Criticality has been a quick and sufficiently different design experience compare to what i am used to, it has challenged me mainly in the ideas stage as the designs I have been creating have been made with relative speed and efficiency, the designs do not need weeks of altering type and visuals slightly but instead more heavily require a sound idea and message behind them, this means I have spent a much larger amount of time note taking and brainstorming than usual projects, this combined with a further reduced time to actually make the designs within the three week timeframe has meant that I have been pushed out of my comfort zone, to present bold ideas that can be expressed quicky and intelligently. As well as this my work must stand on it’s own, my entire submission rests on the document above, this small amount of text must explain everything about the work, and the work itself must say the rest, this, again has tested that my designs must have a strong and easily grasped, but still intelligent message.
In the future, I hope to print these designs physically, and then by using thin, 60gsm gloss paper stock I can manipulate existing magazines to include my own adverts, then proceeding to photograph these outcome within the magazine context, this will help to deliver my message more accurately as well as offer a physical outcome within my portfolio, that I could bring to interviews and offer an interesting conversation about my work, boasting an element of interactivity that could potentially push me further than other candidates.
My next round of developed outcomes utilise a typeface from previous experimentations, this allows me to carry the feminine connotations of the typeface and take those connotations even further with the floral designs shown below, these are hand drawn illustrations, they have been hand drawn as it allows me to have greater control over how they look and where they will exist on the page, I have kept with the same colour scheme as the pink acetate sheet as to compliment my message as well as give further connotations of femininity.
My outcomes here are stretching into dealing with issues with toxic masculinity, I am still deciding if it should do this, it does expand the message and the potential for my work, however in the short term it does seem to rather dilute the message as it simply touching upon multiple issues rather than dealing with one contemporary issue in enough depth.
I think the notion that pink is expensive needs to be revisited after these designs are finished, the slogans have begun to move too far away from what sits at the centre of my research, the basic idea that pink is the most expensive colour and simply making something pink therefore makes it more expensive.
I think my typeface chosen here is much more legible than the previous, stencil typeface and therefore should be used more often, given it’s massively improved legibility it allows me to include more slogan type modifications to the page, this will help to give my work more depth and allow it to build it’s own tone alongside delivering a hard hitting and important message.
In addition to the improvements needed to the slogans and general type systems, I think that the price alterations need greater emphasis, this is what my designs are all about, the Ludacris increase in price just for having the same product, but pink. Simply adding a small 0 at the end of the price does not pull enough attention towards the price increase. I propose to improve this by utilising the vines and stalks within my floral illustrations to slightly obscure the original price, but still having it visible but the vines will simply be there to direct attention to the bright pink area and therefor placing the new, 30% higher price next to the vines and stalks will allow viewers to better appreciate the fact that the price has been increased, simply because the product in front of them is now a pink version of what existed before. This keeps the message as strong as it was before but continues to allow the viewer to make the connection themselves that pink = expensive, a message that must be in the front of my mind when creating anything for this project.
Keeping with the original colour scheme of various shades of bright pink has worked well for the outcomes above. I do feel as though the workload is unusually light with these outcomes, I think that the pink acetate sheet is a positive outcome, but it has a lot more potential I have the opportunity to block out certain parts more innovatively rather than simply using a paint stroke to graffiti over the original price. There is a large amount of empty space still on the page, I could completely re imagine the advert, replacing slogans and visual systems and then replacing them with my own, this combined with still remembering to use some of the already existing elements could prove to create a more effective outcome. Finally I think the typeface is simply doing the job at this point, it could be improved, being able to function and carry my message as well as doing much more. I think this could be done by really going into more depth with my typographic systems, and perhaps play on the layering aspect to a greater extent, use rotated and inverted titles that display across the entire page and direct the user, implementing an effective hierarchical system would not only show a greater set of design skills for my portfolio, but also open up more avenues when it comes to translating my message.
Starting with my typographic rethink I have implemented a change in typeface, this neat, stencil styled typeface translates my message of rebelling and overlaying more strongly than in the previous examples. The large but minimalistic letterforms would work well to create some negative space shapes as well as taking the serifs and type properties and turning them into objects and shapes themselves, I think creating additional visuals this way would help to keep everything tied neatly together and prevent a dilution of my message.
As well as using a new typeface I have began the creation of a logo marque, i think this could make my message more easily identified. If I were to put my fake ads into real magazines this marque could be placed somewhere either on the page itself or be present somewhere on the pink acetate sheet that overlays, this could help to pique peoples interest, accompanied with some logo type with a name, something as simple as ‘pink taxed’ would perhaps prompt people to search the term up after encountering one of my designs and then finding out more about the topic, after their attention has been diverted to the issue.
My marque here takes from the typeface itself, using the curve of an ‘s’ letterform to create a shape that illudes to a ‘roughly equal’ symbol often found in mathematics, carrying the message that, clearly products prices are not quite equal to their quality, and that they simply change depending on which audience the product is being advertised to. The colour scheme remains pink in order to continue the brand message and to keep everything coherent.
After being inspired by the fronts of razors blades when creating my logo marquee, I think moving forward, there is potential to use the image and message of a razor further on in the project, perhaps creating faux razor advertisements that expose the problem more directly and explicitly, something like taking a Gillette ad for men’s and women’s razors and cutting it down the middle, exposing that the products within are literally the same, but then highlighting the price difference for each ad. This would tell my message more consciously, but it is also extremely explicit, there is nothing for the viewer to think about and all the information is provided for them, this lack of a need for thought could perhaps lessen the effectiveness and intelligence of my designs and thus perhaps not work as an effective concept.
After thinking of exploring the preconceptions of masculinity and femininity I have found a larger area of research, the official term is the ‘Pink Tax’, statistics are found below.
the pink tax is well known, but perhaps not well considered or represented in design. Within my research for the topic I found a large amount of basic, infographic style graphics like those above, these simply labelled the problem in an informative manor, not actively engaging people’s emotions with the topic area, something that is so key to successful design. These infographics are often made quickly and not represented by larger bodies, the only example I could find by a largely recognised company was a single page created by VOGUE found here.
This is once again, simply an article and graphic loosely being informative about the subject area, lacking creativity and innovation to engage people’s mind. The pink tax is seen within almost every large scale company, even in adverts from companies like Gillette who’s razors show no difference despite a change in colour and the occasional inclusion of flowers to their razors, and yet their prices are seen rising when aimed at a feminine audience
isolated Tube for Cosmetic Package in blue; Shutterstock ID 271527932; Purchase Order: –
This research comes down to one discernible fact, that pink is expensive. It’s the most expensive colour a product can be, it raises the price of the product by around 30% and up to 108% simply by being that colour, this straight up, almost mocking tone would help to deliver my message in plain sight, but also allow others to engage their emotions by figuring out more implicit messages that I can implant within my designs. Engaging with the stereotypical would allow me to vandalise the ads that already exist but still allow the viewer to see the change taking place before them. The most achievable way this could be done within the time frame would be to print onto a pink acetate sheet, and that could then act as the pink filter, easily turning everything on the page at least slightly pink, alongside having the page turn pink, alternative messages could be printed onto the acetate, creating subverting messages as well as supporting in turning the page feminine, supporting the price increase that would occur after the filter has been applied
The concept of pink being expensive is a ridiculous thing, yet it appears to be happening to a large scale of products, my critical design could implant on top of ads that already exist, not a million miles away from ‘the fuclcromer’ I could either theorise a way to see an ad in one way, with the usual colour scheme within a magazine, and then allow the user to input a pink filter over the ad, and this would then mark up all the prices present within that particular advertisement. This could be further explored by leaning into the cliches of femininity as visual and typographical furniture to support my message.
the colour scheme of course, must be shades of pink given the theme of the works. However, for the typefaces used, my rationale for using a rough, pen like font is that they firstly appear feminine by natural, especially when compared to more masculine, heavier typefaces. But my main reason for choosing these types of fonts is that, with the use of the pink filter I am effectively vandalising the ad, as well as rebelling against the companies that are responsible for the widescale implementation of the pink tax. Using neater than graffiti but rougher than super clean delicate typefaces seem to give this message clearly A sense of rebellion with a touch of femininity.
I think this concept has the most potential of all my ideas so far, with the project coming to an end soon, I will now proceed to execute this idea in a number of context before having my executions reviewed and then improved in direct response.
After more consideration, I think my work can be described as ‘self-aware design’, finding a term for my work may help me in the future, perhaps finding more examples of this being created or for creatin a more concise message when presenting my work.
After research I have found my work exists in very close proximity to ‘AdBusters’ a very well-known movement that works to attempt to stop people from buying so many unneeded products in their lives. This presents a problem that needs to be solved, and I think that an effective way of beating the competition and making my work stand out is to research the messages behind ad busters and seeing what about their work is similar to mine, and then finding a section that I can delve further into that will set my work, and ad busters apart, giving viewers a reason to view my designs over the previous works of organisation like ad busters.
After deconstruction of ad busters, what they do as well as how they do it. I have found that what we are doing is not the same, but the similarities within the ‘how they are doing it’ section are very similar, this means that I need to find a unique point within this section and then push my work further in this direction.
As I am focussing on the visuals of the ad much less than ad busters, the focus on a typographical approach could be focused upon further. A message of ‘buying the typeface, not the product’ interests me, the focus on typography would set my work apart from ad busters as well as allow me to continue to exert my design skills in order to create designs that are flush with fidelity and could still exist within professional grade fashion and lifestyle magazines.
A change in the slogans as well as a larger focus on the typographic elements could see the introduction of slogans such as:
This typeface is only £49, why pay £699 for this?
The visual language of typeface advertisments is prevelent, and can be found quickly on website like behance for research.
A secondary concept could be focussing in more on the idea of masculine and feminine, this has been explored in little detail previously in my first round of experimentation for my faux fashion adverts. The copy writing systems and slogans used previously could be utilised here, the standard looking fashion typefaces used could also be used to help represent femininity, and a bolder, sans serif font could represent masculinity. I could include elements of subversion by having people recognise those stereotypical aspects of the adverts first, then allowing the message the text itself says to say something unexpected and therefore, allow subversion to occur.
I think my second concept has more potential, the first idea would be more specialise, for example if I were to be aiming my designs at those within the design community, the general public may find it harder to recognise the visual language that is associated with typeface advertisements, and thus would spoil the reveal aspect if the more emotional side of viewers brains do not recognise the ads before they are able to read what the text says and examine the advertisement in full.
Moving further into the second concept, the stereotypical ideas of masculinity and femininity in design are very well researched and extremely well replicable. This concept could be toyed with from a design perspective while remaining in the context of fashion, in general the more branded and often feminine a product is, the more expensive that product will be. The concept could be creating two adverts, both for the same product but having the more branded alternative be marked up at a much higher price, this rather implicitly deals with the issue at hand. Without literally having to say “this typeface makes the product expensive” I would still be able to translate this idea to the viewer, and still have a reveal aspect. Hopefully the viewer would recognise the product in both adverts and they’re own reactions to the pricing of it when scrolling through the magazine would make my concept and the designs a successful critical outcome.
Moving forward, I have pushed my faux fashion ad creation forward by first noting down some of the more extreme examples of fashion products and then, theorising my own, more extreme products that could be advertised falsely alongside the real examples.
My research mainly sat with the companies Balenciaga and Gucci, as they were identified early in my research for their easily replicated logo marques and general visual identity, their products appear to generally combine two concepts together in order to make one, high fashion product. Such as combining a high heel with a scrunchie, or a watch with a weighing scale.
These examples are very extreme and would have to be seen to be believed even though they are currently being sold for £1000+. This makes the conceptualisation of products more difficult, but should make their construction and fidelity stronger, as the audience that would be looking through my faux fashion magazine would already be accustomed to concepts like door hinge heel and platform crocs, the problem is that, when I attempt to make these un-sellable products that no one would believe exist, they do exist and are already being sold!
A Typeface You Trust
While I am encountering issue with the product side of the project, my emphasis on the typeface that is selling the products is growing, the idea that the consumers are buying the typeface over the product could be an interesting way to execute my ideas, a more typographical approach would allow me to side step lots of the problems that are occurring with the visuals, as well as streamline the production time of my outcomes, allowing me to spend more time developing my core message over creating flashy faux fashion visuals. There are already many stock image available of products, these high quality images are perfect for manipulation and further, typographic expression this avoids the issue of having to capture photos myself without access to a photography studio, which I think should give my ads the fidelity needed to be functional.
My experimentational outcomes are below.
I think my more typographic approach has raised interesting points. Firstly, the generic looking product was originally thought to be a problem, however the fact that the image is so generic carries a message within it, that it doesn’t matter what the product looks like, what people want is the typeface, the brand that they know to sell this generic looking product, often with a higher mark-up price due to the brands reputation. The slogans used here help to support that message and I think that my theory devised in previous blog entries is being executed well here, these ads could easily belong within a high quality fashion magazine, with typographic systems assisting to build up the fidelity further. The typographic systems and the slogans themselves are powerful, they subvert the message of the ads that these examples would be surrounded by and I think that this has the basis for a successful critical design campaign. The slogans are good, but they could be developed further and due to the fact they can be easily changed and executed I am able to come up with a larger number of slogans, and then find stock imagery to fit the best slogans that I am able to come up, Further slogans are listed below.
CONTINUE IGNORING THE PROBLEM!
Bliss Ignorance! Now in Red
TRUST YOUR BRAIN! we’ve manipulated that part…
GAIN (VERY) TEMPORARY HAPPINESS NOW!
This is for Men, so has manly text
Context
I think that context is an important factor here, the adverts need to be executed in the a way so that they will deliver maximum impact according to the theory I have researched. A faux fashion magazine is a solid way of doing this, but is also perhaps quite linear, and therefor would benefit from some further brainstorming, if I am going to print my designs, could it be improved by considering the wide range of binding and printing techniques available in order to put greater emphasis on the message I am hoping to convey.
Using already existing format concepts within fashion magazine as inspiration I could create my ad and have the subverted message on a hidden third page on the spread, this would make the reveal more physical rather than mental, however I think this might actually make my work too linear, this would require me to make two ads, one with regular messages and another with the subverted message, this would disrupt the multi-layered approach and as a result would perhaps lower the sophistication and intelligence input into the designs. The alternative context concept would be to create a larger scale poster style advertisement with wither tear able or foldable tip ins that would have the ability to reveal different kinds of information at the viewers will, but still allow me to have complete control over what the viewer would see upon initial viewing of the advertisement. This examples could still exist within a fashion magazine, but would stand out more when placed within a magazine due to its added thickness and paper weight, this would spoil the fidelity slightly as when the user would be turning the pages, they would immediately detect that there is something wrong with this particular spread, and so perhaps bringing too much attention to it, raising caution and slightly spoiling the revealing aspect of the typographic elements after the initial manipulation has occurred.
Moving forward with the project I think I should continue considering context as an important part of my outcomes, existence within an already functioning magazine appears to be vital, however I am still considering what I can do that the pages that I have created in order to give the reveal a greater impact and ultimately, make my outcome more effectively critical.
Critical Design asks a designer to change from their usual route, rather than creative problem solving, critical design asks me to delve into events throughout the world and find the problems that exist within. From my introduction lecture I have extracted that critical design tends to exist in the bastardisation of the affirmative, effectively finding problems and bringing attention to them through the ability to take language and preconceptions made by the human mind, and then implementing subversion to create a new and attention bringing message.
Critical design has been executed throughout history and is often done without realisation by the creator/author. This makes interesting prompts for research, as I should be able to extract meaning out of projects and designs that were not built for the purpose I will be researching within.
Inital Research
Initially I think this project would benefit from taking my research from my dissertation, my dissertation is a large and well researched document that discusses the transgression of propaganda as well as having a focus on the emotional manipulation and preconception that occurs within advertising on a daily basis. I find that people will often buy products that “feel right” and this is the main reason for brand loyalty, through my dissertation research I discovered that this is not due to effective and well made products, but instead subtle psychological manipulation by the creators of the products themselves, they will attack the viewer at the areas of their brain responsible for emotional responses and due to the lack of audible communication, their bodies are literally feeling wrong when they do not agree with the advertisement in front of them.
A video can be found here that discusses this phenomenon in further detail: (Start with Why video).
This is extremely interesting and contemporary from a graphic communication perspective, the minds association with certain typefaces/visuals will take focus away from the actual product themselves, this would be an interesting thing to subvert for my criticality project, seeing if I can potentially persuade people to do something or have people minds engage with the material I create simply due to their minds association with the material put in front of them.
Further research into different industries finds that high end fashion is a good example of this. The branding and language used across the vast majority of companies is concerningly similar (Examples Below of several ‘different’ companies logos)
The similarities do not end with the typeface and marque choice, after research into the magazines themselves, the heavy visual approach often uses a very similar structure, with some examples below.
This structure of hero image accompanied by smaller, similar images with a neutral background is common and thus easily replicated, alongside the very small variation in typeface makes, in my opinion a perfect opportunity of critical design and bastardisation.
After a (very short) browse on adobe fonts, even this early into the project I am able to find typefaces that perfectly reflect the vast majority of the largest companies within the fashion industry, which are shown here.
This can then be quickly turned into my own visual material that allows individuals minds to think of high fashion, until the message is actually read.
This effect would only be greatly increased once the material created is created with a greater sophistication and especially once fidelity is incorporated into the fashion adverts themselves, using supported visuals that could be made myself, allowing me to exert my graphic design skills to create a piece of critical design.
Critical Adverts
As my topic of interest at this stage exists within an advertisement space, and my interest also lies within bastardising the affirmative, I would benefit massively from some research into what already exists within this area.
Satirical advert creating photography Jack Daly’s works appear to exist in a similar space to where I want mine to exist, the subversion of already existing visual language, this being a call back to 1980s advertisements the actual material is looking dated on purpose in order to increase the level of fidelity found here. The adverts seem almost light hearted and thus I think it makes the message behind the slogans and imagery just that much more powerful. I think this is where the most powerful and successful subversion will occur.
I think the fidelity is a key factor here, if the audience and their emotional responses in their minds do not jump to the 1980s before they even have the chance to read the messages on the poster, then the poster will have failed at its purpose. I think I will have the best chance at achieving this myself in the experimentation phase by exploring the fashion industry, given my previous research as well as the easy replicability of the material due to a lack of variance.
However, I do not think I will create my final outcomes on the fashion industry, I do believe I need to find an issue that I am more passionate about, and then expressing that issue through critical design, My explorations in fashion are simply allowing me to explore and confirm my theory of how to create the advertisements that I hope to make, if this turns out to be true then I should then hold the ability to make ads for a large variety of issues in a short amount of time.
A point for thought is that I do not need to only attempt to trigger peoples emotional preconceptions only through the material, it could be possible to do this through my context, for instance if I were to use a certain paper stock, or present my work in a certain document style, then the actual holding of the document or device could take my audience to a desired place, before they are able to access the full information and have the truths revealed before them.
Moving forward I think I should explore further into creating examples of this within the fashion industry, but I should also, in the background, comb for better personally suited topics and issues that I can use my research for.
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