OUGD601 - Responding to Cop3 Proposal Feedback

For Context of Practice 3, I initially intended to research and investigate handmade methods of graphic design vs. digital methods, with a particular focus on print culture whereby we are now living in what is called the 'late age of print', where it can be seen there has been a return to handmade production methods of design and print, such as letterpress and screen-printing.

CoP3 Proposal Feedback:

This is a tricky topic to explore for CoP3 since it does not offer easy to identify opportunities to explore contexts and theories. As such, your reading list covers ideas related to design that you are no doubt very familiar with. You need to find a way into this topic that situates this particular approach to graphic design practice in "real world" contexts. For example, this could be about finding ways to embed more human character into design which is increasingly flat and digital therefore you can begin to explore contexts and theories related to subjectivity, embodied experience, phenomenology, psychology, etc.

In response to this I began to do some basic research into the different examples given in feedback, in particular, embodied experience and phenomenology.

Embodied experience and "embodied design" is said to grow from the idea of embodied cognition: that the actions of the body can play a role in the development of thoughts and ideas. Designers can use embodied cognition as a tool to study human behaviour and create user-centred designs.

Phenomenology is an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and objects of direct experience. This theory seems to hold the idea of consciousness as a key theme, which could potentially be related to ideas based on cognitive psychology within graphic design and advertising to explore how people react to different aspects of design.

Both theories, embodied experience and phenomenology, seem to have apparent links to ideas of consciousness which can then also be linked to ideas of cognitive psychology. This is something, however, which can be situated more directly within advertising as part of graphic design practice and so a way needs to be thought as to how such theories can be embedded into ideas proposed in my initial CoP3 proposal (digital vs. handmade methods of production). Perhaps discussions can be made as to what draws people to either digital or handmade graphic design, and how their experiences and conscious behaviours affect such things.