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.

OUGD501 Consumerism: Persuasion, Society, Brand, Culture

Aims:

• Analyse the rise of US consumerism
• Discuss links between consumerism and our unconscious desires
• Sigmund Freud
• Edmund Bernays
• Consumerism as social control

Freud:

- Father of psychoanalysis - theories were considered radical and shocking in their time

- New theory on human nature - argued that people repress sexual and violent desires

- There is a fundamental tension between civilisation and the individual

- People are dangerous by nature

- Natural instincts of humans are incompatible with the well being of the community

- The Pleasure Principle - people are happy after gaining some sort of pleasure (consumerism, sex, violence)

- By repressing humans instincts, we will always be unsatisfied/unhappy

- Argued that WW1 should be expected as violence is in the nature of human beings

Edward Bernays 1891-1995:

- Nephew of Sigmund Freud

- Worked for the propaganda office of the US government during the War

- Birth of PR (Public Relations)

- Employed his uncle's theories to marketing of big businesses

- Claimed that any business that relates to the ungratified instincts can be successful as they can make people want to purchase their products

- Was previously thought that women should not smoke, which halved smoking companies market

- Bernays paid beautiful debutants to walk in the New York Easter Day Parade 1929, where they all lit a cigarette

- The women were all suffragettes and were 'lighting the torches of freedom' - sign of status, freedom, independence, sex appeal

- Start of American mass production with product placement, use of pseudoscientific reports and celebrity endorsements (was associated with the status and glamour of a celebrity)

Fordism:

- US began to invest more in batteries, technology etc.

- Items bought solely to satisfy a desire to own them and appear a certain way

- Lead to industrial advances

- Productivity increased so profit increased so wages increased and people had more money to spend

- Businesses felt that they needed to do something different for people to buy their products

- Aunt Jemima's Pancake Flour didn't initially sell as women said they didn't want to use it as it would seem like they were 'cheating' (unconscious desire to provide/be a good housewife)

- Product was changed so that you had to crack an egg into it to make it - satisfied desire

Oldsmobile:

- Selling a lifestyle - you are in control of destination, destiny, women etc.

- Implies that you can go where you want to go - fits with peoples desire to be successful

- Humans want a car that is powerful

Chanel:

- Women want a perfume that is going to make them like a movie star (fit a sexually alluring fantasy)

- Belief that fashion reaffirms an illusion women want to adhere to

There is an idea that happiness is the satisfaction of our desires - businesses use this and people are then sold the idea that their product will satisfy this.

- 'A new elite is needed to manage the bewildered herd'

- 'Manufacturing consent' argued that people cannot manage society and that big businesses t=should be employed by the government

Great Depression 1929:

- Roosevelt introduces the 'New Deal', bringing in welfare, benefits, pension funds and consequently mass job creation

- The World's Fair New York 1940

- Big Show of american culture and a huge advertising opportunity for big businesses

- Showing what the world could be like

- Society is based on the illusion of freedom and consumerism is an idealogical project

- We believe that our desires can be met through consumption

- Legacy of Bernays and PR can be felt in all aspects of 21st Century Society

- Conflicts between alternative models of social organisation continue to this day

- To What extent are our lives free?

OUGD504 Design For Print Ideas

After working out my initial ideas there were a few paths that I wanted to go down, one more than others was the idea of a newspaper style informative magazine, something similar in style to the magazines included in The Sunday Times.

I wanted to ensure that I'd maintain a more print and design base with in the magazine so it didn't appear as laden with information as newspapers can, splitting the content between text and image, similar to some of the following examples:

This edition of Paper Magazine is very image and visually based, combining digital collage and photography with simple and varied layouts, which lends itself to an air of formality, and makes the whole publication quite easy reading.

This publication for The Washington Post is much more image based, and while this could be effective for print based publications, the processes do require a lot more information that there may not be room for the text if it's an image base publication.

The covers of this publication are designed to double as posters, and since I wanted to include posters in the package this would be a plausible option. I also think I should consider this use of Times New Roman, as it is a newsprint typeface and would transfer well to newsprint stock.

This german publication has a heavier weighting for text than for image on some pages but does counteract it on other pages. I am also interested by the infusion of colour only one page.

I wanted to keep an illustrative aspect, as one of the areas I wanted to execute more was hand rendered design, particularly typography, and This approach could lend itself to a zine type of newspaper or magazine.

OUGD504 Design For Print Research

In order to determine the format and topics I wanted to include in my info pack, I looked at some examples of print based manuals. I found that to determine a topic or a route I wanted to go down I found it useful to look at more commercially designed books, to gather what is already existing in the market, what there may be a gap for and what would be appropriate:

'The Digital Print' by Martin C. Jurgens acts as a guide to digital printing processes, used mainly by photographers and artists. It explains appropriate printing materials and options for acquiring and preserving digital prints. It also has a removable poster intended to be used for reference. This manual seems to be most useful for beginners in commercial art.

'Hard Pressed: 600 Years of Prints and Process' by David Platzker and Elizabeth Wyckoff focuses on the history of print making, and prints and processes that pushed the boundaries of media, looking at processes from woodcuts and etchings to digital. While learning the background of print is ideal for people with a pre-existing interest in the area, I would want to be more practically informative.

'How To Identify Prints' by Bamber Gasciogne is a reference book designed to answer technical questions based on identifying different aspects to print. It features a print history, paper, and the principles of colour, and can guide a reader with limited previous knowledge.

'Materials, Process, Print' by Daniel Mason explores the wealth of materials and print processes available to designers and explains how they can be applied and stretched in order to produce original pieces of design. An analysis of materials and print is combined with examples of innovative practice from contemporary design studios.

'Print Liberation: The Screen Printing Primer' by Nick Paparone is a guide book aimed specifically at screen printing and the appropriate materials. It briefly explores the history of screen printing and then uses photos and illustrations to guide the reader through techniques, and explores the prospects of using screen printing as a money-making venture.

'Printmaking' by Beth Grabowski acts as an introduction to the fundamentals of printing techniques, including collagraph, monoprint, screen print and lithography, and gives examples of current prints using the techniques. It also explores how to translate digital images into print works. By chapter it follows a step-by-step illustrative explanation of each aspect to printmaking, and provides interviews and examples from a contemporary printmaker.

'301 Inkjet Tips and Techniques' by Andrew Darlow focuses only on the digital aspect of print and is most applicable to photographers. It determines how to chose the appropriate inkjet printer for desired output, how to manage your digital images, how to select the right materials etc.

'Low Tech Print' by Caspar Williamson is based around an exploration of hand-made printing techniques and their application to contemporary design and illustration. It divides into chapters on screen printing, letterpress, and other printing processes, and explains the process behind each of the techniques as well as a short historical background.

After examining a selection of these commercially designed guides to print, I much preferred the idea of focusing either on one area that falls under the print making umbrella, or, similar to the 'Low Tech Print' book, looking into strictly hand rendered print. Some of the books above are very specific, focusing on photography over other areas, and I would like to avoid falling into the trap of making the info-pack too specific, as I would like for it to be applicable to a lot of designers.

While the subject matter for these examples is valid for this brief, I want to avoid falling into the trap of making an actual book, as I made a few last year, so I started looking and more design based information packs.

Designed for Missing Children South Africa (MCSA), includes a DVD and a small "milk bottle" for parents to purchase, which holds all the information that guides a parent through what to do in the event that their child goes missing on the packaging. It includes an arm band for children to wear with their parents contact details and a calendar reminding people of missing child stats.

The Outback Pack is filled with camping and adventure equipment, and contains a variety of diagrams which would aid the consumer in building shelters or hammocks, and information on UK wild camping legislation.

An information pack for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is directed both at the children in the hospital and their parents. It contains games for the children but also information on how to cope with a sick child in the hospital.

Rice Terraces Pack provides information and samples on all the varieties of rice, and where they came from. The structure of the pack is designed to resemble the shape and movement of the terraces.

OUGD401 Module Evaluation

BA (Hons.) GRAPHIC DESIGN		LEVEL	04
Module Code	OUGD401
Module Title	Context of Practice 1

END OF MODULE SELF-EVALUATION

NAME	Sarah Butler

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?
I have developed skills in contextual research for my own work and have realised the relevance and importance it has, as a result my work has become broader. I have noticed a change in my writing as I now know where I need to place focus for essays or critical responses to others work.
2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?
I have started to appreciate the importance of stock and the impact it has on the tone of voice of a design, production and media now have the same importance to me as colour as they are the factors which determine the theme of a design.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?
I have developed strengths in identifying the impact of a structural layout in a design, and how this contributes to how followable the design is and how it allows the viewer to retain information. I have realised that it is not about how much you have to say about a topic it is what and how you have to say it. ­­
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future?
I often find for some topics I have not done enough experimentation or research to ensure that the outcome is the best it can be, and to change this I will designate a certain amount of time to each of these areas in which I do nothing but research/experiment.
5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?
1.    Use the library more – the internet is not very reliable. 2.    Spend more time doing research and development so that I don’t pass by an idea that could benefit the design the most. 3.    Take notes in ALL COP sessions so that I have it to reference in the future. 4.    Designate time myself to different aspects of design development in order to ensure I have utilised all the time I have. 5.    Take full advantage of the crits and ask questions about my own work – you don’t often get the chance outside of crits.
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance			x
Punctuality		x
Motivation		x
Commitment		x
Quantity of work produced			x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group			x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.