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

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

Taking my idea of Capitalism and Consumerism from my essay, I would like to show how graphic design can enhance the idea of consumerism 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'. I will determine what is desirable through this page of research. I am suspecting that presenting it as a branded tee from the skate culture will deem it as popular but also a more 'rustic' / vintage style will also work.

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.


Example brands

HYPE

Of course it goes without saying that most buyers will purchase because they like the design itself but it comes with a little irony that a brand named 'Hype' lives up to it's name. 

There are also lots of more complex designs, but I am focussing on the more plainer designs to evidence my reasonings. There are lots of blank spaces, sometimes only the name is placed on the whole of the design. 

Stussy

Another example of a brand that although sells more complex designs, boast themselves on an array of very plain designs.

BEST clothing, Leeds

More examples of this style:

OBEY

Companies like OBEY have a really interesting manifesto - the idea of which is the idea of propaganda through their art campaigns isn't obvious, just stating the name, but with hidden meaning. Unfortunately, it can be noted that as a company they have grown manically since their inception and have become possibly another brand name to some of their users.

ONLY

Alibaba Really rough research into costings

A simple search on Alibaba suggests that these brands could acquire these plain t's from $0.001 - $5.30 per unit (depending on how many were purchased) as a rough example. If they were purchased at $0.001 per item and sold for $26.00 each, like one of the designs listed above, the price different could be from around 500% increased or 26,00,000% increase!

 Of course, this is a very rough example, as I'm sure there are shipping costs, printing costs and distributing costs incurred. But one costs implication I want to dwell on is the design and printing cost, as this is a result of my discipline. 

Examples of blind purchase in real world:

Via Topman.com

Another website offering a blind purchase scheme. This idea revolves around the hype of the brand, the trust of the brand, the excitement around 'luck' rather than the products themselves.

My design idea: 

To emphasise my idea of selling a product based on it's marketing and it's presence through graphic design, I am going to keep my t shirt totally plain, and focus on it's packaging. I am going to look at more trends in aesthetics and packaging ideas.

Many are packaged in tins...

Or presented like food...

Or mostly in non-sustainable containers.

This sticker over the perforation is a disposable feature of the packaging design.

I like the idea of the packaging being disposable or not sustainable to reflect on the consumerism surrounding this culture. Perhaps the packaging would be 'ruined' once opened to reflect this further. I also like the idea of having a 'collect them all' scenario, meaning the user wouldn't get full benefits if they didn't purchase the full set.

I have decided to brand my company in the style of Mcbess because it's a really contemporary, fresh style that I really admire that from what I've seen, appeals to the audiences established so far.

 McBess artwork: 

Similar styles:

Cartoon characters with hollowed eyes, shapeless limbs, usually monochrome and often freehand contrasting with gridded styles are all characteristics of this style. I can't find it's name! I don't even know if it has one!

Design Ideas research - 

With the idea of 'indoctrination' the name of my 'company brand', I started to look into the idea of political and social influence through communication for my packaging. 

In terms of lack of sustainability, a canister would be a really appealing way of presenting the design. But unfortunately the idea of the tin can has already been presented lots of times in t shirt designs in this style so I wanted to look further into it. And so I got into Pneumatic Vacuum canisters as they represent information and communication as they usually hold classified information that isn't trusted to be sent digitally. For these reason they are used in high security places such as banks, political houses and even in the White House!

This overly deep ethos for my company will create mystery, interest and hype around my proposed company and will be an interesting talking piece around my products, however basic they are.

I have been having a look on eBay at possible canister purchases:

Although I want the packaging to be more costly than the product itself, I didn't want it this pricey as I don't have a very large budget for my project ... I will keep looking!

***

As of the last post in this topic I have been searching far and wide for a pneumatic vacuum canister and have FINALLY acquired one! After asking very politely to the staff at a large supermarket in town, they very kindly gave me one of theirs.

It isn't quite what I was expecting as it didn't look like the ones I had seen online, but nevertheless this is the real deal!

I have decided to go with a monochrome colour scheme overall so am painting the lid black.

Update - 30th April 2014 - Change of canister

Ok, so after much debating with myself, I have decided to change the canister completely and just use a plain coffee tin because of it's ...unusual... shape. Today I also started on the logo and graphics. 

1st May 2014 - development of graphics

Today, I fully developed all of the graphics for the tin from start to finish, firstly completing the logo.

But because I wanted to do my packaging in the style of McBess/ Johnny Cupcakes, I wanted to take direct inspirations from the cartoons themselves as well as the modern artists work to make sure I had my own ideas.

Koko the Clown sings 'St James Infirmary' in the 'Snow White' episode of Betty Boop.

I ended up not taking such a direct reference from this cartoon but it definitely served as valuable inspiration for my skullhead character.

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 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 - Identity

OUGD401 - CoP Module Evaluation

Context of Practice - From Theory into Practice & Essay Evaluation

1. What skills have you learnt throughout this project and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

During this project I have learnt all about the context of where our art comes from. This has helped me to put into perspective the vibes that designs can give out, dependant on their inspiration or place in history. I have applied these same type of lecture-depth understanding to something I love and used it to create my publication.

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

For my publication, I thought about the design production first, as my strength and passion is in pop up books and paper engineering. I chose to fit my subject, my other passion, to this paper concept - Disneyland. Because Disneyland is aimed at younger audiences/ is 'fun' this made the pop up book undoubtedly the best route to go. However due to lack of time management, and probably lack of confidence in my idea, this had to be reworked. I regrettably eventually went for a rather weakly designed version of a 'carousel' book. I resorted to this because the link to the carousel would link into Walt Disney's ride at the park - 'the carousel of progress' - it would make perfect sense. But I think my execution of it was rather poor and disappointing.

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

I have discovered that I can work fast and efficiently under pressure, and that my academic writing skills are not as bad as I thought! I don't particularly want to capitalise on working under pressure, but will definitely work fast and more efficiently from the beginning of the project.

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

Weaknesses I have identified is that I am not being disciplined enough to keep up to date on daily blog posts. I am also very very poor at time management and in this instance I failed to ask if I was unsure and fell behind with progress because of lack of confidence in the idea. In the future, I will definitely ask for help and work through my idea rather than soldiering on with something that I have limited.

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

• Blog everything as I go so it doesn't mount up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Leave room for things to go wrong 
• Come to terms with a failing idea quickly and efficiently and put in place steps to make it work or move on from it.
• Not be afraid to ask for help - if fellow students are also stumped, ask another informed individual - any advice is good advice when you're really stuck.

• Experiment more with different materials and mediums to add diversity to my designs

6. How well do you think you've done/5?

Attendance   

4.99

Punctuality   

4.9

Motivation    

3

Commitment 

3

Quantity of work produced

5

Quality of work produced

3

Contribution to the group

5

OUGD401 - CoP Final PDFs

OUGD401 - 'A Brief History of...' Ideas, research and development

'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.

-------

After reading the brief, I have to decide what contextual subject to visualise in the publication.

I know straight away that I don't want to design something plain or modernist, and think I can be more experimental and engaging if the subject is more obscure.

I have quickly made a list of obscure art movements/ contextual subjects that I know I can provide depthy research and that I think would translate well visually:

1. Victorian Modernism Newsprint

• turn of the 20th century
• invention of the telephone, lightbulb and electricity. 
• Train travel and concrete are invented.
• steampunk-style inventions and innovations in steel architecture.
• Focus on Parisian world fair in 1889 - perhaps create newsprint advertising new technology.
• Utilise paper craft to recreate viewfinders?

2. 60's/ 70's Bohemian Psychedelica

• photo album/ scrapbook of festivals in San Francisco
• Diary?
• Documentation of Woodstock Festival

3. Dadaism

• Book made out of wood?
• sculpture?

4. Avante Garde cinema

• some pages to be printed on acetate like slides of a film? 
• experiment with light in book...

5. Punk

• Could be book about punk written in formal institutional format, savaged and vandalised in the style of anarchy.

6. Disneyland ( a personal interest ) 

• book could transition from 2d to 3d, to represent cartoon to screen to theme park.
• Could also transition from black and white to colour to represent timespan.
• Interactive elements and removable parts.

7. Surrealism

• Plain format style of book, printed in reverse
• features book box but slides out wrong side (back to front)
• Book would feel uncomfortable, and unfamiliar to the reader.
• Boring, grid formatted pages would get progressively distorted.

------

After showing all of my ideas to my peers at the crit on 19th March 2013, I decided to go with the history of Disneyland book. My peers said that because I had so many different and fun ideas for the Disneyland book, and because it was a personal interest so I had extensive knowledge, that this would be the most elaborate and successful idea.

Why Disneyland? How does this relate to art/ design?

• The birth of Disneyland saw a massive surge in consumerism & advertising
• Great innovations in art technology were made purely for Disneyland with the invention of the animatronic etc.
• It turned the amusement park into an art form, and used art & engineering to immerse people in the art.
• New advances in architecture were made because/ for Disneyland.
• Several inventions such as Doritos were created and marketed well because of their affiliation with Disneyland.
• Disneyland increased interest in the Disney company and so became one of the first companies with an obsessively loyal fan base.

To see all of the visual research to this book, click here.

Because I already knew so much about Disneyland, I began starting to list all the things I would want to include, and try to fulfil the assessment criteria. I also knew that I wanted to feature pop up/ interactive paper elements to integrate the 'fun' vibe of the book and so I was keeping in mind what kind of things I could include for these features.

My project proposal form 

I began writing up a detailed timeline of what I thought was all of the key elements to include. This included things like big opening days, innovative inventions/ attractions.

 I also wrote up a possible chronology of pages. I estimated around 7 or 8 pages would be required. I started to produce some (really rough) sketches:

This double page was to integrate all of the greatest rides/ attractions in one place. It features lots of attractions from the 1959 Tomorrowland expansion. I was going to do movie poster style artwork with dramatic perspectives.

This double page featured the designing and the 1-year rushed build of the first Disneyland in time for opening day. It would have blueprints falling down the page and a long queue. I thought that the queue could be in the foreground and could be 3d and have layers of these. The page would be in layers looking at the railroad station and the castle in the background.

I found myself rather stuck after just 2 sketches. I couldn't visualize how to tell my story, even after countless lists I had hit a wall. I decided to take my sketches and a couple of mood boards to the peer-ran crit:

As I didn't really know what was wrong with my idea, I just knew it wasn't working, I didn't really receive very much constructive feedback and didn't come away with any more ideas. On paper, my idea sounded strong.

I plodded on with more sketches, and decided to do the bits I knew I could do. I wanted somewhere to include a cartoon picture of Walt Disney himself, and so I began sketches and development for that.

I wanted to make Walt cartoon-like, most resembling something in the style of Josh Agle (Shag) because his artwork is Disney friendly, has a strong 1950s yet contemporary style, which is the era Disneyland opened and much of it's marketing to this day is in this style.

In this image I am playing around with Walt's appearance.

Here I am doing a few sketches for people in the crowds & the body of Walt. Some people would have to be in the foreground at least, so I knew that I would have to produce drawings for them.

I liked the idea of re-tweaking the Disneyland logo for the front cover.

I wanted a lot of the graphics to be like the ones found in the Disneyland park itself. This meant very typographic based banners and designs to decorate the book with. 

A couple of crude sketches in the style of Shag for people of the crowd. These people are dressed typically in fashion of the 1950s, something the crowd might have worn on opening day.

I decided to digitise a couple of my sketches, and digitally develop them so I had more unique images to work with.

By tracing over my sketch with the pen tool, and playing around with different line points and gradients, I was able to create an image of Walt Disney that remotely represented him! I was really happy with the result, which gave me a bit more confidence in my idea. I posted the image to the Graphic Design page on Facebook for some feedback and there were a lot of positive responses - a few said he looked a little bit too young/ a bit too surprised because his eyebrows were so high. Every reference photo I found and video I watched his eyebrows really are that high!

It was hard creating something with regrettably hardly any planning. And although I was happy with the result of this page, it was created without any knowledge of paper size and would soon suffer from cropping and layout of the final design.

From my sketch of the 1950's lady, I was able to use the same techniques to create the digital image. The different arms and legs were to be added when I knew exactly where she was going to go!

From the digital version of the 1950s lady, I was able to create a 1960s lady and a girl with accurate 1960s merchandise.

Again, by using the same techniques, I digitised the sketch of the 1950's man, complete with bowling shirt.

After another mini crit, I was growing increasingly worried about my design, as it really wasn't materialising. Other projects were getting in the way, and poor time management meant that my beloved Disney book was falling behind. I decided that I had to not do a pop up book, as by this time there was not near enough time to refine the pop ups as well as everything else that needed to be done.

I changed my idea, as I still wanted something that would be of interest to the typical Disneyland fan - so I chose a carousel book:

Examples

This would mean that there would still be an element of interactivity and a 3D effect but would be a lot more time efficient, as the 3d effect could be developed out of one page.

So I finally started to develop, as now I had no choice but to just go with what I had already decided. 

The chronology of the final Disney book were refined down to :

page 1 - Disneyland opening day speech on a plaque

page 2 - 'a gleam in Walts eye' - an insight into where the idea for Disneyland came from

page 3 & 4 - why Walt was discouraged from the idea of Disneyland - to put into context the radical idea and development of Disneyland.

page 5 & 6 - development, building and opening of Disneyland

pages 7 & 8 - exhibition of all the greatest innovations/ attractions at Disneyland and the opening of all of the different parks.

As I started to sketch and develop digitally, I quickly ran out of time.

I decided to abandon the idea of a 3 tier carousel book, and have it double sided instead.

This would mean that there would now be no fiddly/ time consuming paper engineering - just a double sided document.

Developing a drawing of the Jungle Cruise ride. It was important to me to include 4 or 5 rides on the opening day page that would represent the mix of cultures in Disneyland and what that meant in an all-American californian community. 

screenshot of the development of pages 5 & 6. On the left I am drawing the Main street station and on the right I am just starting the Jungle Cruise ride.

Copying and pasting a crowd together for background.

Using a screenshot from the Disneyland tv show, I used the pen tool to trace around the lettering, and then staggered each letter over a waved line like my original sketch.

 Using all the same techniques, IE the pen tool and the gradient tool, I was able to trace over a photograph of the Disneyland castle to use in my book.

Using the same image of Walt, I was able to change his pose and put him in many different backgrounds. I decided to start using old black and white photography in with my illustrations to save time, and I really liked the way my images were coming out. This also meant that it was a bit more historically supported.

Drawing 2 girls to go in the teacups.

 I started integrating all of my images like this. This page being the page showing the different 'lands' of opening day. I used different layer masks to mix the photo with the illustrations, such as the rocket top right. I used the clone tool on Photoshop to get rid of the real rocket in the photo, and replaced it with mine in illustrator. I repeated the image and used a layer mask to include the 2 men in the foreground of the picture. I played around with the layer mask to make my illustrations part of the images. All of the photos I included are pictures of Disneyland park.

I really regret not pacing myself and giving myself time to work on this book, as I missed out on vital feedback that could have made this book what I had originally visualized. Because of this lack of time, I had to move more quickly and subsequently less intricately. IE, whatever I drew I would have to go with it and not compromise.

The final book in stages:

I always wanted to include the opening day speech to the first page of the book, as I thought it was a really suitable introduction. I tried to make it in the style of Disney with the Tinkerbell glitter and shine. I also used a font that to me resembled the cursive script like Disney's handwriting.

The second page features an old 1950s television showing the Disneyland show. In the bodycopy, I talk about the idea of Disneyland and what Walt envisioned. This would explain the context of the Disneyland development and design.

The third page features a photograph of Coney Island in the 1950's. Lots of existing amusement parks of the time were in decline and were dangerous, dirty places that you wouldn't necessarily like your kids to roam free in. This is exactly the opposite of what Walt envisioned for Disneyland. Because of this amusement park decline though, lots of people predicted failure for Disneyland. I also talk about the second world war, and the financial struggle the country was going through. This meant that there wasn't a market that were willing to part with their money to visit Disneyland - in theory.

The fourth page narrates the book and carries along the story to help the reader.

The fifth page is a photograph of main street in Disneyland on opening day, with a collage of my drawings as well. It shows Walt giving the opening day speech, and my historically accurately dressed crowd behind.

The sixth page is continuing the same thing, exhibiting the most diverse attractions of opening day.

The last double page shows the Matterhorn, the submarine voyage, skyway and the monorail on a photograph of a landscape similar to the one Walt envisioned for this part of Disneyland. I include a fairwell tagline for the book but there is more.

I needed to include something to make this more historically educational and accurate, so I included a comprehensive and accurate timeline on the back of these pages:

This was in the same font and style as the other pages of the book.

The finished front cover design didn't require any different techniques previously used in the book.

The front and back cover would be ever so slightly bigger than the pages, and would be mounted on mountboard. It wouldn't need to have a spine, because the book opens both ways.

Printing

I managed to get my book printed at the very last minute, and so I didn't really think about the paper stock other than it had to be card. Now that it is printed , I think that I would have chosen this stark white stock anyway, as this kind of book is best suited to clean, crisp bleach card.

I printed it by reprographics and assembled using a scalpel and double sided tape - spraymount caused it to curl and pritt was not strong enough.

I encountered a couple of problems in assembly- in particular putting the back pages onto the front pages- at first it was wonky and I decided to assemble the back pages one at a time. 

The constatina effect works really well in my opinion!

The final book:

I am pleasantly surprised at the final outcome of my book - but you don't have to read between the lines to see that I am thoroughly disappointed at how much I messed up on what was supposed to be my best work so far - I would even go so far as to call it my worst work. I hope that it successfully fulfils the assessment criteria. I know what steps I need to take next time to NEVER let this happen again - I want to be proud of my work!

My evaluation can be found here.

Thanks for reading