Friday, 16 December 2016

Art&Copy: Summarised Story

George Lois

Art & Copy is an American documentary that traces the creative advertising revolution back in the 1960´s where for the first time Art Directors and Copywriters worked together as a team. In the documentary we are introduced to numerous American advertising creatives that each had their own contribution to the discipline. One persons story that interested me was George Lois. I found him interesting because had a passion for the industry, he also created big ideas that he was not afraid off. He was also a person that did not hold back on his opinions. 

George Lois is an American art director, designer and author. He is well known for designing over 92 covers for Esquire magazine from 1962 to 1972. George Lois was born in New York City on June 26th, 1931. He grew up as a child of Greek immigrants in a rather rough racist area which he claims lead him to have a rougher approach with his clients. He wants to really sell his clients a good BIG IDEA, a BIG IDEA that will make them rich. He first worked for Reba Sochis until he six months later joined the army to fight in the Korean war. After this he worked for the advertising and promotions department at CBS. In 1959 he was hired by the advertising agency DDB, Doyle Dane Bernbach and worked there for a year. Later he was recruited by Fred Papert and Julian Koenig to form the paper named Papert Koenig Lois in 1960. PKL became the very first advertising agency to go public. There is controversy towards George Lois. He has multiple times been accused of taking credit for others ideas and exaggerated his involvement in projects. 

"In my instance, the greatest predator of my work was my one-time partner George Lois, who is a most heralded and talented art director/designer, and his talent is only exceeded by his omnivorous ego. So where it once would've been accepted that the word would be 'we' did it, regardless of who originated the work, the word 'we' evaporated from George's vocabulary and it became 'my.'" - Julian Koenig


How did George Lois send Tommy Hilfiger to fame? 
The young designer Tommy Hilfiger was unknown until George Lois released a campaign that would soon help the brand become the most famous and successful designer brand in the world. The ad challenged the reader with a claim. That the then unknown brand was as great as the other well known designer houses as Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and other brands. No one knew who Tommy Hilfiger was. The brand became instantly famous and got a lot of national publicity. The campaign was a self- fulfilling prophecy. 

George Lois said to Tommy Hilfiger that he could keep making campaigns showing models wearing the clothes, and keep doing that for years and years or he could do something bold and crazy. So the idea of comparing Tommy Hilfiger to bigger brands was created. At first Tommy was really embarrassed by the campaign George Lois had made because it made Tommy seem big headed. But it was exactly this that gave him the attention in the industry and media. Even though he felt embarrassed  Tommy Hilfiger  knew he now had to live up to the expectations the campaign had created. That made him work even harder and made sure all his clothes was made to perfection.

"My opening ad challenged the reader with an audacious claim. 
Overnight the burning question i town became; Who the hell is T_ _ _ _H_ _ _ _ _ _ _?"
- George Lois

The advert made by George Lois for the brand Tommy Hilfiger

Reference list:
Art&Copy, Doug Pray (2009)

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The Pose

The aim for the lesson was to learn and understand how people present themselves in front of the camera and why we pose the way we do. When we pose we are making ourselves into a photograph.

"In front of the lens, i am at the same time: the one i think i am, the one others think i am, the one he makes use of to exhibit his art" - Barthes, R. (1980)

Joanna Lowry has written about how we "present our identity" in the moment of the pose. We inhabit poses that is expected from us. Poses come natural based on how we grow and live our lives.

"It is when we present ourselves to the camera that we become aware of the need to make ourselves into a picture and to take control of the account of our soul" Lowry, J. (2005)

A trending challenge going around on the internet at the moment is the mannequin challenge, where you get your friends and family to freeze their act and pose while someone walk around and with a film camera moving around the models. This is what the lecture started with so that we could get a further understanding. When we pose in front of a camera we make ourselves into a photograph. We compose ourselves and freeze an act. This turns the image into a text that can be analysed by others.

When photography first was invented in the 1800´s it was normal too sit still and look serious when you where professionally photographed, because any movement would blur the image. Today with the impact of social media people are much more aware of how to present themselves. We constantly take pictures of ourselves and other people, photography has become a disposable digital form. We learn from a young age how to present ourselves in any situation. We also inhabit poses that is expected from us.

"What do i do when i pose for a photograph? I freeze - hence, the mask like, often deathly, expressions of so many photographic portraits. I freeze as if anticipating the still i am about to become; mimicking its opacity, its stillness; photography´s mortification of the flesh" Owens, C (1992:210)

Rineke Dijkstra is a photographer that studied the pose. She wanted to see how people with different cultural backgrounds pose in front the camera. She took photos of different girls on the beach and gave them no other directions than to stand still. The girls still posed as they naturally would for a picture. The images shows how all the girls have learned to pose based on their cultural background.



Other photographers like Richard Avedon and Bettina Von Zwel studied how to "subvert" the pose. That mean they took photos of their model when they did not pay attention. They wanted to capture them before they had the chance to compose themselves.

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Sunday, 20 November 2016

The Problem Of Meaning

The aim: To understand that the relation between word and image and how the meaning is complex and problematic. 
Magritte standing in front of his
painting "The Pilgrim"

Renee Magritte (1898 - 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist. His work is known for challenging the observers perceptions of reality. He frequently displays different ordinary objects in an very unusual context, changing the meaning of thing that is familiar.  The treachery of images in which he painted a pipe and painted below it "this is not a pipe" is a good example of this. The painting of a pipe is not a pipe, it is only an image of a pipe. Magritte have also used this approach in other work.

The death of his mother highly influenced his life as an artist. His mother was supposedly found with her dress covering her face. In his art he has produced many paintings with obscured faces. Other influences in his life was him setting up and starting an Advertising agency called Studio Dongo to make a living. In 1920´s he became friends with surrealists in Paris which lead to him having some success as an artist. WW1 also had an influence on his work as an artist.

Magritte used many different techniques in his surrealistic art:
1. Isolation
2. Juxtaposition
3. Substitution
4. Ersatz: Replacement of substitution
5. Metamorphosis: One object becomes another
6. Displacement: Often occurs in dreams
7. Displacement/ Defacement: Covering faces 

You can find many examples in how Margritte´s art and surrealism have been taken forward and is well used in todays advertising world. 

Focusing on one object, strawberries. 
This is not a pipe.
This is not a bra, this is a wonder bra. 
Metamorphosis: One object becomes another.
A hand becomes an animal.

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Political Photomontage

Photomontage is a type of photography that includes different images and text that you cut out, layer and collage to create something that is your own reality. You take an image and turn it into something different. Photomontage is easy and something anyone can do, and that is one of the reasons why photomontage has been used as Punk posters, war propaganda and protests. Why was photomontage used for this? Photomontage is direct, bold and as said anyone can make it, and anyone can create their own existing reality. 

With the Russian revolution starting in 1917 a new sense of empowerment led different russian artists to explore new and different ways to create art. They looked at construction, cubism and and questioned the purpose of art in a communist society. Many of these new artists was an artist as a worker, and they focused on making sure that their art had a function, that it was useful for the masses rather than the elite or hung in a gallery serving no benefit to the society. El Lissitzky (1880 - 1941) was an artist from the communist party that made art like this. He used symbolic colours like red and white that signified the oppositional sides.

El Lissitzky "Beat The Whites With The Red Wedge" 1919

Alexander Rodchenko (1891- 1951) was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. In 1920 he was promoted to director to help develop and create new government propaganda posters and he also helped create the female labour posters for trade union. "She shouts books" is a poster he made in 1924 to get more people to start reading. He wanted to get out a clear message as the advert was for educational purposes. Due to issues in Russia people where uneducated and many could not read, this poster promoted learning and education.

Alexander Rodchenko "She Shouts Books" 1924
This type of propaganda styled posters became popular to use in WW1 and WW2. Block colour and text is what really gave them their own style. America, Britain and Germany all used propaganda posters of this style to get people to support and join the war. 

In 1917 a movement called Dada formed in Zurich. It was formed by writers, artists and poets that got together to create art that objected against the horror of the first world war. They focused on producing work that would challenge the conventions of normality. They experimented with text, imagery, caos and used this idea to create work that opened up a different reality. As they did not want to be established, the movement over time disappeared. One of Dadas members Raoul Houseman believed the art Dada created helped to display what was really happening in the war.

Raoul Houseman " The Art Critic" 1919-20
John Heartfeld (1891 - 1968) was an German artist, he later changed his name so it sounded more british. Heartfeld created anti Hitler propaganda that put his life in danger. His life was so much at risk that he left the country and got small children and elderly people to smuggle it in to Germany due to it being difficult to do it himself. Heartfeld inspired from his work more people to do photomontage. This later lead to advertising using imagery and short, bold text to promote and sell products. That is also what we see a lot of today. An iconic artist that use photomontage in our time is Kennard Phillips. He used photomontage to create the 2005 campaign on anti George Bush to set a stop for the US coalition war. 
Kennard Phillips "Adolf, The Superman, Swallows Gold And Spouts Tin" 1932
Kennard Phillips "Photo Op"
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Wednesday, 9 November 2016

Innovations

Photography started with something called the camera Obscura in the 1830´s. The obscurer worked by projecting an image on a surface allowing the artist to trace the over the image. Chemicals was later used by scientists to create a direct copy of the image that was projected. British scientist Henry Fox Talbot (1800 - 1877) is known as the very first photographer. He developed the calotype process where he used paper coated with silver iodide that allowed him to create a negative image. Later on cameras developed to become smaller, compact and marketed towards a rather larger audience. Brownie was the name of the camera created by Eastman Kodak. The brownie camera introduced low-cost photography to the masses. Adverts showed even children using the camera, that is how easy it was to use.

Advert for "The Brownie" Kodak camera

The camera Obscura 



















One of the biggest developments in photography was the invention of ThomasEdison´s lightbulb in 1879. This new technology was very exiting and lit up the bigger cities at night. This also led to the development of flash photography. It started out as a single controlled explosion that created light to capture the image. It became easier for photographers to carry light with them and shoot in dark surroundings. Jacob Riis is one photographer who benefit from this technology. He documented the slums of New York  and without light (flash) he would not be able to capture images due to the poorer part of the population could not afford light.

Harold Edgerton (1903 - 1990) created the high speed stroboscopic flash. This revealed a lot of things that the human eye does not have the capacity to see. It is used by photographers to capture a sequence of images of a moving subject. This is an example of one photography technique that is now often seen in the advertising world.

Halftone printing:
what is printed - how it appears
Photography slowly made its way into advertising and the newspapers it did not properly sett off until the 1920´s due to it being a lot cheaper to produce illustrated images. Economical growth in the 1920´s led to an increase in consumerism. This led to competition competition in the advertising world. More companies wanted to market their product in the best and modern way possible and therefore they wanted to use photography. Printing developed from halftone printing which is a technique that simulates imagery with the use of different sized dots varying either in size of spacing.

To sum up, how has the development of camera technology changed advertising?Well, Advertising have gone from being illustrations to become printed photographs with the use of halftone printing to then becoming high quality images as we know today. From this advertising also made its way to television with moving image, then online.


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Wednesday, 19 October 2016

Creative Advertising : The Beginning

William Hesket Lever (1851 - 1925) was a multimillionaire businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist. In 1885 Willam and his brother James entered the soap business. Together they bought a small soap and cleaning product work in Warrington. This is how the firm LeverBrothers was born. At that time soap was sold as unwrapped bars and there was a gap in the market for pre-packaged soap. The brothers who founded Sunlight soap in 1885, then started to manufacture wrapper packed soap. Becoming one of the first british tycoons establishing international trading routes later grew into the well known household name Unilever in 1929. Unilever is a british - dutch multinational consumer goods company now owning over 800 brands like Surf, Dove and Ben & Jerry´s.

Within a few years the Lever brother´s company grew and in 1925 they had employed 85,000 workers all around the world. Lever did also bring a huge contribution tho ordinary peoples lives, he created port sunlight that would work as housing for his workforce whilst he also campaigned for better welfare and shorter working days. There was a dark side to this. Good living conditions for his workers was contradicted by his use of slavery. In Africa he had workers extracting the now controversial product palm oil. Apparently this was known to be more devastating than the Natzi Holocaust.

William Hesket Lever was born at a very important time. 1851 was the year of The Great Exhibition.  It was the first international exhibition of manufactured goods. This was a place people for the first time in their life could view photographs. This later inspired colour printing on a larger scale. This was also at the time where the British empire was really successful.

The Crystal Palace where The Great Exhibition took place
To promote his Sunlight soap, William Hesket Lever started to collect art. He went to many different art exhibitions in London and bought pieces that he thought wold look appealing for the brands target audience, housewives. He had the paintings copied and added on the Sunlight brand name and slogan. Using healthy looking children and white fabric in the ads, people started to recognise Sunlight as a brand. William Hesket Lever became one of the pioneers of modern advertising. Advertising agencies during Levers time only sold advertising space, it was not until the 20th century the first advertising agencies started to blossom.

Example of an Sunlight soap ad

William Bernbach (1911 - 1982) was an american Advertising creative director. He was one of the three founders of the well known international advertising agency Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB). Bernbach is credited with being the first to combine both copywriters and art directors into two persons teams. Before that they had used to be in different departments. This model still exist in advertising agencies today.

"The trick is to tell the truth but make it interesting. Truth can be disarming"
- John Hegarthy

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Wednesday, 12 October 2016

Semiotics & Reading Images

Ferdinand de Saussure´s method 
Semiotics is the study of signs, symbols and signification and how they create meaningful communication. Ferdinand de Saussure (1857 - 1913) was a swiss linguist that is counted as one of the founding fathers of semiotics. He focused his theory on the many different patterns and functions that made language. Saussure created the idea of the signified and the signifier which is the two components that create a sign. The signifier is the sound or written word and the signified is the object that created the word.


Roland Barthes (1915 - 1980) is another theorist of semiotics that not only followed Saussure´s approach but expanded it. He looked at the ideas that could be suggested by the signs, the connotation of the sign and not the denotation; the literal meaning of the sign like which is Saussure theory. There is two forms of meaning:
- The literal meaning of signs = denotation (Saussure)
- The ideas suggested by signs = connotation (Barthes) 

For example if you look at a picture of a cat the denotation would be what is directly shown in front of you and the connotation would be what comes to mind when you see the object that in this example is a cat. The connotations of a cat could be; cute, fluffy and soft. The connotations towards a sign can be different amongst people taking life experiences and cultural background in mind. 

Roland Barthes theory
A text is a purposeful assemblage of signs. It could be a sentence, photo, film, a sound recording etc. The denotation of an image can be lost if it is not clear what the image is representing, with that the connotation will also be lost and incorrect. 

Anchorage is attaching words to an image. The text that is being added to the image is anchoring the connotations you can get from it. It narrows the connotations of the image that is being shown. 

A myth is an unproven belief or ideology. In advertising this is stands as the idea behind the made campaign, but it does not have to be true since it is a myth. 

























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Wednesday, 28 September 2016

St Michael SPREADS ITS WINGS


Marks and Spencer made this advert in 1967. It was printed in their magazine showing spring and summer fashion. "St Michael SPREADS ITS WINGS" is what the advert says with the following image of a model spreading her wings. To maintain the company´s relevance to it´s audience at that time they chose to front Twiggy, THE fashion icon of the 60´s in their advert. M&S released this at a time where their clothes could appeal to the younger generation during “the summer of love” in 1967. By knowing that we can then look at the ad with a different understanding. The text and image in the ad could have been used as a reference or appeal to the hippie movement that blossomed that summer. This advert would probably not be relevant today because meaning change overtime. This was created in a time with different cultural influences and values than today.

Rebecca Agnihotri

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