Resolving the brief

"How do consumers relate with Communication Design/Graphic Design within Visual Merchandising?"


"How can communication design through visual merchandising influence consumers in a rush?"

Fits under 'SOCIETY' and is part of the Graphic Discipline 'PUBLIC AWARENESS'.. However, I assume this research brief will overlap realms of Type/Advertising and even Branding under the unofficial category of 'Visual Merchandising'


-Conceptual merit and Justification
-Ascetics and what is created (e.g.: Editorial/ Ad campaign/ Window Display)
-Where/Who/Why? How will individuals 'read' communication design in this genre?
-'Fashion Story' is essentially a Graphic Design concept
-How does Form Follows Function relate to Visual Merchandising?
-Is there an overlap between textiles and digitally rendered print? Isn't Visual Merchandising tangible Graphic Design?

Books:

'An introduction to Information Design'
'Visual Research as an Introduction to research within Graphic Design'


Audience:

Who am I targeting? Am I putting myself in the position of Hermes/YSL/Bergdorf Goodmans and adapting to their target audience to relate to my personal future goals? "Client needs or requirements should outline any specific requirements"

Work this out by creating 3x A3 Customer Profiles

Is it viable?:

What is there to study (ontology)?
How do we know about it (epistemology)?
How do we study it (mythology)?
Design problems- How is this resolvable?

Produce 1xA3 Design Board "Defining the Brief"

http://www.creativebrief.com/agency/feed/22711#case-studies-list

Initial Ideas of Research

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OUGD501: Parody & Pastiche

Fredric Jameson - Postmodernism. p16-19:

Jameson discusses Postmodernism as a modernist code. He explains how a Pastiche is the favourable and evolved version of a 'blank parody', not simply copying a piece of work or concept one for one- yet breaking down the structure of a piece of work, informing a new piece (almost acting as a homage). 
Idiosyncratic - Unusual or individual
Stupendous Proliferation - Amazing Increase

He explains how "the producers of culture have nowhere to turn but to the past: the imitation of dead styles, speech through all the masks and voices stored up in the imaginary museum of a new global culture."

Parody = "Pastiche is without Parodies ulterior motive", it challenges the establishment

Pastiche= "Speech is a dead language". The original is 'dead', by taking the piece out of its historical context it absorbs the iconography into a modern capitalist culture and even communicative design. Jameson says a Pastiche is about extracting signs from their original place in time- and ultimately their meaning.

Linda Hutcheon - p179-186:

Hutcheon's says despite not mentioning the word "pastiche" throughout her academic text... She criticises Jameson by... She is saying a parody is not pointless humour, yet is intact a response to modernism. "Parody finds itself without dedication, replaced by prestige".
'It takes the form of self-conscious, self contradictory, self undermining statement.''
'Ironic re-readigng of the past'
Parody-Repetition with critical difference
Parody + Pastiche are the same

What is it about ?
Pastiche- 'Pastiche is like a parody, the imitation of a peculiar unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language.'
Parody - ' Ulterior motives' Comedic viewpoint
He like to challenge
Extracting signs from their originated place in time... and ultimately their meaning
Example - Postmodern architecture

I am in agreement with Linda Hutcheon that Pastiche and Parody is important and does look at the past. I disagree that Jameson rejects it and says that it is wrong.

Fredrick Jameson has a strong opinion on parody and pastiche stating that 'Pastiche is like a parody, the imitation of a peculiar unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language.'(Jameson) he likes to challenge capitalists with his views. a good example of pastiche resonantly is the Netflix show stranger things that became very popular due to its title sequence which brought a sense of nostalgia from the 1980s. Contradicting Jameson is Linda Hutcheon who thinks that he is narrow-minded for thinking that pastiche is a bad thing on the past. She says that parody and pastiche are the same and thinks that parody is positive as it is a 'Ironic re-reading of the past' (Hutcheon) a good example of this is stranger and stranger product designers which take influence from victorian culture and let us see what packaging and production was like from the past.

COP Session 01

Jacques Rancière: 'The Flipped Classroom'

      French theorist Rancière's views on education are as ever thought provoking now as they were in 1968. The idea of no hierarchy, no 'old wise one' and emancipated learning isn't necessarily addressed too in modern day, mainstream educational environments yet lives through the lives of some. 
People have always been split into two categories, Theory X and Theory Y. 
      Douglas McGregor's motivational theory says 'theory X' workers/students don't enjoy learning or taking on any kind of responsibility. This 'category' of people needs supervision and incentives to work, and will do very little independently. However, when looking at Rancière's 'flipped classroom' theory, this would only necessarily work with theory Y students who actively take control of their own education, and have the motivation to overturn the social norms of tutor-lead learning. 

As the French culture became more volatile with civil unrest throughout the 1960's, counter cultures started emerging and the birth of the 'free love' movement was born. The acceptance of new forms of social interaction, alongside youth subcultures lead to the traditional gender and social roles being slowly broken down, a process still occurring to this day. Rancière himself was part of the Parisian art school movement in May 1968, advocating a left wing protest. Average workers were rebelling and their messages of change were perpetuated by the visual communication of art students, produced in the print rooms of Les Beaux-Arts. The Parisian students acted as activists to build a revolutionary new world, one that sadly did not fully take full shape. Rancière's idea that education is demeaning and overly-confirmative isn't overtly far from the truth, yet one can argue by having one elected specialist, in full possession of correct factual knowledge, this would guide the additional cohort to a more refined outcome of learning. By adapting the theory of having no teacher, yet realising the value of 'traditionally taught' education, one is free to explore their own practice and take full control of their own learning, with the asked guidance of a 'specialist'. Rancière felt that teachers were only interested in creating specialists, one person assigned to be the best in every job (within societal limitations), a structure the revolutionists tried to break down.

Despite todays educational system still containing a set hierarchy, it is interesting to further break down why that is. Taking on Louis Althusser's ideology that anyone can learn anything, after being exiled from Paris to Flemish speaking Netherlands in the late 18th century, his students were forced into being Theory Y learners by Althessue simply giving them Télémaque, a translatable 1699 novel to learn independently. This technique surprisingly worked, yet one can question wether it was the mental attitude/motivation at the time of the 1700's, or the leadership of such an 'inspirational' figure.     
     It could even be argued that this simplistic leadership technique is still used today by the premise of dissertations; by giving a self-directed task and topics in which to explore, the student is sent away to figure it out for themselves. We however, are less remarkable than those in the early 18th century as we have the aid of the internet. Due to the ability of accessing any information at our fingertips, the need for a hierarchical tutor structure is less needed as any information one needs, they can simply self-seek.