Proceedings of the URECA@NTU 2012-13
30 x 30 Visual Branding in Trash Farhana Ja’afar School of Arts, Design and Media
Asst Prof Ina Conradi Chavez Asst Prof Yeo Puay Hwa Jesvin School of Arts, Design and Media
Abstract – Social evolution refers to the shifting perceptions and behaviours within culture and society. This change is driven mainly by the economy and technology. The effects of social evolution in the 21st century are apparent through the design application of our everyday goods. The dependence on visual aesthetic is inevitable and necessary for products being produced in the market today. With the advancement of technology and a fast-paced lifestyle, products are shaped to influence and mimic the general consumer’s needs, especially in terms of convenience and costeffectiveness of material expenses for production. These factors encourage an increase in consumerism, which inadvertently would result in more trash.
observation made me realise that the common disposable goods, consumed on a daily basis could indirectly reflect a society’s appreciation for design.
Does this increase in consumption reflect a better design appreciation and understanding of the product being consumed? This social experiment aims to examine and reflect the degrees and limits of design appreciation in the disposed everyday goods that Singaporeans consume.
Figure 1: Trash in New York City, Manhattan We are all visual creatures led by our subconscious to judge aesthetics first. This is unsurprising, as we depend heavily on sight to navigate our daily lives. We are influenced by the mass media and advertising that constantly surrounds us. These visual languages are subconsciously recorded in our thoughts and stored in our memory. Decisions that we make are therefore heavily influenced by these visual outlets. This could be how visual branding works. To date, almost every product we see, use and consume heavily features branding and marketing. Visual branding is seen as an impactful visual language that comes either with or before the function of the product in the market. Visual branding often dictates the success of a product.
Keywords - corporate visual branding, cultural evolution, economy, visual branding, disposable, sustainability, trash, garbage, design, visual culture, branding, consumerism, advertising
1 INTRODUCTION In my third year of university, I was given an opportunity to intern in Manhattan, New York. My excitement was unfortunately short-lived. Upon my arrival, I immediately began to experience the uglier side of the New Yorker’s lifestyle. There was trash everywhere. Even at the early hours of the day (Figure 1), I was flabbergasted by the amounts of trash that was being disposed by the people. It was almost as if no one really cared about the nature of the city. This made me realise how comfortable I was whilst living in clean and green Singapore.
more sales → more consumption → increase in trash disposal Trash thus exposes the negative impact of consumerism, whilst at the same time is a measurement of the success of visual branding. The product is being purchase, used and later disposed. This cycle reflects the material culture of a consumer lifestyle.
The discarded trash often contained strong elements of design and pretty aesthetics. As a designer who spends hours fretting over design, I was disappointed in seeing the hard work of other fellow designers being thrown casually into the bin. These goods were being disposed at an alarming rate, and possibly reflect the unappreciative character of consumers towards design.
The word “Trash” is usually described as something worthless or pointless. Disposing a product is seen as the death of both its function and design. Trash resets the value of the product. The product no longer holds a value as goods to anyone. However with the absence of value, I came to realise dual nature of trash.
However, I noticed a pattern within the trash being produced everyday. From the discarded coffee cups to the crinkled food wrappings, trash in New York reflected consumption patterns of New Yorkers. This 2534
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Figure 3: Consumer shopping in Fairprice, Singapore
3 LITERATURE REVIEW / BACKGROUND Consumption is defined as an action driven by a consumer towards the usage of a product. The action of consumption occurs only when a product serves function for the consumer and an economic value for the manufacturer (Figure 4). Thus, the property of a product should hold both function and value as the amount of consumption will correspond to the amount of production that is being produced (More consumption → More production) Hence, the emphasis of this system is not the product itself but the action of consumption towards the product.
Figure 2: Trash in New York City Streets, Manhattan During my stay in New York, I realised a certain generic pattern across Manhattan within the trash that was being disposed (Figure 2). Popular brands like Dunkin Donut and Starbucks coffee cups were seen lying around more frequently than other trash items. This is made me realise the importance of trash is in visual branding. Despite being deemed worthless, trash inadvertently proves the evidence of the impact of visual branding. Trash serves a function in both its presence and absence, in spite of its short-lived lifespan. This repetitive daily action of consumption and disposable made me wonder if consumers in Singapore, especially those not design inclined, would notice and appreciate the visual language that was being displayed.
2 AIMS / OBJECTIVES I had been practicing various forms of media ranging from filmmaking, visual effects, animation and photography. Despite all these visual outlets, it was only during my study of Visual Communication that I realised the influence of visual language and aesthetic behind every design we see. The creative conceptual process that one has to go through as a designer is far more extensive and time-consuming as compared to producing a film. This is because design serves to communicate at a level that is more than just its visual representation. It serves as a medium to transport subconscious notions to consumer and moneymaking returns for the manufacturers.
Figure 4: Products in supermarket, Fairprice, Singapore This notion is examined in Jean Baudrillard’s, The System of Objects, For a Critique of Political Economy of the Sign, and The Consumer Society where he explores the semiotic differences of consumption between the traditional and the modern society. He ascertains that this object acts as a material culture that mirrors the lifestyle of the consumer individually and a system as a whole. The product purchased expresses a relationship to the consumers through both psychological and social context where it is determined through the function, price and symbolic value. Objects signify social standing, and in consumer society they replace all other means of hierarchical societal division -- e.g. race, gender, class. People are no longer ranked according to these obsolete mechanisms but by the commodities they own -- a universal code of
Thus, the main goal of this social experiment is to examine and reflect the degrees and limits of design appreciation within common disposable everyday goods that Singaporeans consume. With the repetitive cycle of purchasing, consuming and disposing, do consumer actually realise what the design on the package? Do consumers ever stopped to look at what they consumed everyday?
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could be complex to engage the consumers’ activity in the advertisement. However, brand identification on the other hand holds a more relax and habitual pattern for consumer to feel familiar.
recognition that tells us that the person with the Rolex watch is higher on the hierarchy（Jean Baudrillard, 1968). Visual Branding
The level of design/visual complexity is dependent on how the consumers determine the message and brand recognition. The level of complexity for the visuals also works differently through different media, for example, the websites versus the packaging. The authors agreed that designing for print should reach an appropriate level of difficulty in both visual and branding. The message should be designed within an average attention span of a person. This created the challenge of balancing graphic elements and story telling.
“Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.” - Walter Landor In order to obtain the values mentioned by Jean Baudrillard in The System of Objects, designs in products are made to reflect a unique identity. This process is called visual branding. Visual branding is seen as an impression, a secondary element that supports the primary function of the product. (Pieters, 2010) Visual branding today displays a strong sense of ownership and marketing strategies to attract the consumers mind over their needs. Companies consistently invest huge money on research and development, improving its branding through design. These companies aim to create a branding that is successful in retaining its sustainability in market and usage (Angus Hyland et al, 2006).
Result stated that it was not the visual complexity that aids or ruin the advertisement performance but the rather, the effectiveness of the advertisement towards the consumer. Advertisements should be accessed as a whole and not just through a level of visual/design complexity alone. It should be rated through its level of comprehensiveness and attitude that consumer have towards the advertisement. This includes factors that involve visual complexity, branding recognition and consumer participative action.
Visuals seen as one of the primary factor influencing the consumers. It has to reflect the branding and significance of the product. Compared to the past, branding now encompasses more than just visuals, Angus Hylan describes it as the “total identity”, where branding goes beyond visuals affecting consumers with other influencing factors such as the surrounding environments, sounds, smells and attitudes (Angus Hyland et al, 2006). Designs should be simple enough to be remembered and complex enough to create an interest in the visual (Pieters, 2010).
Deconstruction & Duality This research by Pieters, Wedel, & Batra (2010) have inspired me to study visual branding in the context of consumers in Singapore. Trash was used as a medium for my study as it serves a very important role in tracking the common everyday goods. Trash is usually equated to being useless and insignificant. However, what I realised is that evidence of the material culture reflecting the true consumer’s lifestyle can be observed in trash. Trash marks the completion of the consumption process. It highlights the goods as evidence of it being fully utilized and renders the visual branding a success. Trash captures the consumer’s attention to what is being purchased and used. As quoted from the book, Alphabet City, Trash by John Knechtel, “The potential of trash is to remind us of the liminality between useful and useless, humble object and recalcitrant thing… Trash is the destroyer of the purity of both sides in the conflict between nature and culture. It is the thing that has to be eliminated in order to re-establish the essential identity and difference of each category.”
This idea was examined by Pieters, Wedel, & Batra (2010) where their research focused on the effects of visual complexities in advertising. Their main research involved experimenting through random samples of advertisement found in magazine. These advertisements were collated and analysed through various method of visual parameters such as the (1) level of design/visual complexity and the (2) difficulty of brand identification. Diverse magazine advertisement were categorised into different levels of difficulty by analysing the arrangement of the object in the advertisements. Brand identification is categorised into four principles; low brand contrast, small relative brand, brand masking and heterogeneity. The experiment was to examine the limits of visual complexity and brand recognition in advertisement. Consumers were put to an eye-tracking devise to study these parameters. Result show that these two features, (1) level of design/visual complexity and (2) difficulty of brand identification were important in affecting the advertising performances. These factors should not be overused unnecessarily. They predicted that the visual should appear less cluttered to prevent consumers from having difficulties locating both the message and the product in the advertisements. Between branding identification and design complexity, the latter holds a higher priority in the creativity. Design
Jacques Derrida explores this concept of the metaphysics of presence in his book, Deconstruction and Philosophy. He states that one could never exceed the language/culture, and any word/concept just based on the presence meaning of the word but also by the opposite of what is in the absence and in the hidden. Jacques Derrida quoted, “To state one is to imply the other… ", This stresses the polarity of the trash itself, the representational value of the absence (the visual branding in the goods) is reflected the presence form (the trash), in this case defined as insignificant yet also 2536
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proves highly significant as it reflects the effectiveness of the product, acting as evidence of the consumer’s consumption.
4.1.1 Sample The sampling frame for both studies will be targeted at people living and working in Singapore, specifically people aged between 15 - 55 years. The reason why I framed my sampling in this aged group is because they are users who are old enough to be purchasing items on their own accord and participate in this purchasing and disposing activity.
4.1.2 Procedures The sample for the data collection would be acquired through probability sampling through cluster sampling. My samples will be randomly selected through different locations in several parts of Singapore. This includes 8 primary locations, which are broken down into 2 household sites, 2 working areas, 2 shopping districts and 2 foreign workers site.
Figure 5: Trash in Orchard Road, Singapore This is also supported by Burr (1995) with Derrida; “to give anything an identity, to say what it is, is necessarily also to say what it is not. In this sense, presence contains absence. That is, to say that a quality is present depends upon implying what is absent” and Paul Ricoeur’s (2006) in Memory, History, Forgetting where his book explains the concept of the present memory that is driven by the absence of past. One should and could not deny how this concept of duality is presence in every part of our life, whether is it through text, objects, system or culture. The transmission of the product from product manufactured from the company to consumer to the translation value of goods to trash reveals its significant in the insignificant. This is why I came up with a 3-part social experiment study of trash; (1) transmission, (2) translation and (3) revelation.
4.1.3 Instruments This 30-day observational study of disposable items found in trash is a study to measure the approximate usage of the common everyday goods used by people living in Singapore. The task is to observe the types and quantity of trash that being disposed. This data is then recorded in a form will be tabulated for data analysis.
4.1.4 Data
4 METHODOLOGIES In order to measure the degree of appreciation value of design, I came up with a two-part methodology process. Transmission (Study No. 1): The Observational Study Translation (Study No. 2): The Consumer’s survey Study
4.1 TRANMISSION Transmission is a direct observational study of trash that aims to explore what the common goods that Singaporeans consume are. This primary study is important, as the data that I gathered from the study will assist me in the “Translation” process. As mentioned in my introductory, trash serves as a gauge for a complete cycle of consumption of a product. Thus it is the closest way to reflect both the usage and the successful visual branding of the product. This also renders a pattern of the consumer’s daily lifestyle and reflects the needs of the general mass.
Figure 6: Data Tabulation Sheet that is used for the experiment. This tabulation is done through a “Data Tabulation Sheet”. The table is categorized through 3 methods, (1) quantity of the items, (2) brand name & type of the item and (3) remarks on the physical form in which it is found. 2537
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30 days. I also used 30 people for my interview for my final installation.
4.2 TRANSLATION Following Study No.1, Translation was the online survey that was made to question the degree of appreciation towards these everyday common goods that used. I sprayed these 30 goods matt black, to remove the visuals, leaving just the primary form behind for Study No. 2, which is to examine the degree of appreciation and knowledge of consumers in Singapore towards the everyday goods they consumed.
7 CONCLUSION I decided to use moving images and video as a medium to present the results of my social experiment. The style and content of the video would reflect my survey findings, which was how majority of the consumers were not appreciative towards design. It is in the satirical style of a mockumentary. My main aim was to let the consumer himself see what I see through my research.
For the second part of the study, the instrumentation used was based on several questionnaire and product identifying exercise. The survey items used in this study were the results from the previous study (Study 1).
Video 1 (The Cup: Design to Consumerism) Video 2 (The Holder: Test on everyday used goods) Video 3 (The Trash: Study of design appreciation)
The few questions involved in this questionnaire were as follows: 1) What is your gender? 2) What is your age? 3) What are the 5 common items that you purchase? 4) What are the 5 common items that you disposed? 5) List the five brands that are disposed? 6) What made you purchase these brands? 7) Word quiz: What is the first item/brand/product/goods that comes in your mind? 8) Form quiz: What is the first item/brand/product/goods that comes in your mind? 9) Study the following images and name me the following brand that comes in your mind.
Accompanying these 3 videos, were three distinctive publications that explained to the consumers the aims of the videos on display at the installation set. Book 1 (The Cup: Research process): This book aims to explain the concept, research process and method of analysis in the social experiment. Book 2 (The Holder: 30 Consumer): This book highlights both the consumers who participated in the study and also their daily consumptions. Book 3 (The Trash: 30 everyday common used goods): This book highlights my 30 x 30 concept, where the top 30 items of my survey findings is put to test with the 30 consumers.
5 RESULTS By analyzing the data from the survey, I realised that consumers in Singapore, whether Singaporeans or people living in Singapore, appreciated design in everyday goods to a very minimal extend. The majority of the consumer aged 30 and above with very minimal design background did not consider design important while the consumers aged below 30, had a higher percentage that understood the importance of design, resulting them to appreciate design. This was evident in their knowledge of recognising the brands and objects when the visual design is removed. They were more aware and were more specific in naming the brands. It was also surprising that some goods had very distinctive features that were recognizable throughout all ages, races and gender. Thus, my final execution mirrors the results from my survey.
Figure 7: Installation, products sprayed matt black
6 DISCUSSION The concept of 30 on 30 was derived from my research of observing 30 different items and interviewing 30 different people from various aged, occupation and race. The number 30 holds a very significant purpose in my project. There is an old saying which suggest that doing things for 30 days will become a habit. This repetitive action was perhaps the reason why products in the market put 30-day trials as a part of their marketing strategy, Hence, this was the reason for my observational Study No. 1, which was done in a span of
Figure 8: Video in installation space
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to extend my acknowledgement to the Assistant Professor Ina Conradi Chavez, supervisor, a great mentor and a great guidance that help me in all ways and another. Assistant Professor Jesvin Yeo Puay Hwa, co supervisor, that have assist me in the concept building and execution process. I wish to also acknowledge the funding support for this project from Nanyang Technological University under the Undergraduate Research Experience on Campus (URECA) programme.
REFERENCES [1] Pieters, R., Wedel, M., & Batra, R. (2010). The Stopping Power of Advertising: Measures and Effects of Visual Complexity. Journal Of Marketing, 74(5), 48-60. [2] Creusen, M. H., Veryzer, R. W., & Schoormans, J. L. (2010). Product value importance and consumer preference for visual complexity and symmetry. European Journal Of Marketing, 44(9/10), 14371452. [3] Bloch, P. H., Brunel, F. F., & Arnold, T. J. (2003). Individual Differences in the Centrality of Visual Product Aesthetics: Concept and Measurement. Journal Of Consumer Research, 29(4), 551-565.
Figure 9: Inside Installation Space with videos
[4] Frank, T. (2004). Beyond Consumerism: New Historical Perspectives on Consumption. Journal of Contemporary History, 39(3), 373-401. [5] Baudrillard, J. (1996). The system of objects. London: Verso. [6] Bellingham, D. (2005). Ideas leave objects standing. Edinburgh: Platform Projects. [7] Callinicos, A. (1990). Against postmodernism: a Marxist critique. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Press. [8] Jean Baudrillard. (n.d.). University of Wyoming. Retrieved April 23, 2013, from http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/Ashleywy/new_page _24.htm [9] Noble, T., Webster, S., & Angeles, C. (2001). Tim Noble & Sue Webster: instant gratification.. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Gagosian Gallery. [10] Ricœur, P. (2004). Memory, history, forgetting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [11] Sallis, J. (1987). Deconstruction and philosophy: the texts of Jacques Derrida. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Figure 10: Publications of the 3 books, hanging on the side of the wall. 2539