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.