Week 3 ITAP - Hierachy/ Tone of Voice

Visual Hierachy in Visual Communication

Most works of visual communications usually contain two or more elements which must interact in some way in order to communicate to the audience.  Sometimes one of these elements should dominate in order to catch the eye and get the message across quickly.  In an age when we are being communicated to all the time this can be the difference between buying a product or service or not giving it a second glance. 

Working on the assumption that visual communication is all around us, I have gathered together some materials which I have accumulated this week or has been shoved through my letter box or  found in newspapers.

I will attempt to discusss two of these materials from the point of view of a potential customer (ie audience) and also as a visual communicator.

A potential winner this week is a promotional brochure produced by DFS for their Christmas promotion (See Below):

For me it is clever in its simplicity.  Here we have the typography in the shape of a Christmas tree and the sofa as the pot for the tree.  Instantly, I saw the words “Half Price..”; “..guaranteed..” and “…Christmas”.  In a nutshell, this tells me immediately what the proposition is from DFS.  Even though I’m not in the market for a sofa, I wanted to look inside the brochure. Okay, I didn’t buy but the leaflet served its purpose by a smart use of graphics, typography and hierarchy. The image of the sofa is really the junior partner in this visual because the text content tells you what you want to know as a potential customer.

Now for one of this weeks potential losers.  My husband received this mailshot from South Staffs water.

 Even before opening the envelope, I was filled with a sense of dread.  I thought it was going to be a reminder in case he forgot to pay the water bill.  Once I started to read the mailshot, it took me a while to wonder what it was all about.  In my opinion, there is no hierarchy here.  Going back to the envelope, I think the visual hierarchy should have started there to show that it was a friendly communication.  This would have enticed us to open the communication earlier.  Once opened, there was still no incentive to continue reading.  It was left on our kitchen table for a few days before we decided to see if it should go out with the rubbish.

  

The shame of it is, the mailshot offered something worthwhile.  They were offering water pipe emergency insurance for about £11 for the whole year.  It may not be the most exciting subject in the world but if you’re a householder it was worth considering.

If this mailshot had used some hierarchy to make me want to open it straightaway and was not so bland and monotone on the inside, using hierarchy to tell me what I needed to know about their proposition it would have been noticed earlier.

Bearing in mind both communications were sent with the intention of selling something it is easy imagine which was the more successful. A contributory reason for this was the use of hierarchy or the absence of it.

Tone of Voice in Visual Communications

“Don’t use that tone of voice of me!”

I’m sure we have had some time has this comment made to us when trying to make a point to someone and have been inappropriate in how we have delivered our point.  If it is words (written or vocal) we are using the tone can make the difference in how the delivery is interpreted.

Lets start with a simple example:

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.

This is quite a neutral statement but depending to whom we are communicating, it could be put differently.

To use a more colloquial approach:

Fast as a flash, the fiery foxy sprang over the dawdling daschund.

Or if we use a more commercial approach:

The fast, streamlined fox leapt over the inefficient canine.

Possibly we can be a bit quirky….

Crash, bark, wallop.. Fantastic Mr Fox nonchantly vaulted the sleepy pooch 

I think it is quite obvious to see how the targeted audience will dictate the form of words or tone of the message.

The tone of a communication can also be an instruction for us to do something.  A call to action.  Some good examples can be found in war posters.  I have included some examples below which are Benjamin Franklin’s famous “Join or Die” poster which was a call to arms for the colonialists in America to fight the British, and also Lord Kitcheners’s army recruiting poster during the first world war.

In these posters, the message is unambiguous and needs little interpretation.

Apart from compelling people to do something, tone of voice can be an invitation to a lifestyle or at least the belief that one is buying into one.  Quite often, expressing a tone does not require words. It can be achieved predominantly with visuals. This tone of voice is more prevalent in fashion advertising, particularly for designer/ branded goods.  I guess you can call this the “brand promise”. 

There is a clear tone to the Diesel billboard advertisement shown above.   There are few words of course but the tone is undoubtedly that of decadence and sexual magnetism which would most probably be the right buttons to press for many single, successful males.

Another successful advertising campaign was for Chanel No.5 with Nicole Kidman starring in the TV and magazine advertisements:

Again, there are few words but the tone has been set of that of a magical,mysterious and glamorous ambience.  Nicole Kidman is still pretty much an elegant 40 something woman so the tone of the image an invitation to women of a “certain age” to be mysterious and elegant and that this can be achieved through purchasing Chanel No.5.

Of course tone can also induce women to buy things for men and vice versa. A good example was given in the ITAP lecture which came from a Wonderbra advert.

This advertisement is calling out to men and women to say that if they buy a wonderbra they will end up with or become a goddesss.  The tone is playful with the “Hello Boys” expression targeting the humour of the female audience whilst the image of Eva Herzigova is targeted like a missile to the primitive instinct of the male audience. No wonder this billboard caused so many car accidents among male drivers at locations where it was exhibited!

Calvin Klein for example have used a particular visual tone of voice to both encourage men to buy their products but also to engage with women so they buy their product for their men. In doing so, the proposition is that they will become like the idealized image of a young couple as shown in their poster.

Week 2 ITAP/inspiration/Audience

The Notion of Inspiration Derives from Constant Enquiry Based on Research, Observation, Recording and Experimentation.

In trying to discuss this principle, I wanted to focus on someone who I find inspiring either by the quality of their work or their commercial success.  My choice may be unusual and possibly not “trendy” (Not obscure enough) but I’d like to spend sometime discussing the work of Walt Disney.

I have found that in his work we can find examples where inspiration can be found through research, observation, recording and experimentation. 

There is possibly no better place to start than with one of his most famous and enduring characters, Mickey Mouse.  The inspiration for the character came about from simple observation.  Quite often, Walt Disney would work until late in his studio where mice would often come out at night to feed on the food crumbs on the studio floor.  One night, they were caught and put in a cage which kept on his desk.  He subsequently observed and analysed their behaviour.  He noted that one of the  mice was very timid and chose this mouse as the starting point for developing the Mickey Mouse character.  Initially, he gave the mouse the name Mortimer but his wife thought it was “too sissy” and renamed the character Mickey.

When we look at the subsequent animation productions such as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”, “Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Jungle Book”, “Winnie the Pooh” and the “Sword in the Stone” for example, we can see the roots of some of the characters and stories in European folklore, fables and history.  Possibly some of these animation storylines were lifted almost directly from actual books as was the case with “Jungle Book” and “Winnie the Pooh” but others needed some research even if the comparison with the works of Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm is very close.  In most of his work we can see the evidence of his research into the ancient stories of Aesop’s Fables.  These were short stories which were written to illustrate a particular moral or to teach a lesson to children which used animals who talked like humans whilst still retaining animal like traits.  This is something we can see in most of his animation works.

I have always wondered since my childhood how animators, cartoonists and illustrators had such amazing imaginations to create such wonderful work but through considering this principle we can understand how they found their inspiration.

An Understanding and Knowledge of an Audience can Enhance and Focus the Communication.

The subject of audience is possibly one of the most important issues a visual communicator must consider. The “audience” will dictate the direction of the work which may take into consideration age, culture, customs and religion for example. 

Let’s visualize lets say….. a cat.

How have we seen cat represented visually and how have the differences been dictated by audience?

For starters, here’s my favourite.. Garfield.

In reality, Garfield started out as newspaper cartoon strip which was mostly read by an adult audience.  This cat was illustrated as a rather podgy (due to his loathing of diets and love of lasagne) which squinty eyes.  You can say an “anti-cat” for whom some form of adult level humour was required to get the visual joke.

For the younger audience, a good example might be Walt Disney’s “Aristocats”

As we can see, the visual is completely different. Here, the cats are illustrated in a more cute, conventional way which would match the comprehension of a younger audience.

We also see age considerations in designs of CD covers for example.  Most artists have a target audience which are reflected in the artwork on their CDs.  Let’s take a variety of artists such as Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana), Cliff Richard and Iron Maiden.  You can almost define the audiences as being young teenage girls; retired women and ageing rockers respectively.  Here are some of their CD/ album covers:

  

                

As we can see the visual styles are very different.  The Iron Maiden cover has the usual satanic/ fantasy style.  The Cliff Richard cover presents a clean cut image of man you wouldn’t mind inviting into your home whilst the Miley Cyrus cover gives an image of “girl power” and teenage ambition.

The subject of audience also important in the world of advertising. A good example is razor blades.  This product is used by both men and women.  But how are the products advertised and packaged for the supermarket. Let’s have a look…..

For Men:

As we can see the image for advertisement is one of iconic masculinity (In this case David Beckham..yummy).  This is an image of aspiration for potential male customers.  Typical razor blade packaging in the supermarket uses energetic colours with male orientated typography. We have the “sci-fi” like font for the word “Fusion” coupled with a solid, metallic like representation of the word “Power”. These are all signals to men that this product is for them and attempts to connect with them.

Okay, now the female product:

   

Here, the signals are completely different. In the advert we have very soft, romantic imagery with the man resting his head and hand on the lady’s leg (Awww) because her legs are so soft to the touch.  The packaging design has woman written all over it with pink colours, soft rounded typography, flowers and the product name, “Daisy”.

Mechanically, these are identical implements!

So far I have touched upon age and gender considerations.  It may also be interesting to take into account religious beliefs, social values and/ or customs.  When we think about this we must take into account what is appropriate.

For example, even women in what we consider to be “repressed” countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran wear underwear and make up. So how do you reach the market or audience in these countries (ie women) when local laws and customs are so restrictive on what can be put on advertising billboards?  There is no way your typical Wonderbra advert as seen here in the UK would be acceptable in such countries but nonetheless we need to be sensitive to their culture.

Week 1 ITAP- Bricolage/ Originality

Bricolage and it’s Use in Contemporary Culture

I would define Bricolage as the practice of working with whatever materials are to hand, or “making do” as my parents would say.  In a cultural context, bricolage can be defined as the activity of taking commodities  and giving them a fresh identity.  Bricolage can be found across different media including artists, musicians and writers who all work with the idea of using materials “to hand” to create new, alternative expressions.

Some examples:

Hip-hop sampling is in effect creating a sound collage. Using a wide array of source material, the producer  takes extracts of drum beats, basslines etc to make a new song.  Who would have thought that Mariah Carey’s “All I want for Christmas is You” ultimately eminated from Kraftwerk’s “Trans-Europe Express”!

Possibly the best example of cinematic bricolage is Quentin Tarantino.  You can see in most of his films elements of Kung Fu films, comic book set ups and old western fight scenes. If you look at Tarantinos’ cinematic references for the production of “Kill Bill”, it is an amazing list of genres.

The Matrix, a 1999 film by the Wachowski brothers, is a visual lesson in incorporating influences and styles into a new film. Even the title draws on past ideas from the science-fiction genre and “Dr Who has been cited as an influence. The Wachowskis draw on genres, stories and visuals such as the fantasy world of Alice in Wonderland Japanese cyberpunk manga, action comic books, and kung-fu movies. Much of the dailogue within the film refers to and combines philosophies from many major religions. The soundtrack for the film also draws on a variety of musical sources and genres  and aggressive hip-hop and electronic style sampling (Such as the Prodigy)

The creation of subcultures in society can also involve bricolage.  This can be seen with the wearing of oversize trousers below the bottom (Get a belt guys!) or possibly the most famous example being the punk “badge” of wearing a safety pin.

Of course in talking about bricolage, we cannot forget “counter bricolage” which is a practice used by advertisers to sell commodities as items of value.  In the fashion world, ripped jeans became a massproduced product from being an individual response to an old pair of jeans.

Notions of Originality

To be honest, I’ve already come up against this obstacle during my graphics project last week.  Finding events for which to produce a flyer was no problem.  However, in finding out what is on in Birmingham, I found myself picking of flyers and brochures, in other words, someone else’s work.  To be honest it was a daunting prospect taking on an event for which posters etc are already plastered over town.  Would my work be compared to what’s already out there? At what point is taking inspiration crossing the line to plagiarism? Or would it be deemed “clever” to take an image which is so well known and add a “little twist” to make it my own? 

 In my husband’s record collection from his youth I found an album “The Gospel According to the Men in Black” by the Stranglers. In the gatefold of the album is a parody of the “Last Supper” with just a small man in black dropped into the background.  Is this an inspired take on an “untouchable” image or just a blatant rip off by an idle designer? 

 In deciding this we must also address the issue of context. In this particular case, the album is supposed to address the ideas of religious/ governmental conspiracies regarding alien visitations to Earth so I guess the image gets the benefit of the doubt.

Possibly in considering a project, inspiration from others is only one of many factors we should take into account in order to avoid comparisons with what has gone before. In my view, personal observation of our surroundings (people and places) and experimentation with different media (or combinations of media) can lead us to originality.

However, going back to my graphics project, I finally chose a Tango event which is to take place at the Town Hall in Birmingham in October.  The reason for this was because in the associated leaflet for events at the Town Hall, there were no graphics, just the plain listing in words only.  I thought by taking on this as my “event”, I would have full artistic latitude to produce my own work without comparison to anyone else’s style. It will be up in the Foyer soon. I hope you like it and I hope you think it is original.