Semester 2 - Assignment 2, What Images Mean?

Semester Two – Assignment 2... What images mean?

In this assignment, we were asked in groups to find out if there is a link between the imagine that is being used in an advertisement and the thing that is being advertised.

Firstly, we were asked to read through the chapter the “Rhetoric of the image” by Roland Barthes. Barthes discusses the important concept about the relationship between images and text. He also subjects an advertisement to a semiotic analysis. In the essay Barthes suggests there are three types of message in advertisement: the text, the symbolic image and the non- symbolic image. Barthes comes to the conclusion that images have more than one meaning and once one meaning is discovered it ‘unlocks’ another – finding more out about the image.

 We will test this theory through an experiment. We chose four advertisement images/posters and then removed any logos or text off of them.

Image 1. Dettol Sanitiser

Image 2. WWE South American Deforestation

Image 3. Sharpie Permanent Marker Pen

Image 4. PSP

This assignment offers an opportunity to try an experiment to test the concept of polysemy. Firstly, we asked the people how the image made them feel, or what they made them think about (they should be describing the image, not guesses what they are advertising just yet. It is the way they interpret the images that it important). After noting down their answers, we finally asked them what they thought the poster was trying to advertise!

Person One: The first person I asked studies Politics at University and when first asked how the image made him feel or if it was telling a story, what would it be telling? He explained the first three images in a political state and in the last picture linked speed and drug taking together. When I explained that each image was an advertisement for an object or company he managed to guess all correct (what was being sold), apart from the last time (PSP advertisement).

Person Two: This person was along the correct lines, with every image (apart from image four again), when trying to explain the image being shown. After I told her the images were part of an advertisement, she got all correct again apart from image four.

Person 3: This person realised quickly that the images were linked to advertisement after seeing image 2. Getting the deforestation of South America correct first time and also new in image four that it was advertising something but when it came to saying what the advertisements were, he only got the deforestation and permanent marker pen correct.

From carrying out this experiment, I gained the knowledge that there is a big relationship between the understanding of an image and if text is present or not. I completely understand now that an image has so many different meanings and when telling a person a small bit more information on the image, it unlocks another meaning of it. All three people I questioned were able to guess a lot easier what the image/poster was trying to convey, after finding out it was an advertisement. This proving that text in advertisement is hugely important.

Lauren Currie Lecture - Red Jotter.

Lauren Currie is a Product design graduate from Duncan of Jordanstone Art College, Dundee. She fully graduated in 2009 with a masters degree in Design. The lecture was split into three parts: 1) Studio Unbound - helping you design your own network 2) What are you going to do when your graduate? 3) What Lauren does for a living - Service Design.
Although with her knowledge of product design, Lauren specialises in Service Design. This considers planning the infrastructure and communication of a service and trying to improve its quality: ranging from altering services such as the NHS, Education, Policing and Charities companies into making the service work better. Socially focused into making the world better!.
She is now in business with her co-partner Sarah Drummond who graduated from Glasgow School of Art. Snook is the name of their company, and it is now well known and very successful.
I feel like the main point conveyed in the lecture today was to emphasise clearly to everyone, to get ourselves out there in as many places as possible (especially early in our university life), to boost our advantage of having a successful career when we graduate.
Lauren spoke about how she came about becoming so popular by acting confident and  believing from the beginning in her work and ideas. I am not afraid to say that today's lecture was the most thought provoking and useful lecture i have ever sat through. I think when it is a younger speaker who has recently went through the same things we are going through right now, it helps get the message through clearer that we can do anything we want to, if we try! I came out of the lecture theatre thinking that I'm better making mistakes now and learning from them, than sitting back and not doing anything at all. I have to admit that I'm not a very confident person but after hearing Laurens speech it has definitely helped boost my confidence because at the end of the day everyone is in the same boat! I just need to think: What makes me a better textile designer?

Semester 2 Project!

Trend Forecasting!:)

For this project we were asked to research what trend forecasting is, pick a trend, research all about it then produce out own samples (either in knit or print).
Fashion trend forecasting resources help predict trends in the fashion industry. They go by seasons and are released 18 months in advance! They should provide a clear and concise message into the lifestyle and culture of that trend and each trend should contain a colour palette to go with it as well.
I decided to look into 'Relaxing: the beauty of the natural' - Summer 2011. It could contain:

• colour which are fresh and intuitive
• glowing and healthy tones
• unfussy - respect to nature
• basic, uncomplicated and basic

My colour palette should be earthy, organic, fresh, clean cut and neutral.
Mixed media will contain, weaving, dry plants, crispy, rugged, textural and stitched materials
My garments should be, simple, loose, unstructured, airy, unfitted and uncomplicated.

For a source of Primary drawing I am planning to look at fields at different times of days and the natural beauty of them and how I could translate that picturesque view into a textile.

I am seriously looking forward to getting stuck into this project rather than last semester, as we are all doing our different trends. I enjoy researching artists, designers and ways in which they can inspire my own work!

Lecture 04.02.2011

On Friday, we had a very insightful lecture from Kate Pickering and Fraser Bruce.
Kate Pickering is a graduate of Jewellery and Metal Design at Duncan of Jordanstone and completed a Masters of Design at Dundee in 2009. I feel as though I could relate to her as she was in the same position as me not that long ago. I enjoyed hearing about her determination to get to where she wanted in life and how he eventually got it. She got to where she is now by taking risks and I feel that that is what I really need to do in my Textile course. Just really go for it because that's all i can do, in succeeding. Kate has now set up her own intuitive, made to help Jewellery students into what they can expect and aim for once they have graduated and help the creators get into business. Personally, I think its a great idea as I still don't seem 100% sure on what career I'm interesting in pursuing and how to get there.
Kate worked with Fraser Bruce in her Masters degree and got the chance to work with Deutsche Telekom in creating new designs for them.

Things I have taken away from this lecture: I need to be able to pitch myself and It's not all about the final product but the process to it!!!

Snoop Assignment One

Assignment One: Are You What You Wear/Buy/Sit On/Sleep In/Talk To?

To begin with we were asked to read the book “Snoop” by Sam Gosling, over the Christmas holidays. To be a hundred percent honest, I was really excited to read this book, but once I got into it I have to say I was a little bit disappointed. It felt as though the author was repeating himself and a lot of it was just common knowledge. Although I have to say some parts were highly interesting. I enjoyed the part of the book where Gosling speaks about the way people walk and how you can distinguish what a person’s personality can be like.

Although I never really enjoyed the book as a whole, it did help me a little bit when completing Assignment One. We were asked to swap photographs of either pictures of us between the age of 13-20 or photo’s of our room/house, with a person we never knew.  The girl I had sent pictures of both, so it made it a little easier to find out what she’s like. I have to say I feel I found a lot more stuff out about the girl from her flat, rather than the actual photos of her.

Even though I already knew Shona did Interior & Environmental Design at Uni. There were a lot of clues both about her and her flat that assured me. The first area of creativity I noticed was in a picture of Shona at Halloween, when she was 18. It was a handmade cardboard box made up perfectly to look like to little ghosts. I just think it shows her artistic nature because she has went into a lot of effort to dress up rather than buying an outfit. In a picture of Shona at another age, she has a different hairstyle, where it is both blonde and black. The contrasting colours are every bold and suggest to me that she likes to stand out from the crowd and perhaps changes her image quite often to look unoriginal. In almost all the photographs over the years, she pulls funny faces/poses in them. I get the impression that Shona is quite an outgoing person and is confident in herself and always up for a laugh.

When going through the photographs of Shonas’ flat I have to say it is one of the most organised, clean and arranged flat I have ever seen!  There is actually no clutter at all. One of the wall art pieces said “but I always say, one’s a company, two’s a crowd and three’s a party”. I think Shona enjoys socializing and gets on well with all types of people in a crowd and meeting new people. She has a lot of wall art around the flat! I liked the area where there were blank photo frames that stood out from the purple painted wall. I get the impression she is proud of her flat and enjoys making it her own. It has a modern creative around it and looks very welcoming.

Unless the flat has been arranged for the photographs being taken, I would say that Shona has a small bit of OCD. I noticed this more when looking at the picture of her wardrobe. Tops were on white hangers on the left side and trousers were on black hangers on the other side. The final bit I noticed was a picture of a Banana by Andy Warhol, which Shona also had a tattoo of on the top of her back. She obviously enjoys art and to go to the extreme of tattooing it onto her body, gives me the impression that she isn’t afraid to say what she feels and it overall a confident and bold person.

I met up with Shona on Monday night in the Union and discussed what we had written about each other. I have to say it was crazy what the outcome was.  I really thought that some of the stuff wouldn’t be true but once I thought about the things she imagined they were actually all true and she felt the same about what I said about her.

I looked up The Johari Window which is: “is a cognitive psychological tool created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955^[1] in the United States, used to help people better understand their interpersonal communication and relationships. It is used primarily in self-help groups and corporate settings as a heuristic exercise”.

It is a table split into four different quadrants: Open Hidden, Blind Spot and Unknown.

Open: Adjectives that are selected by both the participant and his or her peers are placed into the Open quadrant. This quadrant represents traits of the subjects that both they and their peers are aware of.
Hidden: Adjectives selected only by subjects, but not by any of their peers, are placed into the Hidden quadrant, representing information about them their peers are unaware of. It is then up to the subject to disclose this information or not.
Blind Spot: Adjectives that are not selected by subjects but only by their peers are placed into the Blind Spot quadrant. These represent information that the subject is not aware of, but others are, and they can decide whether and how to inform the individual about these "blind spots".
Unknown: Adjectives that were not selected by either subjects or their peers remain in the Unknown quadrant, representing the participant's behaviors or motives that were not recognized by anyone participating. This may be because they do not apply or because there is collective ignorance of the existence of these traits
I feel this table helped me a little bit in realizing my and peoples traits and how you do not realised things about you until you are told by somebody else. For example Shona could guess that I was an image conscious person and that I like to have clothes matching etc. Which I only really realised once she told me.