Understanding Taste
Project Proposal
About ‘Understanding Taste’ ‘Understanding Taste’ is about comprehending the way in which taste travels and affects us. Taste is defined to be a personal choice however if inspected further it can be argued that our tastes are informed by external factors. ‘Understanding Taste’ helps uncover how our tastes are influenced. The complexity of taste will never be understood as there are so many multitudes of factors that inform our choice that we can not trace back as to who or what made us like or consume an object – but what we can do (and what this project has set out to achieve) is to understand and acknowledge the aspects of taste that are influenced by factors such as marketing, the media or our peers.
Outcomes The outcomes of Understanding Taste are presented in two formats, the first being a guide and the second a panel discussion.
1. Guide to ‘Understanding Taste’ The Guide is a basic introduction to taste in the format of a book and presents different paths in which taste travels. It predominately covers the influence of marketing, trend forecasting, media and peers on our tastes. It has small introductory chapters these topics delving into further detail about how these factors influence taste and how we absorb this.
2. ‘Understanding Taste: The Influence of Fashion Advertising’ The panel is a further extension on the book. The panel discussion takes the idea of taste and advertising presented in the book and discusses the relationship between the two. In the panel we are able to delve further in the topic and uncover what makes an advert tasteful and make us want to buy into that taste. Tanvee Mayekar, Teresa Havvas and Brillant Nyansago discuss the influence that advertising posses on taste as well discussing adverts they find in good taste. They aim to discover what good taste and what makes an advert appealing.
Still for the panel ‘Understanding Taste: The Influence of Advertising’
Target Audience ‘Understanding Taste’ is targeted to anyone with an interest in fashion and who would want to learn about the reasoning behind favouring a brand or product. However the ideal audiences are recent or future graduates, as they will be the future tastemakers of the fashion industry. As a future tastemaker they can understand taste and learn that taste will change but they factors that influence it will remain the same.
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” - Ira Glass
Distribution and Promotion Partnering with SHOWstudio, the outcomes of this project will be distributed through them. SHOWstudio have created an extensive amount of panels of different topics surrounding the fashion industry and this panel will offer a different perspective to the current SHOWstudio films. ‘Understanding Taste’ will hope to become a series of panels in which each panel will tackle different factors that influence taste. Future panels will question the influence that celebrities posses on taste and the importance of branding. As the first of the series, ‘Understanding Taste’: The Influence of Advertising’ will be available to watch through the SHOWstudio website and their YouTube channel. As the panel will be a part of a series, the book will be handed out to guests attending future panels but will also be available to purchase in SHOWstudio’s store Machine A.
SHOWstudio website featuring the panel
SHOWstudio’s YouTube page
Examples of promoting the panel through SHOWstudio’s social media.
Taste Today, Taste Tomorrow ‘Every generation laughs at the old fashions but religiously follows the new.’ -Henry David Thoreau Taste is a constant evolution, a never-ending cycle of changes that we all experience in our lives, but we never stop to comprehend them. The taste of today will not be the same as the taste of tomorrow. But what shall remain is the way it influences us. There are currently selected ways in which taste travels and this project aims to help others recognise this. As fashion changes so do the tastes of society and with it our tastes as well and all we can do is aim to understand it better.
Future of ‘Understanding Taste’ By partnering with SHOWstudio ‘Understanding Taste’ will evolve in a series of panel discussions and interviews tackling the question of what influences taste. Each future panel will target a specfic issue on how taste travels questioning the influence of celebrities or media on our personal tastes. The panels will be open for guests to come and see. Each panel will be uploaded onto the SHOWstudio website and promoted through social media. ‘Understanding Taste’ hopes to broaden people’s knowledge on the subject of taste and help us learn more about our like, dislikes and consumer patterns.