CONTEXT OF PRACTICE: 2017

DIGITAL CULTURE: PRODUCTION, DISTRIBUTION, FUNCTION AND AUDIENCE

- Research needs to have a purpose
- Expect it to change and develop as you find out more about the topic
- To what extent do technological developments in production and distribution impact design?
- Social media landscape - driven by audience, responding to what people want.

Digital culture is a set of rules, beliefs, opinions, skills and practices shared by regular uses of digital media for production and distribution.
A social phenomenon of online and offline activities, experiments and innovations.
- What functions and devices encourage, enable and extend our ability to develop, communicate and distribute content?
- How do we use them?
- What do we use them for?
- What social, cultural and creative relationships are formed around them?

Principle components of digital culture:
- Participation - formal/informal online affiliations, connections, collaborations, expressions and networks.
- Remediation - new technology/media as a content development remix of older media and the refashioning of old media to meet the demands of new technologies.
- Bricolage - the creation of production through available media, reusing exciting artefacts, remixing, remaking and redistribution through new media distribution.
- Fanzines - self published magazines were a popular feature during the punk era, they strongly demonstrated the use of bricolage.
-Bricolage and social media: a different way of building credibility and authority through followers, likes, comments, fans and retweets - amassing meaning.

"Connected yet alienated - the paradox of our global visual culture" - Skte Jethani.

Thursday, 30 November 2017

OUGD501 - LECTURE 4

Lecture 4: digital culture: production, distribution, function and audience.

“we shape our tools, and then our tools shape us” marshall mcluhan
we must study media in their historical context particularly in relation to those technologies with preceded them.
digital culture - a set of values, beliefs, opinions, skills and practiced shared by default users of digital media for production and distribution.
a social phenomenon of interrelated online and offline activities, experiences and innovations
Participation - formal and informal online affiliations, connections, collaborations, expressions and networks
Remediation - new technology and media as a constant development remix of older media and the refashioning of old media to meet the demands of new technologies
Bricolage - the creation of products through available media, re-using existing artifacts, remixing, remarking and redistributing through new-media distribution
Bricolage and social media : a different way of bildungsroman credibility and authority through followers, likes, comments, fans and retweets
“connected yet alienated - that is the paradox of our global digital culture. we have access to so many things, yet we are increasingly incapable of seeing those things, or ourselves, in any meaningful context” - skye jethani
digital and social media is not about the exploitation of technology but service to community - simon mainwaring
the saddest aspect of life now is that science gathers technology faster than society gathers wisdom - isaac asimov

Thursday, 9 November 2017

OUGD501 - ESSAY STRUCTURE

ESSAY STRUCTURE

- Intro
- Introduce the topic of discussion
- Provide background information
- Limit the scope of discussion
- Define/state the topic or question
- Present the plan of coverage including your line of argument/viewpoint

Triangulation - background, concept, theories

Every paragraph should include one main point

Conclusion: sum up the argument/information with reference to the essay question. Can mention future decisions.

Friday, 27 October 2017

OUGD501 - PARODY AND PASTICHE

PARODY AND PASTICHE

Definitions:
Parody - An imitation of the style of a particular write, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.
Pastiche - An artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.

Within the texts, parody and pastiche are being discussed, linking them to postmodernism.

Jameson's definition of parody and pastiche:
- Jameson states that parody is found without a vocation, that it has lived but pastiche is taking over from parody.
- "Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody's ulterior motives."

Hutcheon's definition:
- Parody has 'introverted formalism' - bringing direct confrontation to the problem of relation of aesthetic to a world of defined meaning.
- Jameson stated that parody came with age - something that causes us to loose connection with the past.
Hutcheon's criticism of Jameson:
- "Jameson argues that is postmodernism 'parody finds itself without a vocation' replaced by pastiche, which he sees as more neutral or blank parody. But looking to both the aesthetic and historical past in postmodernist architecture is anything but what Jameson describes as pastiche, that is, 'the random cannibalisation of all the styles of the past, the plan of random stylistic allusion'. There is absolutely nothing random or 'without principle' in the parodic recall and re-examination of the past by architects like Charles Moore or Ricardo Bofill. To include irony and play is never necessarily to exclude seriousness and purpose in modernist art. To misunderstand this is to misunderstand the nature of much contemporary aesthetic production - even if it does make for neater theorising."

Thursday, 26 October 2017

OUGD501 - STUDY TASK - THE MALE GAZE

STUDY TASK - THE MALE GAZE

- Mulvey. L (1975) Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema:
- psychoanalysis as a feminist weapon
- radical scopophilia emerging from hollywood cinema
(Scopophilia - sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or are engaged in sexual activity.)
-Narcissistic pleasure - cinema
- Active male, passive female
- Roles of men and women
- structures of the gaze and relation with castration threats

Discussion:
P1 -
- How people react when seeing body in film
- Women are made to feel inferior to men as they don't have a Penis...this making men more dominant - leaders.
- Society have made men leader because women don't have a penis, meaning the womans role is to become maternal.
- Psychoanalysis, using it as a means to understand oppression
- Women gain power through the threat of castration.
P2 -
- Males dominate hollywood, despite development which have allowed women to lead
- Alternative cinema make it possible to break away from the male dominance
- The male gaze is still relevant today however...
P3 -
- Scopophilia in cinema - through the pleasure of seeing
- The darkness of cinema giving the impression of spying / watching someone
- Accessibility from a young age, pleasure of seeing develops young. - extremes can develop into paedophilia and peeping toms
- Scopophilia is the joy of watching
P4 -
- Narcissistic pleasure, view yourself as the male protagonist - gain pleasure from that.
- Recognising the human form
- Ego + Narcissistic pleasure
- Everybody wants to better themselves - obsessed with the ideal version we can be
- Identifying the dominant male character
P5 -
- Women are displayed in two forms = erotic and as an object
- The male role as spectator and female role on screen - males are seen in more 3D form whereas females are flat in screen.
- Male spectator feels as though they can relate to male protagonist characters by objectifying females within film
- Men aren't used to / can't handle being sexualised - sexual objectification
P6 -
- In order to boost males ego's, they control female roles within cinema to reduce the threat of castration.
- Whilst women are an object of affection, they also present a threat to males.

Relation to Graphic Design
The male gaze is used within media and advertising today.

Monday, 24 April 2017

End of Module Evaluation

End of Module Evaluation

Over the course of this year I have learned a variety of skills and life lessons from every module, however I would say that Context of Practice has definitely been the most challenging module for me as it was primarily self taught and in order to succeed you had to be extremely self motivated and organised. I have highlighted in my other modules within the course that my organisation was not the best in the first term as the excitement of being a 'Fresher' was distracting and this took a toll on my work. I discovered that I should have perhaps had a different attitude as when it came to Christmas I came to the realisation that I had to produce two essays in two weeks, whilst balancing a job and work from the other modules. By the time second term came around, I had picked up the pace and began to get more organised and tried to focus more on COP due to it being pushed back for months prior to this. Once I actually started to show more attention to the module, I discovered that I actually was interested in the things I was researching and writing about, so this made my involvement within the module easier and I soon caught up with the rest of my peers.

The feedback I received from the first two draft essay submissions was extremely positive and I surprised myself with how well I had written these pieces, this made my confidence in this module shoot up and I instantly wanted to prioritise COP in the future. Writing was never a strong point for me and so initially I found the essays difficult to write, however because I was genuinely interested in my particular research topic it soon became easier to write about them. This being said, my writing could still improve, and my research is one thing that I could definitely broaden next year. This year I have mainly used the internet for my resources. Whilst the internet is a remarkable tool, keeping you updated with the newest trends and designers; using books and magazines are also extremely useful. Considering LCA has a magnificent selection in their Library I have no excuse not to use it next year.

As previously stated, the workload could become difficult to manage at times with the other ongoing modules, I often found myself drowning in work and never knowing where to start. Seeing as we only had COP sessions once a week for a couple of hours, it never seemed to be my highest priority which has backfired towards the end of the year as I found myself rushing to catch up with the work.

The practical side of this module has been challenging, but enjoyable. I loved the freedom we got within it, however at times it left me feeling completely stuck as I didnt know where to begin. After I had come up with my idea, the development process was extremely enjoyable as I was proud of what I was designing and I am very happy how the final outcome turned out.

To conclude, I have found this module extremely challenging and hopefully one that I will interact with more next year. I intend to prioritise it more and have learnt that avoiding it does not make it go away. Also to seek help from either my peers or my tutor if I feel as though I am struggling with ideas as that is something which I have not done this year.

ISSUU Presentation Link

ISSUU Presentation Link

https://issuu.com/bethlyon/docs/issuu

Final Outcome

For my final outcome, I decided to try my designs on various box shapes, similar shapes to the ones which would be used in the manufacture of this product. In order for me to get a good idea as to how this product would look, it is appropriate to put it into context as it also made me consider what other information should be included on the front of the box, and how the sides of the box would need to be designed in order to work well with the original design on the front.
I am extremely proud of how this product has turned out, it has the combination of the physical, hand made element within the design and the typography being digitally applied. The two compliment each other as the contrast between the messier background and the slick text of the logo is strong. The smaller details of the product towards the bottom of the box also adds that extra aesthetic which makes the design look more legitimate and sophisticated.

Development Processes

I decided to go for the second prototype to develop as I loved the colour scheme and the concept behind it; however I have taken some inspiration from the third prototype by using swatches from lipsticks. I used a variety of summer coloured lipsticks and glosses and wiped them across a page with different pressures so that I had a multi-textured background. In order for the textures to be picked up I tried taking photographs of them from several different angles and in different lightings as well. Once I had selected the photos I was going to test, I used photoshop to adjust the brightness and saturation in order for the colours to pop. After asking for feedback from my peers, they said that the first two design prototypes were the best and that those were the ones which I should develop further.
The next stage of development will include experimenting with different compositions and refining them further.

The second stage of development was focusing on the composition of the lipstick swatches. I wanted to achieve a contemporary design and playing around with the composition was crucial in the design process. Firstly I started by using the whole swatch as the background, and using the NARS logo on top, this was too generic for me and it was not one that I wanted to develop. The next two were more playful, experimenting with flipping and mirroring the swatches, the idea behind this was strong, however finding a colour which I could use for the logo text was difficult and the black looked too harsh against the coloured background. My final designs were using half of the swatch and placing them at the top and bottom of the page with the NARS logo on top of the design. The one that received the best feedback was the enlarged image on the left. A piece of constructive criticism that I received was to test the design with the swatches being directly vertical rather than inward facing. This is something I am going to experiment with in the next stage of the development process.

My final development was focusing on two things, the colour used for the ‘Eté’ and the positioning of the image in the background. I tested two positions, one with more of the swatches showing and one slightly less, I asked a few of my peers which design they preferred and they all said that the one which showed more of the swatch was the most effective. The colour choice was slightly harder, as each colour I had tested were all colour swatches from the lipsticks used in the image. Even though all colours worked well, I had to decide on one and I thought that using the darker colour was more sophisticated and fit in best with the whole NARS brand.

Prototype Solutions 1-3

Prototype Solutions 1-3

PROTOTYPE 1:

For my first prototype, I decided to use some blue monoprinted/hand rolled coloured paper and use it as the background for my NARS Packaging.The blue page is a gradient of light and dark blues to represent a ‘blue moon’. Because NARS is a French brand, I decided to go with the name LUNE BLEUE as it is the translation of Blue Moon. Within this collection there will be 3 NARS products; one an eyeshadow called ‘Night Breed’, the second a Matte Eyeshadow called ‘China Blue’ and finally an eyeliner which is named ‘Night Bird’. Considering the names of two of those products were Night themed, I began to brainstorm ideas as to what the collection could be called. I thought of:
- Nuit (Night)
- Jour et Nuit (Day and Night)
- Bleu Nuit (Blue Night)
- Lune Bleue (Blue Moon)

The design is a combination of handmade design and digital design for the typography to keep the consistency within the brand itself.
I was not entirely happy with the outcome of these prototypes, however they did allow me to play with the composition of the wording and which worked best, and the idea behind the design was strong, it was just the design itself which I wanted to refine.
After requesting feedback from my peers, they said that the best composition of the typography was the ‘Lune Bleue’ directly underneath the logo in the centre, I will take this feedback into consideration if I decide to develop this idea.

PROTOTYPE 2:

Within my second prototype, I decided to select an image which I found as part of my research, and it was one of the images which inspired me to do this sort of packaging design. The collection which would be featured in this limited edition packaging would be a selection of three lipsticks which are summery colours named: Belle De Jour, Mayflower and Dolce Vita. The name of the collection will be ‘Eté’ as it is the French translation for Summer. Again I wanted to incorporate a hand made element within the design, alongside the digital aspect for the typography.
If I was to develop this idea, I would attempt my own background using either pink/coral lipsticks or eyeshadows to create the textured cracks and lines on a piece of cartridge paper. My main focus within this design was the composition of the typography, and how I can add another hand made element within the design. The NARS logo is the same as it normally is, however rather than using the same typeface for the ‘Eté’, I decided to hand write it as it flows nicely and looks more feminine than the structured typeface.
I prefer the colours of this design, however it is hard to tell whether it will look as good as this when I have created the background myself, so it is something that I will need to test in order for me to know which prototype I am going to take further.

PROTOTYPE 3:

Finally, for my last prototype I decided to take a slightly different route to the other two designs. This was another image which I found whilst researching for inspiration and it reminded me of an image I had seen on the NARS instagram which had a number of their products smudged across a page. I loved the aesthetic of the strokes and thought it would suit a Spring themed limited edition collection well as it has a very clean, fresh, look. The name of this collection would be ‘Belle De Jour’ and will contain some fresh coloured products within the NARS brand.
In order for me to achieve an outcome similar to this background, I plan on experimenting with both paint, and makeup products themselves. I want to use fresh colours such as light blues, lime greens, yellows and golds.
Out of the three prototypes, this and the second are my favourite and I will have to test both using my own backgrounds to see if I can get them to look as effective.

Idea Generation

Idea Generation

My idea generation consisted of brainstorming a variety of potential design ideas, and using existing graphic design pieces which coudld influence how I approach the task. I also looked into existing rebrands and limited edition collections of makeup brands and how they compare to the original packaging.
My initial idea was to design something which was physically made rather than completely digital, however considering the brand I have chosen, I will have to use a combination of hand made and digital so that the collection piece I create will fit in well with the existing brand.
Focusing on seasons as a theme was one thing that appealed to me the most in my idea generation, I thought that I could create a limited edition collection appropriate for a certain season. The inspiration of this originally came from figure 1. Thinking off suitable names was another thing that inspired my ideas, considering NARS is a French brand, coming up with French-based names for the collection seemed the most appropriate and also suited the aesthetics I was picturing.

Graphic Design Examples

Graphic Design Examples

The initial idea for my packaging design is to incorporate some method of printing, such as Mono print, Screen print or Lino. I also want the design to reflect the makeup which will be included in the ‘Limited Edition’ Set. The general look I am going for is a bright coloured print which relates to makeup but will also draw a consumers attention in by standing out against the rest.

Target Audience

Target Audience

When designing a new packaging design, you have to consider the audience in which it will appeal to. NARS cosmetics has a selected niche target market. In order for me to get a good understanding of the selected target audience, When researching NARS’s audience, I came across a website which anallysed the consumer profiles and their interaction within the brand.

Within my research I found out that NARS Cosmetics demographic include the following: - The audience use the website and magazines the most within the media sector.
- The top interests of the market include Beauty, Fashion and Apparel. Benefit Cosmetics and Urban Decay Cosmetics are the most popular by popularity for the Interests category.
- The general age of the selected target audience is between 18-40. NARS cosmetics have a fairly high price range so the general audience includes women who have an income.
The information was found on http://customer-profile.com/beauty/face-care/make-up-and-cosmetics/nars-cosmetics-customer-profile.html where the full analysis of the company can be seen.
The above images were taken from both the Official NARS Cosmetics Instagram account, and then the tagged NARS photographs which had been posted to the site. As you can see, the images are focussed on women of the selected age group.

Contextual Research

Contextual Research

Technology was the main research focus within this brief, having compared digital based techniques and analogue techniques I decided that for this task I would design hand-made, limited edition packaging for a make-up brand. I wanted to use a brand which had a very minimalistic brand aesthetic normally so that my hand-made design would contrast strongly against it. I looked into the original packaging for Nars Cosmetics as they keep everything monochrome and have just the brand name over all of their products. I thought introducing a hand made element into the packaging could create a wonderful limited edition set. My inspiration originally came from some weather inspires postcards (Figure 5). The names on the cards reminded me of some make-up product names and this is where the idea generated. I then looked into existing limited edition packaging from Nars Cosmetics and how they compare to the original packaging, Generally they keep it fairly minimal, adding a dash of colour or an extra bit of text, however I found one which had a multi-coloured background and stood out amongst the other editions.

My main aim within this task is to design packaging which appeals to Nars’s make-up audience which is generally Females from the ages of 18-30. The design should accurately represent the names of the beauty products which will be included in the limited edition pack.

- Guy Bourdin Limited Edition Packaging.

- NARS Orgasm Limited Edition Packaging.

Francois Nars, gradtuate of the Carita Make-up School in Paris went from being a renowned make-up artist to the owner of his own make-up brand. In 1984, Francois Nars moved to New York where he was working with huge publications and fashion designers. After being scouted by Barneys to create a 12 piece lipstick collection, demand for more of his products allowed him to create his full eponymous line NARS.
One of the most renowned products from his line is the ‘Orgasm’ Blush, the blush that was made to suit everyone. After the success of the original product, he moved on to create a whole line of ‘Orgasm’ products, along with a cheek and lip stick and a lip gloss.
The design of the packaging is extremely slick and minimalistic, the brand is consistent within their design and is always a black matte based package with the ‘NARS’ being the main focal point of the design.

Helvetica Neue Ultra Light is the typeface used for NARS branding. The adjustment of the kerning within the design creates a very abstract and modernistic typeface for the brand.
Helvetica Neue is a reworking of of the original typeface with a more structurally unified set of heights and widths. It is made up of 51 fonts: 9 weights, 3 widths (8, 9 8 in normal, condensed, extended widths respectively) and an outline font based on Helvetica 75 Bold outline.