OUGD501 Communication Theory Task

Analyse a communicative act in reference to Shannon and Weaver's mathematical model - how widely is the model applicable? How useful is this sort of exercise?

What are the main communicative functions of redundancy? What do we mean by saying English is 50% redundant?

In response to this task I chose to look at a New York based studio, Vault49's campaign for Beck's beer:

In the session we recreated Shannon and Weaver's model to be in relation to design, and interpreted that the Information Source is translated to mean the client, in this case Beck's. The clear communicative aspect of this campaign is a sort of exploration or exhibition of the varied elements and care that goes into making a bottle of Beck's, from a more imaginative and conceptual viewpoint rather than a literal representation.

The transmitter, or in this case design/marketing agency, is the NY studio Vault49, which is what made this campaign fall into this design, have focused strictly on the product, which has a primarily male market. The designers capitalised on two things that may interest a typical male, beer and technology. The inclusion of the 'ART IN PROGRESS' sign, seems to add almost a cultural element to the campaign, and may lead the consumer to believe that they are witnessing something artistic. Similarly, the 'PURE BECK'S' tagline insinuates that the ingredients are natural and somewhat healthy.

The channel aspect of the model is translated here to be the platform or format of the design, in this instance, a large scale poster. The impressive attention to detail would allow this design to work best on a large scale, particularly as every element of it is pointing towards or honing in on the bottle. Even the simple combination of colours speaks volumes to a male audience, and when partnered with the masculine centre position of the bottle, this would be very demanding on a bigger scale.

While many may argue that pin-pointing and inflating the idea of 'men love beer' would make this campaign a redundant form of communication, I do not entirely agree. Realistically, the majority of men do like beer and in spite of this being designed with that market in mind, it is visually stimulating for any audience. While there are a lot of areas to focus on within the design, not once does my mind wonder from the product itself, as every other element engages with it, down to the direction the background is seemingly pointing in. In this case, redundancy in visual forms of communication makes itself one of the key components and uses that 'predictable' aspect to surprise us.

The decoder or receiver in this scenario is the consumer, the target audience, which is the massive population of beer drinking men. A design like this on it's intended scale and format is most ideal for a public place as it demands attention. While the poster like almost all other designs are up to interpretation, this would leave a similar impact on any viewer, that the beer appears natural and pure and the viewer wants to try one.

The destination of this, design wise is when the message is received and had it's full impact on it's audience, and it would seem that this campaign is successful given the sheer amount of people consuming the beer, Beck's is one of the biggest beer brands in the world, and while that may not be solely down to this campaign, it is a result of plenty of others like it. A campaign selling beer is pretty much destined for redundancy, but is that always ineffective? This design uses it's redundancy to surprise it's target market and, above all else, it sells the product.