OUGD501 - Context of Practice - Module Evaluation

Context of Practice Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

In this module, as opposed to last year's module, in terms of lectures and seminars, we have been invited to explore different viewpoints of different cultures, such as the idea of the Gaze from a female point of view and consumerism from a non-consumerist point of view, as opposed to just facts. I have explored different aspects of consumerism, and how it correlates with capitalism. Through this I have learnt a lot of different ways of triangulating discussions and juggling different sources of information in essay format. I would say that my essay writing skills are the skills I have strengthened the most in this module, which I know would still need work for my third year dissertation, as I only got an average mark, which I would like to improve. I realise this is because I had a limited amount of sources and more were desired. I have also learnt to convey an opinion without using first person, which is actually a lot more difficult than first thought!

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

As for my practical piece, I have never completely used stickers as a main source of design work, and when designing packaging I usually create everything myself. I was originally going to just use cut black vinyl, but my design developed a little too elaborately for that! I still really want to try using cut vinyl in the future.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

My strengths in my practical piece are definitely the graphics on the tin, and I have never worked in this style before so that was pretty refreshing. The style was a contemporary twist on traditional Fleischer Studios styles. This style is very much in trend at the moment, so to demonstrate the idea of consumerism being driven by trends, I chose to work in this style. I had a lot of fun going through the old cartoons for visuals and possible typefaces to use. I ended up hand drawing most of the text myself, as I couldn’t find a suitable typeface to what I was after. The logo was the most complicated part of the design and I ended up doing two variations but overall it was fairly straight forward.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?

The weaknesses I would say are quantity, as I fear that I may have not have produced enough to labour my opinions and points I portrayed in my essay, and get my messages across.  Looking back at the project now, I wish I had used the pneumatic vacuum canister I tried so hard to obtain but was talked out of it because it had such an unusual shape, meaning people couldn’t take it seriously! But I think that the context behind that choice was really strong, and regret my weaker decision of using the tin, so I will learn to go with my gut next time!

As a whole, as much as I really love Context of Practice as a subject, I feel like I fall down when it comes to proving my love of it through submission pieces and keeping up to date with blogging my lecture notes. I think this is because I still struggle with my time management and don’t commit to an idea quick enough. I also always end up ditching my stronger ideas and so pull my piece down. 

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

Next time I will capitalise on my strengths, but try something new for the sake of a strong idea and go with my best judgement. I am really looking forward to the third’s year extensive writing piece as I have a really clear idea of what I would like to explore and a great interest in the subject, and so I am confident I will be able to achieve my goals.

1. Go with my gut instinct on an idea
2. Leave myself more time to fully explore and develop an idea
3. try something I have never done before in preparation for use on my final submission piece.
4. Take the opportunity to really have fun with this 'blank brief' opportunity and steer it towards something I know I will have the attention span to fully stay motivated until the end.
5. Take the opportunity to steer the 'blank brief' towards something that will greatly benefit my career.

OUGD501 - CoP - Studio Brief 2 - Theory into practice Development

OUGD501 - CoP - Studio Brief 2 - Theory into practice Development

Taking my idea of Capitalism and Consumerism from my essay, I would like to show how graphic design can enhance the idea of consumerism & marketing by promoting the sale of products that perhaps do not live up to their graphic presentation.

I have decided to show this by packaging a low-quality, inexpensive, plain t shirt in packaging that makes it 'desirable'.

It can be argued that this new t shirt culture is based around hype and respect for the companies & designers themselves as opposed to the products and designs. It can also be argued that these plainer components are bought to achieve an entire look in it's whole, and the users see this look deserving the expensive price tag. Overall, we can see design playing an important role in, what the users see fit as justifying a perhaps average quality, almost plain item as a more desirable item for a worthy price.

Logo Design

Determining my 'brand' name from my research, I have decided to go with the name 'Indoctrinate' based on brands like OBEY, HYPE etc. 

I have been making progress on the logo itself taking aesthetics from old cartoons also inspired by modern illustrations by McBess and Johnny Cupcakes. 

I wanted the logo to be free-flowing and intertwined with itself. I wanted an image of a brain in the centre, visually conveying the idea of indoctrination.

Here is a random mood-board of ideas quickly sketched after watching a few old cartoons:

There is an almost direct sketch from the animated Snow White by Betty Boop that I decided to not include because it was too similar. Although the idea of the tin is that it takes literal inspiration from current trends, the idea portrayed in my essay that the consumerist cycle a lot of the time actually recycles previous ideas and concepts, I felt like it crosses paths with my ethics as a designer to not plagiarise somebody else's work. So I created the skull head character to demonstrate it in a less literal way. I wanted a quirky array of different typefaces, and I wanted to create hype around the packaging itself, selling it as 'limited edition'. 

A closeup of the skullhead character.

Here, I am working out the circumference of the tin using Pythagoras theorem! Who knew I'd actually use it again... I am also sketching out the 'limited edition' section of the tin.

Here is my sketch of the twirly arm of the skeleton face character. Not sure what will be on his sign yet... perhaps something about the fact the tee was made in GB?

I started scanning in my sketches .. 

Because I couldn't find a font I deemed suitable to convey 1930's style cartoon type, I decided to sketch it myself.

I scanned in my sketch, fiddled about with it on Photoshop, ensuring that there was little to no grey, and that all interfering pencil marks weren't visible. This meant it was ready to be clearly live traced into a vector on Adobe Illustrator.

Digitisation

I started out  by mapping the size and shape of the graphics strip, and where the window will be placed.

Here, I am dropping in my hand drawn lettering.

Here is a closeup of the digitisation of my skullhead character! It took a few layer masks to ensure he could have the 3D element to the holes in his eyes.

I also did some quick cartoon eyes. Here are all the elements all together so far.

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Koko the Clown ghost character - removed for crossed ethics with plagiarism:

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So far, we have the skullhead character, his twisted arm and sign, with the full digitised logo and dark clouds across the top. I decided that the logo would work best as one long word when it came to the body of the tin itself. I expanded the strokes on the logo, and fiddled about with each of their boundaries to vary the line thickness on the logo, to hopefully show a hand drawn element of a permanent marker style?

A close up of the logo.

I then added a little few more bits and pieces inspired by artist McBess such as the musical notes, anchor and 'x's. I also added loads of dots and mini stars for a textured effect.

Here is the final design of the main body of the tin. I decided to do two panels - one that promoted the limited edition packaging and one that promoted the company itself - none that actually promoted the product itself, labouring my point that consumerism is mainly flowed upon hype and associations with desirable companies instead of interest in the product quality or style itself.

Lid of tin

Using the skullhead character and logo elements, I diverted the logo back to its original circular shape to fit on top of the circular tin better:

Label for t shirt itself:

Again, only using the existing illustrative elements from the tin and the skullhead character, a simple tag was created, clearly displaying the price - £25.00! 

The finished article:

I had a couple of problems with the assembly, just petty things like matching up the sticker with the tin and making sure there were no bubbles! But all in all a good outcome!

OUGD501 - CoP - Lecture - Subculture and style

OUGD501 - CoP - Lecture - Censorship and truth

OUGD501 - CoP - Lecture - Globalisation and sustainability

OUGD501 - CoP Concept & Progress tutorial

Context of Practice Concept tutorial

Essay:

I proposed my idea for my final essay: The idea that if consumerism surrounds us and manipulates our lives to compulsively by stuff we didn't know we wanted/ needed, but yet we are aware of this, know the effects of consumerism, and don't care - is it still a threat to our sanity/ lifestyle? A few arguments for and against this will be discussed.

Practical:

In store/ shopping centre campaign questioning people as to why they are buying the products they are buying - a juxtaposition of literal consumerist culture taking place and thoughts around it.

OUGD501 - CoP - Lecture - Ethics - what is good?

OUGD501 - First things first Seminar

First things first Seminar

Today, in our last seminar of the year (!) we raised a discussion about the different viewpoints and opinions that sprung from the 'First things first' manifesto of 1964 and the revised version of 2000. We were split into 4 groups and then made notes on each of the 4 pieces of texts relating to these matters:

First Things First 1964:

With a little background research into the initial author of First Things First; Ken Garland, we can put into context his reasonings. In the decade this was written, the western world saw a boom of consumerism. The country finally saw a true recovery from the world wars and the country was back on it's feet, with some disposable income to spend. Without having objects around them for so long, it was inevitable that there would be a surge in materialism. This meant that lots of designers saw a change in their job role from essential political artist to advertiser, flogging mundane objects to the general public for a living. Meanwhile, there was another war stirring up the publics concern: Vietnam. This could be argued the start of revolutionary hippie culture against the war, which Garland was a part of; for example the very first Easter March. He argues that designers are getting bogged down with the more trivial design tasks while they could be involved and prioritise their efforts in more meaningful, functional design.

First Things First 2000:

The revised First Things First manifesto was a much angrier and urgent relative to its proceeder. This was because of the overwhelming force of consumerism rapidly increasing since the first manifesto in the 60's. Rather than a polite request, this manifesto is a wake up call to designers, asking them to challenge consumerist culture and create 'more useful, lasting and democratic forms of communication' to stop exploiting their creative talent. As opposed to the mundane consumerist objects listed in the First Things First 1964 manifesto, the 2000 one lists things such as credit cards, diamonds and designer coffee, much more self-indulgent and contracting products. This manifesto is also addressed to all creatives and not just graphic designers like the original manifesto.

First Things First (Revisited) article from Emigre magazine by Rick Poynor:

Rick Poynor addresses some of the issues and observes the different attitudes towards both First things First manifestos. He states that even those designers who lay low and turn away from their political responsibilities and argue that they are just making a living creating adverts and don't want to change the world are still contributing to the political state of affairs by feeding the consumerist culture whether they like it or not because design has power. He also goes on to say that the manifestos aren't just design related, they are a political project; the environment we live in was designed!

The Footnotes of First things First by Michael Bierut from 2007:

In these footnotes on the 2000 manifesto, Michael Bierut argues against and defends his way of living. He lightly points out that the creatives who signed the manifesto were already well established as designers and didn't NEED to be involved in the mundane tasks of advertising for consumerist culture and that the position they were in was probably because they had to go through all of those kind of tasks to be in a position to refuse them or that they've always had the pleasure of designing for the 'culturally elite'. He also questions the manifesto's request for motives: Can you just drop out of the consumerism game? And if you can, should you? What good will come out of it? He also questions that the world is complicated and nothing is as simple as just becoming a designer for a pure cause, and uses the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a nonprofit organisation charity funded by a consumerism tobacco giant company as example. Does the fact that it's funded by a 'negative' organisation make the Academy evil itself? He concludes with the argument that is it really a good cause? Is switching from mass manipulation for commercial ends worse than mass manipulation for political ends? It's all propaganda in the end!



The task from this session can be found here.

OUGD501 - CoP - Lecture - Cities and Film

OUGD501 - CoP Seminar - the Media and the Gaze

The Media and the Gaze 

From what we learnt in the previous lecture we can see there is a very strong consistency in visual language that women have been represented in a certain way in our culture and always have been.
Women are displayed in our culture in a way that sexualises / objectifies them, and unfortunately normalises this.
In terms of objectification, women are considered the sex to be viewed, and men are considered the sex  that act/ provide / do.
This idea is derived from, and has survived since the male economic dominance historically. Men being the producers of visual culture historically, and the audience of which they are providing for being predominantly male also, we see an emergence of a male biased ideology of the female form. 
This doesn't mean that women were not talented or skilled as artists but were simply socially excluded, historically.

'Birth of Venus' - An arty, classical depiction of a goddess which isn't feasible and unrealistic is therefore not offensive in this sense.

And yet 'Olympia' was viewed as offensive and taboo, although if anything the nudity is more modest. This is because the woman in the image doesn't invite you to view her but meets your gaze with challenging eyes. She is relaxed, unfazed, but not in the way that she is sexually comfortable around you, but in the sense that she is used to the situation - she is a prostitute. This less dreamy, more feasible sense of reality is thought to have made this feel more offensive than that of Venus.

According to art historians, to be naked is to be without clothes and to be nude is an art form. John Berger would disagree with this and says that to be naked is to be yourself but to be a nude is to be exposed and objectified by other's gaze.

OUGD501 - CoP Study Task 4 the Gaze

        This image advertises Christina Aguilera's new perfume. In comparison with 'everyday' women, and maybe even Aguilera herself in real life, this image portrays the gaze of a stranger being returned; 'Those women on the billboards, though; they look back. Those fantasy women stare off the walls with a look of urgent availability'. This in many people's opinions would be considered fictional and therefore offensive as it assumes that the usually perverted, unwelcome stare of a stranger is in fact not only OK, but of the norm - creating a spectacle of the female form.

        But it could be argued that this fictional setting will remain fictional because of the real-world women still refusing the gaze (in a general sense). This kind of imagery could be considered an escape and opportunity to practice the gaze without the real-world awkward social situation. People, in this case, a sexually compatible audience, can stare without hinderance or hesitation and this is a lot more comfortable: 'Perhaps this sex-at-a-distance is the only complete secure relation which men can have with women. Perhaps other forms of contact are too unsettling.' Could this have a negative affect on real life situations; does this alienate real-world relationships, one where the woman might refuse to comply with your intentions or with your gaze? 

        'Voyeurism is a way of taking sexual pleasure by looking at rather than being close to a particular object of desire. Peeping Toms can always stay in control': This comfortable, fake situation is preferred by many, in particular under confident individuals that perhaps have real-life power or control issues, or have social anxiety issues, for example.

         It's not all about power though, it's also about clarity. While some real-life situations can seem confusing and complex, in this world messages are clear! It's not necessarily about owning the situation, but being welcome in it - it gives a sense of being wanted and in this sense, it's about ownership; but of your own feelings: 'Perhaps in the images, the meanings are fixed and reassuring; perhaps only in the images could true controlling security be reached?'

        In this image, because of her vulnerable pose she isn’t portrayed as powerful nor particularly wealthy but yet it says 'feel like a queen'. This can be commenting on a sexist notion that one doesn't have to be knowledgable / politically orientated to have power, but just look good/ attractive. Even though she is stated to be in the overpowering position, she appears in a subservient manner. Could this give the idea that the gazer is of higher power all along and this entire advert is an ego-feeder to them? - 'The aesthetic sex is the subordinate sex because beauty like truth is one of those empty terms, filled by the values of a particular society at a given historical moment.'

       The question is, if this advert is geared towards females, why does it address a male audience? Could this be to stir up envy or aspiration? 

OUGD501 - CoP Study task 3

Context of Practice Study Task 3

OUGD501 - CoP - Lecture - The Gaze and the Media

 The Gaze and the Media Seminar

OUGD501 - CoP Identity Seminar

Context of Practice Identity Seminar

Essentialism

Essentialism has a tendency to identify people's identities, IE your personality is born into you.

Identity and 'the other' in visual representation

• The creation of identities
• The concepts of otherness

Identity Creation - What makes you, you?

• Skills
• Sense of humour
• Interests
• Clothes
• Education
• Fears
• Occupation
• Where you live and your accent
• Size
• Social Network used
• Gender
• Social skills
• DNA
• Religion and beliefs
• Sexual orientation
• Physical attributes

How do you express your identity?

• Tattoos and piercings
• Cosmetics - makeup, hair dye etc
• Liberation of sexuality
• Clothes
• Creative skills
• Where you CHOOSE to live
• Eating habits - (vegetarian/ vegan etc)
• Recreation
• Lifestyle choices - going to the gym, recreational activities etc
• Objects owned

Circuit of culture

Identity formation by Jaques Lacan

Jaques Lacan's theory of the 'Hommelette' implies that you are born a selfless, unaware being. You are an extension of your parents and are a clumsy non-being. It's not until the 'mirror stage' (not to be necessarily taken literally) where you see yourself being a separate thing from your parents that you take yourself more seriously and start having opinions and interests. But this is when the start of the conflict between who we are and who we want to be begins.
It's at this moment where you get an illusion of wholeness - where you recognise all your achievements and are content and pleased that you are in fact, a whole being. In his theory, it's this feeling we then try to achieve again our whole lives by receiving views from others. Our own subjectivity is fragile.

The problem with this is that this state relies on the assumption of opposition and radical otherness. In the same way we assure ourselves that our individuality is confirmed by other people's unity.

This however does shore up unstable identities through the illusion of unity - a good example of this is football hooliganism. The idea that the other team is rubbish assures them that their team is better than the actual fact that their team is successful in their own right.

This goes for anything such as belief systems, values, fashion and trends.

Study task 3 that follows from this session is here.

OUGD501- CoP Consumerism Seminar Study Task 2

Study Task 2

Using the text Berger, J. (1972) 'Ways of Seeing', write one critical analysis of an advert which, in your opinion, reflects the logic of consumerism, or the social conditions of consumerism, discussed in the lecture 'Consumerism' (17/10/13). Use at least five quotes, referenced according to the Harvard system, in support of your argument.

A very explicit but perfect example of consumerist culture within advertising can be described in this one advert for Michael Kors Spring Collection 2013:

       The image is actually advertising the Michael Kors handbag. Upon quick research, we can recognize that Michael Kors is an expensive brand, but not in the same sort of league of Chanel, Gucci etc. From this we can guess that this image is aimed at the middle class. In ‘Ways of Seeing’ Berger states that 'The purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life’ (Berger, 1972, p. 142) and this cannot be more apparent in this image. We don’t have this millionaire, jet-setting life and yet this handbag is within our reach - and price range. We are one step closer to having this life! Berger teaches that in publicity 'The power to spend money is the power to live' (Berger, 1972, p 143). We can see that wealth and power go hand in hand in this image - the expensive car, the private helicopter, the designer jewelry - the luggage carrier and the fact that they seem to have free time!

    With the idea that we could actually obtain this handbag, it gives us a sense of hope that sometime in the future we will become this woman - ‘The publicity image which is ephemeral uses only the future tense. With this you will become desirable.' (Berger, 1972, p. 144).

    With the notion that this isn’t our life we are viewing but someone else’s out of reach of ours, there is a sense of voyeurism. We are caught in someone else’s romantic moment and almost fantasizing as if it were ours. The fact that neither the subjects aren looking at the camera at all or through the lenses of sunglasses almost builds a barrier between us and the subjects: we’re not the ones holding the camera, we’re simply looking at the printed image - this isn’t our life. Berger goes on to say that ‘[The sexuality] is a symbol for something presumed to be larger than it: the good life in which you can buy whatever you want. To be able to buy is the same thing as being sexually desirable' (Berger, 1972, p. 144) that puts us in a position to think that if we were to obtain this object, then we would fit perfectly into this life, and supports our materialistic desires.

   The wealth and power displayed in this image all plays upon the fact that perhaps the more materialistic audience of Michael Kors are guaranteed to share this dream that one day they will be rich enough to have ‘fun’ and achieve their dreams - ‘Publicity does not manufacture the dream. All that it does is to propose to each one of us that we are not yet enviable - yet could be' (Berger, 1972, p. 144) . The association with love and sex in this image also plays to our desires as humans to want to be loved. By attaching this connotation to this handbag and wealthy lifestyle makes us think that even if we’re not currently in a romantic situation we can fill in the gaps of this lifestyle.

OUGD401 - 'A Brief History of...' Brief and Research based on ideas.

'From Theory Into Practice'

Design, develop and produce a publication entitled; ' A Brief History of...' (completed with a subject of your choice).
A publication can be anything you can read and extract information on. This includes blogs, websites, motion graphics, books, & magazines etc.

• Think about your audience!
• Be creative with your format!
• Think outside the box!

The content of your publication could be based on something from what was studied in the 1st semester, but basically just has to show a deep understanding of a contextual subject or movement and it's impact on the audience and society of the time.

Evidence a deep knowledge of the...

• Historical & chronological information
• Social and cultural attitudes
• Technological advances
• Political attitudes

...of the time.

Be visual and experimental! Fulfil your choice of content and have fun with it.

Module deadline/ studio deadline: 7th May 2013.

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Creative publication inspiration

Ideas and development for this publication can be found here.

Disneyland History book; visual inspiration:

Disneyland Anaheim attractions when they were built:

Jungle cruise, 1955

Space mountain, 1975

Pirates of the Caribbean, 1967

Sleeping Beauty's castle, 1955

Bird animatronics from 'America Sings', 1974

Dumbo the flying elephant, 1955

Monsanto's House of the Future, 1957

Matterhorn, 1959

Mad Hatters tea cups, 1955

Looking into typical 1950's Disney-style illustration:

Screenshots from 'the Disneyland story'

Good typography could inspire different pages in the book?

I need a lot of reference photos of Walt for his illustration.

A good reference photo for the Disneyland story show illustration

The Jungle cruise - with photoshopped erased boat ready for an illustration.

The Frontierland lagoon around the time of Disneyland opening - ready for a paddle steamer illustration.

A picture of Main Street USA in Disneyland a week before opening. I wanted an image without any people on it, so I could add my own. I had to digitally remove Walt from the photograph and another man painting the tram tracks in the road, ready for my illustrated crowd. I also removed the sky and castle for my own illustration.

before and after sepia effect - a photograph I didn't use but was meant for the last page of the book. I wanted the photographs to all look similar and so some were made to look like they were from the 50's as opposed to the 60s-00s

I used the image on the left, and edited to make it black and white even though its from the early 00s. I used the left one rather than the right one, actually from the 50s because the perspective was better for my illustration.

Reference photo used for the illustration of the paddle steamer 

Another good reference photo - the image I would use in the background of the tv for the Disneyland story show.

a picture of a deserted and closed Coney Island.