Category: Writings

Abstract

In the first part of my study, the book “Nian” explores the visual language of Chinese New Year, examining the cultural significance of this festive occasion and its various customs and traditions. Focusing on how graphic elements can tell a story and convey meaning through their visual representation, the publication investigates the meaning and usage of pictograms, icons, and silhouettes, in addition to the photography, handwriting and calligraphy, and how they can be effectively used/used in combination to communicate identity, ideas and emotions.

To build on the first part of my project, the second part aims to investigate the legibility of pictograms and the factors that influence their legibility. Pictograms are graphic symbols used to convey information quickly and effectively, particularly in public spaces where language barriers may exist. However, there is little research on the legibility of pictograms, particularly in different contexts and populations, as well as examine the recognition threshold and boundary of pictogram.

Factors that will be investigated include the design elements of the pictograms, such as shape, color, as well as the context in which they are presented. The results of this study will provide insights into the legibility and recognition of pictograms and the factors that influence their effectiveness, which can inform the ethics and design of pictograms for different contexts and populations. This research will contribute to the development of cultural design insights for pictograms, and ultimately enhance communication and accessibility for diverse audiences.

Context

The visual language of Chinese New Year is a fascinating topic to explore, given the cultural significance of this festive occasion and its various customs and traditions. This work is a two-part study that explores the visual language of Chinese New Year and the legibility of pictograms. The book “Nian” delves into the different graphic elements that make up the visual representation of Chinese New Year, including pictograms, icons, silhouettes, photography, handwriting, and calligraphy. This publication aims to investigate how these elements can be effectively used or used in combination with indexes and catalogues to communicate identity, ideas, and emotions.

The book “Nian” is composed with 168 sets of photographs, pictograms, and calligraphies about how people are celebrating the Chinese New Year. In Chinese culture, number 6 and 8 are considered as luck and wealth. The photographs are collected from the audiences. The pictograms are abstractions and simplifications of the Chinese New Year element from each photograph in the book. The calligraphies are the character “Nian(年)” (it means year, but Chinese people often refer it as the Chinese New Year) written in different fonts.

The book’s square shape is a reflection of Chinese culture, which emphasizes propriety, norms, and etiquette, rather than flamboyant displays. It adheres to a set standard, yet maintains its own boundaries and edges. Additionally, the square shape represents the fundamental form of ancient Chinese architecture, reflecting the societal rules represented by the ethical principles of tranquility, stability, security, and equality. The significant use of red color symbolizes luck and auspiciousness. Red is also the color of celebrations and prosperity in China. The calligraphy is in center position to create a focal point that draws attention. It also creates a color balance with the left spread. Then the attention will be led to the pictograms on the left that guide readers to contemplate the silhouette. The repetition of photographs, calligraphy, and pictograms in same topic illustrate indexing and cataloging culture.

The book also aims to showcase the power of Graphic Communication Design in communicating cultural and social themes, and its ability to evoke emotions and memories through visual representations. In addition to the visual elements, this publication highlights the importance of cultural heritage and the need for intercultural dialogue. By investigating the true meaning of “Nian”(Chinese New Year), the project seeks to uncover the deeper significance of this festival and its role in shaping Chinese culture and traditions.

Building on the first part of the project, the second part is a video that extracts and eliminates the details of each pictogram, and investigates the recognition boundary and threshold of the pictogram in the information transition. It aims to investigate the legibility of pictograms and graphic symbols that are used to convey information quickly and effectively, particularly in places where language barriers may exist.

The design elements of pictograms, such as shape and color, can significantly influence their legibility.  From my experiment, I have learnt that simple, symmetrical shapes are more easily recognized than complex or asymmetrical ones. Similarly, high-contrast color combinations are more legible than low-contrast ones, particularly when viewed from a distance. The change in colors can also create context to the pictograms that make them more recognizable to the audiences. The scale of each pictogram and its context in where it will be present can also influence the design choice in the level of details needed. For example, when the pictogram is used in small scale like web icon, the design of the pictogram needs to be less complicated compare to when it’s used in large scale like signs.

The recognition threshold of a pictogram refers to the minimum amount of visual information required for a person to recognize it. I have learnt from my studies that recognition thresholds vary depending on factors such as culture, and language proficiency. For example, people who are familiar with a Chinese culture are more likely to recognize the pictograms I have designed, and can understand the reason why such pictogram or object is associated with the Chinese New Year. The recognition boundary of a pictogram refers to the point at which it is no longer recognizable as a specific symbol but rather as a general shape or pattern. This boundary can vary depending on factors such as complexity, context, and familiarity.

Inspired by Ellen Lupton’s essay Critical Wayfinding (1993) where Lupton introduce the idea “semiological organization”, which is the process through which signs are given a cultural value. The pictograms that I have designed in this project are very exclusive to the Chinese culture, which is a reflection of this “semiological organization”.

It is also important to note that the ethnic stereotype is itself a kind of hieroglyphic form, consisting of a set of conventionalized, exaggerated features. Stereotypes can be used as a shorthand to communicate complex cultural identities, but they can also be limiting and harmful. The study of visual language and pictograms can help to create a more nuanced and accurate understanding of cultural identity and representation.

Project Contributions

The question of investigating the legibility of pictograms and the factors that influence their effectiveness is of great significance to graphic communication design both practically and theoretically.

Practically, the project’s findings will contribute to the development of cultural design insights for pictograms. These guidelines will provide designers with a better understanding of the design elements that impact the legibility and effectiveness of pictograms, such as shape, color, and context. It can help designers create more effective and culturally appropriate communication tools that are relevant to the specific target audiences. As a result, this project will contribute to the enhancement of communication and accessibility for different populations and contexts. Theoretically, the study of the legibility of pictograms adds to the existing research on visual communication and graphic design. It provides a deeper understanding of how visual elements can communicate meaning and how cultural context plays a crucial role in interpreting signs and symbols. This project will contribute to the theoretical framework of graphic communication design by providing insights into the process of semiotic organization and its impact on communication.

Culturally, this project can be a great way to promote Chinese traditional culture. By expressing the inheritance and understanding of Chinese traditional festivals by modern people under the cultural diversity of the times, the audience can re-understand and appreciate the essence of Chinese traditional culture and engage in the intercultural dialogue.

Beyond the limits of the course, this project will contribute to my practice as a graphic designer by providing me with a better understanding of the design elements that impact the legibility and effectiveness of pictograms. This will inform my design decisions when creating communication tools for different audiences and contexts. Additionally, the project’s findings can be shared with other designers and practitioners in the field of graphic communication design, contributing to the development of practices and insights for designing communication tools that are effective and culturally appropriate.

Reference:

Lupton, E. and Miller, J.A. (1993). “Critical Wayfinding.” In S. Yelavich (Ed.), The Edge of the Millennium (pp. 220-232). New York: Whitney Library of Design

The project “Nian” is an exploration of the visual language of Chinese New Year and its cultural significance, customs, and traditions. Through engagement with Chinese people born in their 20s and 30s, I have collected 168 photos and calligraphy of the Chinese character “年”(it means year, also can be used to refer the Chinese New Year) , and created pictograms that represent the Chinese New Year and catalogued them into the book. During the collection process, I asked people what Chinese New Year means to them, and their answers were varied, providing insights into the diverse ways of celebrating the festival across China.

This engagement with the audience has enabled me to piece together a fuller picture of the current Chinese New Year under the cultural diversity of the times. As I was sorting through the photographs, I realized that superstitions and beliefs played a significant role in celebrating the Chinese New Year. For example, people visit temples on the first day of the new year to wish for good luck, firecrackers and fireworks are used to scare away monsters, and dumplings are eaten on New Year’s Eve to wish for a wealthy year. These findings have sparked an interest in exploring the superstition and belief aspect of Chinese traditions in my future studies in next semester.

Another key lesson learned from engaging with the audience is the importance of clarity in conveying the message. The use of graphic elements such as pictograms in communicating cultural themes can be challenging, as the visual language may not be apparent to everyone. Therefore, I have realized the need to create a narrative that provides context and explanation of the cultural symbols used. In this regard, I plan to have conversations with my audience about pictograms. Since Chinese characters are pictogram language, I intend to test the pictograms I have created with more audiences to gain better insights into their legibility and how they feel about them.

The engagement with audiences has also shaped the future planning and development of the project. I recognized the need to explore other mediums such as videos, animations, and more to reach a wider audience. By exploring other mediums, the project can become more accessible to people from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Additionally, the project can engage with different cultural communities to create a more inclusive narrative that promotes intercultural dialogue. This is especially important as intercultural dialogue is essential in building bridges between cultures and promoting respect and acceptance.

My work investigates what consumption means through consumerism’s consumer element and trap. Consumption may have meant different things to different individuals before David Graeber, but he has inspired a new way of thinking about the phrase, and we are now thinking about it in a new way. Since the 1980s, anthropologists have been subjected to persistent, weirdly moralistic requests to recognize the significance of something “consumption.” The calls were heeded, and during the subsequent decades, the expression grew widespread in theoretical debates. I intend to incorporate Graeber’s findings in the attempt to get the definition of consumerism especially. Graeber explores consumption from the same perspective I did in my prior work but with more depth and a stronger emphasis on anthropology. As a result, I may benefit immensely from his efforts and gain much knowledge from them. Graeber is intrigued by the history of “consumption” and the consequences of classifying specific actions as “consumption” as opposed to others.

Academic works define “consumption” as “any activity involving the acquisition, use, or enjoyment of any manufactured or agricultural object for a purpose other than the production or exchange of new commodities. From this reference material, the imaginative ways the studied individuals employ consumption result in the modernist concept of an economy with two worlds, production, and consumption, being fooled into shouldering consumption. Graeber believes consumption replaces all non-market-oriented production, a metaphor for consuming and digesting the object. The chase of material goods has overtaken all other parts of social life, and the creative consumption that gives social life its significance has vanished. Graeber’s essential job is identifying and removing the cultural bias in our analytical language. To lend my support to this essential joint work, which is the result of anthropologists from all over the world, I would like to highlight a couple of Graeber’s ideas, season them with a dash of four-field perspective, and suggest further covert entanglements of consumerist ideology. According to Graeber, the consumption culture’s “poverty-stricken” theory of “human desire and fulfillment” signifies a radical divergence from the conventional wisdom of the Western canon. Western philosophers have long claimed that social acceptability, consumption, sexual desire, and power over others are people’s primary needs, not material commodities. By the time the early modern era arrived, Westerners had a tough time determining how to attain these communal objectives. Graeber illustrates his idea with an allegory based on Hegel’s philosophy. In the allegory, two men seek one another’s approval as free, autonomous, and ultimately human people; nevertheless, this acceptance is contingent on the other man being worthy of such recognition. However, these two individuals are at odds with one another because they are striving to establish whether the other individual is as free and independent as they are. What evidence could they possibly possess? The loser would seem considerably worse if they engaged in combat.

Graeber intends to examine the causes that drive people to believe they exist rather than criticizing consumption or consumer practices. After reading the article, I was left wondering where the word “consumption” came from, why we started using it, and what it indicates about our attitudes toward ownership, desire, and social connections. This, therefore, affected the way I will work on my work from now, although the philosophies are more aligned with my work. I see why we must determine how far we wish to stretch Graeber’s metaphor. It is one thing to discuss the “consumption” of fossil fuels but quite another to discuss the “consumption” of advertisement. Although several books and essays have been written on the issue, this remains true. My works represents consumption in our modern world – which include social media, movie culture, food, and technology. Our modern society is keen to increase consumption in terms of foods, technology, money and wealth. The surreal nature of the art visualizes consumption in several ways as per the perspective of the viewer of the art.

The only plausible explanation is that those compensated for making advertisement are located elsewhere than where customers are engaged. Most of these viewers do not pay for the material they watch. Therefore, we cannot claim that they “consume” the content in the conventional sense. Because it is impossible to attain and its value is unaffected by its use. Instead, we face an infinite number of fantasy content choices, some of which may or may not be designed to advertise certain things. Cultural studies experts and anthropologists who write in a similar vein will insist that “consumers” do not passively absorb these images but instead actively interpret and appropriate them in ways that the producers would not have anticipated and use them to fashion identities; this is the “creative consumption” model at work again. It is common knowledge that some individuals base their entire identity on their favorite television programs/video channels. At its most creative, “creative consumption” is not genuinely consumption, but at its least creative, it most nearly approaches what we would call “consumption.” I think I will interrogate this part in my work by attempting to authenticate what the cultural studies experts have alleged and exploring more on creative consumption.

I believe this broad category contains a few additional research avenues adding complexity and is more of an extension than a direct challenge to Graeber’s concept. First, historians interested in descriptions of ancient yearnings would not restrict their research to Western desire. I will pay greater attention to the emergence of consumer commitments in prosperous urban environments such as Song China. For instance, in locations such as Song China, tastes and possibly causes evolved, directly influencing European interests. If like Graeber, I assume that desire is a distinctively human quality or, at the very least, unquestionably premodern, it might be instructive to examine how it expresses in Asia. Some more aggressive consumer behavior has resulted in arrests and executions, which does not negate the reality of meaningful desire or its usefulness in contemporary life.

Graeber’s definition of consumption and consumerism theories are in contact with my work because the focus is closely related. Some new perspectives arise after Graeber’s work, such as the term’s origin. Although some academic fields, such as history and anthropology, are paying modern consumerism much comparative attention, it is feasible that additional premodern research would be beneficial. Thus, I will interrogate this in my work. One difference between my work and the reference is what triggered me to investigate consumerism did not allow me to concentrate on the history of the usage of the term. More and more often, I’ve realized that we buy those goods not because we need them or how much we like them but to blindly follow the trend to satisfy our vanity. I was keen to include Chinese culture and investigate the Chinese pictogram characters to get their relationship to consumerism.

Reference

Graeber, D. (2011). “Consumption.” Current Anthropology, 52(4), 489–511. https://doi.org/10.1086/660166

Looking back at all the works I did in Unit 2, I have realized that my work has gradually shift from investigating the idea of random into the topic of consumption and capitalism. I started with pixelating a photo and randomly rearranging each pixel within the artboard to investigate the meaning of random. Then after reading what Hito Steyerl wrote in the article “In Defense of the Poor Image”, where she explored the value of art, and concluded that manipulating iconic images through digital formats devalued them, and in turn affected how people perceived the works, I shift my focus into pixelating some of the most expensive paintings in the world and investigate the value of art. However, when I recreate that art piece into pixels and eliminate the details of the painting, the image is still in focus, but that decomposition process causes the painting to lower in value. Picasso’s paintings are worth millions of dollars, both because of the history, and the technique he used. Therefore, when I recreate these famous paintings through resolution pixel manipulation on a digital platform, the image might be the same, but people now see it as a poor image, and the value of the piece shifts.

This project intrigues me to investigating the topic of consumerism and consumption. Consumerism is a facade that tries to present economic prosperity while masking uncontrolled lending, and outflow of financial capital. In reality, people are the primary productive force, and their desire is the driving force.  Artists and designers across every industry are committed to making attractive offers that make it extremely easy and convenient for people to spend overdrafts. Technology in digital media has made it fast and easy to reach consumers. Graphic design especially, has become a mind game that influences people’s idea of consumerism. In the end of last semester, my works were focusing on how the internet and big data that absorbs customers’ information, and applies tricks to control consumers behaviors and shopping habits through my video where I layered multiple footages and explored how it is reflecting the current society. 

In my most recent work, I took a step back to investigate the meaning of “consumption” and “consumerism” from the consumer’s perspective through visualizing, interviewing, archiving. Apparently, consume means differently to different people. In my interviews with my friends, the most common words they use to describe what consume means to them are stress relief, guilt, impulse, satisfaction. However, we all forget that the most basic consumption is to live and to sustain life. And it seems like we are consuming more than we should. So, what is consume? And why we consume in such manner? In my book “the form of consumption” I articulate the meanings of consume and visualized each of them through collages. I also explore the pictogram Chinese characters in the middle of my studies this semester so I incorporate this idea in the book, by placing the Chinese characters on the side of the collages, I also wanted to investigate how the pictogram characters would tell the story of consumption for none Chinese speakers. David Graeber’s study of consumption share the same idea as mine which he believed that the chase of material goods has overtaken all other parts of social life, trapping people on a quest of desire that seeks to fulfill human vanity. However, he also investigated the merchant side of consumerism that helps the society to grow which is a new path that I can explore in my future studies. Now that I’m asking myself: Is consumption good or bad? What consumerism indicates about our attitudes toward ownership, desire, and social connections? How much consumption is too much, are we greedy for consuming too much, or should we consume as much as we can?

“How do you pair the work you are going to do to your position?” This was the first question Francisco Laranjo raised in our guest tutorial session. Ideological positioning, political positioning, and confronting the realities, what is my contribution in the future?

To investigate the topic of “value” and “consumerism” is like peeling the onion. The subject itself become more relevant when it’s textual. In my work from unit two I explored random through pixelating, value of art through manipulating, and consumerism through digitizing. Francisco suggested in order to move forward with my topic, I need to open up the subject even more. Who’s your work directed to? Are you making any comparisons? Are there different ways of representation? What are the questions you posting yourself? These are the questions he asked me during our dialogue.

Reflect on the conversation with the guest tutor, I engaged another conversation with Ronald Tau, who is a graphic designer base in Toronto and Beijing, about how he thinks of consumerism. He sees consumerism as a foundational bedrock in almost all social, economical, personal, and communal decision-making and actions. I totally agree with him. Today’s society is built on the fabric of economic transactions, it drives almost all our needs and wants. As someone who has experienced both the western and eastern cultured, Ronald thinks there tends to be less intentional criticism of consumerism in Asian cultures. There seems to be much more acceptance and strategic leveraging of consumerist needs and wants with life goals, higher endeavors, etc.  In the west, there seems to be more systemic education of challenging, or at least re-thinking, consumerism’s role in our lives. As with most issues, different cultures tend to have different strategies when dealing with ideologies, and consumerism is no different.

Me and Ronald both thinks designers are employed for communication, and by extension, to assist in the act of selling something. I think this is why it’s important that a designer remains conscious of what he/she/they are contributing to society in what way. Are we creating more excess and generating more unnecessary wants? Are we creating more problems are trying our best to be part of the solution? Are we using our abilities to divert attention to issues that truly deserve attention?

When talking about the trap of consumerism, we both agree that designers are certainly playing a crucial role in furthering the trap of consumerism. However, there are always two sides to a coin. Designers ought to evaluate who they are creating designs for, what messages they are pushing, intentionally or not, through their designs. As designers, we must seek to choose who we speak for, and make tradeoffs to work with the right clients pushing the right messages in society. Every problem is multifaceted. We must also as designers seek to educate ourselves as broadly as possible, if we are stuck microscopically in only matters of design, we lose connection to the world at large and the problems that truly deserve attention, and when design is created for design’s sake, it will then more often than not contribute nothing but contribute to consumerism.

Annotated bibliography

From my own study

• Zhang, C. and Tan, T., 2020. The Impact of Big Data Analysis on Consumer Behavior. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1544(1), p.012165.

This article analyses the characteristic of big data, as well as the characteristics of consumer behavior, in the context of big data analysis technologies. With the development of big data, e-commerce are collecting personalized information of consumers, and consumers are under the attraction of the “tailor-made” promotion thus stimulates consumer’s interest and even change consumers’ demand preferences, thus leading them to fall into the trap of consumerism. This enhances my understanding of consumerism. In my video work, I wanted to criticize how the big data are mentally manipulating and control consumers by using abstraction of graphic components to show the messy consumption environment as well as the information overload thus stimulate and numb the consuming behavior. I also want to reflect on this consumerist society.

• Leach, W., 2011. Land of Desire. New York: Random House US.

This book illustrated the production of mass consumer culture and the development of consumer capitalism in the United States from 1890-1932. I was surprised by the author’s picture of universal participation in creating a consumerist atmosphere is happening around us, except the United States was mainly focus on the department stores at that time. Nowadays, we are surrounded by all different shopping apps, websites, shopping lives, that every day is shopping festivals. Almost every industry is working to make users desperately shop and consume. Therefore, in my works, I want people to get out of the noisy consumption atmosphere, to seriously examine the disadvantages brought by this atmosphere, and remind people not to become the puppet who work for consumption.

Projects

• Warhol, A., 1962. Campbell’s Soup Cans. [Synthetic polymer paint on canvases].

In Andy Warhol’s work, he illustrated consumerism and mass production and connected them with mundane objects. This series of work was under lots of controversy because of their vulgarity at that time. However, Warhol knows deeply about the mass media operation mode that the more controversy, the greater the propaganda. Looking back at its background, in the post-industrial era, consumerism prevails, and the emptiness brought about by the emphasis on speed and efficiency. Similar to now, where we are living in the fast pace society and the mass production is the key to consumerism. Referencing this, I decided to use riso printing to represent the mass production and the vibrant colors revels the flourishing but empty society. In my final video work, I used different blending mode to create illusions and illustrate the idea of mass production and the consumption society.

• Gursky, A., 2016. Mediamarkt. [Photography].

Gursky uses his unique photography style to reflect globalization, consumerism and other important social issues. In Mediamarkt, Gursky used a bird’s-eye view to shoot the electronic retail store in Germany. Every detail in the work is equally clear and sharp, it shows these endless shelves and goods from a calm onlooker’s perspective. The dense array of products underscores the status quo of excess, creating an impressive portrait of the consumer society. This inspired me in a way that the growing image technology stimulates everyone’s desire to consume, and the prosperity of consumption in turn spawns more images. As a result, I layered multiple footages in my video to express this idea and how it is reflecting this consumerism society. Also, the production of images and consumerism are both mutually reinforcing relationships. There are also economic problems behind the flood of images, and consumerism is an important part of it.

From reading list

• ARANDA, J., WOOD, B. and VIDOKLE, A., 2016. Introduction. In: The Internet Does Not Exist. Berlin: Sternberg Press, pp.5-9.

While I was working on my video, I asked myself, what is the trap of consumerism? I found my answer in this chapter where the author in this article states that internet is just a name that describes everything and nothing at the same time but we are still trying to be part of it. Similar to consumerism, it is also vague, blur, and trying to harvest consumers’ eye ball and mind in order to lead them into the trap of consumerism. Big data also lives on the infrastructural base of internet. It absorbs information through internet and apply its trick to consumers to control consumers’ behavior and shopping habit. The article also mentioned about how the digital aesthetics are shifting from depth to surface due to the development of internet. This inspired me to create the poster that is bold, noisy and uses the simplest graphic language since in the consumerism aspect, because of information overload on internet and the fast pace life style, merchants must produce advertisement that are shallow and easy to understand in order to be catchy.

• GALLOWAY, A. and THACKER, E., 2004. Protocol, Control and Network. In: Grey Room, 17. pp.6-29.

Nowadays, people are enticing to believe that everything can be protected by the interconnection. However, I believe the interconnection can also be the protocol to control us, for example big data. Due to the development of big data, everything we do are under surveillance, and to some extent can manipulate users’ behavior without user noticing. Just like the authors states in the article, technological network is protocol, and the misuse of it can lead to political fissures in network. Therefore, I wanted to critics the over use of the network protocol and how it is affecting the consumerism society. The reading also inspired me in a way that it talked about the graph theory in the control society, which we are all unconsciously involved. As a result, I implanted the graph theory and created the responsive graphic element in my video to criticize this idea.

Extended critical analysis

• Leach, W., 2011. Land of Desire. New York: Random House US.

Consumerism is a macro-vocabulary. Some people say that the birth of consumerism has led to uncontrolled lending and the outflow of financial capital, creating false economic prosperity and eventually forming an economic bubble. The country and the people would eventually be suffered the consequences. But if there is no consumerism, the public will not have the motivation to work, the technological and economic development will stop. The people are the primary productive force, and desire is the primary driving force.

As the book was portraying the image of people from all industries are committed to making people fall in love with shopping, that includes business owners, mall managers, bankers, investors, artists, advertisers, curators, designers and so on. Artists and designers use their artistic expertise to make the shopping mall magnificent and colorful. Bankers and financial institutions see business opportunities, making it extremely convenient for people to spend overdrafts. From seats, menus, decorations, to buildings, stained glass, curtain, walls. Every detail is to make shopping more comfortable. However, the cognition of consumerism should be objective, and consumerism should be limited to the basis of not over drafting the future, rather than quickly solving consumer desires by overdraw. As practitioners in the design industry, how to have a positive impact on consumerism is a topic we need to study.

With the advancement of technology and economy, most areas in the world have solved the most basic needs of the people, except for the extremely poor areas, but a variety of consumption choices have been derived. Seizing the minds of consumers become the first step in market competition. Traditional media, new media, and digital media publicity are the first way to reach consumers, and graphic design is inseparable from this approach. It is equivalent to opening the door to consumers’ minds. The methods and content of graphic design can convey different messages to consumers which can cause either blind consumption that can have a negative impact on consumerism or rational consumption that will have a positive impact. Graphic design is also a mind game. Therefore, from the current market environment, graphic design is an indispensable part of influencing people’s consumerism ideology.

According to the book, merchants learn from artists and designers to launch many new advertising operation methods, and use pictures to convey product information, also decorate the windows in an artistic way, so as to continuously create new fashion trends. As for now, graphic design is continuingly serving for business and it can manipulate the collective consensus and drive people’s desire.

Moreover, there’s a growing popularity of products/design that are “form over content”. A notebook with some designs and brand effect can sell for over a hundred pounds, and a small portion of home-cooked food may become a Michelin star dish in a decorative plate. Merchants realized early on that design was very important to the success of mass production, and that many items were based on their appearance and shape, rather than their internal structure or function. However, as designers, we should reflect on the consumerist society, analyze how the thinking of the supremacy of consumption affects our thinking, and raise people’s awareness using the tools of graphic design.

• Warhol, A., 1962. Campbell’s Soup Cans. [Synthetic polymer paint on canvases].

In 1962, Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans, shown in Los Angeles, consisted of 32 canvases, each painted with a Campbell’s Soup Can, done using a semi-mechanical screen-printing technique. This work, which is now regarded as Warhol’s representative work, was very mediocre at the time. On the contrary, this exhibition sparked discussions on whether Warhol was an artist, and whether “Campbell’s Soup Cans have artistic value”, which made Warhol, who had little influence at the time, become a conversation topic in the art world. Warhol believes that the commercial society has accelerated the homogenization of consumer goods, and it has also smoothed out class. And pop culture is the most magical thing in consumerism society, and it is all-pervasive.

Also, this work is specifically prepared for the exhibition, which accentuate the commercial appearance of the pre-selected subjects. At a glance, the entire piece appears to be the shelves of a supermarket. The canvases are placed next to each other, like a parody of a gallery. In the gallery, normally each piece its name and description, but in his work the corresponding ones are pork, turkey, tomatoes, peas, asparagus and so on. Warhol also admitted that he chose a subject that seemed so banal, such as the boxed soup, and the reason for choosing it was simply because Warhol was used to eating boxed soup: “I used to drink it. I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years.” Similar to the today’s consumerism society, many luxury brands are launching mundane objects but sells for hundreds or even thousands of ponds just because their brand recognition. One of the best examples can be the brick from Supreme.

Of course, Warhol’s cans are symbols of commercial production which also embody his critique of this fetishism. Warhol blends pop culture and creates artistic ambiguity by breaking the traditional rules of the game to creates the irony. But, at the same time the image of the soup cans can also bring back the memory of taste. This shows that the correct use of graphic design can resonate with the viewers and deliver the messages through direct or indirect imagery, typography, composition, colors and so on.

Warhol knows how to package himself and understands the preferences of the market. He cleverly applies the concept of advertising to his art form, using consumer goods, celebrities, news stories and repetitive images to highlight the concept of “mass production”. I believe in the graphic communication design industry, this is also a very important way of creating designs because graphic designs are for the people, and the main point is how to catch viewers’ attention and deliver the messages you want to portray in your work.

Another feature of Campbell’s Soup Can is that its image most intuitively represents the object of mass consumption. Image production and consumerism have always been mutually reinforcing. There are also economic problems behind the flood of images, and consumerism is an important part of it.

As Hito Steyerl states in her essay “In Defense of the poor image”, poor images are poor because they are not assigned any value (Steyerl, 2012). A question raised in my head, what if we turn something that is extremely valuable into poor images, how does that change its value? Art masterpieces are usually sold in extremely expensive prices but how do we define their values? As I turned the art masterpieces into poor images and pixelated, they gradually become unrecognizable, and it is the process of devaluation. However, on the other hand, viewers become the editor, critics, translator and co-author of the poor image through the decoding process.

Annotated Bibliography

From the reading list:

• Steyerl, H., 2012. In Defense of the Poor Image. The Wretched of the Screen, Berlin: Sternberg Press, pp.31-45.

In the essay, Steyerl states that the ‘poor image’ is the result of mass-reproduction and are often distributed with less care in quality and a heavily emphasize on quantity. Also, she argues that low resolution makes the image out of focus which lowers its value. Therefore, I referenced this idea of devaluation and explored the value of arts. I’ve also seen the overuse of “poor image” on many social media platforms. Some iconic images are manipulated with computer software to be made into memes. This further inspired me as the poor images can be a sign of users becomes the co-author/editor of the image.

• Tenen, D., 2017. Literature down to a pixel. Plain Text: The Poetics of Computation, Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp.165-195.

The author Tenen argues that the change of the medium from paper to pixel entails a series of corresponding changes in the mode of perception. And from physical to digital, it affects how people perceive the work, for example eye movement, posture, and etc. So, as I turned the paintings into digital format, the mode of perception change at the same time. The original way of seeing these paintings would be to physically go to the museum and having the immersive experience, however, when they are turn into digital format, one can just see it through internet and hundreds of miles from the physical paintings. Also, by pixelating the paintings, the faux low-fidelity aesthetic asserts its independence from the history of the art piece, as a result manipulating their original value.

From my own researches:

• Findlay, M., 2014. The Value of Art: Money, Power, Beauty. Munich: PRESTEL.

As a veteran in the circle, Findlay is very familiar with the operating rules of the art market. His experiences constitute his reflections on the commercial and social value of art. But what Findlay values ​​the most is the most essential aesthetic value of art. In this book, he combined his decades of experience to summarize a set of methods for appreciating art. The commercial value of art is essentially a consensus. Picasso’s paintings are worth tens of millions, because everyone has a consensus on the name Picasso. Also, the aesthetic value of art goes beyond what language can express, and the aesthetic experience of art can activate people’s inner feelings. As a result, for my project, by manipulating the aesthetic of the art piece, I was able to devaluate them but because it was also another form of aesthetic experience, it can never be valueless.

• Artincontext.org. 2022. Most Expensive Paintings – A Look at the Wold’s Most Valuable Paintings. [online] Available at: <https://artincontext.org/most-expensive-paintings/#:~:text=Salvator%20Mundi%20(1500)%20by%20Leonardo%20da%20Vinci, Artist%20of%20Painting&text=At%20an%20auction%20held%20at,a%20nineteen%2Dminute%20bidding%20war.>.

This website listed the most expensive paintings ever sold in the history and talked about their reasons being so expensive. I referenced this list to create my project for this week. Looking at these painting all together, we can see that the paintings are pricy because they represent an idea, or reflect a history/movement, or the author uses unique techniques. Art pieces can not only fulfill people’s aesthetic needs but also is a tool for the artists to express themselves.

Practices:

• Schmidt, H., 2021. What Is the Poor Image Rich in?. [online] Helenaschmidt.com. Available at: <http://www.helenaschmidt.com/>.

Similarly inspired by Hito Steyer’s essay, this website is a collection of poor images, which can be uploaded anonymously by users. As a user of many social media platform, I can see the overuse of poor images. They are often low-resolution images shot by personal devices or memes created by manipulating famous art works. Schmidt’s archive website inspired me in the way that poor images are not only restricted by its resolution quality but also the low-class visual feelings it creates to the viewers. There are lots of archive about famous art pieces been turn into poor images through the manipulation and reproduction. This makes me think about how easily we can change the value of an image through recreation and manipulation.

• Mapes, M., 2014. Dutch male specimen: J. [photographs, painted photographs, fabric samples, rope, sand, sea shells, coffee, tea, tea bags, tobacco, gunpowder, sugar, driftwood, hair, cast resin, clay, thread, insect pins, capsules, specimen bags, magnifying boxes].

Michael Mapes creates portraits of people by putting pieces of photos and many other mundane objects. When looking at the portrait as a whole, it looks like a low-resolution image, and when looking more closely to the objects or pieces of photo, they look like swarms of smaller portraits of the person they depict. The recreation combine with the focus on detail is what makes the work valuable and innovative. As for my project, I decompose the art pieces into pixels which forms a low-resolution version of the original painting. When determine the value of the painting, it can be affected by its history value, painter as well as the techniques used and many more. By turning the painting into pixelated images, I am eliminating the details of the paining but rather focus on the image as a whole. As a result, this causes the images devaluate.

As we were visiting the museum, the New York Times cover of May 24, 2020, which marked the harrowing milestone of 100,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the United States took my attention. In the beginning of 2020, the sudden COVID-19 crisis swept the world like a butterfly effect. This historic crisis and turning point has allowed us to see the various states of the world under the epidemic. If documentaries can truly record the current plight of all human beings, can it also be presented through the language of graphic design? How grief is manifested? And how that tells the story of the pandemic?

By collecting information on group memories, statistics and news under the pandemic, we wanted to truly and objectively reflect everything that is happening in the surrounding society through the medium of experimental book design, so as to output thoughts and values ​​on the global crisis.

When graphic design becomes a medium for human beings to re-examine memories, events and grief, it can not only better study and excavate the practical value and social significance of graphic design language, but also enable the public to reflect on the past and restart the future.

Annotated bibliography

Texts outside the reading list

1. Berinato, S., 2020. That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: <https://hbr.org/2020/03/that-discomfort-youre-feeling-is-grief>.

A genuine feeling of communal grief has arisen during the worldwide epidemic. In the text, David Kessler, a grief expert, describes how the standard five phases of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, sadness, and acceptance) apply today in an interview with HBR, as well as the practical strategies we may take to handle the worry.

In the experimental book we designed, I was in charged of the first chapter which talks about the very beginning of the pandemic. What was happening was incomprehensible even to scientists and doctors. It also felt violent and scary and confusing, full of misinformation, questions, denial and disbelieve. In the article, the part about anticipatory grief resonates with my chapter the most. One reaction to the loss of safety wrought by the pandemic, at both a micro and macro level, can be seen as the war on information and the denial of the virus itself. That denial is a coping mechanism, a way to channel grief into something that feels active and gives people back their sense of control.

2. Pattee, E., 2020. Covid-19 makes us think about our mortality. Our brains aren’t designed for that.. [online] The Washington Post. Available at: <https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-thinking-about-death/2020/10/02/1dc0f7e4-c520-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html>.

This article records several mental activities the author was going though in the beginning of the pandemic and talks about the ways in which humans avoid thinking about mortality and how we behave when we are reminded of death. The denial of your own potential death was common to see during the epidemic period as people are protesting and spreading the conspiracy theories about COVID-19. It answers why people are reacting such ways. Since our project is to tell the story of the pandemic through the lens of grief manifested on its different forms, it enhances our project in a way that we as designers can use our visual languages to manifest the grief, educate people, document the current plight, reflect on the past and restart the future, as human beings are more tended to attract by visual representations than long texts and vast numbers.

Texts from the reading list

1. Laranjo, F., 2014. Critical Graphic Design: Critical of What? | Modes of Criticism. [online] Modes of Criticism. Available at: <https://modesofcriticism.org/critical-graphic-design/>

In the article, it states “The critiques are targeted at social and political phenomena.” Like our project, we are interested in how grief can be presented through the language of graphic design and how we as a designer can record and reflect on the social crisis using our tools. People’s reaction in the COVID-19 pandemic from disbelief to suspension to mourning to living in the shadow, we wanted to record these significant moments of a reflection of living through one of the most consequential events in recent history. Linking back to the article, critical graphic design is also the result of an increased importance of the social sciences, humanities and their multiple research methods being applied, changed and appropriated by design education and designers. The object we chose as the inspiration, the New York Times cover “U.S. deaths near 100,00, an incalculable loss”, is also using critical graphic design to raise awareness of how serious the pandemic is by transform anonymous data into a meaningful memorial of named individuals. Therefore, it is crucial that our project can get people start to think about these social phenomena and introspect on themselves.

2. DiSalvo, C., 2012. Adversarial Design, MIT Press, Cambridge. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central.

There was a lot of social, political, economic, and humanity issues been revealed through the Covid-19 pandemic. Carl DiSalvo analyses how technology design might challenge and engage the political in his book Adversarial Design. He discusses a process he calls “adversarial design,” in which he employs design’s means and forms to confront people’s ideas, values, and facts. In my opinion, we as designers should use our design to engage people and raise awareness of our current social issues, to interact and make actions. As for our project, we are also trying to do the same thing. By recording the sense of grief from the pandemic, and help our readers to understand and memorize these specific moments in the near history, our goal is to explore and uncover the practical utility and social relevance of graphic design language, while also allowing the public to reflect on the past and relaunch the future.

Design practices/projects

1. Shibuya, S., 2021. Taser / Gun. [Acrylic paint, newspaper].

Sho Shibuya is an artist who creates news-inspired work that captured the essence of some of the world’s most important events. By using abstraction and devoid of words, Sho’s work express the events in a manner that a clean line of text could not express. This specific work talks about another African American person was killed by the police, while the officer claimer that she confused her taser and her gun. This piece illustrate grief in a way that the striking visual of the bullet hole and use of the neon yellow, which is the color of the taser, speak for itself without text the fact that it was an unbelievable mistake to make. He was also sharing his sympathy and emotion through his work. Using the same reference (the NYT cover) as Sho Shibuya, we also wanted our project to create resonance and empathy towards the Covid-19 crisis. We believe that graphic design has the power to influence emotions and emotions can influence actions.

2. Tiravanija, R.,2014. Untitled 2014 (We have the Light). [Lithograph].

Similarly using Newspaper as the medium, artist Rirkrit Tiravanija paint over the original newspaper which talks about the tsunami in Japan with enlarged uplifting texts in bright colors to bring out contrasts and suggests a better future. Like our chosen object, the NYT cover which records information about some of the people who had died from Covid-19, the tsunami news also lists a frightening information about people who has lost their life because of it. It creates a powerful impact to the audiences. The enlarged text treatment Tiravanija has done was a why to bring hope and comforting to the audiences. Like our project, while we were documenting grief and tragedy, we were also trying to engage our readers to rethink what has happened and restart future. In our last chapter, we tell the end of the story, the survivors of the pandemic who bear the scars of the disease and also some way of how we as survivors can move forward to a brighter future.

Draft 1

Digital printers are fundamental tools used in our design process and they are supposed to make exact copies. Printing anything several times should result in it looking exactly the same. However, it never quite works out that way especially with inkjet printers. The color settings, alignment and resolutions can have a great impact on the printing outcomes, thus making the design outcome somewhat unpredictable. As a result, questions raised in my head while working with the printers this week: To what extent can the printing process affect the original design? How do we value the imperfections? How to define the fine line between it being a mistake/error or an unexpected/unplanned design breakthrough?

Draft 2

To jump out of the usual way of designing which is by rational, how can we generate visual representation from the possibility of movement and change rather than unflappable rationality? As a result, the second week I explored further with digital printing in layers, including changing the values in resolution, offsets, and colors. My expectations of how the printing outcome would be and what it actually has become clashes even more. When I switch the colors of the color layers, the entire vibe of the image changes. The change in resolutions and offsets results have yielded frozen moments of each layers, which recorded the printing process. This resonate with Martin Lister’s point illustrated in his book Photographic Image in Digital Culture that when software and image collide, the results are not just a new, processual picture, but also a shift with implications for how we think about representation, memory, time, and identity (Lister, 2013). I think this also somewhat answers my question from last week that to see the outcome as an unexpected design breakthrough rather than it being a mistake, it has to generate a representation, memory, time or identity, which makes the irrational outcome meaningful.

Reference:

The Photographic Image in Digital Culture, edited by Martin Lister, Taylor & Francis Group, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=1415807.

Draft 3

Digital printers are fundamental tools used in our design process and they are supposed to make exact copies. Printing anything several times should result in it looking exactly the same. However, it never quite works out that way especially with inkjet printers. The color settings, alignment and resolutions can have a great impact on the printing outcomes, thus making the design outcome somewhat unpredictable.

Initially I was wondering to what extent can the printing process affect the original design and how to define the fine line between the printing imperfection being a mistake or an unexpected design breakthrough. I then started to explore how we can generate visual representation from the possibility of movement and, breaking the usual way of designing which is by rationale.

As a result, I worked with digital printing in layers, including changing the values in resolution, offsets, and colors; repeated the same procedures and noted each iteration down. My expectations of how the printing outcome would be and what it actually has become clashes even more. When I switch the colors of the color layers, the entire vibe of the image changes. The change in resolutions and offsets results have yielded frozen moments of each layers, which reveal the printing systems and the mechanism. This resonate with Martin Lister’s point illustrated in his book Photographic Image in Digital Culture that when software and image collide, the results are not just a new, processual picture, but also a shift with implications for how we think about representation, memory, time, and identity (Lister, 2013). I think this also somewhat answers my question from last week that to see the outcome as an unexpected design breakthrough rather than it being a mistake, it has to generate a representation, memory, time or identity, which makes the irrational outcome meaningful.

The artist Alan Skees had a series of work called American Glitch which he plays around with the idea of processing code using digital slit-scan ink jet print (Matney, 2019). In one of his interview, he stated that digital art is in the canon of printing age. As our technology advances, printed matters are facing dramatic challenges however Alan Skees believes digital art is just an evolution of printmaking because the code is the fixed matrix that imagery is derived from. It is the plate or stone in the digital age (Matney, 2019). I totally agree with him. The textures and details as well as the expectation in the printed matters adds so much weight to the work which can never be rendered/reproduced in digital work.

Reference:

The Photographic Image in Digital Culture, edited by Martin Lister, Taylor & Francis Group, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=1415807.

Matney, J., 2019. Conversation with Kristin and Alan Skees — Linda Matney Gallery. [online] Linda Matney Gallery. Available at: <https://www.lindamatneygallery.com/news/2019/9/27/kristinandalanskees> [Accessed 1 February 2022].

A manifesto is often used to spread message, intentions and ideas. As a result, a manifesto would normally contain intent, views, and motivation and present them in a straightforward way. In this written response, I chose the article ‘Fuck Content’ (Rock,2013) and rewrite it in to the form of the ‘Conditional Design Manifesto’ (Blauvelt, et al) in order to directly convey the main messages illustrated in the ‘Fuck Content’, which is the form (or the container) is just as important as the content, and the manipulation of the form can also change the content. Just like my project in method of translating, I picked several documentary photographs and translating them together into a zine, cropping them to focus on certain views and adding comments and explanations, which tells a story of “Love” in a special period of time.

Reference:

Rock, M. (2013) ‘Fuck Content’, Multiple Signatures: On Designers, Authors, Readers and Users. New York: Rizzoli International.

Blauvelt,  A. et al. ‘Conditional Design Manifesto’, Conditional Design Workbook, pp. ii.