Produce 1 x A3 design sheet that defines and outlines my research question and the design brief.
After creating a mind map of ideas related to my essay question - 'How is social control achieved through design?', it has helped me to try and narrow down what I could produce for the practical side of the module.
From this I have come up with two ideas, the first is creating a newspaper dedicated to news satire, I want to create something that tries to convince people that it is true and genuine through layout design. I could look at social media and current newspapers and their political standpoint. As well as looking at advertisements in newspapers, how they are placed to attract the eye.
The second idea is to create an advertising campaign which plays on dreams and fantasies, strong persuasion. Possibly creating a brand which has values, ideals and begins to make promises. Creating it for something made up or rebranding something with a different meaning.
After discussing through both ideas with my tutor I have decided to go with my second idea as I believe it has more substance and I will be able to gain more from it. I want to look at the area of luxury, producing something that makes out that it is a lot more special than it is.
1. Research question:
How are people persuaded to buy something considered a luxury?
CoP Theme: Society
Graphic Discipline: Advertising / Public Awareness / Branding
Items that are considered a luxury, are they actually any better? Are people just buying into the idea of luxury, or do they get what they are paying for?
1a. Is it viable?
What is there to study (ontology)?
- Advertising campaigns - successes / failures
- Branding - what makes or breaks a brand
- Luxury
- Techniques / processes
- Image / identity design
- Colour
- Type
- Production processes
- Distribution
- Target audience relevance
- Political
- Who use's
- Aesthetics - design of dreams - design that won't last forever
- Culture and the arts
How can we know about it (epistemology)?
By checking that the resources used are reliable, and it has evidence to back it up.
How do we study it (methodology)?
- Literature review
- Questionnaires
- Observation
- Drawing
- Making
- Recording
- Primary research (collecting data that doesn't exist, specific to my question)
- Secondary research (analysing research that has already been collected)
- Quantitative research (measurable numerical data)
- Qualitative research (non-numerical data, perceptions)
2. Defining the design problem:
Creating a luxury appeal for a product through branding / advertising.
3. "Client" needs or requirements:
- Brand logo
- Luxury image established
4. Audience:
- 20 - 30 yr olds
5. Mandatory requirements:
- Design outcomes must include company logo
Frederic Jameson P16 - P19
Marxist - understands literature, culture, politics.
What is this about?
Jameson believes that pastiche has been replaced within the modern world by parody, but lacks the satirical and political viewpoint. This is shown as he says "Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language.."
What is Jameson's definitions of parody and pastiche? Quote?
"Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style... speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of satiric impulse, devoid of laughter.." - The original has a place within it's historical context but when removed it becomes mute, devoid of context within capitalist society. It is extracting signs from their original place in time... and ultimately their meaning.
Parody - "Ulterior motives" challenges the establishment through humour and aggression.
Linda Hutcheon P179 - 186
What is this about?
Hutcheon talks about postmodernism is a parody of modernism, and these postmodernist artists are creating a parody from the original. 'Philip Johnson probably could not have built the postmodern Transco Tower in Houston if he had not first designed the modernist purist form of Pennzoil Place - and if he had not begun his career as an architectural historian.'
What is her definition of parody? How does this relate to pastiche?
Parody - "ironic re-reading of the past"
Pastiche and parody are the same.
How does she criticise Jameson?
Hutcheon believes that looking back at the past helps
She believes that we look back at the past for a reason, its not done randomly but to help contemporary aesthetic production. "There is absolutely nothing random or "without principle" in the parodic recall and re-examination of the past by architects like like Charles Moore or Ricardo Bofill."
Write a 300 (ish) word summary of parody and pastiche according to Jameson and Hutcheon relating these theories to at least 2 examples of graphic design (one from this session and one found yourself).
According to Jameson Pastiche is similar to parody which is “the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style… speech in a dead language. But is as neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody’s ulterior motives, amputated of satiric impulse, devoid of laughter…”. Pastiche looks back at the past, but the original has a place within historical context when removed from that is becomes mute, devoid of context within a capitalist society. It is extracting signs from their original place in time and ultimately their meaning. Parody on the other hand has purpose it challenges the establishment through humour and aggression, it brings something new to society.
Hutcheon however classes parody and pastiche as one of the same, “Philip Johnson probably could not have built the postmodern Transco Tower in Houston if he had not first designed the modernist purist form of Pennzoil Place – and if he had not begun his career as an architectural historian.”. This looking back at the past is done for a reason to help contemporary aesthetic production.
Parody can be seen today within the design of clothing as famous logos and catch phrases are changed to have a different meaning. Shown in fig (1) is the Nike logo tick, with their modified slogan from ‘Just Do It’ to ‘Just Donut’. This provides humour and flips what the brand was trying to promote, being active and motivated to being lazy. Pastiche is still widely used within packaging design as it promotes a feeling of nostalgia to help increase sales, being that it’s the same brand you know and love. This can be seen in fig (2) where the new PG tips packaging has been stripped back and is very simple and bold much like it used to be.
Fig (1)
Fig (2)
