Danielle Muntyan
This is working towards objective 4.A and 1.
View the posts on Instagram, here!
Caption: “Consumer culture strikes again! Who caved into the ‘Birthday Editions’? Was gold lips even a thing before Kylie Jenner?”
Caption: Drippy Lips
Caption: Apparently these are the top beauty hashtags on Instagram. Who wants to be apart of the fame game?
Caption: Close Ups – Posters, Postcards and Zines coming soon
This is working towards objective 1.
Below shows notes taken from todays lecture with Annabeth regarding new technologies and how she uses them within her practice to produce, exhibit and curate pieces of Animation, Film and Video.
This lecture made me realise that even though recently I have been researching different technologies within the Beauty and Fashion Industries, that many of the topics discussed could be relayed back to my research question, allowing me to think further about how technology can help with research, whilst also allowing for platforms to experiment with ideas, processes and techniques. It also made me think about how through my current projects I am engaging with social media to showcase my work, reaching a specifically targeted and tailored global audience, and how this instant access to other cultures for example, is quite a recent development.
I also realised that many of the technologies Annabeth discussed have already been used in someway in both the Fashion and Beauty Industries, therefore allowing me to create a more developed mind-map for this specific topic. I have also shown examples in context below. The main technologies which came to mind were the rise of apps, and social media use allowing for a constant stream of ‘virtual gallery experiences’ as Annabeth also noted today, combined with the idea of Live-Stream Video, Integrated Video (within apps and websites for example), UI and UX design, Augmented Reality, VR, Film and Video, CGI and Face Recognition. In regards to my practice and research question, it is important for me to understand the uses and benefits of these technologies as well as the negative impacts they may have over time. Each of these noted technologies may have benefits to the brand using them and may encourage todays current climate of consumer culture, however, in which ways do these effect the self-perception of the audience? For example, the use of CGI to create Avatars, or Apps to digitally edit our photos. Overtime as technologies become even more embedded in our lives how will this affect us? How will this contribute to societal changes? I also noted from discussions from the class today, that some people still do not part take in new technologies, and don’t have mobile phones, therefore how do these technologies exclude some members of society through presuming that everyone is up to speed and aware of such advances?
Thinking about technologies also allow me to understand how important it is to access the right platforms to reach a cross-cultural audience.
Furthermore, this lecture opened my eyes to the amount of events and lectures which take place regarding technologies in the digital age, which may be of benefit to me to really understand the current societal needs to be so dependant upon technology, which in turn may help with my research and understanding of my research question. This have been noted on the second page of my scanned in notes that are shown below.
Industry Examples
Below shows screenshots of the insights of my Instagram Posts to date. The first set of posts shown in my ‘Initial Posts’ blog post are not included in the insights below as Instagram only keeps track of engagement of your most recent 12 posts. Therefore going forward I know to note these sooner and more often in order to analyse the engagement of what the audience likes to see more of, therefore in turn hoping to help shape a final range of posts.
Engagement and insights from this set of Instagram Posts show, that the posts relative to Kylie Jenner’s ‘Kylie Cosmetics’ makeup range were most seen, ‘liked’ and commented on, showcasing her current popularity within the social media communities.
I also found that digitally created artwork was much better received also, reinforcing my thoughts on this highlighted in a previous post.
This is working towards objective 2, 3 and 5.
I have a contact at ASOS HQ whom has agreed to meet me for an interview regarding the topic of their social and corporate responsibilities around the idea of body image in the fashion industry. The issues of social responsibilities, ethics, and corporate responsibilities can be seen in my previous blog post, Social and Ethical Responsibilities of the Magazine Industry which discussed these issues in context to the industry, whilst in context also to my own practice. I am currently in conversation with my contact at ASOS to arrange a convenient time for the interview to take place. I will confirm details of my contact once I have confirmed the appointment. I plan on taking a series of questions to ask, as well as asking how these issues affect the employees within the design and social media departments on a personal level as also discussed in the previous post noted above.
I was surprised to find so many different organisations and policies which ASOS have been working with to achieve their guidelines and ‘Model Welfare Policy’, which I think as an international fashion platform is an amazing achievement and step forward to addressing the issues noted.
Below I have listed Organisations and Policies surrounding ASOS, all of which support Positive Body Image, whilst promoting support and raising awareness of such issues surrounding the fashion industry. I hope to look further into these/discuss at interview:
Below shows the full article taken from the ASOS Corporate Responsibility site as seen above. I was again surprised as to how aware as a company they are of the way they could be perceived if they do not account for diversity and positive body image. I personally think guidelines and policies such as are are something which every fashion, and beauty retailer for that matter should and must have, in order to try to and alleviate some of the issues surrounding body image in the industry and encourage a variety of shapes of sizes. This would allow for an inclusive and accessible platform for a community of digital consumers.
From my pre-set objectives in relation to my working research topic, objective 5 is to produce a set of guidelines which could be proposed as a policy to run nationally or internationally within the beauty and fashion industries. I have bolded key points which I feel are particularly relevant to this, and my research topic, whilst also being good starting points for preparing for the interview with ASOS.
This is working towards objectives 2, 3 and 5.
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“We want to use our influence among young fashion-lovers in a responsible way, by promoting a healthy, positive body image to our customers. We do this by:
We use over 100 models employed through 21 modelling agencies. The models we work with reflect our dominant customer, that is, twenty-somethings who wear size 8 – 10 (women) and medium (men). Our Curve range is for women’s size 18-30, and we use agency ‘plus size’ models for this range. We have had challenges in finding agencies who supply ‘plus size’ models above a size 16 but we are beginning to make progress in this area.
Our Model Welfare Policy states that we will:
Our internal guidelines on digital retouching dictate that we do not artificially adjust photographs of models to make them look thinner. When we retouch images, it is to ensure that the image looks more like the real product, so usually involves aligning the colour more closely with the real product.
The catwalk videos that we include alongside product descriptions on our website depict the models exactly as they are.
Our garment technology team constantly work to improve the fit of our garments and to ensure that we can deliver the right fit, first time to every customer. We aim to make our fashion fit the customer, not the other way round. To serve our diverse customer base therefore, we offer fashion in over 30 different sizes, including clothing, footwear and jewellery.
Our ASOS Curve range has been successful with strong sales, and has won several awards:
We are raising awareness among our customer care employees about potential health problems related to body image. The eating disorders charity Beat has provided training on body image health to our customer care team leaders. This will help them to respond sensitively to questions we receive from customers about body image and eating disorders, and direct them to appropriate help where required.
In the past 3 years ASOS joined forces with Beat to fund Online Support Groups, which offer a safe and supportive environment for discussion between those with an eating disorder, or between carers, families and friends. Support Groups were trialled in late 2012, and launched in February 2013 to coincide with EDAW – Eating Disorders Awareness Week. With the support of trained staff and Beat volunteers, online Support Groups offer an addition to the Beat Network face-to-face groups, as well as an alternative for people who may not be geographically close to a physical group. They also provide an anonymous space for people who may not feel comfortable meeting others.
Each group has a volunteer facilitator, who is trained by Beat, and a Beat staff member moderates the discussion as well as signposting users to other sources of help, if appropriate.
Find out how to join a Support Group
ASOS participated in the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image (APPG) in early 2012. The group’s objective was to uncover ways to promote a healthier body image in the wider community.
The conclusions of the group’s final report were critical of the roles of the media, advertising industry and cosmetic surgery. The report also suggested one recommendation for the fashion industry, to set up a roundtable to discuss body image issues. We met with the Government Equalities Unit to discuss how we can explore some of these issues further as an industry and as a result ASOS took part in the Equalities Ministers Advisory Group on Body Image
Body image dissatisfaction in the UK has never been higher, and a huge amount of young people struggle with the issue. ASOS does extensive work to harness its influence among young fashion-lovers to promote healthy body image.
ASOS and the Diana Award aim to work together to launch the #MySense ofSelf programme to equip young people with the tools to challenge social and cultural attitudes towards body image, and to provide a safe environment to discuss body image issues.
The Diana Award is scaling up its anti-bullying work into a full campaign that incorporates raising young people’s self-esteem and body confidence. We will use our reach across the UK and Ireland to provide a resource that addresses the issues.”
Source:
http://www.asosplc.com/corporate-responsibility/our-customers/positive-body-image.aspx, Last Accessed: 14th October 2016
This is working towards objective 4.A and 1.
‘Like’ it on Instagram, here!
Caption: “New shades targeting the relationship between consumer and brand culture – how many do you own?”
This post highlights the impact of how a brand can affect a consumer without knowing when one releases a range of new ‘shades’ or products. Instagram, YouTube and brand culture has created an urge to own all of a brands product range in order to have a ‘full makeup kit’ and create beautiful ‘shade swatches’ for your photo streams and video clips. Furthermore, the more you own the more you appear to look like you follow the trends, which is what in turn social media marketing, ads and ‘competitor’ accounts want to you feel like.
How does this affect how we view brands? Do we feel the need to keep up to constantly look the best using the newest ‘on-trend’ shades? How does this in turn affect our self-perception and furthermore, our decision making processes as a consumer?
Working towards objective 2.
Whilst reading ‘The Magazines Handbook’ by Jenny McKay, I came across the below statements, and began to think about how these sorts of issues could come into play within my practice, and how I may want to question or consider social and ethical issues whilst working with different brands and clients.
I have noted the quotes below, along with a mind-map discussing my thoughts on this in context of my practice and research question as well as also looking at how this could be associated in context with my own practice.
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“Advertorials can cause problems for journalists if the writer does not want to work on material that might compromise his integrity as an objective reporter. Some publishers always use freelances for advertorials while other pay their staff extra for working on them and bylines are not used. Either way the practice of pretending to readers that advertisements represent objective editorial recommendations is ultimately damaginger the magazine’s integrity and therefore to its value as a brand. The PPA does issue it’s members with a set of guidelines to cover the preparation and use of advertorials but these are not always observed (Morrish 2003: 105-107).”
“‘Relevant advertising is valued by readers, and is consumed with interest’, writes Consterdine in his report for the industry on how advertising works.”
“If you cut out the ads in a magazine before reading it then the chancestors are that you’ll be discarding almost half the pages in the average weekly or monthly magazine. This ratio of roughly 40:60 is known in the trade as the ad-ed ratio … a good example is Vogue, which is devoted largely to fashion coverage and has high production values for all its photography. It insists on the same from its advertisers and so a four-page advertising spread from Armani, say, brings to the reader yet more glamorous, high-quality fashion pictures that the editorial budget alone could not justify”.
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In regards to the last quote shown above, I have noted a video below created by OscarTBrand regarding the very issue of the “ad-ed” issue as discussed by McKay.
I found this video very inspiring and I would like to carry out such forms of research in regards to the UK and Japan editions of Vogue.
In my previous post, ‘Initial Project Ideas’ I noted that each contained an element of Critical Design, especially the Instagram Posts and Posters which I am currently experimenting with. However, I was told about Dunne and Raby in a tutorial with Anne-Marie, and wanted to see how they carry out work as practitioners, and how this in return relates to my practice.
Critical Design is when “design as a medium to stimulate discussion and debate amongst designers, industry and the public about the social, cultural and ethical implications of existing and emerging technologies.”
Anthony and Fiona, commonly know as Dunne and Raby, are both Professors, Authors and Designers and have worked featured in galleries across the world, such as MoMA in NYC and The Design Museum in London.
What does Critical Design mean?
“Critical Design uses speculative design proposals to challenge narrow assumptions, preconceptions and givens about the role products play in everyday life. It is more of an attitude than anything else, a position rather than a method. There are many people doing this who have never heard of the term critical design and who have their own way of describing what they do. Naming it Critical Design is simply a useful way of making this activity more visible and subject to discussion and debate.” (Dunne and Raby, 2007)
Work Example:
The following extract is taken from: Weeds, Aliens and Other Stories, 1994-98
Dunne & Raby / Michael Anastassiades
“Weeds Aliens and Other Stories is a collection of psychological furniture for the home and garden. The project grew out of a deep dissatisfaction with the narrow range of psychological needs met by furniture. How many more chairs, tables and shelving units do we need in the world?
Weeds Aliens and Other Stories began as a sketchbook of drawings and ideas exploring the English obsession with the garden and seemingly irrational relationships between people and their plants. We wanted to encourage people to play out their eccentricities within their urban homes, homes with very little or no garden at all. These unacknowledged behaviours become legitimised through new types of furniture.
Fabrication: Ben Legg
Technical advice: Rick Thomas, Mark Bullimore, Jon Rogers
Sound design: Jayne Roderick
Photography: Salvatore Vinci
Thanks to: Andre Cooke, The British Council Window Gallery Prague, Mark Daniels, Northern Architecture, Northern Arts, Sophie Smallhorn, Robin Blackledge, and Claire Catterall
The project is in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.”
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I chose to look at this example being drawn in by the use of photography as this still remains a dominant form of visual within both beauty and fashion industries, be on social media or in magazines and made me think how as well as illustrations and other forms of graphic design, how photography could somehow be used as a Critical Design-led research method in order to spark discussion around the research topic at hand.
It also allowed me to reflect on how even though I have used only illustrations to date, the same concept behind the form of research is prominent similarly to Dunne and Raby’s work in regards to gaining peoples attention in order to make them think, and ultimately engage in discussion or debate. However, I feel now knowing more about their background, their work and methods using forms such as video, photography, installation and sometimes illustration also, I feel I will be able to apply this knowledge going forward to further pieces of work. In addition, the benefit of collaborating with other interdisciplinary artists and creatives is evident allowing for various forms of work to be created including a wide range of conceptual projects and writings, sharing skill sets, ideas and knowledge. This is also something I would like to introduce into my practice in order to generate new ideas and informed conversation.
Sources:
http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/projects/74/0 Last Accessed: 13th October 2016
http://www.dunneandraby.co.uk/content/bydandr/13/0 Last Accessed: 2nd December 2016
This is working towards objective 1.
Whilst researching technological advances within the Fashion Industry in regards to body image and self-perception, I came across one particular technology which I saw as a negative, but a possible positive in some respects, which I shall discuss below.
H&M in 2011 were found to be using computer generated models and photoshopping ‘real models’ heads on to the bodies, changing skin tones to create diversity and match accordingly. However, H&M may of gone unnoticed as a global organisation breaking the boundaries within the industry on what is ethically and socially right to do as a brand, if they had not only used one pose throughout the entirety of their website and catalogue at the time.
An H&M spokesman explained to Adweek that, “for our Shop Online we are using a combination of real-life models’ pictures, still-life pictures, and virtual mannequin pictures. For all other marketing and campaigns—outdoor, TV, print, and other media—H&M will continue to use real-life models.”
This can be seen visually below.
What I found most disturbing about this was how slim the models are. An International brand with huge amounts of influential power on the high-street chose to portray their ‘ideal’ women as a super skinny runway model-esk figure, opposed to seeing an opportunity to create perhaps a figure based on todays average woman, or a range of bodies showcasing different ‘normal’ figures if they feel the need to chose CGI over real-life models. Why did such a brand feel the need to go down this route to promote their clothing and accessory products? Perhaps this is for quicker turn around within the design and work involved in constantly updating an ecommerce site and a catalogue. Regardless of the reason, the impact can be damaging – especially if this was to catch on throughout the industry.
Adweek suggest that complaints have been made regarding these computer generated models, stating that the “stepford model ideal” promoted is not attainable nor correctly proportioned. Regardless of the ‘image which H&M have gone for with their new models, no two people look the same, and even if H&M used very slim real-life models, this would paint a better picture of the standardisation of women opposed to promoting the idea of ‘clones’ to women.
Furthermore, the online magazine site Jezebel, reported that H&M have also used computer generated models which upon close inspection actually have no faces. Whether this is a mistake a not, it proves that technologies cannot be relied on and that using real models would be more reliable in this respect.
This is evidenced in the photos shown below, whilst also being able to see quite clearly how poorly the CGIs have been put together in regards to photo manipulation, specifically shadows as shown below, enhancing the fact that this is in fact not a real person.
Sources:
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/hm-under-fire-putting-models-heads-perfect-cgi-bodies-136974, Last Accessed: 13th October 2016
http://jezebel.com/5824561/new-hm-catalog-features-model-with-no-face, Last Accessed: 13th October 2016
This is working towards objective 4.A and 1.
Following up on my previous post showing the initial posts I had shared on Instagram from the past couple of weeks, I wanted to follow this up with the most recent set of posts.
In addition to sharing these digital posts, I have also been sharing the screen-printing experiments via my Instagram platform to engage active members of the target audience to connect, comment or like in order for me to gain further insight to analyse over time, whilst also seeing which aesthetic my target audience prefer, allowing for this to be applied going forwards in order to gain the largest reach to share the message and findings of my research questions.
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The caption for this particular post was: “When society tells you how to be, how to look, how to be as a person.. brands reinforce their power, redesign their packaging to sell those ideas” enforcing that ideas of brand culture, the power of advertising and also the power of packaging design which is becoming much more important in the saturated beauty market in order to make both new and existing products stand out.
With the boom of the ‘brow trend’, brands have very quickly caught on to this trend and engagement and have since very quickly released new and existing products as part of a new range to entice even more individuals into the cosmetics world, showing their power, and also highlighting the sheepishness of the consumer market.
This particular post has been designed using digital illustration in order to gain a recognisable and realistic CAD design opposed to being a flat vector, contrasting some of my previous posts slightly, whilst also being re creations of real products allowing for brand specific messaged to be relayed.
This post, again echoes what has been noted above, whilst also adding another post related to the ‘Kylie Cosmetics’ range as also noted through a previous design. Again using a CAD style of illustration and a tongue-in-chic tone of voice, Kylie Jenner’s Lip Kits have been re-drawn showcasing how synonymous her name is with her products, logo, and packaging. ‘Bebas Neue’ is the font which Kylie Cosmetics uses for both branding and packaging design and therefore has also been used allowing for instant recognisability and visual connection with the viewer.
The product name however has been changed to “WHAT’S MY NAME AGAIN?” being inspired by the cultural icon of Kylie Jenner and the idea that when you become so famous and so recognisable you lose your identity and become a commodity. I feel this is extremely resonant with Jenner reaching out into the cosmetics market, and dominating it via social media platform Instagram, therefore being natural to include it in this exploratory project.
The post above was tagged with the caption, “How many of you would say that about yourselves when you look in the mirror? You are beautiful. Have confidence and forget what the media tells you to look like”, in order to showcase the importance of vanity in the digital age, and to also empower women to believe in themselves and spark thought about the way that they perceive themselves.
This post features simply typography, and a subtle illustration allowing for a further visual link between posts. Typography has been used in such solitary format in order to relay a message in a way whereby the viewer is instantly impacted by the question they are faced, provoking thought.
Posts on Instagram:
Below shows the above posts in context. I have also shown some comments which I received in regards to feedback, as well as the hashtags used to engage with the Instagram community which I am currently trailing and testing out to see what gives the best reach and engagement. Positive feedback also allows me to see that the subject matter and visuals are being received well and having a positive impact, which also affirming the idea of critical-design as used by Dunne and Raby (2007) allowing for such posts to mock assumptions and preconceptions of how one is told to look and be by the media, therefore highlighting such issue in an indirect way.
