Personal Research - The Meme

Personal Research - The Meme

The meme , a concept that involves hijacking an idea for yourself in a humorous or controversial way. The internet Meme is the most common form of meme in modern society however there have been famous expels of memes in the past such as Shepard Fairies 'OBEY'. 

My Meme consisted of hijacking an image from popular streetwear brand 'Supreme's look-book for 2017. The brand itself has a massive following and has increased in popularity dramatically in the recent years especially after announcement of collaboration with fashion heavyweight Louis Vuitton. This in mind i hoped that my post would gain a lot of attention.

This seasons collection involved a piece of clothing with the last president Barrack Obama face all over it. The item gained a lot of attention because of its bizarre style however nobody had seemed to notice the obvious... " what if Barrack Obama actually wore this?". I jumped to the opportunity and made it happen using my knowledge of photoshop. Below is the original image i created followed by examples of repots making it go viral through the internet.

My original image of Barrack Obama

1 of multiple re-posts from popular streetwear instagram

The original post to Facebook gaining attention at first

Final Brief

Final Brief 

HyperReality 
The Meme
Millennial 


Hyper Reality

We began the lecture by looking at a series of videos that linked to our brief's. The first of which was hyper reality , show in the video below we can see that a hyper reality is an extension on life itself , making something better and enhancing reality. Examples of hyper realities include Themeparks , festivals and virtual reality / video games as these provide pleasure for the participant and are an extension on their everyday life however it is only temporary. the immersive experience is what makes people partake in hyper realistic events , often making them forget about the worries of the world for a temporary escape , but when do people draw the line?



The Meme

The meme is commonly interpreted as the internet meme , a certain piece of digital media that goes viral and is passed from one person to another at an alarming rate. these memes may have humorous or shocking values. Memes are also considered as hijacking an original idea. The definition of a meme is: an element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means.

A popular example of a meme and one of which we may not realise is a meme is Shepard fairey's Andre the Giant. Fairey explains in the following video how a simple hijacking of something he found funny quickly turned into a global sensation and became the staple for him creating his own streetwear and art brand OBEY.



Millennial

Millennial generations spans from around 1980-2000 and consists of teenagers and early 20 year olds. Millennial can differer depending on the country due to culture and different upbringings.Many countries have given names to the millennial generations, these include;

Generation Maybe: In Germany, they have been called Generation Maybe, a group who are well educated, highly connected, multilingual, globally minded,

with myriad of opportunities, but who are so overwhelmed by the possibilities available to them that they commit to nothing.

“We are sleepwalking through a networked world of opportunity and feel insecure in the face of the plethora of options ... We no longer know what to do,” 

Generation Serious: It is perhaps these troubles and their concern about the future that lead millennials to be, by and large, a serious generation, less prone to either the wild optimism or hedonism of their forebears, leading Norwegian millennials

to be christened Generation Serious, in 2011. 

Generation Snowflake: A derogatory term for someone deemed too emotionally vulnerable to cope with views that challenge their own, particularly in universities and other forums once known for robust debate. It’s a term used to characterise young adults of the 2010s as being more prone to taking offence and less resilient than previous generations, or too emotionally vulnerable to cope with views that challenge their own.

Studio Project 2 , Session 2

Greenalls Gin Moodboard

I have decided that i will take part in the Greenalls gin brief which is:

We would like you to choose quintessential British moments that have lasted through time and are still relevant today, and bring this to life in a contemporary way through a piece of creative that has Greenall’s at its heart. 

I feel that this gin has lots of potential and is flexible what you can design , i have previously looked at branding and advertisement for alcohol before and enjoyed doing so therefore i feel that i will be able to partake in this better than some of the other briefs.

My ideas for this project include producing posters for different eras in Britain and highlighting the key moments in the eras and linking them to greenalls gin.

illustrating one key photograph or event and adding gin to the situation 

photo manipulation , adding gin into photographs to make it look like greenalls gin was present.

Studio Project 2

Brief 2

For a second brief of the year we were presented with a choice of live briefs , these briefs were set by YCN and the RSA and involve real life briefs from companies that involve students from national universities designing to win placements and prizes but most importantly to get their name out in the industry.

I took a look at both websites to gain an inside into what i wanted to look further into:

YCN
These Briefs were all heavily linked into industry and involved a more graphic design approach , most of the briefs were about packaging , campaigns or social media involvement.The briefs that stood out to me the most were;

Greenalls Gin - Creating a campaign involving classic British moments and gin.

Orchard Pig - Using Social Media to make the brand known as the only craft cider

The Grown UP Chocolate Company - create packaging for a personalised chocolate range

RSA
The RSA was more focused on creating a product to tackle environment or ecological issues. These briefs were of higher standard and you had to pay to enter however this award was more recognisable and was worth more in the long run. i looked over these briefs however i felt that non jumped off the page.

http://www.ycn.org/awards/ycn-student-awards

http://sda.thersa.org 

Studio project 1 , Session 3

Studio Session 3 - Development

This studio session focused on developing our ideas further. By this point we should have got an idea what we wanted our project to look like and what we needed to do to work towards the final outcome. In the seminar we were required to present sketches or a mock up of vaguely what our design should look like.

Above is my mockup that i created , the images i used were stock images however in my final pieces i will be taking my own images with models and editing them in a similar way. when i presented this mockup it received very positive feedback , praising its originality and that the concept of the idea was easy to understand but had technical. something i was given to improve on was how could i make each piece different , could they have different personalities? 

To expand on this session i have got the studio booked to take photographs of different models and equipment that should be ready for next week for final hand in. i have also created a research and development booklet to support my ideas. My final piece will be printed.

Studio Project 1 , Session 2

Further development upon Ideas

After last weeks base research i looked further into how people created personas online , my main focus this week was previous video advertisements and animations. One of the key sources i looked at was Catfish: The TV Show.

catfish

ˈkatfɪʃ/ : lure (someone) into a relationship by adopting a fictional online persona.

"he was being catfished by a cruel prankster"

The TV show focuses on catching people that pretend to be different people online for attention. The story are sometimes sad , happy or distressing depending on the situation. The shows main aim is to help people and discover why the person has created this persona. I feel that this is relevant to my Cybernetic Self project as people can choose how to create themselves online.

Lewis Hamilton for Santander. This advert stood out to me when i was younger. The advert aired in 2008, it consisted of lewis hamilton being constructed in the form of an airfoil model , i was inspired by this idea as it shows that internet personas can be constructed out of certain stereotypical pieces. If i was to execute the project like this i would use photography and photoshop to create a manipulated piece that has elements of surrealism. I would use the studio to take high resolution photographs then later edit them in photoshop to create a final piece.

i would produce a series of posters r flyers to be included in a magazine which would educate proper bout online safety as it is a rising concern in civilisation.

Studio Project 1 - Cybernetic Self

Studio Project 1 / Week 1

This studio session opened up by us writing two words on a post it note. The words had to relate to What you think you are and What other people think you are. The words i chose to use were Charismatic to describe myself and Moody as what other people see my as. The idea behind this was to see how we perceive ourselves. this exercise showed that although we were all different we had similar ways of describing ourselves . people suggested that society pushes us to be modest about ourselves as people didn't want to say what they thought they were due to it seeming embarrassing or big headed.

After the exercise i started to research into the topic of Cybernetic Self. I wanted to focus on how identity can be forged through the internet. Such as Identity Fraud or Catfishing. My main focus was to look at advertising campaigns. 

Designers that stood out to me were:

Global Mobile Internet safety - Designed by Oglivy & Mather Sofia

This advertisement stood out to me as the internet is an unmonitored place and could lead to children being exposed to explicit content. this advertisement uses photography to show you a place you wouldn't let your children play , making out its just as dangerous for your child to play on the internet.

Innocence en Danger - Designed by Rosa Park

 This campaign focuses on false identities and stating that you dont know who is behind the emojis. The designer has used photo manipulation to create a fairly disturbing image of a person who's face is now in the shape of a well known emoji. I feel that this advert stands out by using scare tactics as the character looks awfully creepy.




Whats behind the smile - Designed by JWT

This design takes well known emojis and manipulates them in disturbing ways. this campaign focussed specifically on sexual abuse over the internet , similar to the last one getting across the point that people on the internet could be anybody , using the internet to create an alternative image of themselves.