Brief Proposal

BOOKS & WEBSITES (2018-2019)

1.              ‘Questions of Cultural Identity: SAGE Publications’

 Simon Firth 1996

Edited by: Stuart Hall, Paul du Gay

2.              ‘Youth Identity and Music’ 2002

Mark Tarrant, Adrian C. North and David J. Hargreaves

3.              ‘Club Cultures Music, media and Subcultural  Capital 1995) Sarah Thornton

4.              ‘SUBCULTURES OR NEO-TRIBES? RETHINKING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YOUTH, STYLE AND MUSICAL TASTE’ Vol. 33 No. 3 1999 Andy Bennett

5.              Beyond Self-Esteem: Influence of Multiple Motives on Identity Construction, 2006, Vivian L. Vignoles, Camillo Regalia and Claudia Manzi, Jen Golledge and Eugenia Scabini

6.              Consumer Psychology (Chapter 4) Identity and Consumption, 2010, Jansson-Boyd, Cathrine V.

7.              Fetishism of Commodities (Marx, 1961)

8.              How do consumers express their identity through the choice of products that they buy?, Catherine Phillips, University of Bath School of Management, 2003-17

9.              Millennials and Subculture: A remix?, Alicia Streijffert 2017 (accessed at …)

10.           Youth Subcultures: What are they now? 2014, Alexis  Petridis, Accessed …

11.           Seapunk Washes Up, 2012, VICE Staff, Accesed …

12.           ‘Cover Art By: New Music Graphics’, Adrian Shaughnessy, 2008

13.           ‘The relation between typography and music genre’s explained’, Typeroom, 29/03/2016 Accessed 10/01/2019

14.           Punk Rock: So What?: The Cultural Legacy of Punk, Roger Sabin, 2002

15.           **Literary Theory: An Anthology Second Edition, Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan 2004 (:Subculture: Meaning of Style (Dick Hebdige) 1979 )

16.           The Art of Punk and The Punk Aesthetic, Rick Poynor, 2016, Accessed 10/01/19 https://designobserver.com/feature/the-art-of-punk-and-the-punk-aesthetic/36708

17.           The punk-rock aesthetic The Q&A: David Ensminger, punk historian, 2011, G.M LONDON, Accessed 10/01/19

18.           Virtual Vitriol: The street Art and Subcultures of the Punk and Hardcore Generation, David Ensminger, 2011

Practical Initial Ideas

From the crit session that I had with my peers during one of the sessions, I have roughly dropped down some initial ideas of how I could initiate the practical aspect of this brief.

Initial Idea #1 

Book that outlines the general characteristics and stereotypes of a music genre - it could be a manual or kind of like anatomy of the lifestyle and general identity of a person that listens to a particular genre ( a persona).

Initial #2 

Visual look book of the subculture - similar to the previous idea, kind of like a persona of the music genre itself (identity, logo, lifestyle aesthetics, typography, products they buy)

Initial #3 

Survey or interview people on their own personal music taste and evaluate whether they correlate to their personal identity. 

Initial #4

Possible create a brand or marketing identify for an existing or imaginary band/artist and use elements of designs in order to evoke certain characteristics of chosen genres what have similar ideologies and foundations.

Study Task 7: Research and Rationale Design Boards

RESEARCH DESIGN BOARD

The focus of the project is to create brand identity and portraying certain genres through layers of contrasting design elements in order to create a juxtaposing but coherent brand identity for a band.

* Identity and consumption, Subculture, Online Identity

Label Series Experiment (Lars Hogstrom)

Hogstrom created a series of album cover artwork for songs and artists within a particular design format, giving the overall series a very coherent feel. Along with their use of minimal colours and contrasting typography, they created very interesting and provoking album covers, which are for me look very contemporary and genre neutral in a sense that an audience can see that cover and think of various different genres it may be e.g.rap, r&b etc. I think this is really effective as it shows the set and let the audience interpret it however they want. Also, although the design element do have styles and tones to them, they don't manage to look awkward or gaudy but rather balanced and complete.

• EXAMPLES - CASE STUDIES? - Seapunk, Vaporwave, Punk

•               seapunk - tumblr, 2011, net aesthetic, underground, inspired by sea, waves, aquatic aesthetic, 1980;s style

•               ultrademon - started as twitter hashtag #seapunk

•               utilises elements of cyberpunk, chopping up 90's inspired cover art and designs to create an oceanic feel

•               became a meme - members feeling oppresed? and undermined

•               album cover designs - coral records internazionale

• AUDIENCES/ - Teenagers/Young Adults

RATIONALE DESIGN BOARD

• THE REASONING FOR YOUR PROJECT - The project aims to get an understanding of genre characteristics and how it affects a persons identity. 
• WHY ARE YOU DOING IT? - Does the aesthetic of a music or stereotypes surrounding it, how an album look for example, reflect a listeners identity and lifestyle as well? Is subculture today different, is subculture cross over real? 
• GRAPHIC DESIGN CONTEXT - DISCIPLINE - Advertising/ Branding
• WHAT YOU INTEND TO TEST - THEORIES AND CONCEPTS IDENTIFIED - A DESIGN PROBLEM - SUBCULTURE MIX (CROSS OVER), IDENTITY AND CONSUMPTION

"This brand identity created for the band ‘Cross Over’ explores the various ways in which type, shape, colour and layout are used in order to create subliminal connotations of music genre subcultures. Certain subcultural references are taken and mixed together in order to showcase the idea of subcultures crossing over different genre’s which share ‘similar foundation of ideologies’. The name ‘Cross Over’ itself is referencing to this idea, and the whole brand identity will become the amalgamation and prove of this idea. "