study task 5 - visual research and analysis

As shown here we can see that these type of magazines are body shaming celebrities that are deamed ‘unattractive’, while trying to convey the body type that should be deamed desirable. Because of this, women are likely to buy the magazines in order to feel better about themselves.

From seeing magazines such as this, we can tell that in order to attract a certain target audience they must use similar methods of visual communication. In this case, the use of photography and colourful layout has helped the magazine cover to look more informal and less sophisticated. By using this style they are able to reach out to the women that want to hear about regular celebrity gossip and ways to better improve their own image.

When considering a solution to this form of body shaming, we must first begin by examining ways in which other establishments have tried to combat the issue themselves. This way it is easier to gather an understanding of the approach that could be taken in order to oppose the oppressive messages. One example would be this image shown on the cover of PLUS magazine. The approach that has been taken here is to show a body type that would likely be shamed in a gossip magazine, and present it on the cover in a similar style to a fashion magazine. As most fashion magazines take a sophisticated approach to their style, slim body images is something that is frequently used. Therefore, by showing a more realistic representation of a womans body in this way it can show that corporations should expand their ideas about body image and what can be acceptable. 

The problem here is that others have criticised this approach as going in the opposite direction. This refers to the way in which several campaigns against body shaming are in fact promoting an unhealthy image of a different type. For example, showing women of large build could be promoting obesity, which would mean that the viewers are likely to accept the images as normal and this can lead to an unhealthy diet.

One approach that had been suggested by peers that can be considered, would be to recreate a webpage which used similar styles and images as their magazines to further promote body image. From seeing this webpage by OK! magazine, it is clear that they too use the same content and use a similar style. This involves the use of colour and heavy reliance on photography. 

When looking at the typography for the website we can see that basic sans serif fonts are used  throughout. By using these fonts the website can look more informal and maintain the style that is used for attracting their audience. Although this magazine has used sans-serif, there are others that use serif fonts in a less exagerated way. For example, Heat magazine features a serif font for their logo but by making the letters bolder it has been possible to maintain an element of ease rather than formality. When compared to the likes of GQ magazine we can see that GQ is more sophisticated.

Study task 5 - Target Audience

When considering the target audience for this project it was important to first assess the ways in which the existing magazines try to attract the attention of their audiences. For example, Heat magazine uses a heirarchical grid system and celebrity photographs to present the front covers of their magazine. By doing so the reader is aware of the style of magazine from first glance and is likely to recognise this genre if they saw it by another company.

Men’s Health magazine

One of the most well know magazines on the market today is Men’s Health, which promotes a certain body image for males aged 18-30 to aim for. As seen from the front cover of many issues of the magazine, it is clear that they intend to impose certain routines and ways for building muscle on their audience. It is also clear that there is a link between how body image is portrayed and ways in which the reader can ‘better’ their sex life. For example, through showing images of muscular male models, Men’s Health is able to portray an image of power and status, which they believe can help their readers to be better at attracting women or having sex.

It is likely that the magazine targets men aged between 18 and 30 because they believe they are most likely to have more time in their lives to workout. From what we can see the magazine also tends to target white and black males in particular, as many of the cover models shown are either black or white. This could also be to do with the fact that certain ethnicities are more likely than others to workout. 

In terms of the layout, it is noticeably different to the gossip magazines as it relies more on the typography elements rather than the imagery. However, each issue tends to show one large image of a male model in the centre of the cover, which is surrounded by text. By laying out a magazine in this way it is clear that the text is supportive of the central image and furthermore intrigues the reader into purchasing the magazine.

GQ magazine

When looking at GQ magazine, we can instantly see that it is aimed at male audiences aged between around 18 and 65. It is also noticeably less focused on body image as a subject and more about world stories and interests that men may have. In this way the magazine is able to broaden their audience as well as help their readers to better their image in their own way. For example, by adding sections about the latest clothing styles for different age groups, there are more options for the reader to pursue rather than seeing a single body type being promoted.

Although the GQ cover approach is similar to Men’s Health, it is clear that it is less judgemental in its intentions. It also uses simialar typopgrahy styles and layouts, however it is more sophisticated and formal in its approach. For example, on the cover of their magazine, Men’s Health says ‘build a beach body’, whereas GQ says ‘167 winning looks for spring racing’. 

After researching the ways in which body image is portrayed by the media and particularly in these magazines, it became clear that body image in gossip magazines are promoted towards women, where as body image is more likely to be promoted to men in health magazines. In this way it seemed necessary to try and create a cover which could apply designs suited to both men and women in a more positive way.

This could also mean that the style of the magazine layout and colour schemes would change in accordance with the audience preference. For example, where womens magazines likely show bright colours, particularly pink and purple, mens magazines are more likely to show neutral colours like white or dark shades like navy. This way the media is portraying colours as being suited to certain sexes. 

The idea with the design of the magazine cover would be to try and break out of this norm by using both colour preferences in one design. Therefore, the designs would show that these colour schemes can be applied to context without being steriotypical. The overall result of this would be that the magazine design can attract both sexes and subsequently draw in a larger audience.

Study task 5 - Contextual Research

Client background

Gossip magazines, or tabloid magazines, have been around since the early 1900s and began in north America, reporting on the latest scandals and personal lives of celebrities or well-known people at the time. It wasn’t until the 1950s when these magazines began to become more popular in society. Most of which would report on daring stories including illegal drug use and homosexuality among celebrities.

Today, gossip magazines still provide scandalous stories and celebrity content to their readers. However, there has been a recent change in the platforms in which these stories can be communicated. For example, in America, popular sites like TMZ.com are well known for their coverage of the latest celebrity stories. Through the use of social media, the site has been able to gather more viewers and furthermore popularised the coverage of celebrity news online, rather than in a magazine.

One thing to consider when finding a solution was how to reach the biggest audience in today’s society. As there is a shift from reading material to media coverage online, it seems as though the larger audience potential is through the internet. However, by recreating a magazine cover for tabloid news, the project would show how the ideas about body image should be changed from the foundations from which they started. 

Competitors 

The competitors to consider during the project include the magazines that still use body shaming content to sell their products and the online companies that intend to broaden these ideas to a wider audience. By creating a mock design of a gossip magazine it would be possible to show the same audience how the content of the magazines they purchase are reinforcing the prejudices of today’s society.

One thing that needed to be considered during the design process was how to create a design that would challenge the design and layout of other magazines. This means looking at competitors such as Heat, OK!, Star, Hello and Reveal, to see what techniques are used in order to appeal to the audience.

Culture 

As there is a growing culture of identity in society, it is necessary for companies to try and help consumers to find their identity. This can however mean that by encouraging people to pursue a certain identity, there will be a certain image that is considered desirable to all. For example, after reading David Gauntlett’s Media, Gender and Identity (2002), it became clear that companies have instilled an image of what beauty is into society so that they can profit through selling certain beauty products.

In the same way gossip magazines, like Heat, will target certain people to promote their content to, particularly women as they are more likely to take an interest in the celebrity news that is offered. This also gives the magazines the chance to profit through advertising beauty products in the magazine.

This idea of what beauty really is in today’s society has been reinforced through popular culture and the media and will likely continue to do so for the forseeable future. After reading Germaine Greers view of the UK beauty industry in 1999 it was supportive of this theory as it shows that even 18 years ago £8.9 billion a year was spent on beauty products by consumers. When compared to today we can see that the demand for beauty products has increased dramatically as the UK beauty industry is now worth £17 billion.

The same argument can be said for men’s magazines also. We know that the images that are reinforced by the media can be harmful to many young people, in particular. This theory was supported in Suzy Bashford’s 2016 article, This Boy Can, when she found a 13 year-old boy who believed he was fat even though he was of average build. 

There is also the idea that social media is playing a big part in the reinforcement of body desirabilities. For example, celebrities on Instagram can gain a high number of followers, based on their physical appearance and tend to have a big influence on their younger followers most. One way that this could be addressed would be through the use of social media links in the design. For example, by sharing a social media link to a more positive Instagram account, younger followers may be influenced by and more accepting of average body types being portrayed.

Ways to communicate - There are several approaches that could have been taken in order to appeal to the intended target audience. This includes comparing womens magazines to mens magazines and picking out which features are commonly used throughout. These would then be used as inspiration for a magazine that can appeal to both audiences.

By focusing on the use of a hierarchical grid system, it would be possible to sort imagery and text into certain areas of the page in order of relavance. By doing this the magazine can capture the attention of the reader from first glance and encourage them to want to find out more. As the grid system is commonly used throughout many tabloid magazines, this would allow the reader to take interest in a magazine that looks to be a similar style.

In terms of the typography elements of the project, the use of sans serif seemed to be the most necessary, as suggested by peers after seeing several examples that use sans serif text on their covers. 

Study task 4 - studio brief 2 - defining the brief

The issue

There is a recurring problem in today’s society with the way that the media portrays body image and the subjective opnions it poses on its target audience. The problem is that women are portrayed in way that may be offensive. For example, the steriotypical body image that the media will convey as desirable is likely to be a tall, slim figure with long hair for women and tall with a toned body for men. 

In this way the media is able to target certain audiences into purchasing product that they believe will ultimately fulfil a means to an end. This is paticularly noticeable through the selling of cosmetic products and advertising on TV and in magazines. The issue itself is derived from years of consumerism and the imagery that has been reproduced in the mainstream media. By giving people a certain body image type to strive for the companies that sell cosmetic products are able to provide people with the tools they want to better their own image.

After extensive research into consumerism and the way that it involves the exploitation of body image, it became apparent that to create a solution, it would first require an investigation into the ways in which companies target specific audiences and sell their products. This meant looking at different areas of advertising and certain products that negatively use the subject of desirable body types as their selling point. Many of the examples that had been found during this investigation include gossip magazines, protein products advertising and skin care campaigns. The majority of the examples that were looked at had used body image in a negative way, while others were alternatively trying to tackle the issue by promoting different body sizes or campaigning for more equal treatment of body types in the mainstream media.

How to resolve the issue

To resolve the issue of body shaming it would first require a certain aspect of the subject to be approached in a similar manner to how it is promoted in the media. For example, through the use of gossip magazines, companies are able to promote negativity to certain body types, particularly celebrities, so they can appeal to a certain audience that will buy the product. This is because they believe that by body shaming certain celebrities, the readers can feel somewhat better about their own appearance. By creating an alternative version of these images, with less negativety, it would be possible to appeal to the same audience and furthermore try to persuade them to change their opinions on body type.

The idea of an alternative version would be to mimic the style and layout of the magazines that exist. This would also include the same colour schemes, image hierarchy and choice of font that would be used on a front cover. By doing this it would be possible to visually appeal to the same target audience upon first sight. Once attention has been drawn to the front page it would be possible to interest the reader in the content of the magazine.Another idea would have been to create an alternative using a webpage design that would mimic an existing webpage for a company that body shames people. However after discussing this idea with peers it seemed that the magazine cover design would be more appropriate to the context. 

What needs to be communicated

As many of the magazine examples include imagery that showed women of different sizes and shapes, it would be necessary to replace these images with real representations of average people. By showing average body sizes of both men and women the magazine is able to target different audiences while maintaining similar imagery. This will also give the design the opportunity to show more accurate representations of body types, which furthermore will mean there is more relevance in the images shown and with the appearance of the readers.

As the images shown in mainstream magazines are used as a way to also promote beauty products to its readers, the alternative version would mean that the readers would feel less inclined to purchase the products sold by companies. This is because the images would show more natural body images which furthermore would make the reader less inclined to try to improve how they look.

It is essential that the design layout includes the same layout, including bullet point subheadings and small circular additional offers, similar to how it would be displayed on a gossip magazine. When looking at the grid formation of gossip magazine layouts we can see that more often than not there is a hierarchical grid system being used to draw the readers attention toward the title of the magazine or a central large image. In the same way the design alternative has the same approach to appeal to its audience.

It would also be desirable to try and mimic the same colour schemes that are used throughout gossip mgazines. In particular, bold and bright colours are often used for the backdrops of these designs as well as imagery of holiday destinations or photographs. After looking at the advertisement that read ‘are you beach body ready?’, it seemed necessary to try and include a backdrop of a beach or another summer holiday destination, which would furthermore back-up the images of average body sizes, showing them to be just as acceptable as any other.

Is there a target audience

As this design solution could be used for a gossip magazine, it could potentially be seen as a proposal for a magazine company like Heat, as a way to attract new customers to their business or to attract a new audience.

Primarily the intended audience would have been women from ages 18 and above, as this is likely the age range targeted by gossip magazines. However, as the intended design was to tackle issues of body image of all kinds, this meant that the target audience could also include men of the same age range. 

This also means that the design element would need to consider ways that the magazine cover will appeal to both sexes. For example, the colour schemes used in order to attract both audiences and content that would be displayed on the cover. 

Lecture 6 - Print Culture and Distribution

Print culture 2

There is a return to the mechanical techniques of printing, art and design. One example of this is the letterpress flyers used in the Leeds Print Festival, which showcase a traditional aesthetic to printing.

Carl Honore - 'In Praise of Slow' focuses on the traditional 'slow' approaches to design that is not very popular today due to the changes and advances in technology and resources.

3 factors of 'Slow Design'

• Individual
• Environmental
• socio-cultural

Anthony Burril - Lisbon, Portugal posters

Experimental Jetset - Statement & counter statement

The Printing Project

The Pink Milkfloat - to promote the traditional printing practice

Nicolas Bourriaud - Relational Aesthetics

Barbara Kruger - 'I Shop Therefore I Am' (1987) The designs from this project were used to promote products sold in Selfridges. 

Carston Holler - Test Site (2006) 

The Glastonbury Free Press - Uses a traditional printing press to publish Glastonbury newspapers to the visitors for free, each year.

Technological reproduction of art removes: creativity, genius, eternal value, tradition, authority, authenticity, autonomy, distance and mystery.

Lecture 5 - Print Culture & Distribution

'Late Age of Print'

• Malshall Mcluhan - the age of print began in 1450. This was with the Gutenburg's printing press.
• Art schools taught - Painting, sculpting, architecture, music and poetry. - The Beaux Arts
• only men were aloud to join art clubs.
• The industrialisation revolution of 1760 - 1840 demands more production, therefore more workers. In this way mass production begins. The segregated working class were finding their own art culture, through printing art using the machines available to them in the factories.
• People create engravings and etching of famous art and sell it for a fraction of the price to the masses who can not afford the real thing.

Mathew Arnold 'Culture & Anarchy'

• Their is a backlash of snobbish upperclass people, who believe that the lower-class are creating a culture that is going to be anarchy.
• Literature is created by the working class, for the working class. For example, Penny Dreadful.
• Schools of Design open around the UK
• Walter Benjamin - 'The work of art in 1936. The age of reproduction'

COP1: Chronologies: Type - Production and distribution - Part 2

"since typography is a communication method that utilises a gathering of related subjects and methodologies that includes sociology, linguistics, psychology, aesthetics and so much more..." - Shelley Gruendler.

A typographic timeline of classification -

• 1450 - 1700 - Classic/Oldstyle
• 1700 - 1790 - Transitional
• 1790 - 1870 - Modern
• 1870 - 1960 - Bauhaus/Swiss Modern
• 1960 - 2000 - Contemporary

Ways of thinking

Premodern - 'Because god put it there and that's the way its always been."

Modern - "Onwards and upwards with inevitable progress!"

PostModernism - complexity/contradiction/dystopian/appropriation.

Max Miedinger creates Helvetica typeface in 1957 alongside Eduard Hoffman, which revolutionises typography with its wide range of uses.

25 years later Microsoft came up with Ariel typeface which showed significant similarities to Helvetica. 25 years is also the maximum time that a design can be protected by copyright before it can be modified by others to create designs of their own. In this way Microsoft may have changed Helvetica to make Ariel.

In 1990 Steve Jobs introduces the Apple Macintosh that retails at less than $1000, which gives a never before seen approach to typography and how we communicate information, quickly.

In 1994 Comic Sans typeface is created by Vincent Connare, which today is seen as one of the most hated typefaces of all time.


In 1990 Tim Berners-Lee invented the worldwide web and offers its use to everyone for free.

In 1995 Bill Gates created Internet Explorer, which gave a new look to the layout of text in a template that over time still exists to this day in updated forms.

In 1977 Jamie Reid produces the visuals and typographic style that would be used on the album covers of The Sex Pistols. This style also showed it had taken inspiration from past art such as John Heartfield's in 1932, which consists of collage, cutout imagery and the recycling of text. Jamie Reid's style is then recreated again in 2014 by London Print Studio which uses his mockery style on Vladimir Putin, similar to how he had made his over the face of Queen Elizabeth for the Sex Pistols album cover.

In 1979 Barbara Kruger creates iconic images, using simple red and white text that reflects the context of the image. Most of which looks at the problems in todays society where body image is an important topic and how it is portrayed in the media as well as what effects it has on people.

When looking at todays forms of communication we can see that over time we have adapted to the wide range of options available to us. For example, we have gone from using email, phone calls and text messaging to using popular apps and social media sites as the primary tool for communicating. Some people believe that we are going back to the foundations of communication, through our use of symbols and emojis we are going back to a time when symbols such as Hieroglyphics were the only form of visual communication.

Study Task 3 - Visual Analysis

As part of study task 3 identifying images relating to the essays will be essential. This is because it will allow a further understanding of the ways in which a subject matter can be communicated through the use of graphic design. This will also help to focus on the choices that are made when producing these images, so that they can be perceived correctly by an audience. For example, focusing on the colour schemes and layout of an image will provide information on ways to effectively communicate our own ideas later on.

As the essay will focus primarily on the effects of consumerism and the ways in which it reinforces a certain image for society to aspire to, looking at images related to consumerism and body image were necessary.

The first image that I chose to analyse was from a magazine called Adbusters, which had mocked a 1950s Marlboro cigarette advertisement campaign. When first looking at the image we can see that the use of limited colours has helped the image to stay basic and straight forward for the viewers. In this way the text used is much clearer by using white with a darker backdrop. We can also see that the advertisement has used layout and fonts that would typically be seen in an old Marlboro advertisement or by another tobacco company. This advertisement seemed appropriate to use as it mocks the intentions of consumerism and the approaches that some companies will take in order to gain consumers.

The next image is of a magazine cover, for 'PAPER'. The advertisement became popular for its Kim Kardashian photoshoot, which primarily focuses on body image. This image seemed appropriate to use as it shows how companies can use celebrity status to boost their consumer base. By reinforcing the idea of ideal body image through celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, companies an a lot more likely to increase the sales of their product. From looking at the use of colour in this image we can see it has been limited to white, black and shades of brown. This way the magazine is able to bring focus to the images in the centre while maintaining a reminder of the colours used on basic paper. The title has also been placed outside of the central image frame so that it contrasts the white backdrop, while using the same colour as the image. By doing this it almost looks as though the letters has been cut out of the page. We can also tell that the magazine has focused on the central image more than anything else as it contains a lot less surrounding information, as you would typically find on magazines similar to this.

This image by Protein world had been heavily criticised online for its assumptions on what the ideal body type would be. As the campaign poster reads 'are you beach body ready?', it is implied that the image next to the text is an example of what a 'beach body' should look like. Had the advertisement not included a model of slim build, then the campaign may not have received backlash from the public. This advertisement was one example of how consumerism can go wrong and company ads can instead create a problem for themselves when communicating the wrong ideas to consumers.

With the use of bright yellow with grey text and imagery, it has been possible to create an advertisement that stood out among other ads of a similar nature. As the ad was placed in the London Underground stations, it meant that the use of bold text was necessary so it could be viewed from the platforms.

Here we can see that several campaigns have ways of challenging society's expectations. This photograph shows how men might be expected to have muscular bodies. In this case having abs is seen as the desirable image. This could also be in reference to way in which people are affected by repetitive images in mainstream media and furthermore, believe they need to achieve a certain image.

 This image is of a Barbie doll next to an artist's interpretation of what an average body Barbie doll would look like. The intention of this image was to show the ways in which society's toy manufacturers are targeting people at a very young age. By presenting the doll as having a slim tall build, young children will see this as the definition of visual beauty.

this image shows the ideas behind society's intentions. It also explains how people are affected by certain ideas of what it means to be beautiful. 

COP1: Chronologies: Type - Production & Distribution

• Definition of Typography
• The art and technique of printing with movable type.
• The composition of printed material from movable type.
• The arrangement and appearance of printed matter.

"Type is what language looks like" - Ellen Lupton, Thinking with type.

"Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form" - Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style.

"The written word endures...the spoken word disappears" - Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death.

• The ancient Egyptians were one of the earliest civilisations to start using symbols as a means of communication through hieroglyphics.
• Mesopotamia (specifically, ancient Sumer) 3200 BCE
• To the west of Mesopotamia were occidental and to the east were oriental speaking countries.
• Trade and Communication - Pictograms lost their early form and became conventional signs. These signs could indicate an object or could be used for their phonetical value.
• One of the most influential finds in 1799 revealed Egyptian, Demotic and Greek text on the Rosetta Stone, which dates back to 196BC

The first true alphabet was the Greek Alphabet, which was adapted from the Phoenician. Latin, the most widely used alphabet today, is a further development of the Greek. 

• the Egyptian ox head symbol was adapted over time time to have the same meaning as the letter A. It went from Egyptian Apis, to Phoenician Aleph, to Greek Alpha to Roman A.
• "true alphabets consistently assign letters to both consonants and vowels on an equal basis"
• when looking at a paragraph of text were the letters in each word are in the wrong place, our brains can still understand what the intended words are that the writer is trying to communicate.

The origins of type and letterforms

• Johannes Gutenberg - 4783. The original first ever printing press was under construction in approximately 1436.
• 1870 - William Foster introduces the Elementary Education Act. This meant for the first time ever people would receive the education that had previously only been given to those of higher class or of the church.

Context of Practice 1 study task 2 - Triangulation & Referencing

Triangulation and referencing task sheet

Key parts from researched books

Consumer psychology in behavioural perspective (Gordan foxall, 1990)

What are called the causes of human behavior turn out to be the grounds or reasons for which a person initiates an action. Human beings, unlike purely physical process, are telic; that is they pursue ends and purposes, and can and do conceive of the notion of adapting a means to an end.

 Consumer culture, Identity and Well being: The search for the good life and the body perfect. (Helga Dittmar)

You only need to look at, and listen to, people around you, particularly children and adolescents, to appreciate that consumer culture has a powerful psychological impact. Celebrities, fashion models, media stars, even computer game heroes and toys, influence who they aspire to be and what they want to look like.

Having the “right” things has become vital, not so much because of the material goods themselves but because of hoped for psychological benefits: popularity, identity, happiness.

Leisure activities increasingly involve consuming, and shopping itself has become a leisure and lifestyle activity. Indeed, arguably, shopping malls have become centres of both socialising and socialisation. At a deeper level, consumer goods have come to play a stronger psychological role for us; we value and buy them as means of regulating emotions and gaining social status, and as ways of acquiring or expressing identity and aspiring to an “ideal self”.

This Boy Can: Brands , gender and the new masculinity (Suzy Bashford, 2016)

“We’re seeing a huge rise in eating and body image disorders among young men. We can’t isolate the cause. Advertising plays its part. A 13-year-old boy of average build in one class recently told me seeing an ad made him feel fat. He didn’t mean a bit out of shape. He meant everything that goes with that feeling such as seeing himself as lazy, unaccomplished and incapable.”

Module Resources

David Gauntlet - Media, gender and identity (Representations of gender today, page 83)
In advertising today, the representation of women and men isn't usually very conspicuously sexist. Sometimes it is, but then we sit up and comment. In the first edition of this book, in 2002, I noted that 'there are also a smallish number of cases where advertisers seem to have decided that it is OK to show women as housewives after all; and even in the twenty-first century, rather amazingly, the UK supermarket chain Iceland was still using the slogan 'That's why mum's go to Iceland"'. Even more incredibly, in 2007 they were still using it. Where the modern dad buys his groceries remain unclear. So, some advertising is unapologetically sexist, and is presumably used because it is felt that the message 'works' for the target audience, even if it might surprise and offend some others. The fact that this doesn't happen all the time does not necessarily show that advertisers take their social responsibilities very seriously, but probably does show that they have learned that it is not good business to offend their customers with sexist stereotypes.

Author	David Gauntlett
Year published:	2002
Book title:	Media, gender, and identity
City:	London
Publisher:	Routledge

David Gauntlett - Selling beauty chapter

sometimes it is unclear why gendered messages in advertising are singled out for particular attention by researchers - there are more publications on women in advertising than there are on women in TV programmes, for example - when TV series take up more of our time and attention that the ads which fly by every day. But he make-up adverts referred to above remind us of a concern uniquely applicable to advertising - that it is produced by capitalists who want to cultivate insecurities which they can then sell 'solutions' to. Germaine Greer put the case strongly in her book The Whole Woman (1999):

Every woman knows that, regardless of her other achievements she is a failure is she is not beautiful...The UK beauty industry takes £8.9 billion out of women's pockets. Magazines financed by the beauty industry teach little girls that they need make-up and train them to use it, so establishing their lifelong reliance on beauty products. Not content with showing pre-teens how to use foundations, powders, concealers, blushers, eye-shadows, eye-liners, lip-liners, lipstick, lip gloss, the magazines identify problems of dryness, flakiness, blackheads, shininess, dullness, blemishes, puffiness, oiliness, spots, greasiness, that little girls are meant to treat with moisturisers, fresheners, masks, packs, washes lotions, cleansers, toners, scrubs, astringents ... Pre-teen cosmetics are relatively cheap but within a few years more sophisticated marketing will have persuaded the most level headed woman to throw money away on alchemical preparations containing anything from silk to cashmere, pearls, proteins, royal jelly ... anything real or phoney that might fend off her imminent collapse into hideous decrepitude.

Author	Germaine Greer
Year published:	1999
Book title:	The whole woman
City:	New York
Publisher:	Anchor Books

A 20'000 year non-linear history of the image

Aims:
-To give you an idea of the broad range of visual communication from different cultures/context.
-To provide you with visual resources
-To demonstrate the theoretical and philisophical approaches to visual communication.

Lascaux Caves, France
Some of the very first instances of visual communication dates back to the era of cavemen. The Lascaux Caves in France are one example of how humans would create images of animals, magic and expressions of 'higher beings' on the walls of these caves.

Cy Twombly
An expressionism artist whos work portrays quick movements and 'primal' similarities to the caves in Lascaux.

Richard Long
Creates aboriginal inspired artwork using rocks and sand. Some of his pieces show how African tribal culture and their means of communication have heavily influenced his work.

Mark Rothko
The Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas showcases large paintings around the room that have been known to 'play on' the emotions of viewers at the gallery. In many instances these paintings are said to have made viewers feel upset and in some cases made the viewers cry.

Marcel Duchamp - 1919 / Banksy
'L.H.O.O.Q.' is a piece of artwork by Duchamp that recycles the image of the Mona Lisa, making him one of the first artists to recreate an interpretation of an image that is globally recognised. Following on from this is Banksy and the way that he also reconstructed images of the Mona Lisa giving it a new meaning to a different audience.

Jackson Pollock 1950
Jackson Pollock became an important figure in the world of art when he created giant paintings that displayed precise movements and rythms. Often he would create these pieces while listening to jazz music, as he found the rythm in the songs could be transfered onto his canvas. His work also became funded by the CIA as a form of 'cultural weaponry' against communism at the time. Vladamirski's 'Roses for Stalin' (1949) was one example of how communism tryed to bring back popularity of traditional painting as opposed to the western ideas of modern art at the time.

Alberto Korda 1960
This photographer captured an image of Ché Guevara during the revolution in Cuba. This image became iconic during the regime and eventually became widely known as a symbol of 'revolt/anarchism'. Over time this image has been recycled to portray different meanings and stears away from its original purpose to become something else.

Similar to this, the movie V for Vendetta  has influenced todays society through its use of Guy Fawkes masks. This is because the movie is about an uprising of anonymous people against the government, and today the mask is widely associated with protesters and anarchists who wear them.

COP Lecture - Visual Literacy

COP Lecture - Visual Literacy

Visual Communication is the process of using images and type to convey messages based on a level of shared understanding of objects, signs, gestures and symbols. Visual Communication is affected by the context in which it is placed, the method in which it is conveyed and the audience it is presented to.

Visual Literacy: constructing meaning from type and visual images while interpreting images of the present, past and a range of different cultures. Visual literacy is also the ability to produce images that effectively communicates a message to an audience.


Here is an example of Visual Communication through the use of a toilet sign in South Korea. Without knowing what the sign says we already know that it is a toilet as the objects included in the sign show a culturally shared meaning. Straight away we know the information being conveyed in this sign is an interpretation of a male on the left and a female on the right. In this way, the designer has been able to easily communicate  message that has become universally recognisable to the public.

'All that is necessary for any language to exist is an agreement amongst a group of people that one thing will stand for another'.


when asked what the top left symbol represents we immediately interpret it as a plus sign because it has been placed next to other symbols of mathematical meaning. However, when the symbol is on its own it can be interpreted as more than one meaning. For example, it could be a religious symbol or a sign for first aid.



'Being visually literate requires an awareness of the relationship between Visual Syntax and Visual Semantics.'  

Visual Syntax: The pictorial structure and visual organisation of elements. It represents the basic building blocks of an image that affect the way we 'read' it.

these elements are framing, format, scale, font, shape and composition to name a few.

Visual Semantics: This refers to the way images fit into the cultural process of communication. It includes the relationship between form and meaning and the way meaning is created through cultural references, iconic forms, social interaction, political ideas and experience etc.





Semiotics: this is the study of signs, their processes, indication, symbolism and communication etc.
Visual elements of semiotics include:
SYMBOL, SIGN, SIGNIFIER, METAPHOR, METONYM AND SYNECHDOCHE.

Context of Practice 1 - Finding research sources

LCA Library: 

1. Consumer culture, identity and well being: The search for the god life and the body perfect. (Helga Digmar, 2010)
2. Subculture: The meaning of style (Dick Hebdige, 1979)
3. Cool Brands: an insight into some of Britain's coolest brands (Karen Dugdale, 2007)

 Google Books (Preview)

1. Consumer Psychology in Behavioural Perspective (Gordon Foxall, 1990)
2. Market Impact of a Consumption Subculture: The Harley Davidson Mystique (John W. Shouten, 1993)
3. Brands: A marketing game (Randall G. Chapman, 1992)

Google Scholar

1. Brand: The logos of the global economy (Celia Lury, 2004)
2. 'Hard and Heavy': Gender and Power in a heavy metal subculture (Leigh Krenske & Jim McKay, 2000)
3. Straightedge Subculture, Music, and the Internet (J. Patrick Williams, 2006)

Websites

1. Journal of Consumer Psychology www.journals.elsevier.com (Amna Kirmani)
2. Cracking the Code of Consumer Psychology www.forbes.com (Dorie Clark, 2013)
3. This Boy Can: Brands, Gender and the new Masculinity www.thedrum.com (Suzy Bashford, 2016)

JStor 

1. The Social Organisation of Sexuality and Gender in Alternative Hard Rock: An Analysis of Intersectionality (Mimi Schippers, 2000)
2. The German Gothic Subculture (Gabriele Eckart, 2005)
3. The Rise and Decline of a subculture

Context of Practice 1 - CoP Theme: Society

For the Context of Practice task 1 we were to choose a quote that we thought would be best to write about for a small 1'000 word essay. The themes of the quotes were society, politics, culture, history, technology or aesthetics.

Quote: society

Jansson-Boyd, C (2010) Consumer Psychology. New York: McGraw Hill Education
'Many studies have found that both women and men do not believe that their current body form is attractive...Research has repeatedly found that physically attractive individuals are perceived by most to be socially more desirable than those that are perceived as being unattractive, something that is likely to have been reinforced by consumer societies.'

Key words: Physically attractive individuals, socially more desirable, societies, brands, logos, subculture, music, gender representations/expectations, the media, advertisements, gender relations.

Using these key points I had a starting point for my research into what books would be most helpful to this task.