Process. Thermocromic.

Thermochromism is the property of substances to change color due to a change in temperature. A mood ring is an excellent example of this phenomenon, but thermochromism also has more practical uses, e.g. in baby bottles (changes to a different color when cool enough to drink) or kettles (changes when water is at or near boiling point). Thermochromism is one of several types of chromism.

The two common approaches are based on liquid crystals and leuco dyes. Liquid crystals are used in precision applications, as their responses can be engineered to accurate temperatures, but their color range is limited by their principle of operation. Leuco dyes allow wider range of colors to be used, but their response temperatures are more difficult to set with accuracy.

Examples in Design:

Reflections:

Interesting process which hasn't been fully utilised in design perhaps. I'm interesting in it as a way to express a concept more effectively, for example the top image where a book called 'metamorphosis' does in fact morph. It needs to express something. 

Process. Screen-Print.

Process. Cut-Out & Projection.

Process. Foiling.

Process. UV.

Due to my research theme I am interesting in processes which allow me to play with light and how light can be used to effect in a design, both in concept and aesthetic. UV is definitely an interesting project that I have rarely seen put to use in an effective design solution, it seems to have taken on a kind of rave/party/gimmick persona and I believe it has far more potential as a process. 

How it works:

Ultraviolet (UV) light is part of a family of radiations called the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. UV is just beyond the violet end of visible light and has smaller wavelengths and greater energy.

As with all electromagnetic spectrum radiations, UV travels at the speed of light. Humans cannot see it, but some animals, especially some insects, can see UV light and have body markings that reflect UV light.

LCA Exhibition Poster. Visual Influence.

The Poster as an Individual:

Reflections:

It's interesting to see how people deal with exhibition identity. Exhibitions lie in a unique problem category for branding as I see it. Depending what kind it is they can be hugely free to a designer, a positive and a negative depending on the individual. 

Most of these images look to be digitally printed but we have been given the freedom of any means, only restricted on it's three dimensional form due to the frame it needs to sit within. 

Exhibition Identity:

Typhoon:

Crossover:

Infinity:

It's worth mentioning how the identity of an exhibition is used across the range, including the poster. Although we have not been asked to produce a range we have been asked to consider identity when designing as the project is yet to have a title. 

501. Evaluation.

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

This module has assisted me in developing a greater understanding and appreciation of a number of topics and theories, as well as the ability to take one of these theories through into a visual practice. My ability to find the appropriate literature for a project research has also improved and now I find it much easier to use and utilize the college library.

It has seen a steady increase in my academic writing by increasing the strength and substance of how I put across and discuss topics. Now I write from an increasingly unbiased standpoint whereas I may have been found guilty of this in level 04.    

What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

The practical element of this project has been an interesting one. After I had decided what my concept was to be, finding a practical solution that best expressed that was pivotal to its success. I needed to find the most effective way of expressing two different messages in the same sentence visually. After some thought I found using colour contrast to my advantage allowed me to do so. I gathered influence and decided a fluorescent and black meant I could achieve an almost invisible quality from a distance on chosen pieces of text. Green appeared to give me the best results. These ideas of using process and colour to assist you in guiding the viewer onto elements you want them to first is something I have explore in other aspects of my design practice since, and will continue to do.

On the theory side of the module it has also been beneficial. It’s helped me to view design in a different way with a deeper understanding of responsibility. When we deal with the matter or persuasion, we must be careful of how we achieve it.  

What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these?

I’ve gone into this already in the previous question but to iterate I feel the main strengths in this brief have been to do with the synthesis between theory and practice. Learning how to bridge that gap is becoming vital to progressing my practice into increasingly professional methods. 

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? 

I still struggle in two areas that I plan to correct over the summer period so I am completely prepared to tackle COP 3 head on. In terms of academic writing there is room for improvement. Triangulation needs to be worked on in order to produce a better argument and most importantly a superior grasp of theory in my own practice. Practically I need to have a firmer grasp of my content and a better plan of how the publication will flow.       

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

1.    Give more focus to research to increase my understanding and better inform my practical elements.

2.    Work on triangulation to improve my academic writing.

3.    Spend more time on the structure of writing to present arguments and discussions better.

4.    Define subjects more to focus both research and practice.

5.    Find something I am really passionate about to increase motivation.

Look At Me! Make Your Life Better.

Theory into Practice. Rationale and Development.

Rationale:

I aim to create a publication which explores propaganda advertising in a visual way through its use of language. This is a practical continuation of the research I gathered to write my essay.

Initial Concept Boards:

After some time deliberating how to do this, I came across the notion of using vastly exaggerated phrases to highlight the undertones of propaganda advertising, albeit in a slightly humorous tone. By using colour contrast I am hoping to be able to draw the eye to what I want the viewer to read first. This same technique will also allow me to create the sub-text to be almost illegible from a distance. This is how I plan to display and highlight the suggestive and sometimes hidden nature of advertising, in other words, what they might say if they could come straight out and say it if the outcome worked and would sell the product.

Into Practice. The Democratic Lecture Book as Visual Influence.

I recently purchased The Democratic Lecture book by Craig Oldham and it proved a great influence for this project. Not in terms of its content this time, but for how he solved the design problem of creating a completely typed based publication and maintaining that visual interest.

Also I found in places the use of florescent green in contrast with black takes more conscious effort to read, feeding into my concept of hidden language.

Panopticism. Study Task.

The theory of ‘Panopticism’ can be seen in practice throughout contemporary society. A French philosopher named Michel Foucault birthed this theory when he associated a form of social control with a piece of institutional architecture designed by John Bentham that aimed to control the inmates or patients by the notion of constant surveillance. This structure was named the ‘Panopticon’. The foundations of this theory lie in the link between the threat of being constantly watched and good behavior. An example of this social control can be seen in any modern day shopping centre.

‘Visibility is a trap’ (Foucault, 1975). When visiting a shopping centre we are more than likely visible via CCTV and security from before we enter to after we’ve left. This is no secret. And it is no secret for a good reason. If we were not aware of this surveillance we could not be affected by it, and more importantly, controlled by it. It is difficult not to alter our behaviour to one which we know is acceptable by the surveyors if we know or at least think that these surveyors are presently watching us. The CCTV control room bears resemblance to the observation tower in Bentham’s Panopitcon. We are aware and can constantly see the cameras, however we can never be sure if someone is watching the screen we are visible on. Foucault describes this as ‘Unverifiable: the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so’ (Foucault, 1975).

This is how what he calls the ‘docile body’ is created   

The Gaze and the Media. Study Task.

The Century of the Self. Study Task.

• Freuds nephew, Edward Bernays, was the first man to show American corporations how to manipulate the masses into consumer buying. He showed governments and the ruling classes how fulfilling the masses inner desires made them docile and ultimately easier to control. 
• Bernays took what he had learned from WW1 and applied it to the period of peace which followed. He noted how 'propaganda' was used to control in war, and how this same principle could certainly be utilised in times of peace. This became know as PR or Public Relations.  
• Linking products to peoples emotional desires will encourage them to behave irrationally. Using this meant inanimate started to be seen as symbols of how a person thinks of wants to be seen. Bernays originated an idea which made people have an emotional reaction and attachment to a product or service. 
• The worry for mass production was that they would over produce. They were concerned that once the need had diminished they would be left with gear they couldn't shift and the American conscious at this time was driven by need. This all changed when PR thought of a solution, they were going to make people 'want' products, again by manipulating their emotions through tactics such as celebrity endorsement.
• Bernays rarely thought or was concerned about people as individual mentality. He cared only for the mentality of groups and how he could capitalise on this. Freud however became more and more concerned with the human psyche, believing us to be far more dangerous when in groups than he had previously thought. 
• Freuds writings had a large affect on journalists and intellectuals in 1920's America. They were particularly interested in the notion of a submerged dangerous forces in modern society. It made many people question democracy in the sense that human beings could not be trusted to make such decisions. 
• It speaks of how he believed masses are driven by instinct and irrational drives, not that of the logical mind. That we are more ferocious animal then civil creatures and this threatens to erupt at any moment creating mobs and riots. Like an unstable volcano.
• Bernays became rich and powerful from this introduction of psychoanalysis to modern society and consumerism. He thought of the masses as 'stupid' and easily manipulated. However the consumer boom he was riding was abruptly ended in 1929 when the stock market collapsed in America leading to the great depression. People stopped buying things they didn't need. 
• 
  

Globalisation and the Media.

Censorship and Truth.

Community Theory.

Identity.

To introduce historical conceptions of identity. To introduce Foucault's 'discourse' methodology.

Essentialism (traditional approach to identity). Our biological make up makes us who we are. We all have an inner essence that makes us who we are.

Phrenology - idea that there is a perfect ratio of characteristics to a well balanced person.

Positivist Criminology - the notion that criminal tendencies are inherited.

Physiognomy - intelligence judged by look and gradient of facial features. Legitimising racism, pointed out anglo-teutonic(northern european) are more intelligent and racially superior than negro's of mixed race.

Hieronymous Bosch (1450 - 1516) Christ carrying the cross. Shows sub-human figures.

Pre modern identity, 'secure' identities.

Farm-worker, the soldier, the factory worker, the housewife, the gentleman, husband-wife (family).

Baudelaire - introduces concept of the 'flaneur' (gentleman-stroller). Upper class, don't need to work, have time to stroll around and take in the city.

Veblen - 'Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure'. Introduction of the 'Leisure-class'.

Upper classes wear expensive clothes to show their wealth. Lower classed copy this so upper classes look for something new to wear to keep their sense of identity.

'Discoure analysis'. Possible discourses to describe how someone gains an identity. Age, class, gender nationality, race, gender and sexuality.

To be aware of class you normally need to be aware of your own class identity.

Humphrey Spender, Worktown project, 1937. Loaded view on northern working class by southern upper.

Post Modern theory.

Identity is constructed through our social experience. Zygmunt Bauman, writes many books about identity. Identity (2004), Liquid Modernity ()

Creative Rhetorics.

Clarify how creativity is talked about...

The Blank Sheet Project - D&AD. Illustrates what creatives feel creativity means. 

Felt he danced through the movie 'blade runner' as an actor. He clicked with the director and the story and everything fell into place.

Believes his greatest project will always be the next one. Also tells us to "be stupid", think with the heart not with the head. Any new idea will be seen as stupid in the beginning by the smart people until it becomes the norm.

Mimesis - plato's (427BC - 346BC) problem with creativity. The idea the physical world mimics a real world beyond, therefore art itself imitates an imitation.  

The romans believed that greek art was the pinnacle of art and most roman art aims to imitate this. 

Creativity has been classed into 9 'rhetorics'.

1) Romantic Genius.

Originates from the 18 century. Redefined artists from craftsman to genius through romanticism. Made artists creators, not imitators. That the artist should stand aside from rules, he/she defines them. Romanticism empowered the artist. 

9) The Creative Classroom.

First academics in Italy 14 century. Britain gained first art schools in the 19 century. 

Celebrity Culture.

Any medium can be viewed as a vehicle for creating a celebrity culture. The famous religious books of the world's faiths are replete with examples of individuals who are well known by the general public. Some of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt set in motion devices to ensure their own fame for centuries to come. Celebrity culture, once restricted to royalty and biblical/mythical figures, has pervaded many sectors of society including business, publishing, and even academia (the scilebrities). With every scientific advance names have become attached to discoveries. Especially for large contributions to humanity, the contributor is usually regarded honourably. Mass media has increased the exposure and power of celebrity. A trend has developed that celebrity carries with it increasingly more social capitalthan in earlier times. Each nation or cultural community (linguistic, ethnic, religious) has its own independent celebrity system, but this is becoming less the case due to globalization.

Lecture aims:

- History of Celebrity

- The relationship between photography/film/TV and celebrity

- The cultural significance of celebrities

- How contemporary identity and celebrity are intertwined 

- Contemporary icons

Julia Marie Cameron:

Julia Margaret Cameron (11 June 1815 – 26 January 1879) was a British photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for photographs with Arthurian and other legendary themes.

Cameron's photographic career was short, spanning eleven years of her life (1864–1875). She took up photography at the relatively late age of 48, when she was given a camera as a present.^[1] Although her style was not widely appreciated in her own day, her work has had an impact on modern photographers, especially her closely cropped portraits.

The Artist (2011): Good example of silent movie era and the real beginnings of celebrity culture.

Josephine Baker:

Josephine Baker sashayed onto a Paris stage during the 1920s with a comic, yet sensual appeal that took Europe by storm. Famous for barely-there dresses and no-holds-barred dance routines, her exotic beauty generated nicknames "Black Venus," "Black Pearl" and "Creole Goddess." Admirers bestowed a plethora of gifts, including diamonds and cars, and she received approximately 1,500 marriage proposals. She maintained energetic performances and a celebrity status for 50 years until her death in 1975. Unfortunately, racism prevented her talents from being wholly accepted in the United States until 1973. 

Clark Gable - "King of Hollywood":

William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an American film actor. Though arguably best known for his role as Rhett Butler in the epicGone with the Wind (1939), which earned him his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor, he was also nominated for Mutiny on the Bounty(1935), and he won for It Happened One Night (1934). His other notable films include Manhattan Melodrama (1934) and The Misfits (1961).

Starting as a stage actor, Gable appeared as an extra in silent films between 1924 and 1930, and progressed to supporting role with a few films for MGM in 1931. The next year he landed his first leading Hollywood role and became a leading man in more than 60 movies over three decades.

Gable appeared opposite some of the most popular actresses of the time. Joan Crawford, who was his favorite actress to work with, was partnered with Gable in eight films; Myrna Loy worked with him seven times, and he was paired with Jean Harlow in six productions. He also starred with Lana Turner in four features, and with Norma Shearer and Ava Gardner in three each. Gable's final film, The Misfits (1961), paired him with Marilyn Monroe (also in her last screen appearance).

Marilyn Monroe: 

Marilyn Monroe(born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American actress, model, and singer, who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s and early 1960s.

Andy Warhol begins to comment on this celebrity culture in his work, using Marilyn's face repeated almost as though it is a mask, to be repeated. 

Warhol famous for saying everyone will receive '15 minutes of fame'. 

Celebrities become 'brands':

Celebrities are used to sell. There lives become public, shared by society. Role-models and gossip machines to escape from our own mundane lifestyles. Living through them. Artists have explored this idea since the beginning of celebrity.