Our newest branded world

Just like all art advertising goes through shifts, waves and trends. Yet it seems to surprise us somehow that consumers stop reacting to the same familiar comforting ad campaign and crave to try something new... we ARE creatures of habit, but also I would like to think that was are intelligent enough to question why we pay the extra $2 for a certain brand. There are very few brands i have remained loyal to myself especially on a students budget.
I think the evolution is a good thing- some competition is healthy and good for the consumer as well, but keeping in mind that brands have a responsibility (just like every other designer or artist) to keep environmentally conscious. In my opinion THIS should be the new campaign, companies taking a stance for the better. Using environmentally friendly materials, and even promoting and patting themselves on the back for their deeds (because you know it will be announced anyway.) Maybe this will/could spark competitors to do the same, and finally the billboard crowded and littered streets could be reduced and recycled.

NewBrandedWorld

Anyone else throw up in their mouth a little after reading this? It seems that advertising will necessarily hit a sort of event horizon eventually. When half the economy is spent promoting the other half of the economy, whats left? Since corporations are trying to insinuate themselves into every part of peoples lives, is it possible that a sort of new corporate feudalism could be in the cards? With conglomerates able to offer a variety of services, this seems plausible, even more so when one considers the talk of 'privatization' of federal and local services.
Also, apparently the '00s are the new '80s. Everyones in to brands, health trends are running amok, video games are the new hotness and even cocaine is making a resurgence. WTF people. Seriously.
Considering this is our last year, it seems like a career in an ad agency will be a career spent being a shameless huckster and pest to society.
My theory is that you can't kill the brand, simply because the human mind is set up to make associations. Some kind of branding will always come through to make value associations with the indentity of a company, and people will readily accept those associations if there is even a bit of truth to them.

Design Culture?

I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around designers being a culture. I guess it depends on an individuals defenition of culture. I view design more as a movement that never stops evolving. People change and therefore design changes along side it. To argue further, I don't necessarily think that design forms the culture or movement. I think that design, in a way, conforms to the general consumer public. People have to be able to relate to design, otherwise, it won't affect or pursuade them. So in my mind, design rides along side our culture, but does not create one.

Designers Create Culture?

Do designers create culture? I am not sure that is as big of an issue as Katherine McCoy makes it out to be. I do agree that there is a problem with the way things are often pushed on the consumer but I am not sure that this is necessarily a design issue.

McCoy asked the question “how do we create culturally meaningful experiences from scratch and on demand?” I am not sure that we can. The way I understand culture is that it is the beliefs, customs, practices, and social behavior of a particular group of people that come from a particular place, class, or time to which the people belong. It seems that it would generally be beneficial for designers to work with this and not against it, and I think it happens more often that we perhaps know.

Nearly everything we design is targeted to someone and before we even start to design the item, we first research the people we will be targeting. We try to understand the targeted audience to the best of our ability so that we can design for what is important to them. Even huge corporations and brands do this. An example of this is the current KFC campaign, they pose the question of having a real family dinner on a weeknight they then say: “bring back dinner”. KFC is playing directly in to our set of cultural standards of wanting a home cooked dinner every night. This idea of a family dinner is part of our culture, and rather then fighting it, (as KFC is not a home cooked meal) KFC is playing right into it. Generally speaking brands are using our culture to their advantage. If they did not they would not be as successful. I do thing that design changes culture (and maybe more in the underdeveloped countries) but without culture it would be much harder to do meaningful design.

Reality Branding?

Why do i keep thinking the same things about these articles?
While moving toward "reality branding" is a noble effort, how is a major overhaul in the design world going to take effect without the participation of everyone? The rose colored glasses need to come off. No one is willing to sacrifice their cushy job for an experiment in truthful branding. While a pro-bono piece for a good cause and a little recognition maybe not produce a paycheck, further down the line it may warrant that big raise. For this whole paradigm shift in design to take place, there needs to be a concensus among the design community.
In one part the article the says something along the lines of: "if the product sucks and isn't serious, don't advertise it like it is". True. And ideally, that's what would happen. But who the hell is going to buy the less serious, silly, truthful product over the one that looks flashy and important. Unfortunately, people do judge books by their covers. And if your cover sucks, don't expect it to make it to the best seller list.

/my $.02
//can i get change back?

Reality Branding?

I really like the way this article started. I thought that the following sentence in particular was a good point to start with. “Instead of pretending that design is the be-all and end-all of existence, let’s look at it from the outside, be honest about its place in the world, its power, and its potential, and see what we can do with it.” She went on to say how it does not make sense to expect design to fulfill your social, political, spiritual, and cultural ambitions. And of the importance of ones life outside of design. I think that as students we are expected to not have a life outside of design, that we should live, breath, and think design. I think as students it is very important for us to immerse ourselves in all things design but there has to be a balance. The closer I get to graduation the more and more relevant this is becoming to me. I think that in order to do good design and design that is relevant in the world outside of design you have to be plugged in to what is going on in the world and the culture around you.

Once she really got talking about “reality branding” she started to sound a little idealistic. Sure the points she was bringing up were valid, but the solution she was talking about seems idealistic and unrealistic in the world today. So many of the products and companies that designers design for are things that people really do not need. It doesn’t matter if you market it as a lifestyle or as a political stance, even if the company really does live up to it, you can’t change the fact that people don’t need that particular product.
I am sure that if you could find a company that would allow you to persuade them to live up to what they say they do and then if you could convince them to allow you to market them in “reality branding” they would see an increase in their income. But really I think that, as we all saw in project 2, there are very few if any companies that really practice responsible business practices.

I would like to think that we could all change the world.
But hopefully there are other ways of doing it.

Reality Branding 101

"What influence do we really have?!" At this point in the article I begin getting alittle steamed... Well I think; we communicate, spread messages inform and on some level educate. We promote for a cause, and help better individuals lives through the art or designwork itself and perhaps even (if we are lucky) through boosting sales. This may not be on such an entirely grand level, but some work is personal and other work is to pay the bills.

But (as i keep reading) I suppose it was justified to contrast the idea of reality branding.. Strategy indeed, reflecting the real values of real goods. No attempt to revolutionize the business. Hasn't this been what is in our minds now? Well atleast mine.

The reading seems a little obvious- but generally needs to be stated in a world of change your life banding approaches.