Academic Writing Techniques Study Task 7

1. All of the 4 authors within their texts show their concern and frustration with how graphic design is becoming less emotional and more commercialised. Garland (1964), Adbusters (2000), Experimental Jetset (2001) and Kalman (1998) all express the discontinuation of under designing graphic designers; giving in to consumerism, unworthy projects given by advertising agencies, a commerce culture, all of which don't feed the future but fatten the wallets of the billionaire entrepreneurs. An great example given by Kalman in 'Fuck Committees', "Magazine editors have lost their editorial independence, and work for committees of publishers (who work for committees of advertisers). TV scripts are vetted by producers, advertisers, lawyers, research specialists, layers and layers of paid executives who determine whether the scripts are dumb enough to amuse what they call the ‘lowest common denominator’. Film studios out films in front of focus groups to determine whether an ending will please target audiences. All cars look the same. Architectural decisions are made by accountants. Ads are stupid. Theater is dead." Money has become the motive and as time goes on this situation only gets worse and the passion and character is dying.

 

2

This image expresses the same harrowing feeling of being consumed by consumerism, in both versions of 'First Things First.' The black and white, vintage looking hand that could have been holding something worthy or expressing how the person felt purely by the gesture, is now replaced by harsh alarming red box we as consumers are placed in in this modern world, relating to the brand Supreme with the alarming text that has replaced the man's expression now replaced and defaced by the idea of owning brands is what he holds dearest.

3. Adbusters's manifesto (2000) is aligned with its predecessor highlights the way we are brought up and how advertising has played a role in our lives makes us being told our designs are only worthy if profitable. In doing so, Adbusters propose a meaningful alternative to the reader which reinforces that we can have profound lasting and positive effects towards productions of new meanings and a better future. However nice the proposal, in our day and age and most likely forever financial stability is what drives us and what we work hard for to provide for ourselves and our families, in which designers have to meet the needs of those putting money in their banks and the consumer. They even express how compared to the original 1964 text, their has been a further 'explosive growth' of global commercial culture. There is no easy solution. However, Kalman in 'Fuck Committees' tries to help us; "I offer a modest solution: Find the cracks in the wall. There are a very few lunatic entrepreneurs who will understand that culture and design are not about fatter wallets, but about creating a future. They will understand that wealth is means, not an end. Under other circumstances they may have turned out to be like you, creative lunatics. Believe me, they’re there and when you find them, treat them well and use their money to change the world."

4. Writing in 'Disrepresentation Now' by Experimental Jetset (2001) , they give an honest refresh on their previous writings on advertising and own up to what they said may have been inaccurate. 'Having said all this, we like to point out that our criticism of advertising is fundamentally different than the criticism expressed in the 2000 First Things First manifesto. Other than the signatories to that manifesto, we see no structural difference between social, cultural and commercial graphic design. Every cause that is formulated outside of a design context, and superficially imposed on a piece of design, is tendentious, representative, and thus reactionary, whether it deals with corporate interests or social causes.'. This seems like a rarity to me and a breath of fresh air in that their honesty doesn't throw off the designers working hard each day who may have been disheartened with the ideas that what they're doing is not sufficient enough. However, it is brought to attention their distaste for the term 'Visual Communication' being more commonly used, hindering the dimensions graphic design can flourish.

Digital Culture and Distribution Lecture

Gender Essay Ideas

So far I have looked at 3 different books focusing on gender, a few articles on ever growing dismissal of sexism in interviews/magazines and a more recent publication on solely advertising which will set my ideas in to motion as the books I were looking at were more about feminism, and I need to focus on the question in hand.

First of all I looked the popular book, 'The Beauty Myth: 1990', which was a good start as it reminded me of the basics of how women have been dominated in everything from adverts to films by men and how that has effected the way women have thought and felt throughout the decades. It was important to look at the dates the books were released as Im very conscious and interested in the rapid rise of feminism in the last decade which I want to research more.

After much note making, reading and taking pictures of key quotes from the books to reference, after a lot of confusion on what road to go down, I want to have the essay end on quite a positive note. I will discuss the basics on the discrimination of women in advertising, but I find this to be such an interesting time of women going against this so much in interviews (such as Ariana Grande and Scarlet Johansson shutting down interviewers due to sexism) and zines/magazines such as The Mushpit showing the world a different and radical angle, going against what has been the norm of perfect, preened perfection of women in magazines for the whole across all past time.

On an end note, I believe sexism will never completely die, but there are so many of us fighting back against these ideas and this will develop rapidly in future generations and the more people that do, the better world we will live in. Ofcourse, i need to see if from different perspectives, for example I am a woman who enjoys wearing makeup and clothes shopping but I do this because I enjoy it and it makes me happy, whereas I have seen arguments in the Beauty Myth for example that argue we subconsciously do this to please men, which I so disagree with!

I am glad I have finally got to the stage of knowing where to take the essay, which is why I felt ready to blog!

My scrambling of ideas over the last week of research

http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/28394/1/how-famous-women-are-taking-control-of-their-own-pr

http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/Adeles-rolling-stone-cover-destroys-the-male-gaze

'This Girl Can' campaign

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/feb/16/advertising-reverse-hypersexualisation

Print Culture & Distribution Lecture

I hadn't ever really researched or looked in to the history of print culture, so this was really informative in terms of how art used to be only for the rich and elite, and how print played a major role in the divide of the working class and bourgeoise which still exists today in left and right wing publications.

I always admired the fine art from before the 1800's and knew it was done for the elite to portray their power and perfect lives, but I didn't realise this was the only type of art that was taught at the Royal Academy, and that there was the hierarchy only considered to be for the elite.The fast growing possibility of reproducing these paintings and the working class doing art on their own made the aura of the rich disappear which was really important. You no longer had to visit a gallery, and women could be in publications without being pushed out due to misogyny of the rich.

Print culture came in to its own, despite writers trying to argue this was being done to destroy our 'british culture' by the 'uncultivated masses, raw and half developed', as they were scared of change and I believe this idea still hangs on within our right wing government bodies. Throughout the lecture I kept thinking back to this and how it is still relevant, which fascinated me as it is something everyone should be aware of in todays world.  For example, seeing some headlines in right wing newspapers such as the daily mail are pretty shameful and thirsty to scare the masses as they are afraid of development and change, opposed to a publication such as the independent.

Another point raised which still echoes throughout todays culture is the addictive distractions of programmes such as the X Factor which I detest, but cannot say need to be gone completely as we all need distractions from day to day troubles. Reading publications such as gossip magazines/soap magazines, watching these programmes eases peoples lives by helping them be part of something bigger and away from their everyday struggles. Similar again to the past centuries, when they would watch hangings for example as entertainment; as humans we all need distractions, and print culture allows this in all different ways, either in your face ways or more subtly. Print is a very powerful tool, and has also surprised the people who said in the early 2000's print culture was dying and we would have everything on a screen, which has backfired on itself in recent years.

What Is Research? Lecture

As creatives we make a synthesis; we solve problems through creative thinking, we are driven by ideas, creativity is always about; what if? However, for COP and doing essays a lot of thorough research has to take place.

Unlike how we are taught throughout our lives in schools, now comes the point where we should question and let the process drive the outcome rather than the other way round, as this is how new information is obtained. These are done through different methods of research:

-Stimulative research
-Systematic research
-Initiative research

We must use all of these in some way to collect information in varieties and experiment to make the essay as individual as possible. We must also include primary and secondary research, quantitive to give our words a solid backbone, and importantly qualitative, in which we gather from peers/friends/strangers. We need others points of views to truly understand the subject matter we are delving in to, in my case, gender.

Information is the output of meaning and knowledge, and without taking all these in to consideration the essay will be weak. Ofcourse, it has to be straight to the point and not be too balanced, as these are frustrating to read such as the gender extract source on studio- it was informative and non bias, but I want to look at all extreme ends of the spectrum to be confident i have done research right. As said in the lecture, why would we be researching if we had full knowledge of something?

I currently have the book 'The Beauty Myth' which I will take quotes from but I checked the date, and it was published in 1990, which is very dated in consideration of a large development in feminism in the last 10 years. Sources related to magazines such as 'Mushpit' which I really enjoyed reading the other day, would be modern fresh ideas to pinpoint to from older sources such as 'The Beauty Myth'.

Modern Magazine 2015 Lecture

In this very new and exciting time of a post-digital era, designers from all over the world and in different sectors are having to rethink magazine culture and its presentation as what was predicted in the year 2000+ digital era, didn't happen. Magazines weren't all transferred successfully to iPads and they are not read this way. That is why this era is so interesting, designers are going against the set standards. Though still, online magazines are read for example by 300 million opposed to tens of thousands in actual print, but not just on iPads. Magazines/zines are being adapted for mobiles, which is probably the most used way to connect to the world. Everyone wants information as fast as possible.

This of course depends on your situation- if you are commuting, you may not want to read, but listen to podcasts and audios. If you want to get stuck in to a lot of reading, print draws the readers in whereas online articles rarely exceed 1000 words due to distraction, and immediacy expected from online.

Key points to take from this lecture, points made by many of the speakers:

-Modern compilations need depth to them, collaborations, tangents, range of interests to keep what you are reading new and personal to you and what you take from the words and images. Gourmand/Flaneur/Alpine Review

-Consider the effects of the platforms and its audience- audiences online may want more visual, quick information. Flaneur/Uncube?(online mag isn't readable on phones)

-Scewer Morphism. Why do things need to be made exactly as they originally are, adapted? Why not create a whole new concept specific for the platform

-Starting basic on a low budget can become bigger, if it is informed and reaching out to a hungry audience there are ways to involve these people and get funded. You are respected for keeping organic in what you are doing however. The Mushpit

-Create something new; don't conform to the norms of layout and composition. A great graphic design legend as an example is David Carson, praised for refreshing the ways designers can look at layout. Shortlist

Key Excerpts- David Gauntlett - 'Media, gender and identity' and a summary

Quotes 

reference to 'Click' -'roll you're eyes predictable for a Hollywood movie'
-'remote is used to watch busty female joggers', however the focus on a loving family is not in favour of laddish behaviour

-representations of gender in movies are often predictable, but can also be quite diverse
-are more mans representations than womens
-man saves woman in a heroic moment more often than none
-men can get away with being older, whereas leading women have to be very young and attractive

Still recently used- 'Thats why mums go to Iceland', argue it just 'works for the target audience'
- women are more dominate in domestic product adverts, opposite for men
-we expect a women representing the tick of all the boxes
-'more publications on women in advertising than there are on TV programmes' ads are a flicker by whereas TV is watched often for long periods of time
-'woman knows she is a failure if not beautiful' starts from preteens
-booming cosmetic surgery industry
-'women enjoy fashion and adornment' argues these are all a source of pleasure and shouldn't be denied due to the 'conspiracy' it is being forced upon us
-womens ideal is mainly thin, more of a range for mens body ideals as they can get away with it due to charm or sense of humour, which reminds me of the film 'Shallow hal' very much so.

Sexuality

-'Ellen' had disney/abc drop her show after 'lesbian season'
-Dawsons Creek first proper gay kiss in 2001in the modern America

This part of the book is mainly informing of the times it had been shown and this isn't the area I want to explore but it's to consider.

Tone of Voice

very informative, balanced opinions, but at points has some roll your eyes sorts of comments at some of the still sexist ads and campaigns such as Icelands defending of its slogan. perhaps tongue in cheek- 'it is still uncertain where dads shop for their groceries…'

appears to be sided with the women, although that is the point as women are more undervalued than men in a harsher way, although they do balance the argument and acknowledge mens struggles.

Summary

Most importantly, in the text, the most summative quote that was given is these industries, productions are 'more a man's representations than womens'

In summary, there is still a gender gap in industries such as film, advertising and publications. Although these issues are highlighted more regularly in an ever growing movement of feminists, it is still a noticeable issue. I am going to borrow a book from the library that further explore a wider range of aspects and a text that isn't as balanced and informative, and maybe more bias views to get an idea of the extremes to develop a decent overview of the topic.

History of Image COP Lecture

This further elaborated my knowledge of the power of visual communication.
Starting with the simplest of examples, carvings of French Caves described as symbols of power, higher gods, mystically and another important point, carvings/dabs of ones own mind in solitarity.

This is an interesting point and separates reasoning of why we have visual communication and what its for: for personal, self expressive reasons displaying emotions, thoughts, like a visual scream for attention on something to wonder about. Examples such as protest art, unidentifiable displays of the mind projected on paper, mysticality, to show the world something we think is important or beautiful, like the Mona Lisa may have been for.

The other side of art we often forget is that artists are paid to recreate an image changing its context completely, or for commercial uses. An interesting point was on how Banksys are street art/grafitti often mixing famous imagery with new to create a contemporary, political/social message such as the Mona Lisa with a gun. These are now literally being cut out the wall and being put back in to the galleries for the typically western, middle class white people to be in awe at.

Propoganda paintings fascinate me too such as the Russian soviet union examples, showing images can rewrite history in the way the artist has been commissioned to do and it often sticks, such as the typically 'British' ideal image.

One part that really took me a back was the Benetton ads; a clothing company using such raw socially impactful, controversial images. I hope their intention was to highlight these issues proudly using their company name, not to sell their clothing.

I really also enjoyed the ideas of the more strange works of art being the artist letting out parts of their subconscious out in a very primal way, which it all stems from in history. Extremely interesting things to consider and think about, and its good to know the arts intention before it becoming a favourite/something to use to backup work etc.

Introduction and Research into Study Task 2

To help us understand how to acquire the best information for our 3000 word essay, which I am either doing gender or political effect on, we are told to use every source of information possible. What is important to consider though is how reliable is the source? Is it right for the information we need?

My group were given the topic of protest graphics, and scoured the library for info which was harder than others as it is such a narrow sector compared to 'what is branding?'. I found a protest t shirt book and other members of the group, a book about objects used in protests, and another that was an article in the Guardian. These were all reliable sources opposed to using wikipedia, which I will refrain from doing when researching and I need to learn more about Harvard referencing which will come!

It encouraged me to try searching the library for the first time and introduced me to Google Books, so it was useful.

Learning about Design companies

In the middle of the very last day of pulling together our Coral rebranding presentation, for an hour and a half we were allocated to different groups to make a quick presentation on the design brand we were given, which was Elmwood!

I really loved their branding/product packaging as they use quite bold colours and elements of design which I like to do which we haven't had a proper chance to do yet, and I can see why they are the No1 Brand Design Consultancy! We were very speedy in gathering research, and I looked at their style and why they were so contemporary. This is due to the fact if a company seeks you out to rebrand something completely and make it new, it has to be modern and current, as this is why they would want to change it! Learnt a lot about the other companies too as you can see in my notes!

COP1 Lecture: Visual Literacy

This was my first official lecture, and as the first slide came up of the apple, and we were asked 'is it just an apple?' 'what else could it be?' I felt quite daunted. Of course I had the thought of Apple the brand but I felt rather unmotivated; but as the lecture went on, and as we all un-tensed it became rather fun.

So far, i've learned from a short video we watched about a typographer, our analyzing of two advertisements yesterday and the lecture this morning, just how much we actually know without realizing it. This ofcourse, is what we need to develop in terms of communicating our knowledge to other people and showing it through our design work. Our job is to communicate through type and image.

Our design work ofcourse is affected by the context, which can be historical/political/cultural, which we need to keep in mind during interpretation. This goes back to the fact we may know more than we think, as when we compared/contrasted those adverts yesterday we knew for example, that black slaves were the norm in the time of the advert, and could tell by clothing/decoration/typeface/distribution what they were putting out there and when. Pictures can be read by audiences, for example symbols. We were reminded often today in the presentation of how symbols that are the same, when adjusted slightly mean completely different things! For example, the red cross when inverted is the Danish flag, but when the cross is green, it means medical. This is something I never really considered before.

I reckon I will really enjoy these sorts of lectures as I need the motivation, and something to kick-start embedding my interest in to graphic design almost completely, as ill need to! I am already looking at day to day things and imagining how it could be put in to a design and for what.

In knowing symbols can mean different things to many different cultures/audiences, knowing references before going forward with a design is also going to be key (Ex.the Buddha symbol of peace/Nazi symbol of Hitler's Germany).

I also learnt some key terms I need to familiarize myself with such as Visual Syntax/Semantics/Semiotics which all make up designing a brand or logo especially, which we seem to be focusing on most so far. I think semantics are very important especially as it is for fitting in to cultural processes and the external info we cannot change. If stuck for ideas, this would be the absolute base of where to start.

By the end of this lecture, I did feel better about how much I know to do with Visual Literacy as I knew more than I had thought. Being honest, I am eager to get the Coral Rebranding done and do a brief independently whatever that may be! But I definetley like lectures and feel like they are essential, as I explained at the beginning of this post when I came in rather unready, and this kickstarted my day. I really feel like this is my chance to become an individual designer and in a few weeks hopefully I will be 100% confident, and knowing some of the information I took in today, basing designs on what is already out there you can't completely go wrong.

Image Analysis Task 1

A very interesting introduction to gaining understanding of visual literacy, and how we notice certain aspects digitally without realising, was comparing and contrasting two 18^th/19^th century advertisements. As they are from such a different era of design and political/cultural views (which is crucial to remember when analysing design), with such different elements to the very straight to the point simple designs we seem to aim for in this graphic design era, there was a lot to pick out.

Questions we were presented with really highlighted key areas to discuss in our small groups. Starting with society- image 1, as I described it, is a printed illustration made how the Uncle Sam Range Company wanted to portray. It was worth a look in colour on a computer too, and you can see in rich detail the wealth and happiness they wanted to portray to attract investors. From their clothes, having a slave (which in them days was a sign of having money and having their house in order), a woman of the house happily serving and tending to the table of men who represent the union of all areas of the world. Typically in these times as well, Americans would be very proud of their culture and the American dream, and the colours are extremely stars and stripes/flag based which they want to show they are proud and are the ones bringing all these other places to the table in to the business they have created. Also, other little details such as the manor through the window, the expensive clock, the turkey being cooked for everyone which is very traditional for American holidays, withholding the very important Cultural Values This also ties in with the fact they are ‘feeding the world’ by their business.

In comparison to image 2 using these points, the advertising still has a propaganda side to it by illustrating what they want customers, and business investors to see- that America are doing all good and they are who you want to work with. As you see in image 2, contrast is used very cleverly as the African’s society is portrayed as untamed/wild/uncivilised in the top image, as they are trudging through the long grass and cactus’s in the field barely clothed with woman/children/animals at risk. Then the sharp opposite to the bottom takes away those social/cultural values that would be natural to them before the American business came to town, as now only men are present, clothed and working, with boats and roads, most feral-ness gone. This is portrayed as a very good thing as they have made it a more civilised, business minded area but culturally this wasn’t the norm before.

This comes on to the next point of technology- there are two parts to this. As I just described, image 2 is about presenting what America and the East African Transport Company is doing in terms of modernizing and advancing cultures that seem so untameable. This makes it look like a very good company with a lot of control. In image 1, it is more of a fantasy image without much reference to technological advancements and more about importing of foods, which is advanced in another way for that era. The other point is the methods of printing- the first is for a newspaper, which seemed a bit earlier on than image 2 which is more like a painting or that could be a poster. In 1876 when the first was produced, being able to print your ad in all the newspapers was very big back then as everyone read newspapers and would see their business. Also, the fonts have a lot of cultural thought behind them. The first, very traditional American southern cowboy font and the second a more modern, Aztec font possibly because they’ve set up in Africa.

What is very clear is the very different Political views from our time for theirs. To us, it is shocking to see black people portrayed in such a manner, but in relation to Historical knowledge we know it was normal back then to use black people for slaves, to be the backbone of business for no price. But to people viewing this, especially business people who would want to invest money and time in to these businesses, showing they have slaves and that control looked very professional. I am drawn to image 2, on the bottom image where the ‘White man’ is stood all in white, not working, above all the workers like this is all under his control and he is proud. Both images are intended to make Americans proud and want to get involved.

In conclusion, both images are promoting a good image to get businesses to put money in, and although they are both quite different with the fact one is a total fantasy image, and the other is supposed to be realistic, we have to think it probably has a very bias element to its advertising driven by wanting investors, and not everything is as nice and under control as it seems.