Consumerism

Persuasion, society, brand and culture.

Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)
- New theory of human nature
- Psychoanalysis
- Hidden primitive sexual forces and animal instincts which need controlling
- Fundamental tension between civilisation and the individual
- The Pleasure Principle

Edward Bernays (1891 - 1995)
- Press agent
- Employed by public information during WW1
- Post-war set up 'The Council on Public Relations'
- Birth of PR
- Based on the ideas of Freud (his uncle)
- 'Torches of Freedom' 1929 Easter Day Parade

Fordism
- Transposes Taylorism to car factories of Detroit
- Assembly line
- Standard production models built as they move through the factory
- The model T Ford 1908 - 1927
- 1910 - 20,000 produced and sold at $850

The consumer self allures audiences as it gives you an idea that your making yourself more desirable.

Vance Packard 1957 - Marketing hidden needs
Selling:
- emotional security
- reassurance of worth
- ego-gratification
- creative outlets
- love objects
- sense of power
- sense of worth
- immortality

'Manufacturing Consent' 1920
A new elite is needed to manage the bewildered herd

Walter Lippmann - 'Public Opinon'

The Great Depression - social bankruptcy
Roosevelt 'The New Deal' (1933 - 36)

'Democraticity'

Consumerism is an ideological project

Digital Culture and Distribution

Mechanical introduction 1436 - Gutenberg's printing press.

1919-1933 - Integration of mass production.

1990 - Digital design/production - Apple Macintosh.

Mobilisation of digital communication.

The digital aesthetic - digital visualisation.

Technological and analogue aesthetic.

Utopia v Distopia.

Nostalgia v Innovation.

Tim Berners-Lee - Created the World Wide Web in 1990

Internet Explorer was created in 1995

The evolution of nine technology has affected the way we communicate with other people.

Print Culture and Distribution

'Late age of print' term comes from the media theorist Marshall McLuhan.

Gutenberg's printing press.
The 'age of print' began around 1450.

John Martin (1820) reproduced his own work using print and began to become richer as his work became more expensive.

Matthew Arnold (1867) 'Culture & Anarchy' Culture is:
- 'The best that has been thought and said in the world'.
- Study of perfection.
- Attained through disinterested reading, writing and thinking.
- The pursuit of culture.
- Seeks 'to minister the diseased spirit of out time'.
Culture - rich people.
Anarchy - working class people taking over.
The working class 'raw and half developed'.

Leavisism - F.R. Leavis & Q.D. Leavis
Mass Civilisation & Minority Culture
Fiction and the Reading Public

Culture and Environment.

Standardisation and leveling down.

Collapse of the traditional authority comes at the same time as mass democracy (anarchy).

Nostalgia for an era when the masses exhibited an unquestioning deference to (culture) authority.

Popular culture offers addictive forms of distraction and compensation. C19th. Penny Dreadful.

Walter Benjamin 'The work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Production' 1936.

Art is a cult.

Print Capitalism 1842.

William Morris (1877) 'The Lesser Arts'
Mechanical vs. Intellectual.

Planning & structuring an essay

Question: "How did postmodernism impact on Graphic Design practice?"
5 bibliography sources

• Poynor, R. (2003) No More Rules. London: Lawrence King 

• Moszkowiz, J. (2013) 'Re-Learning Postmodernism in the History of Graphic Design: a (con)textual analysis of Design Journal in the late 1960s', Journal of Design History, Vol. 26. No. 4.

• Barrett, T. (1997) 'Modernism and Postmodernism: An Overview with Art Examples' in Art Education: Context and Practice in a Postmodern Era. 

• Jobling, P; Crowley, D. 1996. Graphic Design : Reproduction and Representation Since 1800. [Online] Manchester [u.a.] : Manchester Univ. Press. [Accessed 3 November 2015] Available from: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lobcBweDLgUC&pg=PA271&dq=postmodernism+in+graphic+design&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAWoVChMIuKTvhZD0yAIVAVcUCh3Z-Q1_#v=onepage&q=postmodernism%20in%20graphic%20design&f=false

• Arntson, AE. 1988. Graphic Design Basics. [Online] New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. [Accessed 3 November 2015] Available from: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LSM9AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA35&dq=postmodernism+in+graphic+design&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC0Q6AEwATgKahUKEwjd7p7VkPTIAhVMwBQKHabUAgI#v=onepage&q=postmodernism%20in%20graphic%20design&f=false

• Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Hutcheon: On Parody." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. [Last update 31 January 2013] Purdue U. [Accessed 23 November 2015] <http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/postmodernism/modules/hutcheonparody.html>. https://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/postmodernism/modules/hutcheonparody.html

• Felluga, Dino. "Modules on Hutcheon: On Postmodernity." Introductory Guide to Critical Theory. [Last update 31 January 2013] Purdue U. [Accessed 23 November 2015] <http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/postmodernism/modules/hutcheonpostmodernity.html>.https://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/postmodernism/modules/hutcheonpostmodernity.html

I will analyse how postmodernism affected industry practitioners, looking at the effect on both established and emerging designers.

Graphic Design that I will analyse






















































Essay map

• Impact of postmodernism - research the general affect of postmodernism and how it had also affected Graphic Design

• Positive affect of postmodernism in Graphic Design

• Negative affect of postmodernism in Graphic Design

• Reactions of new and existing designers during the early stages of postmodernism 

• Analysis of Graphic Design work