OUGD501 - Essay Draft Feedback

"Your essay has a nice structure and flow and presents your argument in a really coherent way.

I get the impression that this essay, rather than a critical comparison, is edging more towards a critique of the idea of objectivity in graphic design? Which, actually, i think is much more exciting. In this way, perhaps you can open out this debate to include some postmodernist ideas about objectivity in general. Since postmodern philosophy would tend to condemn any idea of a universal objective truth of any sort.

There are some sketchy sources here though. Wikipedia shouldnt used and don't overly rely on journalistic articles. Rather than building your discussions around single articles use multiple ones - so, for Brockmann use the eye article but also his grid systems book and any other texts you can find by or about him."

OUGD501 - Parody and Pastiche

Linda Hutcheon: The Politics of Postmodernism: Parody and Pastiche.
(Parody)

The argument presented in this text by Hutcheon argues that parodic postermodernism is a good thing and that "genuine historicity" does not exist. She suggests through this that 'the pluralist, provisional, contradictory nature of postmodern enterprise challenges not just aesthetic unities, but also homogenizing social notions of the monothithic (male, Anglo, white, Western) in our culture'.

Frederic Jameson: Pastiche.
(Pastiche)

In this text, Jameson talks about the negative implications of pastiche. In considering the relationship between parody and pastiche he states 'parody finds itself without a vocation; it has lived, and that strange new thing pastiche slowly comes to take its place. Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. Pastiche is thus blank parody'.

Pastiche relating to graphic design:

- Stranger & Stranger (product designers) - Victorian advertising/ type/ etching - early modernist and wartime poster designs, wine labels.
- Jonathon Barnbrook - type designs and influences.

OUGD501 - Male Gaze Theory

Laura Mulvey: Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975)

Structure:
1. intro to psychoanalysis as a feminist weapon.
2. radical cinema, emerging from classic Hollywood cinema.
3. explanation of scopophilia and how it relates to cinema.
4. explanation of narcissistic pleasure and how it relates to cinema.
5. summary of cinema and discussion of castration.
6. the roles that men and women play in cinema and spectatorship - active/male, passive/female.
7. a - role of women (on screen), b - role of man (on screen and spectator).
8. structures of the gaze and its relation to castration threat.
9. 2x case studies.
10. summary and conclusion.

Dyer, R. (1979) Stars.

The text describes male gaze as a theory when investigating advertising, social media (for instance, instagram), as well as other sources. This text in particular argues against Mulvey's explanations of male gaze theory, rejecting any form of erotic potential. This can be seen through the quote 'Richard Dyer explores a similar disavouwel of the look by highlighting how male pin-ups never appear in the image to be looking in ways which suggest they are not an erotic object. This can involve looking as if disinterested in the viewer, glancing upwards to appear lost in a high spiritual form of thinking, or staring to confront the fact of being looked at'.

OUGD501 - Visual Analysis and Triangulation

OUGD501 - Digital Culture Lecture

Digital Culture:
Production, Distribution, Function and Audience.

To what extent do technological developments impact on graphic design, etc? (research question). Technology: the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry. "Advances in computer technology" (define).
Marshall McLuchan
- Look at technology in a range of different ways.
- Driven by how people use technology and what they want - social media landscapes.

Digital culture
- A set of values, beliefs, opinions, skills and practices shard by regular users of digital media for production and distribution.
- Social phenomena of interrelated, online and offline, experiences.
- Offline affects more than just online experiences, for instance, the way we talk.

- Social, cultural, creative relationships formed around them.
- Functions and devices encourage, enable and extend our ability to develop, communicate and distribute content?
- How do we use these devices? What do we use them for? - engage and affects people's lives in different ways.

Principle components of digital culture
- Participation - format and informed online affiliations, connections, collaborations, etc.
- Remediation - new technology and media as a constant developmental remix of older media and the refashioning of old media to meet the demands of new technologies, eg. vinyl/ keypad on a phone - how we engage with digital technology/ familiarity.
- Bricolage - the creation of products through available media.

Fanzines and Bricolage
(remaking of the old).
- Punk zines, 1970's, used cheap methods of production eg. photocopying so that everyone could afford one.
Social Media and Bricolage
- Different way of building credibility and authority through followers, like, comments, etc - global cultural - is anyone looking or listening? Meaningless? No curation or moderation?
The internet has turned what used to be a one-way message into a real-time dialogue with millions.
- Instant distribution (global - send anywhere in the world).
- How we interact with this info eg. QR codes.

"Digital and social media is not about the exploration of technology but service to community" - Simon Mainwaring - commercial drive vs. social function.
"I grew up in a physical world and I speak English. The next generation is growing up in a digital world and speak social" - emojis, etc.

Are we creating a culture where there are higher levels of engagement and interaction?
- Child's learning and development.
- Needs to be physical interaction?
- However, does this make us more innovative?
Dual-relationship between the physical and digital world eg. children's book illustrators and illustrations.
- How do we make the physical seem more innovative? (digital illustrations, production methods, etc).
- Narrative - interaction with information to shape it eg. animations and interactive films for children - the gamification of information to communicate and educate.

Brand - identity - logo.
Brands need to think about what users need more eg. both print and screen variations (full service).
Technologies become integrated into physical environments eg. retail environments.
- We want to be surrounded by it/ shapes our experiences/ interactions with the world.

E.g. Angry Birds - started as a free game - the global scale of it took off to create a business market (brand) - merch/ film.
Transmedia - audience enhancement and engagement/ physical engagement/ no linear storytelling/ full sensory immersion.
- Everything leads back to the physical - speed of consumption.

OUGD501 - Identity and Consumption

JANSSON-BOYD, CATHERINE V. (2010) CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY:

1. What does she mean by multiple identities? 

According to Brewer (2001) a person can have more than one identity. These are not always anchored in real life, but can be specific to virtual online environments. The number of identities an individual has depends on how many different types of social situations they frequently find themselves in. However, some of these roles are more integral to our identities than others, whilst others may only dominate in certain circumstances.

Consequently, we consume in the hope of reinforcing or establishing the roles we find ourselves in or wish to be in. It's been suggested that these are largely unconscious behaviours, meaning consumers may not be aware that their self identity guides their consumption behaviours.

2. How are identities formed?

It has been researched that, generally, self-recognition starts to develop around the age of two years old. Human identities are continuously moulded and influenced by parents, siblings, societies, etc that they belong to, including advertising and other cultural influences. However, once people reach the stage of adulthood, they tend to more incorporate feelings, motivations, political beliefs, etc, as well as the possessions they own in order to describe themselves. The incorporation of so many different characteristics to express who we are shows that our identities are multi-dimensional.

3. What is social categorisation?

Humans categorise the world around them in relation to themselves. When doing so, people tend to accentuate their perception of others. This can be split into two parts; person perception, which is he perception of others. This is often affected by people's material possessions. Object perception, on the other hand, focuses on the classification of objects, which can be influenced by marketing and advertising.

Because we tend to focus on the groups people belong to and the type of possessions they own, we view them as a representation of what the group and possessions stand for rather than as individuals in their own right. Hence, individuals are perceived as 'prototypes', meaning that we can assign them stereotypical characteristics and treat them accordingly. People already have a clear stereotypical concept of what kind of person would be using a particular product, meaning we can make use of those concepts to accurately categorise others.

4. What is social comparison (upwards/downwards)?

Social comparison is about how people learn about themselves by comparing similarities and differences to others. The continuous comparison to others is driven by a need to maintain and sometimes increase positive self-esteem. Individual self-esteem is linked to feelings of belonging which is supported by being a member of groups. From a consumer perspective, purchasing the right kind of products and services can make them feel as if they belong to certain groups. This is often driven by different types of marketing techniques.

Generally people seek out those who appear to do less well in one form or other, as in that they can make downward social comparisons, meaning when we compare ourselves to those whom do less well, we appear to do better ourselves. Upward social comparison, on the other hand, is when we cannot choose who to compare ourselves with and so end up comparing ourselves o those who are viewed as more competent or desirable. This often happens when consumers are comparing themselves to 'ideal' media images.

5. What is social identity theory?

Social identity theory can be described as 'that part of the individuals self-concept which derives from their knowledge of their membership of a social group(s) together with the value and emotional significance of that membership'. Individuals tend to use brand, products and services to differentiate themselves from others using them to demonstrate their commonality with the groups to which they belong. The symbolic meaning often stems from advertising and other marketing techniques. Marketers offer individuals easy solutions as to how they can achieve full group membership or at least how they can signal that they wish to belong to a specific group.

6. Examples of brand identifications.

• In a study where Macintosh and PC users were compared, the Macintosh brand was found to be much more likely to be a part of a consumers self-concept. The user tends to think of themselves as a part of a small close-knit community, since it may be that it fosters a 'strong social bond and deep-rooted loyalty'.

• American Eagle Outfitters used the slogan 'live your life'. The slogan was meant to inform consumers that those wearing American Eagle denim outfits were highly individual people who wished to do something unique with their lives. Hence, if people wish to be viewed as belonging to the group of people in society who are living their life to the limit, they would need to wear American Eagle jeans.

• Many young girls who play with Barbie dolls have been found to identify with them and think of them as role models. This gives children a skewed picture of what the female ideal should be like, as Barbie is not in any way representative of what real-life women are like.

7. Negative effects on body image.

At times, possessions are used simply as an extension of the self, however these can also be used by individuals to compensate for what is perceived to be flaws in their self-concept. Many studies have found that both men and women do not believe that their current body form is attractive. Such negative body perceptions are most likely the consequence of the media promoting 'ideal identities' that have often been digitally altered.

In the light of unrealistic ideals of physical attractiveness, it is also common for teenagers to conclude that their physical appearance falls short of what society deems to be attractive. Consequently, they embark upon the task of changing their physical appearance, however with impossible targets, that can then lead to poor physical and mental health.

8. What is self-descrepancy theory?

The self-descrepancy theory proposes that people have three types of self-schema (organised sets of expectations and associations about an object). These are:

• Actual self - the way people are at the point in time.
• Ideal self - the self that we aspire to be.
• Ought self - the way we think we should be.

The ideal self helps us to strive to be in a way we think is perfect, whilst our ought self prevents us from doing things that are not in line with what we should be like. It is important that there are no discrepancies between the actual and ideal self, or the actual and ought self, however if there are this can potentially motivate a person to try and reduce it. Those with high discrepancies are more likely to suffer from low self-esteem and has been suggested are also likely to engage in 'identity seeking buying behaviour'. Such findings explain why repeated exposure to 'ideal' unattainable images for most will have a negative impact upon their self.

OUGD501 - The Structure of an Essay

OUGD501 - Setting A Research Question

Based on my Context of Practice 2 proposal submitted in the previous module, it was decided to focus on the use of objectivity and subjectivity within graphic design, particularly focusing on the debate between Wim Crouwel and Jan Van Toorn since this debate was something of interest during first year which I could possibly use to also put my own arguments and beliefs on this topic into practice.

In establishing a research question, there were some points which should be followed:

Focus on a specific graphic design discipline.
- It was thought that the use of grids, layout and typography within graphic design could be one way in which to make the research question and essay more specific, since the debate on objectivity and subjectivity is quite broad (functionality vs. aesthetics).
- Another focus point could also be typography and editorial design (modernism vs. postmodernism).

The question must be open ended.
- Sometimes better to form research question once you have written the essay - let the question be informed by your work.
- Must be contemporary.

The question must allow for suitable theoretical research as well as visual exploration.
- Focusing on a more specific element of graphic design, posed within the research question, should allow for suitable theoretical research in the form of the 1972 debate and how other designers approach design, as well as visual exploration in putting such ideas into practice.

Position your question within contemporary graphic design practice - make it work for you.

Do some quick preliminary research to gauge how much literature is currently available
- Do the same to explore what is currently happening within the industry.
- David Carson, Josef Muller-Brockmann, Jan Van Toorn, Wim Crouwel.

Consider what primary research methods could be used to support your research.
- Explore shops and libraries to see what material is already published on the topic of objectivity and subjectivity, or those which use clear objective or subjective approaches in their design and production.
- Questionnaire to find out why people buy certain graphic design products (function or aesthetics?)
- How much do the ideas of people and demographics play on the design of a piece of work compared to ideas of objectivity and subjectivity?