Initial ideas and interests

Creative Histories and Industries – for after the Xmas Break

Research Project – Initial ideas and interests

Try to be analytical & critical, rather than just descriptive in your answers to these questions. Consider WHY?  you are interested in the specific areas that you are – this will help to clarify areas that you might want to go on and research further.

You may have lots of ideas – that’s great! Note them all & we can discuss these at the start of next term before you decide which you want to focus on for the next stage of the module.

Do you already have some ideas about what you would like to research?

If so, make some notes about these before moving on to the specific prompts below…… (which might also prompt some other ideas)…….

1. Which areas of Creative Practices particularly interest you (these may include areas outside of your immediate subject specialism)?

Graphic Design, creativity, Originality, design in general, new art, old art

2. Are there any questions that you have identified in your responses to the readings and lectures that have formed part of the module to date? What about any questions that you have posted on your blog?

What is creativity? What is Originality? What is design?

3. Which aspects of the readings and lectures from the module have you agreed with?

Ethical theories, semiotic approaches and analysis, modernism, post-modernism,

4. Which aspects of the reading and lectures from the module have you found to be particularly interesting?

All of the lectures have been very interesting, educational and understandable in their on way. Favourite was ethical issues.

5. Which aspects of the reading or the lectures and discussions from the module to date have you disagreed with?

I disagree with the use of animal skins and furs throughout fashion, the use of fake imagery in Graphic design.

6. Are there any specific issues that you feel strongly about? (Art, Design & Media related or not?)

7. Which exhibitions/events/screenings have you been to see since beginning the programme? Are there any specific aspects of these that have particularly interested you?

I have been to the exhibitions through the organised trips on the course which have all be influential and educational in their own way. I am planning to go to some through the summer as well. 

8. What do you know about contemporary employment practices in your chosen area of specialism?

9. Are you specifically interested in any aspect of commercial practices?

I am very interested in the advertisement aspects of graphic design, the different approaches, techniques etc. I am also interested in the sports fashion of the world, particularly in snowboarding. I would very much like to get involved and learn more about this practice. I would like to be involved in the morally correct and ethically correct fashion design.

10. What do you intend to do at the end of the Foundation Degree? Do you know how you are going to go about this? What do you need to know to pursue your ambitions?

I intend to move onto and complete the ‘top up’ year 3 on the bower ashton course of graphic design. I would then like to either complete a masters or get involved in snowboard graphic design. This is in an ideal world and what my aim is for the future. I intend to get some work experience within design businesses before I move off on my own.

Analysing visual material

Gillian Rose's method for analysing visual material 

I am going to find a advertisement, either poster, TV ad or magazine ad and analyse it using the methods of Gillian Rose.

Semiotics

Image as Language

Semiotics: the 'science of sign systems'

Session 6

What does this mean?

Semiotics is the study of signs. This can range from just a simple toilet door sign with a male or female imposed all the way through to the media superimposing something to make it seem socially correct.

In simple terms, in language, the term 'shut it' can mean stop making noise or could mean close something. This is seen as being implied rather than literally. As a whole, it is all based on communicational behaviour. This can be through language, gestures or even fashion/clothing.

As a task, I am going to break down a music video and analyse it for its semiotics.

Pink - Stupid Girls

The video starts with a young girl watching TV. She is watching a programme on how to be proper/etiquette. An angel and devil appear on both shoulders, the angel being a normal, non-mainstream girls and the angel being plastic, perfect doll looking.

2nd scene - GIrl walking into clothing shop all dressed up, wearing sunglasses at night time. Is indicating that wearing sunglasses is to look more attractive but she stupidly walks into the glass door/window. 

3rd scene - Female president - showing that it is possible if you have ambition. 'Girls with ambition, thats what I want to see' (lyric)

4th scene - music video of a girl dancing on 50 Cent, trying to look sexy. This is indicating that dancing raunchy is attractive.

5th scene - Girl buys a small cute looking dog - trying to fit in with the whole Beverly Hills/Hollywood look. 

6th scene - Fake tan. being darker with bleach blonde hair is supposed to be more attractive. people around her don't think so.

7th scene - bowling alley - girl catches her boyfriend/date looking at another girl with revealing clothes, big breasts, skinny, long legs, make up etc. as opposed to 'pink' who is dressed with clothes covering herself. She then uses a secret button to expand her breasts to look more 'attractive'.

8th scene - Getting plastic surgery. Dooted lines marking out where the surgery will occur. This is in areas such as cheeks, breasts, stomach and a 'reconstruction' label on the front of her underwear.

9th scene - Goes back to Pink trying to express to girls that you don't need to fit in, you should do what you want as shes playing football with some guys. repeats the lyric 'Girls with ambition, thats what I want to see' 

10th scene - Girl runs down/drives into another woman but cares more about her make up, being on the phone and looking good in her convertible.

11th scene - She tries to get attention from a guy in the gym but doesn't get it. The guy goes to another girl that is dressed sexier (small top and pants). Pink then takes her top off, down to a small top to try and look  more attractive.

12th scene - In night club toilets, trying to throw up after eating/drinking too much. She then shouts 'I want to be skinny'. This is showing that some people go through bulimia to try and be skinny. And shows that being skinny is more attractive. This however should not be the case in reality as it can cause many physiological and physical problems for life.

13th scene - Sex video - making it seem like making a sex video is attractive. Mocking Paris Hiltons sex scandal. 

14th scene - Washing car in bare minimum clothes, bleach blonde hair, water everywhere etc. Like the Jessica Simpson video.

15th scene - Old woman or Young woman with wrinkles trying to look attractive/sexy by wearing all pink, with a pink car, bleach blonde hair, skinny etc. Closes up on her and shows you that she is unattractive and this is what could happen from too much plastic surgery and fake tan.

The music video ends back in the living room with the young girl watching TV. The angels are begging her to take their side. She looks down at a barbie doll (the mainstream) and an american football (different and natural exercise). The girl then takes the angels side and plays football.  

My analysis

Most of the scenes in this video are trying to show how the media have made the skinny, blonde, big breasted, long legged, plastic girls into the ambition for every girl. Pink expresses that she thinks its 'stupid' and doesn't want to be a part of it. On her part, it is a very good ethical message to try and pass on. Some of the lyrics read that girls should have great ambition in life to do something great such as becoming president or being in sports. these are both highly respected roles that should be something people to aspire to be instead of a perfect little tart that just needs to look attractive, which has in-fact become the non-attractive in my opinion.

Fashion

What is Fashion?

Session 5 

In this Lecture, we discussed the background of fashion, what it means as an art and how it varies.

It can be viewed in many different ways all over the world. Fashion changes completely from culture to culture. Some countries, or even continents do not even consider fashion because of religion or just simply unfeasibility. It also show status. Being wealthy or well off can show massively through what you wear. This isn't a generalisation but a lot of wealthy people will wear designer clothing or smart clothing such as suits. 

Music is a big influence over fashion as well. This is usually more to do with fashion within youth or high street fashion. By looking at someone wears, you can sometimes tell what music they enjoy and even where the music is from. People that listen to heavy metal music quite often have either really long and unlooked after hair or completely shaven head. Tattoos come into play quite a lot with the fashion within music too. Wearing really dark and baggy clothes as opposed to sporty clothing makes it easy to tell whether the person listens to say goth music or hip hop and rap. (as mentioned above, this does not apply to all and cannot be seen as a generalisation). 

Fashion as an Art can be completely different and diverse. The clothing/garments designed may not be created for everyday wearability. Some items are purely to how off a certain skill with the creation or to express an emotion through colour and style. It can only be appreciated if the audience can understand it or make something of it if its abstract. This is usually presented through a Catwalk show.

Examples of this are below.

Very much like logos, fashion can communicate a message, idea or a meaning about something or someone. It can be explicit or implicit the same as logos too. 

The History

When fashion became an art or a profession, Charles Frederick Worth (1826-1895) was named the first fashion designer. Before fashion designers derived, clothing would have been sewn and produced by seamstresses and drapers. After Worth changed his role in the world (draper), he opened the first fashion house in what was the fashion capital of the world, Paris, also known as 'maison de couture'. He was also the first person to label his Art ion the fashion industry and was seen to be the relief of corsets for women.

Here are some examples of his work.

As a recap and a bullet point list of what fashion is and can be interpreted as

• Art
• Personality 
• Expressive
• Structured
• Identity
• Attractiveness
• changes through time
• Cultural and religious
• Diverse
• Status
• Based on Music
• 
  

What is good Graphic Design?

London 2012 Olympics Logo
Session 4 task

This logo was designed by Graphic Designer Wolff Olins back in 2007. It was launched to the public in London on 4 June 2007 by Sebastian Coe and a team of London 2012 ambassadors. 

It has been largely criticised and generated a lot of disturbances around the world. Not only did 80% of the public vote for the worse end of the poll calling it the worst logo ever, but the country of Iran threatened to boycott the games due to it spelling the word 'Zion', which is a biblical term, often refers to the city Jerusalem. 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/528.267543-Iran-says-the-2012-Olympics-logo-spells-ZION

The logo itself, is based on '2012' and incorporates the world-wide recognised olympic rings. It includes the word London as well to state the location. London is actually the first City to host the games alone. The font itself was created for the event and is named after it as well. 

The symbols used for the Olympics and Paralympics are based on the same core shape. This was to help represent the commitment of london fully integrating the two events.

The Emblem serves as a window to present relevant content such as photography, illustration or art. This has enabled commercial sponsors to demonstrate a real partnership by changing the colour or the inside of the Emblem to fit with their corporate colours or specific campaign.

The four original colours of the London 2012 identity – pink, blue, green and orange – were inspired by the worlds of media, communications and fashion. The colours were carefully chosen to communicate the spirit of the London 2012 Games: energetic, spirited, bright and youthful.

http://www.london2012.com/about-us/our-brand/index.html

From the comment above, I really agree with these strengths that the symbol has. The communication of the colour choice is clever, also unlike a lot of Logos, this has massive opportunity for change of colour to fit in with another brand which brings in more advertisement for the event and charities. Below are a group of examples.

 Here, Adidas have simply made it black and white to fit with their logo, which i think works very well. 

Personally, my favourite of the brand personalised editions of the logo is the BP version. The chosen colours relate to the BP logo/theme and they stand out well. As we all know the colours of BP, the olympic logo could stand on its own and potentially still be read as BP.

Other criticisms 

"The London 2012 logo has been presented with promising descriptive text but besides the date, I don't think the logo itself attempts to reference anything of significance," he says. "It has certainly aroused a lot of critical references, from grade school paper cuts to porno"  - Lance Wyman

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2007/june/2012-logo-lance-wyman-says-give-it-a-chance

I feel that the comment above has strong views, which unfortunately make perfect sense against the logo. I also feel that the 'paper cuts' could be seen as a good way to get the youth to feel involved. Children may see the logo as a young playful symbol to admire. This reason does make the event feel youthful, which cant be a bad thing in any case. 

Being a Graphic Design student, there are many aspects of the logo that I could criticise from how I have been taught however, I think as the logo stands for something aimed at probably the biggest audience in world, it would be difficult for the designer (Olins) to suit everyone. The positive outcomes that I have spoken of are very well thought of work very well for the event. This is my view and the way I would like to see it since reading the many articles and comments on the subject.

Graphic Design (session 3)

What is Graphic Design?

It is a form of Art which was invented or started in the late 1920's or at least the form was named that around that time. 

It is a way of communicating an idea through imagery, text, colour, layout and shapes. Generally it is aimed at an audience where as a lot of Art forms do not necessarily require that factor. In present day, Graphic designers are heavily involved in advertisement which is the most mainstream point of view over the subject. Many people do not like that factor because aiming something at an audience can take the true originality away from a piece of Art. 

It is also the process of bringing a magazine or book together for sale or for publishing. This could be laying out the text and images that a journalist has put together all the way through to creating a visually interesting and eye catch book cover. 

Logo's and brand images is also a very popular sector of Graphic Design. 

Photography could be classed as a form too.

The simplest way of expressing the meaning - Graphic Design is a way of visually communicating a message to an audience. ( http://www.aiga.org/guide-whatisgraphicdesign/ )

Below are a handful of examples

This is an example of a poster (or series of) to advertise something. It includes Typography, colour arrangement, shapes, photography, layout and illustration.

Here is an example of typography at its best, book cover design, layout, shapes and colour.

The above 12 logo's are for some of the biggest and most recognisable brands in the world. A designer or group of designers would have drawn up many versions of these before finally deciding on one for publishing. They are all extremely successful and are very unique/original in their own way.

This form of design is a favourite of mine at the moment. It is creative, different every time and i believe has a great sense of achievement once finished. 

History

As mentioned above, the term Graphic Design derived around the 1920's but the art form and its many sub-styles can date back as far as ancient times. From the Illuminated manuscripts to cave paintings, it could be seen in its many forms way before its title.

Symbols

A brilliant example of Graphic Design would be the use of symbols from all over the world. As a human race, we recognise shapes and objects together where as words/typography/text, we may not. 

The Male and Female symbols which are mostly displayed on public toilets is a perfect example of the world wide readable design. Instead of the words MEN or WOMEN written on the entrance to a toilet or changing room, these symbols make it easy, cheap and more easy on the eye for everyone. 

Session 2

The first thing we discussed in the second lecture of the term was based on a question - 

What ethical questions are raised in the creative industries?

The answers to this question are completely personal opinion, however the answers below do not necessarily relate to my opinion. They are notes from the group discussion.

Graphic design

-Promotion of anything bad for your health

-Airbrushing - unrealistic views of people

Photography

-airbrushing

-image consent form (under 16)

nude images being published e.g. Linsey Lohan photo that was released on the front of newspapers.

Fashion

- using animal fur or animal products

-the size and health of models. 

The second half of this lecture was based on looking further into photography - 

What is Photography?

Including the meanings I took away from the previous lecture, I found more meaning. 

It is the Art or process of capturing photographic imagery.

Niecephore Niepce took the first ever photo in 1825.

In the 1800's, photos had no title, they were only used for either educational purposes or to keep record of something or someone.

Edward Muybridge was the first person to create movement with a series of photos.

"Photography is one of the new media forms that changes perception and changes the structure of society"