Evaluation - OUGD401

Context of Practice has been somewhat of a challenging module for me. It has tested my ability to write academically, something of which I have not always been so good at, so this has given me a chance to develop not just my own conceptual knowledge of graphic design as a subject, but how to get to grips with what it takes to write correctly, giving me valuable insights on how my dissertation should look in the future.

When it came to choosing a question, passion had to be a factor for me, and Consumerism was my personal go to. I enjoy studying the effects that design can have on people and what reactions it can generate in the average person. Going down the route of semiotics was not an easy subject for me to get to grips with, but once I’d narrowed it down to technology branding, it was easier for me to analyze the effects a brand can have to the consumer.

Throughout my time looking through books, searching academic resources online and even taking notes in lectures, I found myself asking so many questions regarding my writing, some of which I struggled to communicate in my writing due to only having 3000 words to express them. However, this is something I need to get used to for the future as it isn’t going to change, and I shouldn’t let quantity cloud a correct writing structure.

As much as I found this module challenging, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The main factor I found that was limiting me, though, was my time management. Having 4 different deadlines so close together at the end of the year, I found myself wishing I had stuck to my guns and got onto finishing my essay at a more appropriate time earlier on in the year. I realise that this is an unavoidable feat that I must adjust to if I’m going to be successful in my second and third year of study, and most importantly, in employment.

To address my shortcomings, I aim for 100% attendance and to precipitate in more group orientated tasks that will help me get to grips with what I’m investigating and essentially what I choose to write about within my given subject. Not only will this help me personally, but it will help my peers at the same time, as I often find myself thinking of pointers that could help them within their writing also.

This module has given me valuable insights on how I should plan out my year of study and not leave things to the last minute which was incredibly unprofessional of me. I have suffered the consequence’s and will not let something along the lines of this affect my studies again. I want my second year COP module to be successful and I am sure to be on the ball with attending lecture’s, seminar’s, tutorial’s and group critiques. I enjoy developing my conceptual knowledge and will not let other modules get in the way of that.

Design Boards - OUDG401

Final Design - Practical - OUGD401

Due to poor time management and lack of recourses, regretfully I was unable to make a physical version of my final piece which disappointed me slightly.

Although, overall I believe my final outcome best represents what I was planning to communicate in the idea development section of this project.

It's safe to say I have underrestimated the amount of thought and time must go into creating your final outcomes within the COP module. I will cover this more in my evaluation of this particular project, though.

Essay - Final Draft - OUGD401

How semiotics is used within technology branding.

Branding has been apart of technology ever since the computers introduction to the consumer market in the mid 70’s. Its only intention was to completely revolutionise and create convenience within day-to-day office tasks to which had never been seen before. However, since the arrival of the World Wide Web in the 90’s, society has had a dramatically increased need to become more ‘connected’ within the social construction of today’s modern world; it is technology that is at the heart of this huge transition and fundamentally how one interoperates the signs of which its branding creates.
Primarily focusing on a premise that semiotics is used heavily within technology branding, exploring how it affects the behaviour of the target market and how it generates a feeling of want and desire for the product, purely by the visual interpretation that viewer creates through the form of branding schemes, advertisements and publicity produced to further increase the persuasion to purchase the said product. The same concept can often play out in the form of personal envy in what we find desirable as John Berger often states in his television series ‘Ways of Seeing’, for example, someone else may own something you think you do not need, but when you see him or her using the product, one can feel jealousy toward that other person, thus persuading you to go out and spend money on something you never thought you’d need in the first place. Resulting in swings and roundabouts when something will be branded as obsolete, this sign can quite often be enough persuasion for someone to replace a product solely on the fact it has been advertised as, having new features or is of an increased specification.


Since WWII, after Alan Turing created the very first basic algorithm for the ‘digital computer’, the initial stepping-stones were laid for the average consumer electronics that we see so often today, with the corporate super giants like Apple and Microsoft arising during the mid-70’s, and so the personal computer was born. The market was often perceived as more of a business investment, with advertisers attempting to sway people toward a more digital form of organizing their lives and careers, a good example of this is an Apple advertisement from 1985 which enhanced the computers ability to represent statistical data in a quick, neat and professional fashion, “To help people do what they spend most of their time doing. Communicating.” (EVERYAPPLEAD, 2013).

Apple Inc. will be a main focal point throughout my findings; this is because they have been through countless amounts of different promotional strategies, much more than its competing companies. Their design strategy, which hasn’t always been the best, as they have indeed had many failed products which consumers did not adapt well to, which was more than often due to Apple using ineffective branding to promote the product, although, they have succeeded many more times, which has lead to their current domination of the technological market for quite some years now. A prime example is their logo; the sheer impact of the simplistic yet meaningfulness has indeed reflected what perception consumers has of their products. For instance, if they had kept it the same as their original and overcomplicated logo and not had Rob Janoff re-imagine the company one cannot begin to imagine what the company would have to show for themselves today (fig 1).
The late 20th century was an obscure time for consumerist technology in terms of it being perceived of as an elitist industry. Theory states that a consumer will choose a brand based on what they recognise, but in the early days, this was not an implementation within consumer society. Until more recently where social convention bases a person’s status upon what brand of mobile phone or laptop they own, in comparison to when companies were opting to pursue branding strategies that attract more business orientated sales to gain revenue, while this is still the case today, it just isn’t as dominant as the latter.


With the introduction of the Macintosh computer after Apple’s disappointing endeavour with Lisa sales, which at the time would have cost the consumer $20,000 of todays money, Steve Jobs was trying hard to convince the public to adapt to the ‘personal computer’ concept with his radical and expensive idea’s. However the board members at the time seen this as a waste of revenue and wanted to ‘follow in IBM’s footsteps’ to a more business orientated company, which did not need much, if any consumer branding.


The departure of Jobs during the early Macintosh days left Apple in trouble, it wasn’t until his return in 1996 that things really took off. Jonathan Ive, the head of industrial design at the time, was let loose on the drawing board to create something with ‘curves’, something which would be considered an extension of ones self, this is when the first

iMac was introduced, consumers loved it, and so the personal computer brand was redefined.
Expanding on the ideology that a computer should always be at arms length, I move forward in time to the Apple Watch. Having very recently been released, the sheer amount of publicity, advertising and product placement it has received, it is hard to steer your attention to anything else. Apple products make you say to yourself ‘I want that’, but only a handful of consumers stop and ask themselves why do they actually ‘need’ the product. Steve Wozniak, an Apple Inc. co founder, has said in a recent interview with the Australian Financial Review "If you buy the really high-priced ones, the jewellery ones, then you're not buying a smart watch that has a bunch of apps... Like a Rolex watch, you're buying if for prestige and a label and a symbol of who you are." and later concludes with "The fact is the difference between a $10,000 watch and a $17,000 dollar watch is only the band, and for an engineer like me I don't live in that world, that's not my world." (WOZNIAK, Steve, 2015).
Amplification that the co-founder and the brains behind the Apple computer would not even purchase one of these extremely expensive smart watches cannot be echoed enough. This goes to show that no matter how practical or beneficial they can brand a product like this to be, there will always be people who buy it to create a sense of eminence for themselves, in an attempt to generate covetousness in the eyes of others.


Moving away from the specifics of Apple and focusing more on the technology market as a whole, the amount of competitiveness to portray a product as more social and convenient, without sounding too satirical, is what makes the tech industry so ironic. We look around us today and perceive a person not owning a mobile device that contains social capabilities out and about as an anomaly, when in fact, why should a person feel the need to be increasingly social when they have human interaction right there in front of them? That’s not to say technology branding only has this one purpose, it is much more than that. A brand must engage the consumer and make them desire the product that is being offered, and more so if they feel they may need the product for a certain purpose, whether this be recreational or professional. A brand must be diverse and communicate all of the technical specifications yet still be translatable to all consumers and audiences otherwise it can and will fail to attract the custom it so desperately needs.

Many consumers are unaware of technical specifics of a product and will often sort to brand recognition to make a decision on whether to purchase a product or not, more specifically, labelled as ‘generation X’, this meaning the generation before the digital revolution. This is why it is so important that a brand can effectively establish itself as being of high popularity, but this is increasingly becoming not the case. A book called ‘How cool brands stay hot’ stated that tech giants, specifically Apple, have a brand DNA comparable to no other, that they knew that 1960’s modernist design would increasingly appeal more to today’s younger ‘generation Y’, and this has indeed been the case, this then meaning Gen X will listen to what Gen Y has to say about purchasing a new product based on how they perceive the brand, which is more often than not formed from a social perspective. With their reply swaying off to what they own and what they are influenced by within consumer culture.


The Narcissism Epidemic by Dr. Twenge “linked the increased importance of product design to our image-obsessed culture” (VAN DEN BERGH, Joeri and Behrer, Mattias, 2011) which swiftly leads me onto Apple’s branding strategy that focuses primarily on emotion, striving to create simplicity within parts of human life where there used to be complexities. But it makes you question the personality of the brand, many consumers that prefer the competitors, namely Microsoft, Samsung and Android (Google), see it as a lifeless commodity that has a cult following willing to pay premium prices for mediocre technology. This is often perceived as unnecessary criticism from consumers who have strong opinions of their own personal preference, because it is without a doubt that Apple have by far, the most advanced branding recognition throughout the globe, love it or hate it.
Simplicity is one word that everyone can agree relates to the Apple brand, more specifically, “In a visually sophisticated age, with competition increasing exponentially and products/services becoming increasingly similar, design remains the great differentiator. Design always has been an immensely influential power in creating differentiation and it always will be.” (OLLINS, Wally, 2004). Design is becoming increasingly important within the brand strategy of all industries, with the recent transition from skeuomorphism (A design concept that simulates real life textures, gradients and perspectives) to flat design (fig2), many companies are following in Apple’s footsteps, responding in a similar fashion to the increasingly minimalistic and ‘digital’ transition. This leads onto the question that, as brands are becoming less and less lifelike, are the personalities of those consumers who endorse it as well? And this is, without a doubt, the direction humanity is heading towards.

Social benefits of technology play a huge part in today’s consumer society. Having a device capable of taking a picture of your lunch, and then to be able to compare this with others through the likes of Instagram seems much more important to someone than interacting with who you may be eating that lunch with. The paradigm that virtual ‘likes’ creates a false sense of accomplishment is indeed very true in today’s world. Social status is often perceived of as higher if a person’s virtual presence is more significant than others, meaning a strive to be consistently online, accessible and influential becomes a main focus within a company that may have otherwise branded the opposite. Blackberry is a great example of such a transition, with a business-orientated model that focused on professionalism that quickly turned into something else when they owned a large share of the consumer market a few years ago. They realized more and more people were purchasing their product based solely on the fact that it increased convenience in social communication. What happened to the success that once was? You might say that the competitors simply evolved more rapidly, or that the “two co-founders who had refused to adapt to the modern era” (GRUMAN, Galen, 2014) had simply just ruined the company before it had even taken advantage of the social aspect it harnessed, which it had incorporated into its most recent brand ‘Blackberry 10 OS’ which in fact failed to take off, with the likes of Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Window’s Phone leading the market.


To have a successful brand in the consumer tech market, a company must evolve and adapt, and even predict what the average consumer may desire in the future through means of innovative branding schemes. Apple have done this better than any, Google have done a good job with Android, but their branding strategy just isn’t as adaptable as Apple’s, and statistical data proves this, with the market shares increasing year on year, ever so slightly overtaking Android in countries like USA and Japan. The blank canvas that Apple provide in their packaging, advertising and promotions, give the consumer room for imagination, up until more recently the design on the boxes for their products have been very detailed (fig 3) in comparison to the more recent iPhone 6/6 Plus (fig 4).

It can be argued that they purely did this out of minimizing recourse usage, as stated on their environmental report from September 2014: “U.S. retail packaging of iPhone 6 is 20% lighter and consumes 34% less volume than the first-generation iPhone packaging.” (INC., Apple, 2014), Proving that as things become lighter and thinner you are thereby receiving less material for your money. It is clear that consumers are willing to pay premium prices for something, which production costs are considerably reduced each year and retail at an increased price (Probably due to the workers in Chinese factories being paid questionable wages and working “up to 16 hours a day and as many as 18 days in a row” (PANORAMA, BBC, 2014) but this is a whole different side of the coin.) Yet consumers still wish to purchase regardless.


With design for packaging becoming increasingly simpler, it is intriguing to consider if corporation’s will go onto produce more flat, lifeless, dead-eyed designs for their products, as journalist Tara Horner points out that “The only real problem with flat designs is that they often go too far. Minimalism for the sake of offering a more simplistic, user-friendly design is a very noble goal. But too minimalist creates usability issues, such as the ones we are seeing with the flat design trend.” (HORNER, Tara, 2014). Primarily focusing on Apple, who has provided plenty of evidence that designs for products are becoming simpler, as are the brains of the consumers willing to discard something based on a larger screen size, or being able to wear it on your wrist. It is hardly an investment to go from what was the latest tech 12 months before, to something newer that has just been introduced and looks almost exactly the same, does exactly the same job, but has a couple of new features that haven’t been seen before. The idea that not all, but most consumers base a product on how it looks, how it feels, and more importantly how the brand is perceived by others, rather than how they view it themselves.


How a brand represents itself is heavily influenced on the way it has been executed. For example, the Windows transition to its ‘metro’ redesign (fig 5) was to bring it into the present, however it was received poorly and still to this day consumers are reluctant to adapt to the new design of the operating system. Although, this is completely normal human behaviour, the human species does not like change and is threatened by the idea of it. When familiarities begin to change, people react accordingly, but this is not always the case, the idea of having the most up-to-date software/hardware brings a sense of

exclusivity to the consumer, and consumers love the idea of being different to others, when in theory, they are merely following in the footsteps of many others. Being fooled by the latest billboards, web ads, magazine columns and even to go as far as to justify their purchases by means of deterring people away from the truth and to go as far as to use persuasion to convince others it makes their lives better, these are generally considered as social consumers, these are what makes up the majority of todays market share in technology. So a brand must react accordingly to attract the right kind of consumer, it can be considered a kind of manipulation, such as keeping a sense of mystery and secrecy associated with products generating plenty of hype and anticipation has proven extremely successful in the social consumer market (fig 6).


We are all victims of social consumerism in some way or another. One of the main influences being visual signs within a brand, such as being more appealing to a certain audience or in Apple’s case, a universal brand that can be recognized as prestigious in all languages and countries around the world. The functionality of a brand within a tech corporation relies heavily on the audience; “Graphic identities need to reflect the values, demographics, and psychology of their intended audience. Many essential elements of a logo—shape, colour, pattern, etc.—mean different things to different audiences.” (BUDELMANN, Kevin, 2012) This just goes to prove that people who do not endorse Apple products, base their opinion of Apple’s brand on their simplistic approach, whether the brand may seem patronizing or they feel loyalty to another brand that they think deserves their recognition, it is unknown. But by looking at the opinions of those who comment on the endless articles associated with Apple technology on the Internet, it is clear that some form of intimidation is generated by the brand for consumers to react negatively. Proving that brand loyalty plays a massive part in a consumerist society.


Consumers will often disagree with each other, feeling the need to defend their preferred brands, and this is what is essentially regarded as a brand simply doing its job. Harnessing the ability to manipulate the consumer into believing that they are of superiority to others through means of successful targeted promotion, band awareness becomes somewhat of a competition between consumers. Communicating messages that generate, fantasy, desire, hatred and envy within a community of competitive behaviour to give a sense of superiority.

Bibliography


BUDELMANN, Kevin. 2012. Brand Psychology. [online]. [Accessed 03 May 2015]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.peopledesign.com/brand-psychology

EVERYAPPLEAD. 2013. Apple Macintosh Office ad featuring Microsoft – The Things (1985). [online]. [Accessed 31 January 2015]. Available from World Wide Web: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HikYV5QG6fk

GRUMAN, Galen. 2014. Dead again: BlackBerry sinks hopes for a resurrection. [online]. [Accessed 03 May 2015]. Available from World Wide Web:
http://www .infoworld.com/article/2609558/blackberry/dead-again--blackberry-sinks- hopes-for-a-resurrection.html

HORNER, Tara. 2014. Why the Flat Design Trend is Hurting Usability. [online]. [Accessed 03 May 2015]. Available from World Wide Web:
http://www .vandelaydesign.com/why-the-flat-design-trend-is-hurting-usability/

INC., Apple. 2014. iPhone 6 Environmental Report. [online]. [Accessed 03 May 2015]. Available from World Wide Web: https://www.apple.com/environment/reports/docs/iPhone6_PER_Sept2014.pdf

OLLINS, Wally. 2004. Wally Olins On Brand. London: Thames & Hudson.

PANORAMA, BBC. 2014. Apple labour conditions: Chinese workers who make products for tech giant 'work 16 hours a day, 18 days in a row', BBC claims. [online]. [Accessed 03 May 2015]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/undercover-panorama-reporters- reveal-working-conditions-at-factory-making-apple-products-in-china-9934861.html

VAN DEN BERGH, Joeri and Mattias BEHRER. 2011. How cool brands stay hot. KoganPage.

WOZNIAK, Steve. 2015. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on the Apple Watch, electric cars and the surpassing of humanity. [online]. [Accessed 02 May 2015]. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.afr.com/technology/apple-cofounder-steve-wozniak-on- the-apple-watch-electric-cars-and-the-surpassing-of-humanity-20150323-1m3xxk


Images

Practical Development - OUGD401

As previously stated, I want to relate my designs to the Apple Watch and how the 12 page Vogue advertisement was aimed at the upper-class and high income earners giving a sense of 'luxury' from a piece of wearable technology.

Sticking to the glamourisation of said products. I'm looking to focus the attention on the real meaning behind having a 'base' model which costs just £350, and another, using a different type of metal, but essentially does the same thing for over x35 that amount. I'm going to try and represent how this boils down to class and wealth. How it becomes more than just a piece of technology and more a statement of your status.

This (very) rough shot shows how I feel I can best illustrate this effect.

Apple's transition to 'Luxury Brand' - OUGD401

Apple is now being considered as a luxury brand due to the most recent reveal, Apple Watch.

This is the first glimmer of a technology based brand being considered as 'high class' and 'luxurious' due to the extravagant price tag that's been placed on their 18-carat yellow and rose gold products.

My main focal point in this post is the humungous 12 page print ad which was placed in the March issue of Vogue Magazine. 

Creating new found emphasis on the design and more specifically style of said products. Choosing Vogue as a home for its advertisement is a perfect place to promote the eccentric and pricey watches.

The statistics of Vogue's target market is as follows:

GENDER

Male — 14%

Female — 86%

AGE

16-34 years — 66%

35-54 years — 28%

55+ years — 6%

Above average income – 63%

Work – 65%

EDUCATION:

Higher — 52%

SOCIAL STATUS:

Business owners, managers, specialists, white-collars - 49%

Source: TNS Russia, NRS - Russia, May - October 2014

61% of readers travel 2-3 times a year

24% of readers choose 5* and 5* + hotels

77% of readers have a car

Vogue is an irreplaceable source of information for a modern woman:

81% of readers say they get the latest news about fashion and beauty from Vogue

67% are inspired by Vogue to experiments in fashion

For 53% Vogue is an authoritative adviser in choosing jewelry and luxury goods

45% say: "I am a shopaholic, and this magazine is just for me!"

72% of readers trust advertisements in Vogue

65% of readers bought goods advertised in Vogue

(Source: Online survey of Vogue readers, Toluna, June 2014)


So as you can tell, the majority of vogue readers makes a terrific target for the expensive fashion orientated commodity. The branding of which makes for a product which has as Jonny Ive puts it, will be “a move away from what is traditionally understood as consumer electronics”. 

This puts a huge emphasis on Apple's increasing interest in fashion branding, something of which technology has never really ventured into until now, I think this will put a good twist onto my practical piece, which will be in the same stye of the vogue ad's, but with a bit of a more literal meaning by incorporating words relating to income, such as 'band' (double meaning, tax band and watch band).

Communication and Mass Media - James Beighton - OUGD401

Wednesday, 6th November 2014

Lecture Notes:

Whilst this lecture had less of an impact on my essay than that of Fred's talk about Visual Communication. I found it useful as it incorporated the theories Fred spoke about into real life examples and how they impact the consumer on a large scale.

Example:

This is an example used in the lecture which caught my eye the most. Being from my favourite period of advertising, the late 50's & the 60's. Modernism was at its highest and simplistic, straight to the point advertisements were knocking about left, right and centre.

It caught my eye as this is something people still refer to as extremely successful advertising and promotion of a product. Then my question was, why change it? Why over-complicate things? In my opinion advertising in todays consumer society relies to heavily on perfect, movie-like hollywood productions which try too hard to generate emotional responses from its audience. Take the John Lewis advertisements for example, as successful as it is, too many other advertisers are trying to mimic it and it becomes boring to the consumer. This is just my two cents of course, but it just goes to show why advertisement like the above Helmut Krone pieces are so effective, it's a breath of fresh air to the consumer, it leaves the imagination open and generates interest in the product without over-complicating things.

Visual Literacy: The Language of Design - Fred Bates - OUGD401

Wednesday, 8th October 2014.

Lecture Notes:

I have chosen to only include notes from lectures that have benefited me in the essay writing process. Just to make things a little more organised and less off-topic. 

I found this lecture was of most value to me as it touched on aspects of the main subject of my own essay, that being, visual literacy, visual communication, syntax, semantics and most importantly semiotics. 

This insightful discussion on these many aspects of design, gave me a good understanding of what they are all about and their differences. Especially when talking about the apple logo as an object, brand and that it can have many meanings but by changing the visual makeup of such a symbol can change a persons perception of the meaning.