Semiotic Poster Analysis

Schlitz Beer Advert 

I have chosen to look at a advertisement from 1952 advertising Schlitz beer
The text used is a signifier, "Don't worry darling, you didn't burn the beer!" says the husband in the poster with a smile, with the Schlitz Beer logo underneath. The 1950s was a decade well-known for sexist remarks. In fact most vintage posters use similar marketing techniques to sell their products.  

The symbols used such as the common household items, for an example, the apron and the stove help the audience distinguish the women as a homemaker (stay-at-home-wife). Yet this idea classifies women idea of inferiority, as women have to stay dependant on their husbands. One thing that interestingly stood out to me was the fact the husband wears a suit, yet the woman is dressed in an apron, I feel the different dress style is to emphasis and portray men as a whole different 'superior' class. The wife looks like a happy servant. In addition to this, the frying pan is smoking, suggesting the young wife is having trouble cooking, seeming 'hopeless'. By analysing the connotational content of these advertisements we can access ideological meaning which can help us understand how women were portrayed over in the world. And look! There are also two beers on the table, how generous she is, he should feel so privileged. 

From the expression on the wife's face she appears to be distressed and crying into a handkerchief and 'comforted' by her husband. The connotation here being that woman are fragile and weak with their emotions. Unable to face the slightest dilemma without having a breakdown.

The target audience for this poster is primarily targeted at women (especially for young wives) However, I feel that the advertisement also appeals to husbands and men as a secondary audience, as it illustrates how happy the husband in the poster is by having a Schlitz Beer for dinner, as the connotation is that Schlitz beer is so tasty that it would suffice for an entire meal replacement. 

This advert links with semiotics as this advert portrays so many connotations with women being the home-maker etc, so much so the products (in this case beer) we buy in based on the connotations. I think the main implication in this poster is that men (all men) like beer, and that all beer makes men happy. 

COP Type: Production & Distribution

This morning, we had a lecture on the chronologies of type in particular production and distribution. 

Type is a modernist obsession. Type is what language looks like, it makes the spoken word visible. Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visible language.

One thing we learnt is that nobody can agree when language began, as it has no physical
existence, but we believe it began in Mesopotamia 3200 BCE (Persian Gulf to Mediterranean) which was the melting point of civilisation. All that is necessary for any language to exist is an agreement amongst a group of people that one thing stands for another an example of this would be a hand gesture etc. 




The formation of civilisation allowed people to come together to make agreements of meaning that create language to form. Visual forms of this language were required by this society and alphabets began to form in a structure of vowels and consonants relating to phonetics. The first full alphabet was Greek (adapted from the phoenician) which finally went on to develop into what we know as the Latin alphabet now. The use and development of these alphabets is effected by where people settled and trade etc

• William Foster (1870) influenced the need for type, brought forward the elementary education act in 1870. All children aged 5-12 were taught to read and write. As such the audience and demand for written material shot up
• Walter Groupius (1919) a German Architect and founder of the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus (1919-1933) was the birth place of all modern arts.
• Max Miedinger - designed Helvetica one of the most influential typefaces of all time. A fact I learnt about this was 25 years after the original release of Helvetica, Arial was designed. 25 years is the maximum protection of design. Helvetica was ripped off by Microsoft in 1982, which is one of the points Fred stresses... Microsoft is the enemy of type.  

  

  Helvetica vs. Arial

• Steve Jobs (1990)  Created the first Mac classic, providing advanced technology to the masses at a much more affordable price. Type was seen as an effective method of communication. For example, the font Gotham was adopted by the Barack Obama campaign which became its identity, to portray someone as dependable and strong

• 

  Gotham Font

• Tim Berners- Lee (1994) invented the world wide web and gave it away for free
• Bill Gates (1995) invented Internet Explorer. In a way the internet has effected the way in which written language has developed. However, it created great limitations with design.

Quotes that came up in the lecture: 

• "By making itself evident, typography can illuminate the construction and identity of a page, screen, place or product" - Thinking with type
• "Typography fostered the modern idea of individuality but destroyed the medieval sense of community and integration"- Neil Postman
• "There is no single approach within typography that applies to everything" - Shelley Grundler

Semiotic Theory

Today we looked more into the semiotic theory, more specifically codes, text, myth and signs. 

Iconic: literal signs where the signifier resembles the signified, e.g., a picture of a person. 

Indexical: signs where the signifier is caused by the signified eg. smoke signifies fire

Symbol: Obvious sign- has an arbitrary connection with the thing, for example toilet symbol. An obvious sign

Myth: Somewhat  related to connotation, Roland Barthes refers to myth. We usually associate myths with classical fables about the exploits of gods and heroes, for example prometheus. However, for Barthes myths were the dominant ideologies of our time. Myths can be seen as extended metaphors. Like metaphors, myths can help us make sense of our experiences in culture/society. 

Codes: One of the fundamental concept in semiotics, codes provide us with a organisational system of meaning which gives us the basis for creating and understanding semiotic texts.Codes provide a framework within which signs make sense- culturally applicable. 

Text: Text is a group signifiers and codes. Text can be photographs, posters, books etc however its meaning will change depending on the context in which it is seen. 

Stonewall: Poster Research

For our poster brief we are only to use 2 colours plus paper stock. A good example of this ( suggested by Simon) was how effective the Stonewall poster, 'Some people are gay. Get over it!' which only uses two colours and just typography. The iconic Stonewall's poster campaign delivers a short, to-the-point, zero tolerance statement to tackle homophobia across the UK. It is a very loud and eye-catching poster which emphasises the message it is portraying. 
I want this kind of short blunt message in my posters as I don't want anything to long-winded as it wouldn't be legible from afar. However, I would have to be very clear, precise and specific for it to actually work. 

Studio Brief 5

To begin my research into the brief I got three books out (suggested to us) from the library by Ambrose/Harris on Format,  Image and Typography as a starting point. 

Format/Typography/Image by Ambrose/Harris

Interim Crit

Todays crit, I presented my research into autism and art therapy. It confirmed to me I was on track with my research and had a good news story. Overall it went very well, and I felt positive. It was really interesting listening to what everybody had to say about their news story. I've enjoyed looking into great depth about whats happening in the news. Things that I should think about: 

• How to make my research visual? 
• Look into info-graphics 

Notes

Understanding Autism

What is Autism? 

• Autism are lifelong disabilities that, at their core, affect a person's social and communication abilities. 
• People with autism may engage in repetitive actions, for example lining up objects or have specific interests or thoughts that can dominate their lives. Some people with autism find their sensory world unusual and occasionally anxiety provoking. 
• Autism can come with a range of challenges in making sense of the world but it can also give people advantages, such as memory or in concentrating on tasks. 
• The autism spectrum is very broad. Some people have no language, intellectual difficulties and not engage with others. Other people on the autism spectrum may have very good or even advanced language skills but find the rules governing social behaviour hard to fathom. 
• Boys are four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls- this related to my news story with Harry Reid 
• Autism affects people of all racial, ethnic backgrounds
• Many individuals on the autism spectrum have additional medical conditions such as epilepsy, sleep difficulties and other mental health problems.

I have a much more clearer understanding of what Autism is, so I went on to collect more facts about Autism.

• 90% of parents of children with Autism (and Asperger Syndrome) report their child has been a target of bullying in the past year 
• 1 in 5 children with Autism have been excluded from school - relates to Harry Reid in my news story
• Only 15% of adults with autism are in full time paid employment 
• Half of adults with Autism still live with their parents

Each year, Autism costs families and public services some £28 billion in the UK. Of this: 

• £15 billion provides services for adults
• £9.2 billion is the cost of lost employment
• £2.7 billion is the cost of supporting children of autism in their education

The remaining costs are the additional family expenses. Harry Reid in my news story is also a sufferer of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) 

• Effects 5% of children
• HIgh levels of inattention/short attention spans
• Treatment behaviour management 
• Many parents also report excellent results from a modified diet 
• Suffer hyperactivity and impulsiveness, meaning they fidget, talk too much, and find it difficult to wait their turn. 

Crit Feedback

I found todays crit feedback really helpful and useful as I previously found I was running low of how to take Rebecca's alphabet further. Today's crit was different to usual: we simply left our work out on the table and everyone went round clockwise and wrote feedback and suggestions down on paper. It was good to receive personal feedback from everyone in the group who might have been to shy to voice their opinions. Suggestions that came up repeatedly that I should improve or try out on were: 

• Look into grunge font/letterforms
• Look at the music she likes (posters etc) 
• Look into Fashion/Music fonts
• Verve STD. seems quite passive...

Feedback Sheet

To move forward with this project I shall develop some of the ideas suggested to me. I think looking looking into grunge fonts and the bands Rebecca likes could be an interesting concept to develop on. 

The Naughtiest School Boy: Chosen News Article

Taken from Daily Mail 

Taken from Daily Star

I've decided to pick the story on Harry Reid nick-named, "the naughtiest school boy'. He was excluded from his local primary school aged only 5 years old, which shocked me as he is so young! What shocked me (when reading into it) was that Harry had Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) as well as Autism! What upset me was Harry gets frustrated in social situations yet the school had no system in place to deal with him. Another shocking fact was the school has an outstanding rating and having a problem child such as Harry, would not help that (which is what I think is the main reasons why he got excluded) A spokesman for the school said: 'The decision to excluded a child is not taken lightly and is only ever and absolute last resort. A figure I found out was that has been released earlier this year suggests that permanent exclusions from primary schools are on the rise! 

As I had the same news story yet reported in the Daily Mail and Daily Star (both tabloids) I could read both and draw on comparisons in the way they have chosen to report the story. The first thing I immediately noticed was the different choice in photos to go with the article. The Daily Star has gone for a really cheesy informal photograph of Harry Reid looking glum yet quite innocent, whereas The Mail has gone for a formal school portrait. 

The use of language is different also, The Star uses an informal tone-of-voice and also on first name basis calling Harry's mother, 'mum' and 'Debbie' in comparison with The Mail 'Mother' and 'Mrs Reid'. The Daily Star's tone-of-voice connotes a certain loudness and brash language, for example, 'son dubbed Dennis The Menace  to add a shock factor. Also in The Star's headline, 'I'm Britain's naughtiest boy...EVER', is in first person (informal) and 'EVER' is capitalised and in red, which connotes boldness, as well as being eye catching. An ellipsis ( ... ) is used to create suspension. The Daily Mail has a lot more detail concerning Harry and his mother. 

Another difference I noticed was the headline font. The Daily Mail uses a sans-serif Roman font which I guess connotes formal feel. In comparison with The Daily Star which uses a slab- sans serif which portrays a heavy feel, with blunt ends... I suppose from afar your eye would be more drawn to The Daily Star as it is more legible and has a lot less writing. 

The reason why I have chosen this news story is because I am interested in understanding the psychology behind Autism ( something I only touched upon in A level Psychology) I'm also interested in raising awareness of Autism as I feel people don't understand the disorder which affects a lot of individuals. 

Mind-Map Comparing News Articles

I've decided to look up at the news story on Daily Mail online and read through the reader comments to get a different perspective on the article. 

A lot of the comments argued that Harry Reid was a pest and said it was down to bad parenting. However, there were some comments from parents who had children with adhd and autism who sympathised. 

Verve Std.

Beginning to manipulate letterforms to reflect Rebecca's alternative and indie music tastes, I especially like the 3D letter C, I feel you could see it being used on posters and as header text, by making it look 3D i suppose it creates a depth to her personality. 

With the other C I tried to create a glossy look by adding white lines to the ascender. I definitely feel hand-rendering my typeface to make it more illustrative is the best option to accurately reflect Rebecca's personality as she is quite alternative. I really feel Verve Std. echoes Rebecca's personality. 

Rebecca's Music Interests

One thing that I believe is that an individuals music preferences represent their own personality as such I have decided to research into Rebecca's music likes. I already know what bands she likes. I have managed to collect some logos and typography relating to her favourite bands. 

Arcade Fire

Arctic Monkeys

Babyshambles

The Beatles

The Who

Rebecca's taste in music (which is mainly indie) has given me an insight into what entertains her and the genres of music that she is interested in, this will help me in designing a typeface for her.

Red

Looking at a variety of newspapers, one thing I have noticed in particular is a lot of red titles in tabloid newspapers especially. Below are my examples...

Daily Mirror  

The Sun

Daily Star

Connotations of red: 

• Anger
• Courage
• Love/Passion 
• Heat
• Courage 
• Danger
• Republican

I don't think any of these connotations to me suggest why tabloid newspapers use the colour red for their headlines. I think purely the colour red is mainly used to attract readers with the sensationalised headlines because its bold and eye-catching. I think the connotation of anger would fit in with tabloid newspapers as they do express articles with a one-sided angry view, which reflects the colour red and loudness and brash articles in the newspapers. 

Researching a News Article

Tuesday 22nd October 2013 Newspapers

The aim of this brief is to research. This afternoon I bought a few tabloid and broadsheet newspapers purchased on 22/10/2013. My aims are to read through them and chose a news article. I can chose any article I like, however we warned against choosing a depressing subject as we will have to present them. 

I purchased five newspapers (The Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Star, Daily Mirror and The Sun) I decided that by buying five I could compare the different newspapers and the market aimed at. Also if my chosen news article might be reported in different ways in different newspapers which could be interesting. 

The majority of the newspapers have different story running on each front page. However, The Sun and The Guardian have got the same photograph of the mysterious blonde girl named Maria found in a gyspy roma camp with the couple accused of abducting her. The Daily Star has gone for a headline to shock the reader 'killer spider made my leg explode' as well as a graphic photo of the leg. The Daily Mirror has gone with the shocking news story about the 'White Widow', a mum who's ambitions for her son was to become a suicide bomber. 

Its interesting how newspapers use larger images or larger amounts of text to grasp the different audience. 

Rebecca Kelly

Mindmap of Rebecca's Likes and Characteristics

I created a mind map of Rebecca's likes and characteristics to eventually choose a typeface to reflect her personality. 

I first began by looking into the connotations of her favourite colours. The colour green symbolises the colour of nature it also symbolises self-respect and well-balanced being.  It is also often used in hospitals and mental health units to create a calming atmosphere. The colour purple symbolises good judgement. The findings from these colouring meaning reflect some of the answers she gave, it also reinforces the theme of comfort.

Adobe Font Finder

I found the Adobe Font Finder website to try and find an existing font that has similar characteristics to represent Rebecca. Adobe Font Finder can help you narrow down your search by categorising the fonts into different styles and characteristics. I used options of sans serif, contemporary and logo.

Verve Std. Font

I really love this font called 'Verve Std' I feel it reflects her personality and echoes her handwriting. It's a very contemporary font, which I feel reflects her alternative dress sense and music taste. I think this is the font I will probably use as the basis of her alphabet. There is a really nice balance between curve and line to the type which reflects her well-balanced personality. 

Rockwell Font

I decided to look at Rockwell for a font for Rebecca as it is the font used for the Leeds festival which she said was her favourite place in the world. I'm unsure on the typeface though, it is quite brash and bold. I won't be using this font.

Newspaper Research

Mind-maps from book

As part of my Message delivery brief  I will research different British newspapers with a brief summary look at their formats, layout, design and political leaning. First I looked into the types of British newspapers, online websites and news programmes out there: 

Broadsheet:                                 

• Guardian
• Telegraph
• Times
• Financial Times

Tabloid:

• Metro
• Sun
• Mirror
• Daily Star 
• The People

Regional:

• Express & Echo 
• Yorkshire Post 
• Express & Star 
• Wigan Local 
• Lancashire Telegraph 

News Programmes: 

• BBC/Channel 4/ITV News
• This Morning 
• One Show 
• Mock the Week 
• 8 out of 10 Cats 
• Loose Women 

Online News Sites: 

• Reddit
• This Morning 
• Bing 
• Google 
• BBC News
• Yahoo 
• Fox 
• Twitter/Facebook 
• ITV News

Broadsheet newspaper: A broadsheet newspaper is the largest of newspaper formats characterised with long vertical pages and columns. It looks very traditional.  The Daily Telegraph is an example of a Broadsheet newspaper and is centre-right which is conservative. 

Tabloid newspaper: A tabloid newspaper has a compact page design a lot smaller than a broadsheet. 

An example of a tabloid newspaper is The Sun which focuses a lot on celebrity culture and gossip, its a very lively newspaper. The Sun is right-wing populism. It is the ninth-largest circulation of newspaper in the world.

Berliner: The Guardian is an example of a Berliner newspaper, it was the first newspaper to use the Berliner format in the UK. The Berliner format is slightly taller and marginally wider than the tabloids compact format yet narrower and shorter than the broadsheet format.

Freesheet: A newspaper which is free, for an example Metro (owned by the Daily Mail) contains a mix of articles. It contains bite size news rather than big political or world news. The mix of articles are about travel, home, style, celebrity life,  as well as extensive arts coverage and entertainment listings. Its a newspaper designed to read by commuters. The look of the Metro is a white background with a blue header, its designed to look easy legible. 

Studio Brief 4

Village Bookstore in Leeds

Today, I went to the village bookstore in the corn exchange, Leeds, to look at some graphic design magazines and zines for some inspiration. I bought printed pages magazine as it was suggested to me by my tutor. Its a lovely independent shop, I probably could have spent hours flicking through magazines. I will definitely be re-visiting there soon.

Illustrator Workshop

Useful Illustrator CS6 Shortcuts

I found today's Illustrator workshop very useful as I have never really used it much and got to grips with how Illustrator works.  After the session it definitely seemed a lot less scary. We learnt how the pen tool worked and were given mini tasks to outline different shapes and lines. With regular practice and patience!! I am sure I get used to Illustrator although it may take me a few weeks. I'm looking forward to creating my type in the programme. Some little facts that I made: 

• Standard Bleed- 3mm (bleed- area outside the document) 
•  PPI- Pixels Per Inch
• ⌘ The command key is called a Bowen's cross or knot

Final Crit

The general feedback of my crit was positive, everybody felt my final 10 letterforms reflected my chosen word depth. Peers suggested that I think about laser-cutting into material such as wood to create actual depth to the type.

If I were to have more time on my 10 letters I think I would've experimented more widely with layering and stencilling.I look forward to taking one of my letter forward into finally developing an entire alphabet on Illustrator. 

Final Letterforms

Letterform 'C'

Letterform 'O'

Letterform 'f'

Letterform 'C'

Letterform 'e'

Letterform 'J'

Letterform 'C'

Letterform 'U'

Letterform 'O'

Letterform 'S'