Today was the first day back after christmas, and the lecture this afternoon with Tracy focused on branding within art, design and consumer culture. We completed a short alphabet branding quiz to start with, guessing the company names by looking at the recognisable icons/symbols. We then shortly focused on Brain Eno, a British musician and music producer. He quoted:
"Culture is everything we don't have to do. We have to eat but we don't have to have cuisines like Big Macs or Sushi. We have to cover ourselves against the weather but we don't have to be concerned whether we put on Levi's or Yves Saint Laurent. They 'have to' activities are functional and the 'don't have to' stylistic - The main basis on which we make choices is in terms of stylistic differences."
A brand is a visual, emotional, rational image that you associate with a company or product, it has an extremely powerful impact on our beliefs, behaviour and emotion. Consumer Culture is focused on the selling of consumer goods and then, the spending of consumer money. A large part of what we do and value, revolves around the things we all consume. Advertisements are displayed everywhere, billboards, online, TV, posters etc. and they force us to consume the things we like. For example a Costa advert will make us want to buy the new in season drink - this makes 'us' the consumer for buying the product advertised. The culture of consuming is considered oppressive and manipulative as companies use their branding to attract their customers, they are creating profit. 20% of the worlds rich take up 80% of consumptions, therefore only a small proportion of people are using most of the worlds resources. we consume and digest information at such a rapid rate compared to countries that don't have access to the resources we have.
Products and advertisements are used to target us, it allows us to feel like we fit within society; therefore we keep consuming.
Barbara Kruger is a designer, she started out as an editor for large magazine corporations. She produced collage images that questioned moral, society and consumerism. Her designs are often large scale pieces in galleries or on billboards.
Barbara Kruger, I shop therefore I am
(source:http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/feminist/images/BarbaraKruger-I-Shop-Therefore-I-Am-II-1987.jpg)
