by Kingsley Browne from the Darwinism today series
I have just finished reading this book Paul recommended. Here are some interesting bits that relate to my area of study:
"Although women constitute approximately 40% of the US workforce –and, indeed, 40% of all managers –they hold only 5 to 7% of senior executive positions."
"It might sound terribly sexist to suggest that men are more competitive, more driven towards acquisition of status and resources, and more inclined to take risks; and that women are more nurturing, risk averse, less greedy, and less single-minded."
"Many of the traits Darwin studied had obvious functional significance and were clearly related to survival"
"Competition for mates creates winners and loosers in the genetic lottery of life, and the greater reproductive variance of males makes the stakes of the game higher for them than for females. Males thus have more t gain by adopting greater risk-taking behaviour (particularly when it comes to requiring resources and mates), greater aggressiveness, and greater promiscuity. After all, if the male can establish himself as a desirable mate, he may sire many children; if he cannot, he may sire none."
"One of the most consistent differences between the sexes is in 'aggressiveness'...'assertiveness', 'competitiveness','achievement-motivation' and 'dominance-seeking'."
"Males also exhibit more competitive behaviour and respond more positively than females to competitive situations. While competition significantly increases the motivation in men, it does not do so for women. The more competitive an achademic programme is perceived by women, for example, the poorer the performance, while the correlation is reversed for men."
"Studies consistently find that girls prefer co-operation to competition and boys prefer competition to co-operation." As the graphic design industry is very competitive this may explain why men seems to flourish more than women.
"Evolutionary theory also predicts a sex-difference in risk-taking – a behavioural trait relevant to workplace outcomes."
"Psychologist Elizabeth Arch has suggested that sex differences in achievement-orientation may be attributable to differences in risk-taking. From an early age, females are more averse to social, as well as physical, risk, and 'tend to behave in a manner that ensures continued social inclusion'. Arch notes that achievement opportunities often present the potential for loss of resources or group support. Thus, it is not female lack of ability, but rather a difference in attitudes towards failure, that leads women to avoid competitive situations."
"Arch's description of male and female attitudes fits easily within an evolutionary framework. She observes that females need explicit positive feedback in order to maintain confidence in themselves, which is an excellent mechanism for ensuring that they will be hesitant to venture into potentially risky situations...On the other hand, males tend to maintain confidence in themselves despite feedback, 'a response that would be very useful for situations where people challenge and are challenged and where a tendency to face the opponent with a sense of confidence just might provide the margin necessary for victory."
"Women everywhere exhibit more nurturing behaviour...women not only define themselves in the context of human relationship but also judge themselves in terms of their ability to care."
"In sum males and females have grossly different temperamental styles. Men tend to be competitive, while woman tend to be more co-operative. Men want to be at the top of a dominance hierarchy, while women seek to cement less-stratified social relations. Men tend to be single-minded in their pursuits, while women have more varied interests." So are women more distracted by nurturing and forming relationships, making sure everyone is happy than the job in hand, men generally head straight for the goal and don't care too much what anyone else thinks or if they upset anyone in the process. This definitely helps to explain why men succeed beyond women in becoming successful designers. Although obviously we can't generalise, there are always exceptions to the norm.
"One study found that the more 'masculine' the woman, the greater her career achievement. Masculine traits included assertiveness, competitiveness, dominance, and standing up well under pressure,while feminine traits included nurturing, accommodating warmth, and eagerness to sooth hurt feelings. Career achievement was positively correlated with masculinity and negatively correlated with femininity. Interestingly, whether a woman was classified as masculine or feminine was unrelated to her marital status or fertility."
Thursday, 1 April 2010
The Graphic Glass Ceiling
I found this article on designobserver.com by Michael Bierut:
A week ago, I was the moderator of a presentation and panel discussion at the 92nd Street Y, "The Art of the Book: Behind the Covers." The panelists were Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd and Dave Eggers. The organizers seemed pleasantly surprised by the turnout: over 900 people showed up on a Monday night to hear three people talk about book design.
After a visual presentation from each participant, all three joined me on the stage for questions submitted from the audience. There were seven questions in all. The fourth question to the all-male panel was as follows: "Why do you — all three of you — suppose there are so few female graphic designers — or at least so few female 'superstar' graphic designers? Is there a glass ceiling in graphic design?"
I read the question to the panel. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. What would your answer be?
You may have heard already what happened next. Chip Kidd made a quick joke about Larry Summers, who lost his job at Harvard partly by ruminating a little too freely on a related topic. After another pause, Milton Glaser offered an answer. Jill Priluck reported it on Gothamist, with an update several days later:
[Glaser said] that the reason there are so few female rock star graphic designers is that "women get pregnant, have children, go home and take care of their children. And those essential years that men are building their careers and becoming visible are basically denied to women who choose to be at home." He continued: "Unless something very dramatic happens to the nature of the human experience then it's never going to change." About day care and nannies, he said, "None of them are good solutions."
The crowd was silent except for a hiss or two and then Eggers piped up that he and his wife both work from home and share child care responsibilities — but added that maybe New York was different (although we don't think Eggers really believes this). Then it was clear to everyone in the room that it was time to move on.
On stage, I remember feeling...well, I remember feeling there sure are a lot of guys up here. As I recall, I eventually volunteered that, in fact, cover design was a part of our field that had provided a route to success for several notable female designers, including Louise Fili, Carin Goldberg, Knopf's Carol Carson and Barbara deWilde, not to mention (as noted by our questioner) my own partner Paula Scher. There didn't seem to be much else to say. Luckily, there were other, and easier, questions to answer. Next?
I began getting emails about the event, and particularly its "Larry Summers moment," the next day, as well as links to other reviews that raised the same question. On Youngna Park's blog, Glaser's comments were rendered like this:
There are no women at the top of the [book designing] field because women give up that time to have babies and families. [ed. note: Milton! whatttttt are you talking about?!!]
Now, it occurs to me now that I might have also said that evening that three of the world's best book designers — no, make that the three best book designers in the world — are all women: Julia Hasting, Lorraine Wild, and Irma Boom. But this misses the point. Because the issue isn't about talent, or ability, or accomplishment. It's about celebrity.
"Superstar" designers — and that's what we're talking about; read the question again — aren't just good designers. They're celebrity designers. And celebrity is a very specific commodity. It certainly helps to be good at what you do to be a celebrity designer (although celebrities in other fields don't always seem to have this requirement). But that's only a start. You also need to develop a vivid personality, an appetite for attention, and a knack for self-promotion. Accept every speaking engagement. Cough up a memorable mot juste for every interviewer. Make sure they spell your name right every time. This is time consuming work, particularly on top of your regular job, which presumably consists of doing good graphic design. Naturally, if you choose this route, it helps to be free of the distractions of ten to twenty years of caring for children, to say the least. In many ways, Milton Glaser's observations were shocking only in their obviousness.
We all know that women face challenges in the workplace that go far beyond being denied spots on panel discussions. According to a 2004 study, women make only 75.5 cents for every dollar earned by men. Last year, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission handled over 23,000 charges of sex-based discrimination. Just a few months ago, the London School Of Economics estimated at it will take 150 years to eliminate economic inequality based on gender worldwide. These are real problems.
Yet, you have to start somewhere. Glaser answered the question on the card, but the real question was the unspoken one: "Why is it that you guys up there are always...guys?" There is no good answer for this, and it doesn't seem we should have to wait 150 years to come up with one. It's depressing for a profession that's more than half female to keep putting up 100% male rosters, at the 92nd Street Y or anywhere else. And I say this with no small degree of self consciousness, as a member of a firm where only 10% of the partners are women. This is what made me squirm last Monday night, and it's what makes me squirm today.
Celebrity is good for certain things. It puts the butts in the seats at the 92nd Street Y, for instance. But it's not the only thing, and based on the reactions of those people in the audience last week, it might be time for something more.
http://www.designobserver.com/observatory/entry.html?entry=5017
Women Will Never Be Rock Star Designers
I came across this online which really got my thinking about this subject area and has helped me formulate my essay question:
Why are there so few female 'superstar' graphic designers? Is there a glass ceiling in graphic design?
(Audience question card, 92nd Street Y, New York City, December 4, 2006)
Just a tidbit for your contemplative pleasure: Jill Priluck at Gothamist describes what she calls a “Larry Summers moment” for the graphic design guru Milton Glaser during a panel discussion on the art of book jacket design at the 92nd Street Y Monday night. (The author and McSweeney’s captain Dave Eggers and designer Chip Kidd were also on hand).
Mr. Glaser — the designer of the “I Heart N.Y.” icon, Gothamist points out — was apparently asked about, or simply offered (it’s unclear), his opinion on why so few women achieve greatness in graphic design. Here’s how Gothamist said the awkward moment went down:
[H]e said that the reason there are so few female rock star graphic designers is that “women get pregnant, have children, go home and take care of their children. And those essential years that men are building their careers and becoming visible are basically denied to women who choose to be at home.” He continued: “Unless something very dramatic happens to the nature of the human experience then it’s never going to change.” About day care and nannies, he said, “None of them are good solutions.”
The crowd was silent except for a hiss or two and then Eggers piped up that he and his wife both work from home and share child care responsibilities — but added that maybe New York was different (although we don’t think Eggers really believes this). Then it was clear to everyone in the room that it was time to move on.
By TOM ZELLER JR.
(Milton Glaser’s theory on women designers is not available on his Web site.)
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/women-will-never-be-rock-star-designers/
Why are there so few female 'superstar' graphic designers? Is there a glass ceiling in graphic design?
(Audience question card, 92nd Street Y, New York City, December 4, 2006)
Just a tidbit for your contemplative pleasure: Jill Priluck at Gothamist describes what she calls a “Larry Summers moment” for the graphic design guru Milton Glaser during a panel discussion on the art of book jacket design at the 92nd Street Y Monday night. (The author and McSweeney’s captain Dave Eggers and designer Chip Kidd were also on hand).
Mr. Glaser — the designer of the “I Heart N.Y.” icon, Gothamist points out — was apparently asked about, or simply offered (it’s unclear), his opinion on why so few women achieve greatness in graphic design. Here’s how Gothamist said the awkward moment went down:
[H]e said that the reason there are so few female rock star graphic designers is that “women get pregnant, have children, go home and take care of their children. And those essential years that men are building their careers and becoming visible are basically denied to women who choose to be at home.” He continued: “Unless something very dramatic happens to the nature of the human experience then it’s never going to change.” About day care and nannies, he said, “None of them are good solutions.”
The crowd was silent except for a hiss or two and then Eggers piped up that he and his wife both work from home and share child care responsibilities — but added that maybe New York was different (although we don’t think Eggers really believes this). Then it was clear to everyone in the room that it was time to move on.
By TOM ZELLER JR.
(Milton Glaser’s theory on women designers is not available on his Web site.)
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/women-will-never-be-rock-star-designers/
Mrs Eaves
From the Emigre website FAQs with Zusanna Licko
FAQ: How did you arrive at the names Mrs Eaves and Filosofia for your recent classic revivals?
ZL: When we named Filosofia, we were looking for something Italian to reflect the origins of Bodoni. Filosofia is the Italian word for "philosophy," and it has a real nice ring to it!
Mrs Eaves has a slightly longer story; it is named after Sarah Eaves, the woman who became John Baskerville's wife. As Baskerville was setting up his printing and type business, Mrs. Eaves moved in with him as a live-in housekeeper, eventually becoming his wife after the death of her first husband, Mr. Eaves. Like the widows of Caslon and Bodoni, and the daughters of Fournier, Sarah similarly completed the printing of the unfinished volumes that John Baskerville left upon his death.
We picked the name Mrs. Eaves for this font, since that is how Sarah was often referred to in the various books documenting Baskerville's era. In order to differentiate the trademark name of the font from the common word "Mrs." as it appears in the dictionary, we removed the period.
To read more about the typeface go to the website:
http://www.emigre.com/EFfeature.php?di=109
Bauhaus Women: Art, Handicraft, Design
by Ulrike Müller
Although this isn't solely Graphic Design or contemporary it still relates to my subject matter.
A review on http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/nov/07/the-women-of-bauhaus
Jonathan Glancey. Sat 7 Nov 2009 states:
"Yes, the world's most famous modern art school accepted women. But few became well known. While the men of the Bauhaus – Gropius, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, László Moholy-Nagy and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – are celebrated, names like Gunta Stölzl (a weaver), Benita Otte (another weaver), Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain (ceramicist), Ilse Fehling (sculptor and set designer) or Alma Siedhoff-Buscher (toy maker) mean precious little."
"More women than men applied to the school in 1919, and Gropius insisted that there would be "no difference between the beautiful and the strong sex" – those very words betraying his real views. Those of the "strong sex" were, in fact, marked out for painting, carving and, from 1927, the school's new architecture department. The "beautiful sex" had to be content, mostly, with weaving."
"But if the school's women are largely unsung, their legacy lives on. As Bauhaus architecture becomes a distant vision of the future, so Bauhaus fabrics remain as useful, tactile and special as they were when these women set out to equal their male peers."
Women of Design
by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit
Influence And Inspiration From The Original Trailblazers To The New Groundbreakers.
There is one book and one book only published solely on female graphic designers. It is definitely worth checking out if you're feeling a bit misrepresented ladies! Unfortunately it is written by a mexican and an American so the majority of the case studies are American designers. There are only 3 British designers. (Not sure about Brasilian, Korean or Chinese). Interesting as the 3 designers Sian suggested checking out are American too. Perhaps American female designers have more 'balls'???
Sheila Levrant De Bretteville
Sheila Levrant de Bretteville is a graphic designer, artist and educator whose work reflects her belief in the importance of feminist principles and user participation in graphic design. In 1990 she replaced Alvin Eisenman as director of the Yale University Graduate Program in Graphic Design. This appointment was met with opposition from designer Paul Rand, who left the department and convinced colleague Armin Hofmann to do the same. Rand detailed his reasons for his opposition in the essay "Confusion and Chaos"
In 1971 Levrant de Bretteville founded the first design program for women at the California Institute of the Arts, and two years later co-founded both the Woman's Building, a public center for women's culture, and its Women’s Graphic Center in Los Angeles. In 1981 she initiated the communication design program at the Otis College of Art and Design.
De Bretteville has worked extensively in the field of public art creating works embedded within city neighborhoods. One of her best-known pieces is "Biddy Mason: Time & Place,” an 82-foot concrete wall with embedded objects in downtown Los Angeles that tells the story of a former slave who became a midwife in Los Angeles and lived near the site.In “Path of Stars,” completed in 1994 in a New Haven neighborhood, de Bretteville documented the lives of local citizens—past and present—with 21 granite stars set in the sidewalk.
Here is part of an interview with Sheila Levrant De Bretteville. Her work focus' very much on feminism, I don't want to go off on this tangent in the essay but this bit is relevant:
Q: How does Feminism relate to the issues facing contemporary practicing woman artists and designers?
Sheila: I still see some of the same issues making women’s experience more complex and difficult, primarily our relationship to the intensity of the demands we put on ourselves, and the work we do when we have small children. My office at Yale has also been a pumping station for the many new mothers who teach and come to critiques at our graphic design program here at Yale. My predecessor neither had a private office, nor understood why I felt I needed one, although he gave me one because I requested it. In addition to the production of milk and tears, there has also been a change in the tone and content of conversations in my office. These have included parenting and the passing on of kid’s clothes, as well as form making and in depth discussions of design, pedagogy and career issues. There are also the sleepless young fathers among our faculty and critics, and the changing patterns within their lives with little children that have to be taken into account as well. Much of what I know about teaching and organizing a program comes from being a parent myself, and from asking questions as a way to tease out the voices of others, rather than making a series of pronouncements, which is the way critiques take place at many schools.
See the full interview here:
http://www.notesondesign.net/people/interviews/sheila-de-bretteville-designer-educator-feminist/
“On both coasts of the United States, de Bretteville has used typography and environmental design to enhance communities. Her aesthetically rich, metaphoric projects are meaningful to a diverse range of local populations.”
Ellen Lupton, National Design Triennial catalogue
Design Council survey 2010
Wow hows that for timing. The design council has literally this week published a survey of the British Design Industry.
The gender breakdown is 60% male/40% female.
The average UK designer remains male, white and 38 years old!
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/About-Design/Research/Design-Industry-Research-2010/
Feedback from Siân Cook
Siân Cook is one of the founding members of The Women's Design + Research Unit (WD+RU) responsible for creating the font Pussy Galore. She is also Pathway Leader, Design for Advertising, Graphic & Media Design BA (Hons) here at LCC. Below is her reply to my email which raises a few interesting points to include in my essay.
Do you feel there is a gender imbalance in the celebrity graphic designer arena?
Yes.
Who do you believe to be the most celebrated female designers of today?
Depends whether you are talking personally or publicly. I would namecheck Sheila Levrant De Bretteville, Laurie Haycock, Paula Scher (all Americans!)
From my research I have noted female designers seems to excel in the areas of book, editorial, type and social design, teaching, mentoring and writing about design, rather than commercial design. Do you believe this to be true? And if so why do you think this is?
I would broadly agree, although I do see the emergence of more women working in the area of digital media recently. This kind of relates to my next answer, but maybe women define 'success' differently to their male counterparts? Also, in my own experience, finding patterns of working that you feel comfortable with can be difficult in the overtly 'commercial' sector. I personally have no dependents or childcare issues, but i still found the 'macho' studio culture of working late and being constantly 'on-call' very wearisome (and often unnecessary).
According to the HESA and the design council 61% of creative, art and design first and post graduate degree students are female, yet only 39% of working designers are female. Why do you think this is?
In my experience on the course that I teach, female graduates often have a wider range of career options that they are willing to consider on graduating (or after a few years in the industry). We have students who end up more on the project management side or transfer their skills into writing or teaching etc. It would be an unsubstantiated guess, but my hunch is that women are often less single-minded and goal-orientated in how they view their careers and are willing to embrace other opportunities or consider how their training is not necessarily purely vocational in industry terms.
Superstar Graphic Designers
Outside of the Graphic Design world are there really any 'superstar' designers? (let alone female ones). This months issue of Grafik magazine (No.185 March 2010) opens with a letter from Angharad Lewis the editor titled 'Endangered species?'
The concept of the ‘superstar’ graphic designer is outmoded these days, but during recent discussions at Grafik mansions, we found ourselves lamenting the lack of charismatic personalities in UK graphic design. At a push we could come up with a handful that might pass—just—as household names, but only because of their connection with other fields (music, in most cases). All the proper design celebs, who open events, appear on TV and write newspaper columns, are in other fields of design. Product design has its very own Simon Cowell in the shape of Philippe Starck. Architecture has no shortage of memorable characters, from scary Zaha Hadid to dashing David Adjaye. Fashion, of course, is heaving with intriguing and flamboyant characters. Even knitting gets column inches.
Graphic design, meanwhile, remains a nerdy cousin, beavering away in a bunker by the light of a Mac screen, wearing a dodgy slogan T-shirt, with only an ironical ‘adult toy’ for company. Either that or they are moving about the Shoreditch savannah in herds, blending together in a camouflage of plimsolls and bad hair, busying themselves being ‘scenesters’. I know this doesn’t apply to the whole graphic design population, but if you do answer to any of the above descriptions—please stop, you’re giving graphic design a bad name.
I’m often asked by people not connected to work “what exactly IS graphic design, then?” It would be so handy to have a reliable famous name to cite as an example. Instead it’s always a case of giving examples of the type of work graphic designers do, and that is so broad as to sound almost random. Company logos, signposts, stationery... hardly glamorous or newsworthy. But that’s the thing about graphic design—it mostly functions as a conduit for other things—the medium, not the message, setting the tone of voice rather than composing the words. Take typography: it runs like blood through the veins of the visual world and at its best it’s unnoticed. It is rare for graphic design to overshadow or become more famous that the thing it is promoting, which might explain graphic design’s recent foray into making itself an autonomous medium with self-referential products, books and posters etc—graphic design for graphic design’s sake, rather than graphic design for the sake of promoting a telecommunications company or branding a restaurant.
If graphic design does make the headlines it’s for all the wrong reasons and probably because some piece of branding has caused ‘outrage’. Obviously the reporting of the 2012 Olympic logo springs to mind, but for me that’s trumped by a story in the Daily Telegraph in March. “Anger at plans to rebrand Northamptonshire as ‘North Londonshire’,” huffed the headline about a campaign to encourage people to move from London to Northamptonshire (as if). The campaign would be paid for partly by over half a million pounds worth of taxpayers’ money. Obviously this is a stupid, expensive waste and, as I write, I have no idea whether it saw the light of day (according to the report it was due to appear on the Underground, presumably in an attempt to lure commuters away from London’s ‘rat race’ to the delights of, er, Kettering). Let me know if you spotted it.
If graphic design only attracts attention when it’s ‘bad’ but is hardly noticed for being good, perhaps that’s had an effect on graphic designers themselves. There’s no shortage of fantastic work or brilliant, intelligent designers out there, but none who seems willing or able to get noticed for it—to do a Saville maybe. Couldn’t we have a few people self-assured, eloquent and well-turned-out enough to be ambassadors for graphic design and stir up a bit of public interest in the profession? Or perhaps ego and graphic design don’t mix. If they did you’d all be architects and I’d be writing about megabucks concrete erections and reviewing Grand Designs.
http://www.grafikmag.com/index.php?m=GR&sub=GRdetail&id=365
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Only certain pieces of graphic design have gained iconic status like the tube map for example yet most of the general public probably don't know who Harry Beck is. They probably are aware of Phillipe Stark, James Dyson, Zahah Hadid, suggesting that architecture and product design disciplines have far more celebrity designers.
The letter states that Peter Saville is probably the only 'superstar' graphic designer known to the general public today, for his work in the music industry, and most of his well known work is from around 30 years ago. So if the art of the record sleeve is something that provoked a connection with people as record artwork becomes more and more obsolete with digital downloading, these designers disappear from the mainstream with the medium.
A comment on the blog states "there don't currently seem to be the individual 'designer as icon' that we saw years back in the form of Müller-Brockmann, Hans Neuburg, Saul Bass, Alan Fletcher." Perhaps this is why there are no female 'superstar' graphic designers because back in those days woman just weren't working in the industry in the numbers they are today, and if "the concept of the ‘superstar’ graphic designer is outmoded these days" then we have no superstars be it male or female.
Images to be included in essay
Hey girls, what kind of images are you going to include in your essay and any idea as to how many? I don't want to go overboard with them. Hope your all doing well!
Monday, 29 March 2010
I wish I had written this!
Check this out girls! That's exactly everything I felt when I watched the film. Of course, this is just one point of view.
Did anyone else had the chance to see it? I would love your comments.
Hope you are all doing good! X
Review: The Telegraph by Sukhdev Sandhu
Did anyone else had the chance to see it? I would love your comments.
Hope you are all doing good! X
Review: The Telegraph by Sukhdev Sandhu
Tsunamis may rage, famines lay waste, sorrow plague the earth: how slight seem such atrocities and disasters to a heart stricken by the loss of a lover. A Single Man, the directorial debut of Tom Ford, is based on a 1964 novella by Christopher Isherwood that deals with exactly this kind of heartwreck. It portrays a day – possibly the last day – in the life of George Falconer (Colin Firth), an expatriate Englishman in California since the late 1930s, whose lover of 15 years, Jim (Matthew Goode), died in a recent car accident.
His whole world – a gorgeous, glade-fringed home, an agreeable circle of friends, a tenured post teaching literature to affluent students – turns to tundra. There is no purpose and no value to anything any more. He plans to kill himself.
Whether or not he’ll go through with this resolution is half the drama of the film. The other half of the drama is… well, there isn’t any.
Ford came to fame as a fashion designer and as the creative director for high-end designer labels. Content is king? For Ford, image, advertising and a certain kind of good taste are just as important.
That’s fine if you’re a sartorialist, and if you think style and substance are indistinguishable, but it’s a problem if you’re making a transition to movies. Especially a movie that stands or falls by its ability not only to make you care about its main character, but to cry your eyes out at his desperate situation.
Little about A Single Man rings true. For one thing, it’s impossible to believe that George could possibly afford to live in his maid-serviced, Modernist gem. Is he old money? Is there some secret stash he’s privy to? Perhaps, as is sort of hinted at, he lives there because his partner was an architect. But how could that be? Jim, the axis of George’s life, is portrayed as nothing more than a cute-smiled, good-in-swimming-trunks pretty boy: he has no depth or dimensions; he becomes a mere occasion for Firth to practise – albeit to a very refined and at times moving level – his habitual persona as a repressed Englishman on the brink of emoting.
Let’s assume that that physical attraction is the key dynamic between the two men. Wouldn’t it have been refreshing if, for once, a film about gay people – made by a gay director! – wasn’t so coy about showing intimacy between its lead characters?
An early scene shows George learning from a member of Jim’s family that he can’t attend his lover’s funeral. It’s meant to be an indictment of the corseted, repressive world homosexuals and lesbians had to endure in that pre-Stonewall period. You’re meant to feel pity for him, and anger on his behalf.
Actually, you’re likely to feel more anger at Ford who, in pursuit of – what? tastefulness? broader demographic appeal? – daren’t show George touching the flesh of either Jim, a handsome Spanish hustler (Jon Kortajarena) he meets at a car park, or the student (Nicholas Hoult) with whom he goes skinny-dipping in the ocean late at night.
Heterosexuals get a bum deal, too. In a film of strange transatlantic drifts (Goode and Hoult, both Brits, play Americans), Julianne Moore plays an Englishwoman called Charley with whom George once had an affair. She likes gin, putting on make-up, and is only a flouncy Ab Fab-style cartoon figure.
Few of you will be surprised by how cursorily and inelegantly Ford tries to link George’s trauma to the US invasion of Cuba. Still, it’s pretty rich for a former Gucci-peddler also to link that era’s growing fearfulness to the rise of capitalism.
A Single Man is most potent at a visual level. It aspires to the bespoke finish and atmospheric textures of a Wong Kar Wai film, even employing Shigeru Umebayashi, composer of In the Mood For Love, to write some of the score. It’s most in its element when it’s examining George’s cuffs or his fluffy white towels rather than his heart.
After a while, every scene becomes so tweezered, styled and glossed that the whole thing degenerates into a preening perfume commercial. That’s one complaint: the other is that a film that should have been so moving is so boring.
His whole world – a gorgeous, glade-fringed home, an agreeable circle of friends, a tenured post teaching literature to affluent students – turns to tundra. There is no purpose and no value to anything any more. He plans to kill himself.
Whether or not he’ll go through with this resolution is half the drama of the film. The other half of the drama is… well, there isn’t any.
Ford came to fame as a fashion designer and as the creative director for high-end designer labels. Content is king? For Ford, image, advertising and a certain kind of good taste are just as important.
That’s fine if you’re a sartorialist, and if you think style and substance are indistinguishable, but it’s a problem if you’re making a transition to movies. Especially a movie that stands or falls by its ability not only to make you care about its main character, but to cry your eyes out at his desperate situation.
Little about A Single Man rings true. For one thing, it’s impossible to believe that George could possibly afford to live in his maid-serviced, Modernist gem. Is he old money? Is there some secret stash he’s privy to? Perhaps, as is sort of hinted at, he lives there because his partner was an architect. But how could that be? Jim, the axis of George’s life, is portrayed as nothing more than a cute-smiled, good-in-swimming-trunks pretty boy: he has no depth or dimensions; he becomes a mere occasion for Firth to practise – albeit to a very refined and at times moving level – his habitual persona as a repressed Englishman on the brink of emoting.
Let’s assume that that physical attraction is the key dynamic between the two men. Wouldn’t it have been refreshing if, for once, a film about gay people – made by a gay director! – wasn’t so coy about showing intimacy between its lead characters?
An early scene shows George learning from a member of Jim’s family that he can’t attend his lover’s funeral. It’s meant to be an indictment of the corseted, repressive world homosexuals and lesbians had to endure in that pre-Stonewall period. You’re meant to feel pity for him, and anger on his behalf.
Actually, you’re likely to feel more anger at Ford who, in pursuit of – what? tastefulness? broader demographic appeal? – daren’t show George touching the flesh of either Jim, a handsome Spanish hustler (Jon Kortajarena) he meets at a car park, or the student (Nicholas Hoult) with whom he goes skinny-dipping in the ocean late at night.
Heterosexuals get a bum deal, too. In a film of strange transatlantic drifts (Goode and Hoult, both Brits, play Americans), Julianne Moore plays an Englishwoman called Charley with whom George once had an affair. She likes gin, putting on make-up, and is only a flouncy Ab Fab-style cartoon figure.
Few of you will be surprised by how cursorily and inelegantly Ford tries to link George’s trauma to the US invasion of Cuba. Still, it’s pretty rich for a former Gucci-peddler also to link that era’s growing fearfulness to the rise of capitalism.
A Single Man is most potent at a visual level. It aspires to the bespoke finish and atmospheric textures of a Wong Kar Wai film, even employing Shigeru Umebayashi, composer of In the Mood For Love, to write some of the score. It’s most in its element when it’s examining George’s cuffs or his fluffy white towels rather than his heart.
After a while, every scene becomes so tweezered, styled and glossed that the whole thing degenerates into a preening perfume commercial. That’s one complaint: the other is that a film that should have been so moving is so boring.
Friday, 26 March 2010
How E-Books Will Change Reading And Writing by Lynn Neary
December 30, 2009
Ten years ago, few imagined that by decade's end, people would be reading novels on cell phones. A lot has changed in the book world.
"Over the last couple of years, I've really noticed if I sit down with a book, after a few paragraphs, I'll say, 'You know, where's the links? Where's the e-mail? Where's all the stuff going on?' " says writer Nicholas Carr. "And it's kind of sad."
Carr says he's thought of himself as a serious reader all his life, but in an article in The Atlantic, he argued that the Internet is training us to read in a distracted and disjointed way. But does that mean writers will have to change the way they write to capture the attention of an audience accustomed to this new way of reading? Carr thinks the answer is yes, and he looks to the past to make his point.
"When printed books first became popular, thanks to Gutenberg's press, you saw this great expansion of eloquence and experimentation," says Carr. "All of which came out of the fact that here was a technology that encouraged people to read deeply, with great concentration and focus. And as we move to the new technology of the screen ... it has a very different effect, an almost opposite effect, and you will see a retreat from the sophistication and eloquence that characterized the printed page."
As digital platforms proliferate, writers are trying to figure out how to use them. Novelist Rick Moody recently wrote a story on the social networking site Twitter. Moody says he got intrigued by the idea of writing in abbreviated form to fit within the 140-character limitations of each Twitter post.
"I began to see that trying to write within this tiny little frame, 140 characters, was kind of like trying to write haiku. It's very poetical in its compaction, and it kind of got under my skin, and I kept thinking, 'Wouldn't it be fun to try and work with this?' " Moody says.
His flirtation with Twitter was not entirely successful. The delivery of the story went awry, and some industry insiders were bombarded with repetitive tweets. Still, Moody doesn't regret the experiment. But he does have doubts about Twitter's literary potential.
"It forced me to try to imply more narrative than I could actually include in the piece, because I was so stuck in this little box. It's hard to have dialogue between characters in the confines of the Twitter box," Moody says. "That was all fun. Whether I think Twitter is going to be a great vehicle for fiction, I'd say no."
A lot of writers are trying their hand at Twitter books — both on the Web and in print — but Time magazine book reviewer Lev Grossman thinks it's a passing fad. Asked what might have some staying power, Grossman suggests the cell phone novel. Written on cell phones and meant to be read on them, many of these books are best-sellers in Japan. The authors are usually young women, and romance is the main theme.
"They tend to be narratively very propulsive, [and] not very interested in style and beautiful language," Grossman says. "There tends to be a lot of drama and melodrama, sex and violence. They grab your attention, and they don't really let it go."
Apart from Twitter books and cell phone novels, Grossman, who is also a novelist, says the real challenge for writers is electronic-book readers like the Kindle. He says the increasingly popular devices force people to read books in a different way.
"They scroll and scroll and scroll. You don't have this business of handling pages and turning them and savoring them." Grossman says that particular function of the e-book leads to a certain kind of reading and writing: "Very forward moving, very fast narrative ... and likewise you don't tend to linger on the language. When you are seeing a word or a sentence on the screen, you tend to go through it, you extract the data, and you move on."
Grossman thinks that tendency not to linger on the language also affects the way people react to a book when they are deciding whether to buy it: More purchases will be based on brief excerpts.
"It will be incumbent on novelists to hook readers right away," says Grossman. "You won't be allowed to do a kind of tone poem overture, you're going to want to have blood on the wall by the end of the second paragraph. And I think that's something writers will have to adapt to, and the challenge will be to use this powerfully narrative form, this pulpy kind of mode, to say important things."
Grossman, Moody and Carr all believe that traditional books will still be around for a long time, and that some of the changes that may occur in writing will be more evolutionary than revolutionary. But it's hard to know, says Carr, whether traditional books — and the people who read and write them — will have much influence on the culture in the future.
"The real question is," wonders Carr, "is that segment of the population going to just dwindle and be on the periphery of the culture rather than at the center, which is where printed books have stood for centuries now?"
Perhaps we'll have to wait another 10 years to find out.
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=122026529&m=122042992
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Are e-books greener than paper books?
Are e-books greener than paper books?
February 19, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
Environmentally concerned customers may continue reading paper books. A report by the Centre for Sustainable Communications shows that there are no good reasons to claim that e-books have a better eco performance. Only if you read more than 33 e-books during the lifetime of an electronic reading device it becomes beneficial from a climate point of view.
Clara Borggren and Åsa Moberg from the Centre for Sustainable Communications present a screening life cycle assessment comparing three different ways of distributing and reading books: a paper book purchased in a traditional bookshop, a paper book purchased in an online store and an e-book read on an electronic reading device.
“There is a common assumption that e-books are limiting the burden on the environment. But our results indicate that there is no substantial difference between an e-book read on a reading device and a paper book. The reading device has to be used quite frequently. With the assumptions made in our study you have to read more than 33 e-books containing 360 pages on a newly purchased reading device for it to become superior from a climate perspective” says Åsa Moberg.
A paper book’s environmental impact is mainly caused by the production of paper. An e-book’s environmental impact on the other hand depends primarily on the production of the reading device. The paper book’s environmental impact is substantially decreased by minimized personal transportation when buying the book. The key factor for decreasing environmental impact per book read is simply to let more people read the book.
What should be done to make reading devices more attractive from an environmental perspective?
Reading devices need to become multifunctional and allow for reading of newspapers, books and other documents. In that way the environmental impact of the reading device is spread across several uses. In addition, the e-book really needs to replace paper books and other information carriers. “You remember what happened to the paperless office that never came about,” Åsa Moberg quips. Moreover, producers of reading devices are challenged to minimize the use of toxic and rare substances in production.
The book which forms the basis of the study is a hardback novel with 360 pages. The study measures the environmental impact for each book that is read and applies to Swedish conditions.
Currently, the report comparing paper books and e-books is only available in Swedish (See Pappersbok och elektronisk bok på läsplatta).
February 19, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
Environmentally concerned customers may continue reading paper books. A report by the Centre for Sustainable Communications shows that there are no good reasons to claim that e-books have a better eco performance. Only if you read more than 33 e-books during the lifetime of an electronic reading device it becomes beneficial from a climate point of view.
Clara Borggren and Åsa Moberg from the Centre for Sustainable Communications present a screening life cycle assessment comparing three different ways of distributing and reading books: a paper book purchased in a traditional bookshop, a paper book purchased in an online store and an e-book read on an electronic reading device.
“There is a common assumption that e-books are limiting the burden on the environment. But our results indicate that there is no substantial difference between an e-book read on a reading device and a paper book. The reading device has to be used quite frequently. With the assumptions made in our study you have to read more than 33 e-books containing 360 pages on a newly purchased reading device for it to become superior from a climate perspective” says Åsa Moberg.
A paper book’s environmental impact is mainly caused by the production of paper. An e-book’s environmental impact on the other hand depends primarily on the production of the reading device. The paper book’s environmental impact is substantially decreased by minimized personal transportation when buying the book. The key factor for decreasing environmental impact per book read is simply to let more people read the book.
What should be done to make reading devices more attractive from an environmental perspective?
Reading devices need to become multifunctional and allow for reading of newspapers, books and other documents. In that way the environmental impact of the reading device is spread across several uses. In addition, the e-book really needs to replace paper books and other information carriers. “You remember what happened to the paperless office that never came about,” Åsa Moberg quips. Moreover, producers of reading devices are challenged to minimize the use of toxic and rare substances in production.
The book which forms the basis of the study is a hardback novel with 360 pages. The study measures the environmental impact for each book that is read and applies to Swedish conditions.
Currently, the report comparing paper books and e-books is only available in Swedish (See Pappersbok och elektronisk bok på läsplatta).
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
Ted Blog interviews Jacek Utko
The TED Blog interviewed Jacek Utko over the phone yesterday to get a deeper look into his approach to newspaper design and his thoughts on the future of news media. Here's a snippet:
"Many people think that newspapers have to survive because they have a mission for society, for democracy. Most of them say that newspapers should stay because, if newspapers die, nothing will replace them. But that's not actually true. It's already slowly being replaced by the Internet. Blogs, for example, are an opinion-making medium. They'll probably become more powerful than the newspapers were."
Here is an excerpt from the interview -
When will the newspapers finally die?
"The Western world has the most complicated situation. People have stopped buying newspapers. The papers in America will die in five, maybe ten years. Who knows? But there are some parts of the world where newspapers will be successful for the next many years. There, newspapers can easily make money.
This is a pretty interesting notion. We tend to forget just how vast the world really is and that just because our daily lives revolve (sadly) around iPhones, iMacs, iPods and other various forms of electronic devices, not everyones does. Many people lead much more simple lives and not just in rural or exotic places but also in major cities in other parts of the world where technology is never as sophisticated as it is in the West. Many cities in China for example especially Western China will continue to relate news through the printed medium as opposed to digital. This has as much to do with communist belief systems and careful editing of the press as anything else, but is a reality in much of the world. The reign of the newspaper will not come to an end in these places as abruptly as it will in our western world.
Rupert Murdoch plans charge for all news websites by next summer
Times and Sun readers to pay as loss-making Murdoch declares end to free-for-all
Check out this link for an insight into Rupert Murdoch's long term vision for national newspapers. He claims he is willing to take the risk of leading the industry towards a pay-per-view model. He states, "I believe that if we're successful, we'll be followed fast by other media." An interesting one to watch!
The billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch suffered the indignity of seeing his global empire make a huge financial loss yesterday and promptly pledged to shake up the newspaper industry by introducing charges for access to all his news websites, including the Times, the Sunand the News of the World, by next summer.
Stung by a collapse in advertising revenue as the recession shredded Fleet Street's traditional business model, Murdoch declared that the era of a free-for-all in online news was over.
"Quality journalism is not cheap," said Murdoch. "The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites."
The Guardian, Thursday 6 August 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/06/rupert-murdoch-website-charges
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Woman as Design by Stephen Bayley
Marina, Paul has mentioned this book that might be relevant to us both. I have just found a very negative (and humorous) review of it on the times online if you follow the link below.
"...if woman is a design, then what exactly was the brief?
"The result is a rambling and quixotic pervathon that rests wholly on his patronising and flawed central thesis of woman as product. Dominated by glossy images of babes in various states of undress and yet more weirdo questions — “Is there any more potent a symbol than the breast?” and “What do curves mean?” — it is meant, clearly, to be a high-minded analysis of the form and function of the female in art, architecture, archeology and advertising from 25,000BC to the present day."
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article6818840.ece
"...if woman is a design, then what exactly was the brief?
"The result is a rambling and quixotic pervathon that rests wholly on his patronising and flawed central thesis of woman as product. Dominated by glossy images of babes in various states of undress and yet more weirdo questions — “Is there any more potent a symbol than the breast?” and “What do curves mean?” — it is meant, clearly, to be a high-minded analysis of the form and function of the female in art, architecture, archeology and advertising from 25,000BC to the present day."
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article6818840.ece
Designing for Beautility: Where Beauty Meets Utility
Marina I came across this article via the design council website. Might be useful!!
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/tucker-viemeister/whats-cookin/beautility-where-beauty-meets-utility
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/tucker-viemeister/whats-cookin/beautility-where-beauty-meets-utility
Design Council
You all should check out the design council website.
There's loads of facts and figures, reports and articles on all sorts of areas in the UK design industry. Might be something useful for your essays!
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk
There's loads of facts and figures, reports and articles on all sorts of areas in the UK design industry. Might be something useful for your essays!
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk
Friday, 19 March 2010
Catch up next week??
Hello ladies,
Does anyone fancy catching up some time next week?
My elective only runs mon, tues, wed so I'll be free Thursday and Friday if you fancy meeting up to chat over stuff? Anything, not just Design Discourse!
x
Does anyone fancy catching up some time next week?
My elective only runs mon, tues, wed so I'll be free Thursday and Friday if you fancy meeting up to chat over stuff? Anything, not just Design Discourse!
x
Thursday, 18 March 2010
Hunger vs A Single Man
There's got to be a point of equilibrium between aesthetic value and substance in the film industry and all visual communication...
Here there's a successful example of Steve McQueen's Hunger released in 2008.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZipYYoUteCw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZipYYoUteCw
Ahhhhhh Panic
Hi Guys
Did any of you by chance record the 24 mins that Paul was talking about my area? For some reason my recording of it has corrupted!! Ahhhh panic! Thank god I took notes as well but would be amazing if you have it so I can listen back!
Thanks
Did any of you by chance record the 24 mins that Paul was talking about my area? For some reason my recording of it has corrupted!! Ahhhh panic! Thank god I took notes as well but would be amazing if you have it so I can listen back!
Thanks
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Does TV advertising effect children?
Key words:
Design ethics, social responsibility,
children's customers, TV advertising, media, 'pester power'
communication, branding, consumerism... ...
The field I've been interested in is about Ethics in Children's Television advertising. I went through with those questions below: Why and how do children watch TV? How well do children understanding TV? Does TV teach children about social roles? Does TV advertising effect children?
"Young children are simply more easily persuadable than older children or adults. They are more trusting of advertising claims and appeal and more susceptible to commercial persuasion."
"As children grow older they gain the capability to distinguish between commercials and programs, to remember them for a long period times, and gradually come to recognize their persuasive intent."
"The 'effects' of television are not measurable only by counting heads in audience. What children get out of television is often quite different from what adults assume they get out of it."
"Children's desire to possess products they have seen on television is said to lead to "pester power", which means that children pester their parents or other adults to buy things for them."
Design ethics, social responsibility,
children's customers, TV advertising, media, 'pester power'
communication, branding, consumerism... ...
The field I've been interested in is about Ethics in Children's Television advertising. I went through with those questions below: Why and how do children watch TV? How well do children understanding TV? Does TV teach children about social roles? Does TV advertising effect children?
"Young children are simply more easily persuadable than older children or adults. They are more trusting of advertising claims and appeal and more susceptible to commercial persuasion."
"As children grow older they gain the capability to distinguish between commercials and programs, to remember them for a long period times, and gradually come to recognize their persuasive intent."
"The 'effects' of television are not measurable only by counting heads in audience. What children get out of television is often quite different from what adults assume they get out of it."
"Children's desire to possess products they have seen on television is said to lead to "pester power", which means that children pester their parents or other adults to buy things for them."
Is there a future for printed newspapers? And if so, how can they sucessfully evolve in the technology race?
"Newspapers have a bright future as print-digital hybrids after all - but they'd better hurry."
Quote from Columbia Journalism Review -
It seems that daily newspapers are in a downward spiral. The new year brought reports of more "newsroom layoffs, dwindling print circulation, flat or declining ad sales, increasing defections of readers and advertisers to the Internet, not to mention sullen investors. As succeeding generations grow up with the Web and lose the habit of reading print, it seems improbable that newspapers can survive with a cost structure at least 50 percent higher than their nimbler and cheaper Internet competitors".
This is a pretty bleak picture but is there a silver lining amongst all this doom and gloom? Does newspaper design have a future? This was the big question that was generated 10 years ago or so which was "Is Print Dead?"
This is a link to a relevant article that explains a little about this argument
This was possibly a slightly hysterical reaction to technology traveling at the speed of light. We can see as we progress through the 2000's that instead of dying and disappearing into oblivion, the newspaper instead needs to readdress its way of thinking, it's methods of production and promotion and evolve along with the changing technology and the ever important needs and wants of the consumer.
As we enter 2010 a far more hopeful picture is emerging. "In this scenario the mainstream press, though late to the party, figures out how to make serious money from the Internet, uses the Web to enrich traditional journalistic forms, and retains its professionalism—along with a readership that is part print, part Web. Newspapers stay alive as hybrids. The culture and civic mission of daily print journalism endure." One can see some newspapers already tapping into some very lucrative money making ventures. For example, the Guardian have created on their site a very well received travel blog called "been there" and also run the very successful social site "soulmates". All of which can exist as past of the Guardian news but only on-line.
Perhaps the perfect solution is a combination of the two worlds; the pleasing, tactile printed newspaper, in production on a smaller scale and the fast, convenient news available on-line, whether viewed on your laptop, iPhone or the new Notebook, for everyday viewing. A point of acceptance must be reached, acceptance of a swiftly changing world and new technology. Only then can the newspaper begin the next phase of it's life cycle.
A great example of a newspaper that had taken the bull by the horns so to speak and compleatly readdressed the way in which it is designed, produced and distributed is Portugal's newest daily newspaper, i. It was launched in early May and has attracted a significant amount of attention due to its rising circulation figures and innovative approach.
What is it they are doing differently?
"I is not structured like a traditional paper. The paper's team worked with media consultancy Innovation to come up with a new way to organise the product. "Our feeling was," said Figueiredo, who came on board at an early stage, moving from Diário Económico,"that people wee not concerned about traditional sections any more. Traditionally, journalists have to fill a politics section even if there is nothing relevant going on in politics. We wanted to come up with something different." So the team came up with five key needs that they wanted the paper to address, with five key words".
What are they?
- Opinion - is the first section of the paper, based on the key word think, a first for a Portuguese paper
- Radar - aims to offer a quick overview of everything that has happened in the last 24 hours
- Zoom - subjects dealth with in a lot of depth with a lot of care
- More - deals with peoples private, cultural and social lives
- Sports - 80% focused on football which is very important in Portugal
"A huge amount of work goes into designing the paper every day. At first, Mrozowski explained, the idea was that the paper would have a template that would leave some pages fixed each time, meaning that some pages would require no design work on a daily basis and that editors would simply put their content into the pre-designed format. "But from day one that strategy fell apart,"he said. "We realised that the sort of paper we were making had to have a lot of very specialised content and each page would have to be custom-made to the needs of a reporter or editor."
What's next?
The staff seemed excited about the paper's future. Mrozowski plans to further improve the work of his design team, to take it "to the next level." The team has mastered the basics, he feels, and is now "going to start focusing on certain areas of the paper one at a time and try to make them better so that we are at the highest level."
So the question is, if i does succeed, will others follow it down the path of innovation?
CNN and the House of Brands Strategy
This article raises some interesting points. It's really interesting to see how the branding of a news network is so vastly complex and intricate in its workings. It's intriguing to see how the brand must evolve constantly in a never-ending effort to increase the number of "viewer eyeballs". The news is not simply the news anymore.
This idea of sub-segments and morning and evening slots being used as more entertainment friendly is proving to be very popular with the viewing public. It's not just about politics, economics, and warzones anymore, the news now tells us what the latest best seller is, the top five holiday destinations and the new IT- bag. Is this simply a Western trend or do we see this with News Channels in other parts of the world?
Take a look at some of the key shows on CNN and one cannot but notice the network’s recent adoption of an explicit “House of Brands” strategy in an effort to better wage the battle for “viewer eyeballs”. The collage below shows some of CNN’s major shows and their distinct “brands” (e.g. AC360, Fareed Zakaria GPS, John King’s State of the Union, etc.).
By expanding away from the core umbrella “CNN” brand to a portfolio of brands for individual “products”, CNN is trying to form deeper association and identification with its viewers through a sub-segmentation approach. By forming show-specific brands (represented by a distinct anchor along with a catchy tagline reflecting the show’s underlying theme), CNN has increased flexibility to target and reach sub segments of the viewer pool by enabling a more tailored messaging and content theme. In effect, each show (or brand) has the ability to fight its own battle against other networks’ shows targeting the same viewer sub-segments. For example:
- Wolf Blitzer (Tagline: Situation Room – Target viewers who want to get the latest critical and heated news of the day)
- Campbell Brown (Tagline: No Bias, No Bull – Target viewers with the differentiated message that the show is all about keeping the government and businesses straight by calling out mis-information and broken promises)
- Fareed Zakaria (Tagline: GPS or Global Public Square – Target wonky viewers interested in foreign policy and globalization issues)
Although an effective strategy, the “House of Brands” focus could also backfire in the long run: in particular it can potentially weaken the mothership “CNN” brand in the minds of viewers. In addition, the adopted strategy will continue to strenghen the “cult of personality” in U.S media and shift market power away from the network to the individual anchors.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
The Growth of the 'Motherbrand'
The world of technology is changing quickly and as a result we are all clamouring to keep up with it. The world of news broadcasting is no different and in an age where more and more outlets for news become available, we see news networks struggle to retain viewers. They are now, not only in competition with each other but also many different modern sources of news, including discussion and information blogs such as TedBlog and video sites like YouTube, to name but a few. A strong brand identity is more important than ever, to ensure healthy ratings and loyal viewers and we now see more aggressive efforts than ever to generate as much revenue as possible and the propelling of the brand further into the public eye.
The broadcasting of news is supposed to be an informative and educational experience. It not only relates information but also widens the understanding and intellectual capacity of the audience, when it is frequently watched. News broadcasting should be engaging and enjoyable to watch but at what point do you cross the line into farce. The notion of product placement on a news slot is a relatively new trend. When showcasing the product of a global brand it no doubt is quite lucrative for the news station but does it not distract from the serious content of news stories?
An example of this is a Fox News station in US has signed a product placement deal with McDonald's ensuring that cups of the fast food's chain coffee are displayed prominently on the desk of news anchors. The Fox affiliate anchors at KVVU in Las Vegas sit with cups of McDonald's iced coffee on thier desks during news and lifestyle segments of the morning show as part of a six month promotion.
This raises some very important points, what happens should a negative story about McDonald's need to be reported? Brent Williams, account supervisior at Omnicom agency Karsh/Hagan (which brokered the deal) ensures that should that situation arise the McDonalds cups would be taken away. It they are prepared to do this, then what other measures could they undertake? The use of more attractive anchors, an increase the the number of light weight lifestyle segments, a never ending array of 'placed' products?
Is this all part of a larger effort to nurture the ever expanding 'motherbrand'? If so, is it really the most appropiate course of expansion?
Hey guys,
I've been interested in to think about the trend as 'Paperless' which could influence to the designers like us. So I tried to find some articles for this subject to get some ideas.
And I also want to consider that the possibility of handmade graphics.
All the write stuff/ Guardian. 2003
I've been interested in to think about the trend as 'Paperless' which could influence to the designers like us. So I tried to find some articles for this subject to get some ideas.
And I also want to consider that the possibility of handmade graphics.
All the write stuff/ Guardian. 2003
Keyboards may be faster but pens just won't go away.
Mary Branscombe looks at the latest versions of the oldest writing tool
For years, the paperless office has seemed about as likely as the paperless toilet. We print documents to jot down notes on rather than reading them on screen. We take notes on paper rather than on a Tablet PC and not everyone wants to spend the money or carry the extra weight to make that switch.
When you take someone's details, you probably jot them down on scrap paper rather than juggling the phone to type them straight into your address book. And even if you have all of that, there are still forms to deal with. However, if the software is good enough, new digital pens might actually make the difference.
Pen computing isn't a new idea and many computer users already use a pen to control their system. It's not easy to do computer graphics without a graphics tablet and pen. They are not particularly expensive: Wacom's £40 Volito pen and tablet is ideal if you just want to try out writing or if you want to equip the entire office. The size of the tablet is what puts up the price: the A6 version of the more sensitive Graphire pen and tablet is £70, while the A5 Graphire Studio XL is £180. If you're signing your name, sketching a diagram or scribbling down a name and phone number, you don't need a large area on which to write.
Using a pen with a desktop PC isn't the same as using a Tablet PC. For a start, you don't write on to the screen; you're writing on the desk while you look at the screen. If you find that difficult to get used to, the solution is rather pricey: the 18in Wacom Cintiq is a tablet you use as a monitor or tilt down to write directly on to, but it will set you back more than £2,000.
And although most Tablet PCs use the same Wacom hardware as graphics tablets, the digitiser in the Tablet PC screen checks the position of the pen 130 times every second, giving you the smooth curves you need for accurate handwriting recognition and the feeling that the ink is flowing out of the pen and on to the screen, which means the pen on a Tablet feels natural to use.
USB graphics tablets are far smoother than using a mouse to draw but they aren't that fast. Plus, you can't actually buy a copy of the Tablet PC version of Windows XP, so to use a pen for more than just navigating like a mouse, you need handwriting recognition software such as Pen&Internet's ritePen. This lets you write anywhere on screen - on the desktop or inside a window - but your writing automatically ends up in the active application window where you want it. Like the Tablet PC, you don't have to train the software, and if it doesn't get your words quite right, you can pick from the alternatives.
Of course, it's when you're away from your PC that you're most likely to scribble down something important on a piece of paper and lose it. If you don't want to carry a tablet PC or a personal digital assistant, there are two new digital pens from Nokia and Logitech you can use to sign a cheque like a normal pen, or send an email with.
They both work by using paper with a tiny pattern of dots so the pen is able to accurately record the movements you make and store them in its memory. Tick the box to say it's an email, fill in the address and your message gets sent automatically when you get back to your PC and put the pen into its cradle.
With the Nokia Digital Pen, you can send an MMS (multimedia message) from your Nokia mobile phone just by writing on the right piece of paper; the pen sends the message via Bluetooth as an image of your writing. You also get special paper with both pens for Post-It Notes, paper organiser pages, creating appointments in your diary or adding a contact to your address book. And to save on costs, Nokia cleverly includes laminated cards for MMS, calendar and contacts that you can wipe off and use again.
These digital pens work pretty much like a normal pen but they're much more bulky. However, they're both lighter and smaller than a PDA - think shapely highlighter rather than ballpoint pen - and unlike a graphics tablet, they need batteries. And with a price tag of £130 for the Nokia Digital Pen or £150 for the io, you won't want to leave one on a restaurant table. Seiko's InkLink is slightly cheaper at £100, it uses any paper and the pen is much more like a normal pen, because the digitising is done by the large clip you put on one end of the sheet of paper. You can plug it into a PDA or a USB port when you're at your desk, but it is fiddlier than the others.
These pens are fine for jotting down personal information and reminders or drawing sketches, but writing comes across as graphics rather than text, and the handwriting recognition software included with the Logitech io isn't particularly sophisticated. If you want to put digital pens to work on forms rather than personal notes, HP is coming out with its Digital Pen 200 and the Forms Automation System, which lets you print out your own paper on a LaserJet. This works with Pen&Internet's riteForm software so you can print your office forms as usual, fill them in on paper and get the information straight into your database.
Software such as riteForm makes a digital pen more than a gimmick. Not only can you use it to do what lots of people do in the office every day, only without someone else having to do it all over again when they type in the information from the forms, but what you get out of it isn't a proprietary kind of digital ink, just information that goes straight into your existing systems. Like the best Tablet PC applications, pen-enabled software needs to be true digital paper rather than a paper interface that's been digitised - combining the simplicity of picking up a pen and writing with the automation that makes computers worth using.
Whether you're taking notes or filling in a form, using a digital pen rather than a keyboard means you don't have to lose the flexibility of paper. Leonid Kitainik, general manager for Pen&Internet comments that: "Creative thinking is not simply thinking in typed text: it includes images, charts, layouts. If we broaden the definition of a document to include drawings and look for a mass market device to enrich the documents, what can replace the pen?"
Mary Branscombe looks at the latest versions of the oldest writing tool
For years, the paperless office has seemed about as likely as the paperless toilet. We print documents to jot down notes on rather than reading them on screen. We take notes on paper rather than on a Tablet PC and not everyone wants to spend the money or carry the extra weight to make that switch.
When you take someone's details, you probably jot them down on scrap paper rather than juggling the phone to type them straight into your address book. And even if you have all of that, there are still forms to deal with. However, if the software is good enough, new digital pens might actually make the difference.
Pen computing isn't a new idea and many computer users already use a pen to control their system. It's not easy to do computer graphics without a graphics tablet and pen. They are not particularly expensive: Wacom's £40 Volito pen and tablet is ideal if you just want to try out writing or if you want to equip the entire office. The size of the tablet is what puts up the price: the A6 version of the more sensitive Graphire pen and tablet is £70, while the A5 Graphire Studio XL is £180. If you're signing your name, sketching a diagram or scribbling down a name and phone number, you don't need a large area on which to write.
Using a pen with a desktop PC isn't the same as using a Tablet PC. For a start, you don't write on to the screen; you're writing on the desk while you look at the screen. If you find that difficult to get used to, the solution is rather pricey: the 18in Wacom Cintiq is a tablet you use as a monitor or tilt down to write directly on to, but it will set you back more than £2,000.
And although most Tablet PCs use the same Wacom hardware as graphics tablets, the digitiser in the Tablet PC screen checks the position of the pen 130 times every second, giving you the smooth curves you need for accurate handwriting recognition and the feeling that the ink is flowing out of the pen and on to the screen, which means the pen on a Tablet feels natural to use.
USB graphics tablets are far smoother than using a mouse to draw but they aren't that fast. Plus, you can't actually buy a copy of the Tablet PC version of Windows XP, so to use a pen for more than just navigating like a mouse, you need handwriting recognition software such as Pen&Internet's ritePen. This lets you write anywhere on screen - on the desktop or inside a window - but your writing automatically ends up in the active application window where you want it. Like the Tablet PC, you don't have to train the software, and if it doesn't get your words quite right, you can pick from the alternatives.
Of course, it's when you're away from your PC that you're most likely to scribble down something important on a piece of paper and lose it. If you don't want to carry a tablet PC or a personal digital assistant, there are two new digital pens from Nokia and Logitech you can use to sign a cheque like a normal pen, or send an email with.
They both work by using paper with a tiny pattern of dots so the pen is able to accurately record the movements you make and store them in its memory. Tick the box to say it's an email, fill in the address and your message gets sent automatically when you get back to your PC and put the pen into its cradle.
With the Nokia Digital Pen, you can send an MMS (multimedia message) from your Nokia mobile phone just by writing on the right piece of paper; the pen sends the message via Bluetooth as an image of your writing. You also get special paper with both pens for Post-It Notes, paper organiser pages, creating appointments in your diary or adding a contact to your address book. And to save on costs, Nokia cleverly includes laminated cards for MMS, calendar and contacts that you can wipe off and use again.
These digital pens work pretty much like a normal pen but they're much more bulky. However, they're both lighter and smaller than a PDA - think shapely highlighter rather than ballpoint pen - and unlike a graphics tablet, they need batteries. And with a price tag of £130 for the Nokia Digital Pen or £150 for the io, you won't want to leave one on a restaurant table. Seiko's InkLink is slightly cheaper at £100, it uses any paper and the pen is much more like a normal pen, because the digitising is done by the large clip you put on one end of the sheet of paper. You can plug it into a PDA or a USB port when you're at your desk, but it is fiddlier than the others.
These pens are fine for jotting down personal information and reminders or drawing sketches, but writing comes across as graphics rather than text, and the handwriting recognition software included with the Logitech io isn't particularly sophisticated. If you want to put digital pens to work on forms rather than personal notes, HP is coming out with its Digital Pen 200 and the Forms Automation System, which lets you print out your own paper on a LaserJet. This works with Pen&Internet's riteForm software so you can print your office forms as usual, fill them in on paper and get the information straight into your database.
Software such as riteForm makes a digital pen more than a gimmick. Not only can you use it to do what lots of people do in the office every day, only without someone else having to do it all over again when they type in the information from the forms, but what you get out of it isn't a proprietary kind of digital ink, just information that goes straight into your existing systems. Like the best Tablet PC applications, pen-enabled software needs to be true digital paper rather than a paper interface that's been digitised - combining the simplicity of picking up a pen and writing with the automation that makes computers worth using.
Whether you're taking notes or filling in a form, using a digital pen rather than a keyboard means you don't have to lose the flexibility of paper. Leonid Kitainik, general manager for Pen&Internet comments that: "Creative thinking is not simply thinking in typed text: it includes images, charts, layouts. If we broaden the definition of a document to include drawings and look for a mass market device to enrich the documents, what can replace the pen?"
Hi girls, I had a call from Jiayi today. She said she didn't get our messages or blog invite (something possibly wrong with her blackboard e-mail?) and didn't realise we were meeting up for blog discussions. I've arranged to meet up with her tomorrow in the library to sort out the blog issue and go through her essay idea with her. She can then get the low down on what we've been doing before we meet Paul on Thursday for discussion. I'll see you girls on Thursday, happy reading.
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