the fourth of its kind this looking closer, I found the looking closers to be very insightful as it covered a lot of subject areas and it was mostly short and to the point essays or articles that packed a lot of information and different approaches to things. The first two volumes of looking closer measured the two important phenomena: the key concerns of the graphic design field, professional and social and the level of intelligence evidenced through critical writing from the mid eighties and mid nineties. the third volume focused on classic writings showing where the event floodgates of critical writings were opened (for example Ken Garland Fist things First). Looking closer 4 which is described as surveying the development of our critical vocabulary since 1997.
First Things First Manifesto 2000
this is a reissue of the original by Ken Garland in 1964 which aims to continue the same message that visual communicators but there skills to good use. with the explosive growth of global commercial culture, there message has only became more urgent. they renewed it in hope that no more decades will pass before it is taken to heart.
"Designers then apply their skill and imagination to sell doh biscuits, designer coffee, diamonds, detergents, hair gel, cigarettes, credit cards, sneakers, butt toners, light beer, and heavy-duty recreational vehicles, commercial work has always payed the bills, but many graphic designers have now let it become, in large measure what graphic designers do. This in turn is how perceives design. the profession's time and energy are used up manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best"
"Designers who devote there efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand developmental supporting and implicitly endorsing, a mental environment so saturated with commercial messages that is is changing the way citizen consumers speak, think, feel, respond, and interact."
........."There are pursuits more worthy of our problem solving skills. unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand our attention."
"it is no exaggeration to say that designers are engaged in nothing less than the manufacture of contemporary reality"
"it is design that helps direct how we perceive it and how it makes us feel. the brand misters and marketing gurus know this all to well"
First Things First: Now More Than Ever
By Matt Soar
Alex Callinicos has recently described those of us who work in design and advertising as "the children of Marx and Coca-Cola." the phrase borrowed from JeanLuc Godard, reflects a belief that as a cultural group, graphic designers and art directors and copywriters have sensibilities formed by or inflected with, the radical politics of the 1960s. Callinicos argues that now, for them 'resistance' is reduced to the knowing of consumption of goods.
"At the very least, designers should perhaps work to address their many audiences as citizens rather than mere consumers"
Can Designers Save the World?
and Should They Try To?
By Nico Macdonald
"there are many areas in life in which designers can make a real difference"
"this self consciousness among designers mirrors the increasing depoliticalization of society"
"A sense of impotence, as a result of the lack of apparent forces for change in a society"
.........."Ethical design in some sense is a response to a sense of political powerlessness; as a designer we are urged to get off a fence and act.
Alex Cameron, Becoming designers, June 2000
Role of designers helping companies push more products on us "by manufacturing demand for things that are inessential at best"
I came across this quote in the first looking closer and it was being referenced and backed up in this article by Nico Macdonald as well as linking it to other works further proving the approach.
The affects of brands on consumers "Takes away their self respect"
Neville Brody Superhuamism conference 2001
"Advertising and branding which is claimed are co-opting and remaking our culture and blurring the distinction between public and private"
This point is also backed up by Naomi Klein in her book No Logo, 1999
"At macro level considerable concern has been excised about the environment and sustainability and the roe of design can play in creating products that are environmentally friendly and in discouraging waste"
" the disconnection between holding a viewpoint and acting upon it, means that most politics in designland are simply posturing ideas that have to be tested and justified in the real world.
Moves on to talk about global warming (climate change) and the debate on it, how it is unsettled and what designers should do about it.
"the obligatory use of dramatic facts and stats about the environment that are out of context and without any reference is just the most insulting aspect of views that have no coherent foundation."
......"Design might be used to address global warning if it really is a problem"
I agree and disagree with this quote because i do believe bombarding people with dramatic facts about the decline of the planet doesn't do anything as it is too much to take in a once it needs to be delivered to people in a more more personal way and in parts of how they can make a difference, start off small. this quote also speaks badly of climate change saying "if it really is a problem", I can only assume this is because of the time is was written in is was a lot more up in the air and we had less solid facts and stats about the grave dangers of the change of our climate caused by by our consumption.
Michael Bierut commented in a critique of First things first in ID Magazine in spring 2000
"Its vision of consumer capitalism is a static one; human beings have little to no critical facilities. they embrace the products of disney, calvin klein and phillip morris not because the products have intrinsic but because designer pupetmasters have hypnotised them with things like typefaces and colours."
"In an odd way ethical design movement over and under estimates the power of design. It over estimates the power of design and advertising to influence people (most of whom can deconstruct an ad more effectively than their grandparents could take apart a ford engine). but in concentrating on its message rather than the best way to get it across, it doesn't treat the craft of design seriously enough"
Alex Cameron notes
that in this low view of humanity "on the one hand people are sheep who follow what they are shown, and on the other hand not intelligent enough to warrant someone who concentrates his skills and effort in the process of effectively getting ideas across"
"As designers we can indeed make a difference to the world by building on what we know how to do already"
"take users (consumers) seriously and not impose our perceptions, values or prejudices on them, and treat them as robust individuals needing effective and satisfying design soloutions."
......"We should use our intelligence as designers so that people can use there's"
Malcom Garret speaking at SuperHumanism
Sustainable Consumerism
By Chris Riley
This essay talks of the modern generation and how they tackle and see consumerism, riley talks how this our generation are more aware and can take apart adds very easily like in the earlier quote relating to taking apart a ford engine for our elders. This generation is the age of information and it can be collected and put out very easily, so it is harder for brands to keep this clean image if there is bad things going into the process of the product.
Also talks of a new way to consume for our generation were we purchase things that actually satisfy us and are long lasting and that the brands are honest and genuine and say this through there branding.
By Chris Riley
This essay talks of the modern generation and how they tackle and see consumerism, riley talks how this our generation are more aware and can take apart adds very easily like in the earlier quote relating to taking apart a ford engine for our elders. This generation is the age of information and it can be collected and put out very easily, so it is harder for brands to keep this clean image if there is bad things going into the process of the product.
Also talks of a new way to consume for our generation were we purchase things that actually satisfy us and are long lasting and that the brands are honest and genuine and say this through there branding.
Could link to brexit how there is a massive divide in young voters voting to remain because they can take apart the ads like the one where it was saying the NHS is costing an astronomical amount each week. younger people can de code these advertisements and know it a load of shite. whereas the older generation see it and take it as fact because its on a billboard or the side of a car.
"I Think of brands as business ideas that have achieved cultural influence. Big brands influence culture in a big way, small brands in a small way."
"information technology had stimulated the creation of a culture of knowledge and it is sweeping the world. In the culture of knowledge everything seems knowable, but also everyone wants to know. From the vicarious experience of survival to a basic understanding of the capitalist system and its attendant marketing habits, people feel smart and informed. And guess what? They are."
"The world of marketing and the world of brands have been rocked by these changes. Nothing seems to work quite as it did. Which brings me to that idea of "cultural influence. It turns out that the degree to which business engaged with their public creating relationships that either sustained, evolved or eroded value, was linked less to their ability to create valuable relationships."
"In the culture of knowledge the consumer knows. And is rebelling"
This is Riley talking to a Japanese hip hop producer about he idea of being modern he was 26 and Riley was 42, firstly discussed Ian Anderson and the design republic. Riley asked the question of how he perceived the idea of the modern and where he saw culture evolving ?
"to a more mental place.....produts have narratives as well as benefits, we know everything about these products. The whole story.
Then Riley says
"From the vantage point of someone being born in 1975, business had to engage with the whole truth of consumerism. That involved two important and related realities: firstly, that non sustainable consumption would destroy everything we have and could have, and secondly that the consumer experience was deeper and richer than is ever acknowledged by mainstream marketing."
"Brands can no longer survive on a diet of artificial benefit creation or the assumption that somehow we are dysfunctional and need to be fixed ....... Nearly every branding tactic of the past will fail in the future, because the nature of transaction between consumers and business has moved on"
"The cultural role of brands is to respond to the spirit of the times"
They have a different narrative than previous generations of consumers. Their narrative embraces their position within a complex and interlinked world.
"they are rethinking the way they consume, rather than becoming trapped within the manufactures aspirations of the mass market, they are seeking to create experiences that connect them in a meaningful way to ideas and ideals that are worth something."
This next point is about the outlook of the younger generation how they are different to earlier generations
"they are individuals existing in complex cultural systems. they have transcended vague notions of monocultural national values and the politics of supremacy. they do not trust us. Their version of leadership is not command and control, it is not JFK, Churcill, Thatcher or Reagan. If Clintons presidency taught us anything, it was surely this: leadership is about acknowledging uncertainty rather than manufacturing certainty. we are all flawed and it is how we respond to that fact that defines our future. This sensibility is endemic among new consumers. The Gluetrain Manifesto reflected this as its authors indicated a way forward: Markets are conversations. Absolutely and so are brands, the question is what do we want to talk about ?
Everything"
the youth no longer accept cultural autism of corporate brands, they want a conversation about where we are together. what we are doing and how we can do it better, they want to enjoy the benefits of a healthy economy without the guilt of screwing everyone else over.
"The Sustainability question is intrinsic to the identity question. In a culture that has rejected exploitation, has confronted inequality, and striving for a utopian ideal of life, liberty and happiness, sustainability has a huge cultural value...It is about keeping what we have not loosing it."
"when you talk to new consumers, the idea of impact, or the idea of sustainability, is right at the forefront of their minds. It is in a lock step with a variety of other humanitarian issues"
"The trick is always, as we know for the brand to influence the idea of the group to which people aspire....buying stuff because it satisfies desire is okay. In fact its rather pleasing."
Desire is a basic human human truth. we want as well as we need, the experience of desire is nice!.....In my view the crisis of consumerism is not that it creates desire, but that it fails to satiate. Most critiques of consumerism and the ad industry it created seem to focus on how bad creating desire is rather than asking if we can create desire fo well, something else"
The pushot of this is that 'sustainability' has become their issue. the new consumer owns the new consumption, and their values will dictate which brands succeed and how. There is no barrier being put up by the consumer to the idea of sustainable consumption.
Comment by Clive Whitcher who overseas strategic planning for Saatchi & Saatchi on their Toyota Business
"I Think of brands as business ideas that have achieved cultural influence. Big brands influence culture in a big way, small brands in a small way."
"information technology had stimulated the creation of a culture of knowledge and it is sweeping the world. In the culture of knowledge everything seems knowable, but also everyone wants to know. From the vicarious experience of survival to a basic understanding of the capitalist system and its attendant marketing habits, people feel smart and informed. And guess what? They are."
"The world of marketing and the world of brands have been rocked by these changes. Nothing seems to work quite as it did. Which brings me to that idea of "cultural influence. It turns out that the degree to which business engaged with their public creating relationships that either sustained, evolved or eroded value, was linked less to their ability to create valuable relationships."
"In the culture of knowledge the consumer knows. And is rebelling"
This is Riley talking to a Japanese hip hop producer about he idea of being modern he was 26 and Riley was 42, firstly discussed Ian Anderson and the design republic. Riley asked the question of how he perceived the idea of the modern and where he saw culture evolving ?
"to a more mental place.....produts have narratives as well as benefits, we know everything about these products. The whole story.
Then Riley says
"From the vantage point of someone being born in 1975, business had to engage with the whole truth of consumerism. That involved two important and related realities: firstly, that non sustainable consumption would destroy everything we have and could have, and secondly that the consumer experience was deeper and richer than is ever acknowledged by mainstream marketing."
"Brands can no longer survive on a diet of artificial benefit creation or the assumption that somehow we are dysfunctional and need to be fixed ....... Nearly every branding tactic of the past will fail in the future, because the nature of transaction between consumers and business has moved on"
"The cultural role of brands is to respond to the spirit of the times"
They have a different narrative than previous generations of consumers. Their narrative embraces their position within a complex and interlinked world.
"they are rethinking the way they consume, rather than becoming trapped within the manufactures aspirations of the mass market, they are seeking to create experiences that connect them in a meaningful way to ideas and ideals that are worth something."
This next point is about the outlook of the younger generation how they are different to earlier generations
"they are individuals existing in complex cultural systems. they have transcended vague notions of monocultural national values and the politics of supremacy. they do not trust us. Their version of leadership is not command and control, it is not JFK, Churcill, Thatcher or Reagan. If Clintons presidency taught us anything, it was surely this: leadership is about acknowledging uncertainty rather than manufacturing certainty. we are all flawed and it is how we respond to that fact that defines our future. This sensibility is endemic among new consumers. The Gluetrain Manifesto reflected this as its authors indicated a way forward: Markets are conversations. Absolutely and so are brands, the question is what do we want to talk about ?
Everything"
the youth no longer accept cultural autism of corporate brands, they want a conversation about where we are together. what we are doing and how we can do it better, they want to enjoy the benefits of a healthy economy without the guilt of screwing everyone else over.
"The Sustainability question is intrinsic to the identity question. In a culture that has rejected exploitation, has confronted inequality, and striving for a utopian ideal of life, liberty and happiness, sustainability has a huge cultural value...It is about keeping what we have not loosing it."
"when you talk to new consumers, the idea of impact, or the idea of sustainability, is right at the forefront of their minds. It is in a lock step with a variety of other humanitarian issues"
"The trick is always, as we know for the brand to influence the idea of the group to which people aspire....buying stuff because it satisfies desire is okay. In fact its rather pleasing."
Desire is a basic human human truth. we want as well as we need, the experience of desire is nice!.....In my view the crisis of consumerism is not that it creates desire, but that it fails to satiate. Most critiques of consumerism and the ad industry it created seem to focus on how bad creating desire is rather than asking if we can create desire fo well, something else"
The pushot of this is that 'sustainability' has become their issue. the new consumer owns the new consumption, and their values will dictate which brands succeed and how. There is no barrier being put up by the consumer to the idea of sustainable consumption.
Comment by Clive Whitcher who overseas strategic planning for Saatchi & Saatchi on their Toyota Business
"Sustainability is just that: It is about sustaining, providing nourishment, keeping going. Brand owners who nourish their consumers with meaningful ideas and representation designers who take a similar approach and help their clients keep going, will recognise that consumerism is, like everything else in our world, about evolution.
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