Assignment 2: What images mean

The purpose of this assignment was to explore and gain an understanding of the concept of ‘polysemy’  the idea in which images mean a variety of things between different people,  but when text is added it then fixes the meaning.

Advertising

This was a little experiment I carried out, testing Roland Barthes’s theory talked about in his essay “The Rhetoric of the Image”. I looked through various web pages and search engines looking for advertisements that used adds with a large visual image and only little text to tie in and advertise that product. I came to find that most of these advertising agencies’ where finding the whole use of ‘image’ sales to its full advantage. They seem to use images that are shore to interact and appeal to the public enabling the public to be interested and lead into buying their products on an image that is sometimes to the eye irrelevant. For my experiment I have asked several male and female pupils who are currently studying in an art/design discipline what they thought of the images and what they thought was showing, not mentioning that these were actually ads. Later I got them to guess what they think the images would be advertising with the text covered up by myself it was proven hard to guess.

Image 1

So hear is the first image I had chosen to show, this was the response I got.

“ I think it shows ambition, safety, has a kind of old vintage style, the girl is looking in to maybe her dads eyes, lovingly or pleading. It looks like she is waiting on a response for something she’s wanting”

So when I asked if they could give a guess to what this could be advertising, they were kind of stumped they found it hard and guessed maybe a toy or for permeation to go out playing.

The facts

This was an image that was actually advertising a new burger from a fast food chain called “Wendy’s (WEN) burger” in the U.S.

Looking at the image myself I would agree it’s rather hard to get that from the information but when in the context and you know the facts it starts making more sense. I had a discussion about this and a few good points where made on it actually being quite a sad image, it shows marriages that have failed and the dad coming to take the kids out to a popular fast food chain when he was them at the weekend. That without a doubt wen in a fast food chain like MacDonald’s etc. u can expect to find this. The add is then able to communicate and connect to a wide range of people who can take the image and make it in to something they like to respond to.

 http://www.bnet.com/blog/advertising-business/in-new-wendy-8217s-ad-will-people-see-founder-8217s-daughter-or-obesity-crisis/6587

Image 2

What was said

“Looks  like a glamorous woman? Looks kind of seedy like she’s not to be trusted all the pink makes it look fake, maybe a marriage breakup. Doesn’t look like she belongs in that kind of classy restaurant. Fake suggestion to me maybe advertising fake tan, some kind of makeup the idea of a girl doing herself all up before a night out to get into that more sophisticated place were she’s not necessarily used to going or can afford. Maybe advertising a hand bag?.

“The words fake and last night combing all the flirtatious colours of the pinks looks like a temptress , flirty sexual, alcohol man involved. Leads me to think it may be an ad for Ann summers? Some kind of sexual enhancement  ...”

The real image

The advertising company has clearly grasped on the idea of sex sells, the add is flirty, and rather sexual with the use of images and innuendos from the main title and smaller text at the bottom. The use of all the pinks this add is looking to attract woman to this product which I believe it would be very successful in selling this product.

Image 3

Thoughts

“The image looks like its related to pain (needle) a long loving for something, text is like there striding towards a goal the pain is a symbol of that long road had to go to gain the success at the end.

Add a tattoo”

The taste leads me to think it’s something u splurge yourself on, don’t get carried away could be a low calorie chocolate or alternative to lose weight. The needle and white clove could refer to cosmetic surgery and the pain. “at last” it’s showing the intensity of cosmetic surgery how far people will go to achieve what they want to look at.

The real image

 I really liked this advertisment once text is put in context its actually really smart and works well again it has a clear concentrated audence , those whom are diabetic. i think this product avterises really well and ould sell a lot.

A deeper thought ...

Well I've had some time to think more into my last assingment, I feel I did get a lot from my partners photos although I did find it a struggle as I only had a few photos of her home, I feel I would have got a much greater understanding on who she is as a person if she was in the photos herself. This makes me wonder on why she did not send photos of her self growing up in this task, does this say anything about her personality? is she scared of being judged? or scared of a secret being reveild that she would like to keep hidden. If so is it societys fault and is she just one out of many who feel the same. Magazines and tellivision are constantly pressuring people on looking good pushing re-appering images of what is acceptable and what's not. Girls I feel suffer a great deal more than boys in this area. My partner in this task had refared to my apperance in almost every picture "look good", "wears quite a bit of make-up ...Again this shows she likes to look good and make an effort"." hair always looks well".

I found my partners pick up on my make up quite facinating, to my self I were it because I enjoy the process of applying it, the colours, to me its all about fun and that enjoyment of getting ready to go out that night. I love experementing with different looks to create individuality based on mood I'm feeling that night. Seeing from another ones point of veiw I guess my bright make-up could be singled out more, especaily if your someone who dosnt were much themselfs. Therfore have i wonder if i have unconciously fallen victim of the powers behind marketing off the high glossy glam mags and there ideoligy of the correct 'image' makeing my self splash out my own money on big expensive make-up brands , MAC, BENEFIT, URBAN DEKAY.
 I also raise the question of how confident women in their own skin these days? Thinking of a typical weekend out all girls are out dressd to kill, full face on, tangoed, stilletos, extentions, and more 'fackory' all down to the preassue of looking good in todays socioty. Which makes me think what percentages of  us girls in your average nightclub are actually going natural , feeling confident in there selfs to step out the door whithout doing ther face up and spending lots of time aand money on that new swanky outfit..... I'm guessing not many.

My partner found it a little hard to get a deeper thought into my personality, I think maybe prehaps she was looking at the surface my apperance, not saying she was fully concious of doing it but think this overshadowed some things that where apparent in the picture .

Note s from partners blog from photo I had sent.

I agree with some things said, allthough her asumptions of music taste was a little off, I actually have quite an individual taste in music, i took a lot of inspiration of music from my dad and his love of classic 80s acts like the sex pistols, Echo and the bunny men, The Doors and one of my all time favorites The smiths. I love going to gigs and seeing local unsinged acts, thers several gig tickets and flyers of bands I have seen and been to on the door as well as pictures of Pete Doherty and Carl Barat former members of Libertines one of my many favorites. I know it might have been a little hard to tell in the picture though, there are also cards from one of my best places to go out in Glasgow 'The arches' which was not picked up on.

I can be really shy at times and i think this picture shows this so well with my facial expressions and stance, I am most happy and confident when i amm surrounded with my family and freinds which I think was also shown well in other pictures.

 My partner had picked up on not seeing a lot of jewellery or being not so expensive which was rather true, If im out and see somthing i like i would normally just buy it where it with an outfit to cordanate then dump it in a box and never go back to for a long time which was quite interesting. After looking at this picture though i realised the braclet I was wering was one of my most favorites and least expensive on my part. Its from one of my closest freinds whene we first knew eatch other on a night out we both exchanged a braclet we were wearing i gave her a little blue one which she still owns and i have this little beeded pinky purply coloured one. Which now that i stop and think about it is actually one of my most commonly worn peices of jewellery. Sure its not worth much but behind its apperance to me its meaningfull and represents in a way that strong bond and freindship, which was really nice to think aboutt so will have to thank my partner for bringing that up.

My interest in jewellery is still apparent in the picture, the pictures behind me where peices I made and photographed on my inspired theme of sealife and entrapment 'feeling claustrophobic'. These were a series i studied  and developed. Maybe if looked a little closer could have linked the bouy and the design peices on the wall looking at their form. Prehaps a more time spent into looking at the photo would have came to the conclusion, although one thing that may be apparent may be a totally different case to another, as peoples veiws and how they see things are different. And maybe that is why my makeup wearing  and getting dressed up ways was looked at a lot more, because it is different to my partner and what she normally does ie more girly girl thank make-up wearing, and thats why it stands out to notice a lot more. As we have a different veiw at things, which I find really interesting and found was an enjoyable experement.

The return of the Assignments

So we are back from our holidays and straight into design studies. The book ‘Snoop: What your stuff says about you’ by Sam Gosling was suggested a good read particularly for our first assignment, the book looked into the idea of a person’s belongings and environment being able to revile their personality.

We were paired up at random with other students from different departments, making sure we did not know them in able to make it work. 

 At first glance I feel this person is quite a girly girl, the big bag of different colourd  wool  makes me think that she really enjoys her area of study(textiles) and may be into several traditional craft methods. The two pinkie coloured cushions made up of different materials and shapes, I think this may have been something she’s made herself may have been influenced by the colours and flowers, I think this person makes a lot of textile things in her spare time and has been doing so for a little while know and uses it as a way to make some extra money maybe by selling some pieces. Theirs a made collage of photographs of family and perhaps of her younger years growing up, this shows she is a person who is close to her family and holds her friendships close which also leads me to assume that she may make her friends/family little textile gifts. There’s a few art works displayed around the room, she has placed one of two birds above her bed I think she likes these colours and the subject matter, and since she has chosen to hang it above her bed it leads me to believe this painting is somewhat personnel to her and that might mean a lot.

Theirs a pink guitar in the corner, again another girly colour think she has interest in wide ranges of music, including acoustic she may have been playing for a few years, perhaps learnt got lessons in school. Likes to go out see live bands with friends and have a good time.

I think this person is a nice childlike friendly person, as there are more ‘cuddle’s’ up in the left hand corner on top of her shelf, some look quite old, she has held on to them because they’re precious to her cant part with them, or keeps them for memories of her childhood and her relationships of the people who gave them to her, Again says gets on well with family, friendly person may like to reminisce bout pass times and childhood. Although the pink and red spotted bears a few shelf’s down look like something they may have got recently, Looks like something may get out of craft fairs exhibitions, which makes me think she may like going to these sort of things, and may even buy herself a few pieces just to collect a bit of art.  A few books not sure what any are, except the first aid book, which I don’t know maybe she has taken a class in first aid or she’s just being sensible.  Looks like a tidy organised person, so she may be this way when it comes to her studies likes to be organised and on top of things.

This picture made me assume that she likes cooking with the cook book in the corner and oven mitt, there are a few old looking ornaments up on shelf’s near the windows, many of them cats which I there is a bowl on the floor again with girly pink colours which shows they may have their own cat, which says they like animals and is a caring person. Also think she may have an interest in birds after having the painting in the bedroom and several puffin ornaments. Well that’s my thoughts and assumptions, hopefully I got a few things right.

Ok so the next thing we were to do was to exchange our findings. Below is a link to see what was said about me. Pretty much everything was spot on.
 http://designmetheworld.wordpress.com/about/