Study Task 5: Planning and Structuring an Essay

Suggested Research Question

• Identity
• How do consumers express their identity through the products they buy?
• How do consumers create their identity through products they buy?
• Music - How do album cover designs help create a consumer's identity?
• How do consumers express their identity through the music they consume?
• How does graphic design help create an identity (aesthetic) for a music genre?
• What are the aesthetic stereotypes to a music genre?
• Why do we correlate certain design to certain genres?

What is the problem? Why is it important or interesting?

• Identity of music genres - It's interesting as I can be focused one one music genre? Also, it'll enable me to explore the different design elements that make up design in music e.g. album cover art, creating a clear correlation between Graphic Design and the music industry. 

Which Academic Sources will you reference?

• Album Cover Album (Storm Thorgerson & Roger Dean)
• Consumer Psychology (Jansson-Boyd, Cathrine V. (2010)
• How do consumers express their identity through the choice of products that they buy? (Catherine Phillips 2003)

Case Studies (1-2 Contextual Examples)

6lack - Cutting Ties

Jay Park - Hulk Hogan

Dua Lipa - New Rules

Essay Map 

• Construct an essay map outlining at least FOUR main points of your arguments. 

1) How does the sound of music affect the aesthetic of the design?

2) How does this relate to group identity and social identity?
3) What and how are stereotypes made?
4) How are they specifically targeting their target audience?

Peer Feedback - How could this Essay Map be refined/develop?

• Centre it around a specific genre like Punk? 
• Punk - stereotypes and connotations e.g. D.I.Y was made by audience's as they made the posters themselves hence started the fad.

Thoughts & Reflection:

Through today's task I think I', getting a clear idea of which direction I'm going to take my essay on. Especially, through the first part where we were generating questions, I just started to drop down ideas that I had in my head at the moment, and because I was trying to think of which angle of Identity I wanted to take, I started to drop down ideas related to this. I thought of an essay that I read just the night before on how consumer identity is changed and a part of it was based around 'Food Identities' and how food and elements around it like veganism can change a person's identity. I thought this was really interesting therefore I thought of ideas which I'm particularly interested in, and as I said in previous blogs, I'm particularly interested in music, therefore directing my identity direction to music was only fitting. Also, in my PPP project I've contacted an album cover designer and he has mentioned how he goes for a more visualistic approach to his designs and take inspiration form the beats of the music, which can correlate to how a certain aesthetic is correlated to a genre. Furthermore, I also think that doing it about music will be quite interesting as I can talk about stereotypes, links between design elements and its characteristic with sound, consumer identity (group, self identity, social categorisation, emulation etc).  

My previous research have been centred towards general consumerism and identity however, now I will start to focus it more towards music and will probably choose a certain music genre in order to be more specific with my research and answers.