Context of Practice 3: Research Proposal [Revised]

SUBJECTS OF CONTEXTUAL RESEARCH ALREADY UNDERTAKEN

Level 4: Semantic Analysis of James Bond Posters

Level 5: Has home video rendered the cinema obsolete?

AIM AND/OR OBJECTIVE OF YOUR PROPOSED C.O.P.3 PROJECT

The relationship of merchandising and illustration (needs a catchier title)

What research needs to be undertaken into the general and specific contexts of your practice?

.Historical context of merchandising - franchising - polymorphous branding

.The use of illustration to improve the marketability of low quality wares - ethics - (First Things First)

.Focus on a specific brand - Disney / Star Wars

.Nostalgic illustration as a cynical tool

.’Product and Range’ - Asset appropriation

.Merchandise in the age of digital reproduction (Skylanders/Disney Infinity/Team Fortress 2 etc)

What approach(es) will you take and what processes, methods, materials and tools are to be involved in research into your practice?

.Employ industry techniques… (Create humorous/subversive merchandise-tie-ins?)

.Later designs are likely to be largely digital

.Digital designs can be applied onto a range of contexts/merchandise

.Avoid overworking digital designs as usual

.Document primary research of merchandising and point-of-sale displays etc

What preparation or investigations do you need to undertake for your creative practice to take place? 

.Find relevant books on the subject - talk to staff etc

.Engage in primary research of inshore and online merchandising

.Look closer into production methods

.Investigate the factory conditions for workers producing the merchandise - ETHICS

.Investigate how merchandise has become a primary product and the ‘art’ and after thought… (Forbidden Planet)

What research do you need to undertake regarding who your creativity is for?

.Again, is this about the ethics of an illustrator? As designers, we are exploiting familiar imagery as a way of selling products that people cannot generally afford or need

.Anti consumerism? Comes back to last years initial CoP concept… apathetic product design that inevitably becomes landfill… environmentalism

.Gender/demographic studies… the marketing of identical products to different audiences through packaging

.Collectors… the value of merchandise dramatically increasing as they become ‘antique’

Primary Sources of Information

Description: Point of Sale/Packaging

Location: Toy stores/Online retailers/fast food restaurants… anywhere merchandise it visible

Description: Commercials/Promotional Material

Location: Television/Web banners/Leaflets etc

Secondary Sources of Information 

MILLER, Daniel, 2008, ‘The Comfort of Things’, Polity Press, Caimbridge

BOYLE, David, 2004, ‘Authenticity’, Harper Perennial, London

SLADE, GIles, 2006, ‘Made to Break’, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press

BRYMAN, Alan, 2004, ‘The Disneyization of Society’, Sage Publishers, London

JACKSON, Peter, LOWE, Michelle, MILLER, Daniel, MORT, Frank, 2000, ‘Commercial Cultures’, Berg, Oxford

Perceived problems or difficulties: 

I have not yet formed a conclusive opinion on the matter… which will develop during research

.The question needs to be specified further

Context of Practice 3: More Contextual Reference

Jim'll Paint It

Dear Jim, can you use Paint to show us a scene from a not too distant future in which those fucking Minion things have finally taken over completely? - Kevin Weaver

It has been perhaps somewhat difficult to find examples of illustration that subvert and comment on merchandising, however this is an ample amount of imagery related to consumer culture as a whole. The above image from Jim is perhaps the closest example of the sort of thing I would like to product, albeit more considered.


Follow Adam's board CONSUME on Pinterest.

Context of Practice 3: Contextual Reference

Ralph Steadman's Disneyland Drawings

Steadman's work is clearly some of the more important contributions to illustration, or to art in general. His Disneyland studies seem to convey the passive consumer slavery. The imagery is paired with some amount of gonzo writings, and to some effect it is similar to Fear and Loathing. Again, the artist is dealing with a simulacra, faced with the absurdity of their own situation in an environment built to entertain and sell.

The artwork is vividly haunting. Disneyland seems to Steadman a traumatic prisoner camp full of 'screaming children'. I really enjoy the subversion of a place of self-proclaimed happiness as a something much darker, to the extent that I would like to employ something similar in my own work.

I would suggest however that I might go further, and employ colouration to exaggerate further that core subversion, for example using the bright saturated colours associated with brands and merchandise.

Context of Practice 3: Nostalgia & Merchandise

I recently had a chat with Andy from Colours May Vary on the subject of nostalgia. I had recalled that Andy had been writing an essay on the subject, and I approached him as I felt it has a lot of bearing on my own subject of focus.

Some of the interesting points we discussed were:

. Nostalgia can be attributed as a psychological coping measure, and that during economic/future uncertainty individuals may fixate with what they remember as being secure, i.e the past

. Nostalgia is used as a marketing tool, for both mature consumers and young children (a parent may purchase a toy for their child as they had a personal connection to the same product as a child)

. Nostalgia has been used as a therapeutic relief for dementia patients. For example, a house can be refurbished to appear as it once did in the 40s or 50s, thus being comfortably familiar to the individual

. The past is fixed and therefore 'safe'. Individuals also often filter out the negative connotations of time periods... for example Victorian-age obsessives often neglect to recall how the Empire was built on slavery and war.

.Nostalgia as a key theme within merchandise. It is worth mentioning that rare and preserved merchandise have become a new form of luxury ware. Star Wars toys from the 80s may now sell for several thousand dollars.

Andy has since emailed me book recommendations, which will appear in a future post.

Context of Practice 3: The Disneyization of Society Notes [1]

BRYMAN, Alan, 2004, ‘The Disneyization of Society’, London, SAGE Publications

I referred to this book during level the 5 project; it describes and analyses how businesses have appropriated characteristics of Disneyland theme parks to influence buying habits and control the consumer experience.

There is a whole chapter on merchandising; I will document my notes and quotations below:

(All quotes are from Alan Bryman, unless otherwise marked)

'Merchandising is a form of franchising, in the sense that it is a mechanism for leveraging additional uses and value out of existing well-known images.' - p79

- Recognisable designs are appropriated and reproduced into other contexts... this is what we do as illustrators to create more products that appeal to a wider range of individuals.

- Product innovation is simply discovering new ways to sell the same assets in a new format

- We should interrogate the buzz around using new technologies to sell... for example the use of VR or augmented reality applications are a simple exploitation of 'the new'

'Merchandising has strong affinities with hybrid consumption' - p79

- Hybrid consumption in the context of Star Wars: Films -> novelisations/merchandise/video games/clothing/

- The films have become promotional material for the greater range of products

'It is no longer sufficient merely to turn out a hit movie, television show, magazine or book, because in many cases these products cannot be profitable on their own'
- WOLF,  M.J (1999), The Entertainment Economy: How Mega-Media Forces are Transforming our Lives, New York, Times Books

'Merchandising can be hugely profitable, it means that items that cost very little to make can be sold for substantial amounts by simply adding a logo or image to them or by manufacturing a doll or soft toy into a well-known and immediately recognisable form, such as Mickey Mouse or Darth Vader'  -p80

- Cheap popular regurgitation. Value is based on familiarity... culture
- Merchandising = commodity fetishism + culture + packaging
- Merchandise sold through partnerships with fast foods... cereals etc.
- Immediacy of product access, acts as an advertisment for the greater franchise, and thus all other products

Example:

 .Essentially the same product marketed to different audiences through packaging
.Frozen Princess Cereal appeals to girls because there is a picture of the Frozen princesses on it
.Olaf Cereal appeals more so to younger children because there is a picture of Olaf on it
.Darth Vader/R2D2 Cereal appeals to boys because there is a picture of Darth Vader on it

Isn't it hellish?

'Creating merchandise with the appeal and recognisability of Disney Logos and characters or the first raft of Star Wars images is a kind of holy grail which few companies can attain but increasingly has become a goal that is potentially highly profitable.' p81

There are of course exceptions...

Merchandising has it's origins in Disney, one of the precursors to Mickey Mouse was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Several popular animated shorts were made in 1927, Disney had failed to realise that he had not retained rights to the name of the character, or indeed merchandising. After deals with the distributors, it became paramount to safeguard licensing and all relevant rights pertaining to every single character created in the studio.

- Mickey Mouse watch

- Disneys 'crusade' for increasingly higher quality animation was expensive. It has been suggested that around half of Disneys profits during the late 20s and into the 30s were from merchandising.

- The design of characters becomes highly influenced by the potential for merchandise-based manufacture as well as on-screen appearance.

- It is ensured that characters are 'cute' even when also grotesque (Goofy)

- Mickey develops from having the features of a rodent, into become something cute and childlike

- Walt on Jungle Book 'it has a little boy in it, Mowgli and lots of animals and both are great for merchandising'

Context of Practice 3: Idea 5 - Merchandising

I have struggled settling on a topic for my dissertation. Perhaps it is the finality of the project that worries me. I decided not to focus on historical topics such as the Old West or Space Race, as they are such vast areas of study. It is through contextualisation that the writer/artist may narrow the topic and lead to synthesis with illustration and drawing.

I have enjoyed studying the historical development of products and how modern tech has either threatened design or forced them to evolve...

One of the topics I have wanted to study is the merchandising of large franchises such as Star Wars or Disney.

Now that Disney owns Star Wars, it is interesting to view the transition of attitudes.

The older attitude was prone to exploiting nostalgia to the extent that even the most obscure characters were adapted into products:

Medical droid, on screen for a few seconds as Luke recovers from a Wampa attack

I reckon this subject completely plays into my hand, as I have an obsessive knowledge of Star Wars.

A few potential questions that come to mind are:


How has Star Wars merchandising endured in the increasingly digital entertainment-based industry?

How has nostalgia influenced Star Wars merchandising?

Collectors... hoarding mentality?


Visual work could catalogue the change over time/archive products?
Illustrated archive[?]