The consumption of design

The Culture Of Design – Chapter 4 – The consumption of design

Consumption in everyday life is discussed in detail. Consuming is the using or using up of something experienced in different ways. The culture of consumption is about finding a balance between what can be afforded, showing its link to social circumstances and what is wanted, which shows the importance of personal choice and individualism. Consumption is also about promoting competition. Companies try to promote their products through advertising, packaging, shops and displays and this may have some influence on how a consumer values an object. Today, how things look and how they function seem very important. It’s about having. Designers must constantly be reviewing trends.
So designers and consumers are linked-the designer creates for the consumer, but the consumer’s wants also have to be considered. As a student textile designer I feel it is important to realise how textile design relates to consumption. Through what they consume, a connection may be made about people’s identities. When studying Paula’s photos, I was able to make assumptions about her identity by looking at the details in the pictures. What we “consume” can slot us into a certain group in society, for example style of furnishings or clothing.
Critics say that even designers are unable to fully predict how consumers read and use objects. Consumers put value on objects and spaces which cannot be directed. In textile design, it’s important to have a natural feel for trends. Predictions are constantly made on forthcoming seasons, but success depends on getting the balance right with the consumer. In the chapter it mentions that businesses have employed graduate designers who signify their target ( youth) market, so they get it right.
The consumer puts meaning on goods and service. Consumers personalise what they consume - ‘de-alienate’ objects. They make them their own. Sometimes some of the design process may be handed over to the consumer, for example Ikea flat- pack furniture. A designer may decide whether to try creating a specific feel to a product, or to give the object over as it is for the consumer to personalise and make their own. In the seminar discussion we talked about the ‘Little Black Dress’, the idea of wearing the same black dress but changing the look with different accessories and garments. This shows the consumer’s need for individuality, but keeps the original design.
The whole design, production, advertising and consumption process runs on a cycle, as shown by a circuit of culture. The designer needs to consider different links between production and consumption when designing and to realise these links may be different for different products. There will always be a need and want for new products, as the design of products is not only about their use, but about taste and cultural influences as well. The designer has to use consumer information well to influence the consumer and introduce new ideas. Design and consumption are both equally important .

Assignment 2: Experiment

This assignment was designed to help me start understanding the concept of polysemy - the idea that images may represent more than one meaning, but adding text fixes meaning.
To get a general idea of the term polysemy I was to read Roland Barthes essay “The Rhetoric of the Image", which subjects a poster advertising food items to a semiotic analysis. As a group we were to discuss the main points from the essay and how it relates to textiles.
Roland Barthes discusses how an image in an advertisement poster illustrates polysemy. Images can provide a number of discontinuous signs, for example people may look at it in a literal sense, but an image can also be connotational. Looking at the literal message in an image provides a simple meaning but if you look at it in a more connotational way you are likely to get a deeper meaning. The more general knowledge you have, the more meaning you will be able to receive from an image. He mentions how colour can have different connotations. In this image red, green and yellow suggest cultural associations with Italy. Barthes argues that people are unable to erase connotated signs which I agree with. People make connotational associations everyday and particularly in textiles as designers we make these associations all the time which lead us from one idea to another - the idea of getting an abstract idea from a basic interpretation. In textiles colour is a key aspect when designing as it suggests different meanings and stories, so it is important to get the colour right. He mentions how everything within the image has several meanings, but by adding text the message in an image becomes a lot clearer. This image is supported by captions and labels which help us recognise the food product. He believes that captions and labels help choose the right level of perception. Barthes also mentions how composition is important. In this particular image we are reminded of a still life. Composition in textiles is also important, for example positioning certain blocks of colours can create a different mood or meaning compared to lots of random strips of colour. It is important to get the theme across in textiles and in doing so you have to consider composition. Composition can spark different meanings depending on the placement of it within the image. In terms of the linguistic message, does text add meaning to an image? Roland Barthes argues that text does fix meaning and that it helps to establish what is going on in an image. He points out that text can direct readers through an image and can help push someone towards a particular meaning as well as indicate a message which is not so obvious.

To understand the concept of polysemy better we carried out an experiment. After selecting three random images I asked different people to produce a story to link the three images together.

1. Female 50, primary teacher – Interested in keeping fit through sport.

Her story suggested arriving at a coastal village in Mediterranean, then following a road lined by palm trees which lead to idyllic spot down by the beach. A Local tour guide agrees to take them on a tour of the beauty spots.

2. Male 16, school, interested in sport and music

His story suggested a young girl of 20 on holiday in Caribbean, visiting main city where there are palm trees. On way home on plane she takes a bird’s eye view photograph of the country.

3. Female 21, research asssistant in science Lab at University, interested in music, dancing and sport.

Her interpretation was a girl wondering about what to do tomorrow on holiday. She thinks she might climb a mountain to get a view of the city and beach and go for a tranquil walk around the lakes in the suburbs.

I found from just these three results that people interpret completely different meanings and ideas, when reading images. Everyone I asked was reading the images in both a literal and connotational way. As Barthes says images can be denotational and connotational. People were making connotational associations and suggesting that in the images it was somewhere hot and in the Mediterranean/ Caribbean.

As a group we had to select one of the stories as our ‘target story’. The next part of the experiment was to add in a fourth image and ask a different set of people to see if they could come up with a similar story to the target one. Including a fourth image was to help add to the idea that the local tour guide was showing them the beauty spots. So, after asking a different set of people we noticed that most came up with a similar story to the target one. Most were able to produce a story close enough to the target one, and so we felt we didn’t need to add any more images to the experiment. In the images people were making reference to sun, sand, beach suggesting it was in a hot climate. They were making connotational associations. I did notice that the few art students we asked came up with more creative stories and understood the whole concept of the experiment better.

We added text to each image to put Barthes concept of polysemy to the test. The idea was that text fixes meaning and can direct a reader through an image towards a particular meaning. In this part of the experiment we asked the same people who had looked at the four images previously but with the text added in. The results showed that text helped people to analyse the photographs more accurately, enabling them to produce almost the exact ‘target story’. This shows Barthes argument that text does help to understand an image better is right. The text states the obvious and so meaning is clearer. I asked Helen who was very accurate. After showing her the images with text this is what she came up with –a family on a Mediterranean holiday, walking along a path and the local rep takes them on activities.

In conclusion, doing this experiment to test the concept of polysemy has helped me to understand the idea that images do give off many discontinuous signs but when you add text to an image it can make the meaning much clearer, fixing it, as proved in the experiment. Some people did come up with quite unusual interpretations from the images but I think people’s stories and perceptions are heavily influenced by their personalities and previous knowledge. The experiment was interesting to see how varied people’s perceptions of looking at images are and how they may change once text is added. It shows that people do read available text to help them understand and analyse an image. If they try to interpret an image without text it is possible they may pick up the wrong message from what it is actually being suggested. However, the experiment also proves that people do make connotational associations to help interpret meaning, when looking at images, so both the literal and the symbolic messages are important.