Design for Consumerism.
Branding theory - methodology - specify methodologies in proposal form
- do inter views later in the research so you can ask better/the right questions for your primary research
- 2 sides to consumerism
- anti-consumerism - activist movements - global crisis - anti-capitalist movement
- Occupy movement
(critical side of consumerism)
How do brands survive and work?
How do they operate?
How is a superbrand constructed? - Apple is an example
Communication Theory - methodology - how brands relate to the consumers
Book - Wally Ollins - how brands work - A-political stand point
Book - Naomi Klien - 'No Logo' - very political stand point
Documentary - Adam Curtis - 'Century of the Self' - available on youtube in four 1 hour parts
- Marx
- Freud
- western american mass consumerism - using theories of Freud and Edward Berinays (PR)
- talks about consumerism as a pacifying device - how does the designer negotiate that with the audience?
'Conspicuous Consumption' - T. Veblien
Consuming to gain status - buying so others see we are buying things
Baudrillard - consumer culture - symbolic value of the commodity - commodity fetishism - Marx should be referenced with this as he came up with this concept
How does consumerism work as a social system?
Whats the social context?
Consumption statistics?
Get a detailed definition of consumption to help your dissertation.
Designer as a wage labourer.
- taking on jobs we don't ethically agree with - how does a designer negotiate with the job and their own ethics and views of consumer society?
- culture jammers
- V. Papanek - Social Tithe - 10% of your time should be spent designing to change society
- First Things First manifesto
Modern politics relates to consumerism - politics as a pacifier - we feel as though we are getting our say in the matter
Simmel - trickle down theory
- process of emulation occurs
- upper class buy certain brands and commodities
- lower class see the upper class buying those brands and commodities
- lower class then buy them as well in an attempt to gain a similar status
- the upper class see that the lower class have bought the same brands and commodities and start to buy different ones instead
- the lower class don't gain the desired status as it no longer applies to those brands and commodities
There is also a Trickle Up theory.
- brands taking on street fashion from ghettos for example - NIKE adopting the fashion of people from the Bronx
Theodore Adorno vs Walter Benjamin - theorists
Pseudo - individualism
D.I.Y movement - anti-capitalist - make your own designs, music, fashion, clothes etc
- counter culture
