Job No:01077 Title:The fundamentals og Graphic Design
2ND
Proof Page:44
Consumerism
The demand for a wider range of goods results
in fierce competition between manufacturers and like
products. Consumerism impacts on graphic design
because product packaging and advertisements have
an increasingly narrow and restricted window of
opportunity to connect with the consumer.
44 The Fundamentals of Graphic Design Influences and creative elements
Taking account
The concept of branding has developed with
the rise of consumerism as marketeers have seen
that people tend to respond to something familiar
when faced with a multitude of different visual
stimuli. Marketeers hope that their brand, and its
accompanying logo, will be the familiar face in the
crowd that grabs a consumer’s attention.
In order to succeed in this highly competitive
environment, products and services are designed to
provide character and individuality, and to instil sales
appeal. This means that the designs representing the
face of a product are becoming increasingly
sophisticated, which can result in a clash between
the aesthetic principles of a designer and the taste
of the general public or target audience. This can
pose the philosophical question of whether it is a
designer’s job to give the public what it wants or
what they do not know they need. Cigarette
packaging is an interesting example in this context
as designers are faced with the challenge of
creating an alluring design that complies with
the legal requirements to include highly visible
health warnings.
Personal choices
Ultimately, the type of client you are willing or
unwilling to work for is a question of personal choice.
For some, the thought of working on an alcohol or
tobacco product is unthinkable, while others draw
no distinction between these and other products.
For many designers, this may not be a clear-cut
decision and some product types or companies may
fall into a grey area. For example, a designer may not
be willing to design a new cigarette carton for a
tobacco company, but would create leaflets warning
of the health risk involved in using the product for the
same company.
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Job No:01077 Title:The fundamentals og Graphic Design
2ND
Proof Page:45
Culture jamming
Culture jamming uses existing mass-media messages and twist them so that they provide pithy comment on themselves.
The Adbusters magazine is a well-known example of culture jamming and it seeks to draw attention to the practices of global
corporations that are contrary to the often idyllic images and messages they produce in order to reinforce and promote their
brands. Culture jamming engages in various campaigns, such as ‘Buy Nothing Day’, ‘TV Turnoff’ and ‘True Cost Economics’,
that seek to challenge consumerism and the consumer’s role in society.
Action and reaction
The graphic design industry includes many people
who collectively and individually are responsible for
creating the images and communications used to
boost consumerism. Many designers are protagonists
in the backlash against what is seen as rampant
consumerism, which began in the UK in the 1960s
with the publication of Ken Garland’s First Things First
manifesto (1964). This was supported by over 400
graphic designers and artists who sought to
re-radicalise design, emphasising that design is not
a neutral, value-free process. Many graphic designers
now actively participate in c
ulture jamming – the
subverting of well-known corporate symbols and
messages – to reflect other perspectives that people
have of the global, corporate consumer world.
Anti-consumerism
While graphic design played a key part in the rise of
consumerism, it is also used as a tool against it.
Adbusters, through its ‘Buy Nothing Day’ does not
ask the public to abandon its consumerist activity,
but to question it. The misery of choice has never
been more apt than in graphic design today as there
are more modes of communication, more products,
more people to sell to and more fonts to choose
from; but do any of these ultimately make us happier?
Designers can make a difference to consumer
culture by thinking about the design industry’s
contribution to this phenomenon and completing
jobs in a non-exploitative manner, in a socially,
economically and environmentally sensitive way at
no cost of others.
Typography < Consumerism > Identity and branding 45
Adbusters
Canadian anti-consumerism magazine,
Adbusters, seeks to challenge the role of
the graphic designer in the erosion of our
physical and cultural environments by
commercial forces. The magazine
frequently appropriates and reworks the
messages of well-known, global brands
to present what it sees as the true story
behind them.
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