Advertising - Lecture Notes

Is advertising prostitution?

It is considered:

• A capitalist tool used to change value in society
• Influential in changing our opinions of what we need and want

There is no short term effect specific to a single product, but it changes the way we think over a long period of time. 

Advertising can often be sexist by using people as cultural stereotypes of their gender.

An example of 1950s illustration shows women being portrayed as the less intelligent gender. 

A more modern piece shows women as a weaker gender and how peoples opinions of what women shouldn’t do pushes them down in society. 

Does sex sell?

Advertisements are often over sexualised to grab the attention of a certain audience and provide unrealistic aspirations for consumers. 

Others provide a humorous approach to this advertising mechanism. 

Pros to advertising

It drives global economies

It drives creativity 

• 1st wave - creating utopia
• 2nd wave - persuasive communication to fulfil dreams

Advertising and art feed each others development - advertising in itself is a powerful art form. Here is a very literal example of advertising taking inspiration from Dali's 'The Persistence of Memory.' 

It shapes popular culture by playing on trends and creating new ones.  

It provides entertainment.

It provides enlightenment and inspiration. This advert draws attention to a detail which makes you realise that priorities are totally wrong.

It reflects values, hopes and dreams. 

Challenges you to do something and makes you think you are capable of doing things you never thought you could.

Questions social norms and attitudes and pushes boundaries to get a message across. 

Raises social awareness, for example this piece highlights the issue of testing cosmetic products on animals. 

I did not attend this lecture due to a clash in my timetable, however, looking through the slides I am trying to understand what the lecture was about. In light of looking at this, I can see that there are many advantages to advertising as it has the power to change public perception and raise awareness of important topics. However, advertising does become more of a controversial topic when it uses selling techniques that could be considered inappropriate or offensive. I agree that a lot of adverts nowadays are over sexualised which isn't necessary or relevant to the products being advertised but I understand that advertisers need to keep pushing boundaries in society to get their message noticed. 

Chronologies: Communication and Mass Media

Mass media: a means of pubic communication reaching a large audience in a short amount of time either through broadcast media (television and radio), print media (newspapers and pamphlets), or outdoor media (billboards and signs)

Areas to consider in relation to communication: fine art, advertising, capitalist tool, political tool, postmodernism, social conscience. 

Cave paintings - documenting life around them, communicating a message about how they live

Giotto di Bondone, c. 1305

People were largely illiterate so this was a method of communicating the bible stories. Elements of visual literacy are clear, for example, good people have halos. 

William Addison Dwiggins coined the term ‘Graphic Design’, pointing out that it is a designer’s duty to clearly present a message. Important statements must be clear and minor posts still not overlooked. ‘This calls for an exercise of common sense and a faculty for analysis rather than for art.’

‘Whatever the information transmitted, it must, ethically and culturally, reflect its responsibility to society.’ - Josef Muller-Brockman

Is the graphic design discipline being held back by preconceptions of ‘publicity’ and ‘promotion’ and is this damaging and undermining the self image of a graphic designer?

'Advertising is hypnotically invasive. Graphic design makes no such claim.’ - Heller, 1995

We must question where the line is drawn between fine art and advertising or if there is even a line at all. 

Toulouse-Lautrec - early advertising

Is this advertising? Is it visually communicating anything or is it a fine art piece with the addition of text? Would the image alone contain enough information to communicate by itself?

Savile Lumley (British war propaganda) - traditional approach reflecting the life of British families. Subtle patterns used to representing royalty and british heritage hinting that you should be proud to be representing your country in the Great War. 

Julius Gipkens (German war propaganda) - abstract and new. Although Hitler was very tradition in his taste in art, these posters represent a change and a new era. 

Bauhaus movement was influential on Graphic design but Hitler shut it down because he wanted a traditional art for the Reich. 

Post war period: consuming products, rebuilding communities and societies, Festival of Britain, development of popular culture. 

Paul Rand, advert for Jacqueline Cochran, 1946

Layout, minimalism, interesting placing of type, negative space. 

Ken Garland, First Things First Manifesto, 1964

Do something ethical and worthwhile with your skill and imagination in visual communication. People have ‘flogged their skill’ to sell mundane products when it could be used in ‘other media through which we promote our trade, our education out culture and our greater awareness of the world.’ 

Hipgnosis, 10CC, Deceptive Bends sleeve design, 1977

Indulgent image to fit with indulgent music. 

Jamie Ried, Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks, Sleeve design, 1977

Direct and to the point, this was a shock to society. This shows how society has moved on to nowadays because this language is used more commonly. 

David Carson, Ray Gun, double page spread

Pushing boundaries of layout and type.

Mark Farrow, Spiritualized, Ladies and Gentlemen we are floating in space, CD packaging, 1997

CDs were stored in pill-like packages. If opened, they decreased in value, does this make it a piece of fine art if it is not being used for its proposed purpose?

By having an exhibition of communicative work, who are you communicating to? Are people visiting your exhibition to be spoken to or are they there to admire the craft and thought behind the imagery? Does this kind of work belong in a gallery or in the outside world where it can speak to people and affect them?

Illustration Lecture Notes

Pictures at work / Illustration in action / Emotional experience in image

What is illustration?

• ‘illumination’ shining light on something and making it clear
• It is not illustration unless it has a function and meaning/message

Aesthetics can communicate as well as content (the aesthetic of the media and the way it has been applied) For example, Jillian Tamaki has used her media very sensitively, emphasising the fragility of these creatures as she tackles the issue of trafficking animals for a piece in the National Geographic magazine. 

A bolder approach to image making has been used for these signs by Lance Wyman for the US National Zoo Washington, they are direct and to the point. 

'Strategic image making, used within the context of visual communication to convey meaning or concept.’

Illustration is a result of the overlap of context, image and concept. 

Illustration communicates with a specific tone of voice. 

Malika Favre for Vogue Japan 

Elegant, glamorous, sexy, sleek - things that readers of Vogue aspire to be like. 

Mouk by Marc Boutevant

Charming, playful and colourful appealing to children and imaginative minds. 

Michael Gillette for Penguin Books / James Bond

Nostalgic and contemporary, they echo imagery from the 60s and 70s - the time period where the James Bond movies were begin released.

Drew Millward for Gallows

Intense, insane, busy, energetic and anarchic - fitting in with the genre of the band. 

Illustration can communicate an explicit message whilst also conveying subtle and abstract ideas through visual aesthetic and functional visual symbols. 

Illustration is a job

BUT… don’t wait to be hired or commissioned, collaborate with others, start projects and produce your own work. Illustration has never been so exciting. 

Illustration can communicate an idea or notion like no other medium…

Functional

Message

Emotional impact

John O’Reilly QUOTE

John O'Reilly - Varoom, Autumn 2014

Illustrators are the people filling in the gaps, they are producing something that never previously existed. They create.