discourse and action to the cognitive dimensions of ideology and presuppositions, to further clarify various contextual factors, such as power configurations, to describe possible semantic oppositions in the debate and to demonstrate the use of shared knowledge as a rhetorical tool. To this purpose, the project has introduced an interdisciplinary, pragma-functional approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), combining Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and argumentation theory. Various French excerpts from across a relatively wide variety of genres and registers were analysed, thereby investigating salient lexical and grammatical patterns, as well as any significant inferences. It will be explained further on how this dialogical exchange of views may lead to a clash between highly divergent discourse communities instead of a desired consensus, due to prevalent power asymmetries, and an attempt will be made to resolve this communication failure. In this chapter, the main focus of the study will be made explicit and a rationale for the chosen linguistic approach will be provided. Then, the discourse samples that were included in the studyShow MoreRelatedNew Caoleia Case Study997 Words   |  4 PagesThe study has adopted a novel approach to CDA by using linguistic tools such as Systemic Functional Grammar and Pragma-Dialectics, as well as insights from postcolonialism and poststructuralism to explore the impact of power and ideology on language use and social or political practice in the New Caledonian decolonisation process. Not only was linguistic evidence adduced to show how the French dominant powers employ a common destiny rhetoric to manipulate the other groups into accepting that NewRead MoreSample Of Application Essay1099 Words   |  5 Pagesstudents in the department. A keen interest in linguistics led me to study Hallidayan and Argumentation theory, which I combined into a pragma-functional approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by integrating Systemic Functional Linguistics, Pragma-dialectics, postcolonial and poststructuralist theory into an innovative, interdisciplinary mixed methods framework for the analysis of plurilogical (French) discourse. As such, my research ties in with the University of Sydney’s broader research fieldRead MoreExample Research: Critical Discourse Analysis9514 Words   |  39 Pages18 Critical Discourse Analysis TEUN A. VAN DIJK 0 Introduction: What Is Critical Discourse Analysis? Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context. With such dissident research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inequality

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

The Mass Media in China - 3469 Words

LS22442 Mass Media Tutorial Weeks 4 and 5 WEEK 4 The Mass Media in China Read the text (translation) paras. 1-38 for Week 4, before your tutorial; watch the first half of the documentary in class, then answer the questions at end. First anniversary of China’s entry to WTO (2002) RTHK: Impact on the media Ru shi yi zhou nian(å… ¥Ã¤ ¸â€"ä ¸â‚¬Ã¥â€˜ ¨Ã¥ ¹ ´) HC427.95 .R83 2003 (local tv) Vol.2 RTHK Soundtrack: mainly Cantonese, some Putonghua (with Chinese subtitles), some English Introduction (Trans. D.B. Hunter) Recent years have seen rapid development in China’s mass media sector with a progressive shift in balance from government control to commercialization and responsiveness to markets. To cope with market demand and the challenge posed by competition†¦show more content†¦Two months ago it signed a framework agreement with Xing Kong Weishi for a strategic alliance. 18. As China’s broadcasting industry moves into the make-or-break market system, CCTV (China Central Television) relies on advertising for 90% of its revenue. Ratings are the most important indication of how well it is surviving. 19. In our weather forecast, for the first time in the world [?] we have added a 7.5 second advertising spot. 20. Voting for the best peak period advert is underway – it is big day for the country’s advertising industry. 21. While last year revenue from television advertising reached RMB 120 billion in China, by world media standards, such as MTV, one MTV channel alone generated RMB50 billion, so there is still a huge difference. So the media industry in China is confident that there is plenty of potential for development in the mainland market. And it is not just entertainment programmes which are starting to respond to what the mass of viewers want, even news programmes, previously considered off-limits, are putting pleasing the viewers first. 22. Nowadays in China the television programme with the highest recognition factor is an interview programme, a programme with a watchdog function. This is really a very big change. Without this programme, itShow MoreRelatedThe Mass Media in China3453 Words   |  14 PagesLS22442 Mass Media Tutorial Weeks 4 and 5 WEEK 4 The Mass Media in China Read the text (translation) paras. 1-38 for Week 4, before your tutorial; watch the first half of the documentary in class, then answer the questions at end. First anniversary of China’s entry to WTO (2002) RTHK: Impact on the media Ru shi yi zhou nian(å… ¥Ã¤ ¸â€"ä ¸â‚¬Ã¥â€˜ ¨Ã¥ ¹ ´) HC427.95 .R83 2003 (local tv) Vol.2 RTHK Soundtrack: mainly Cantonese, some Putonghua (with Chinese subtitles), some English Introduction (Trans. D.B. Hunter) Read MoreThe Agenda Setting Model Can Guide The Public Opinion And Mass Communication1464 Words   |  6 Pagesand mass communication about some social or political issues. 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