My Art and Design Practice - Personal Statement Example

Designer’s ment This report is about my aims and aspirations as a product designer to understand all the areas of this industry including creativity, business and administration. My basic areas of interest are in product designing along with branding and merchandising. Whatever the features and qualities of a product, people have to notice and appreciate it for the product to be sold. In effect, a product has to be visually appealing to the customer. Of course, different people will appreciate a particular design differently depending upon their culture and gender. The same rules apply for product packaging. Packaging is the first thing that a customer will see. “When we talk of a product being attractive, we rarely refer to its sound, feel or smell. This is a striking reminder that human perception is dominated by vision and that product style is usually an abbreviation for visual style.”1 The dominant color of the product or packaging is also important. For example, products intended for children will tend to feature bright colors. However, some cultures have specific conceptions and psychological associations with a particular color that will be different from other parts of the world. These factors must be taken into consideration, which means the designer must be familiar with the important cultural distinctions of any market. The challenge I hope to address in my design practice is to begin to trace those fundamental symbols that are common to many cultures and then to understand how, where and why they differ from each other. I have come to realize through my studies just how difficult this goal may prove to be as it has become clear that customers in the same market will often exhibit different behaviors with regard to age, gender, social status and other factors. “Each culture contains ‘sub-cultures’ – groups of people with share values. Sub-cultures can include nationalities, religions, racial groups, or groups of people sharing the same geographical location. Sometimes a sub-culture will create a substantial and distinctive market segment of its own.”2 International difference in behavior is that much more difficult to study and implement, not only because one is attempting to understand a lifetime of ingrained cultural symbols and ideas, but also because one must do so based many times on very incomplete sources. In developing countries, it has been found that consumer behavior is based more on the behavior patterns of the community more than through the slick promises of advertisements and promotions, making this community even more difficult to understand. This problem is brought into greater focus in those areas where literacy is relatively rare. “To sum up, when we adopt a psychological approach to customer behavior in the developing world, we see that it is community-oriented rather than inner-directed.”3 As difficult as it is to understand cultural differences in developing countries, discovering the truths of consumer behavior in developed countries is even more difficult. For example, factors influencing consumer behavior in the United States include the origin of manufacture (whether it was ‘made in America), the brand, the quality, the intended duration of use (a throw-away product or something to be used long-term), cost and recommendations from friends. “American consumers are loyal to national brands of food, beverage and consumer products.”4 Being culturally similar, there is not a great deal of difference exhibited between the consumer behaviors of the United States and those of the United Kingdom. But Russia still has distinct consumer groups that can be studied for marketing products. In the early days when the country opened its markets, consumer behavior remained traditional and many international players found it difficult to operate there. Recent trends have begun to open up this market to foreign products and opening the marketing field up to more innovative and ‘Western’ style advertising techniques. Throughout my training, I have worked to understand these developing markets in Russia and China as I feel a greater understanding of an opening market such as this will help me in understanding the market I intend to enter, which is Taiwan. The modern world has made it possible for me to work in several different fields at once. Since creativity, at least in the initial stages, involves only ideas, communication of such ideas becomes easy due to the availability of channels such as the internet. Broadband has also helped because transfer of large volumes of data became possible within reasonable time periods. This, coupled with the opening up of economies such as China and Russia has resulted in open communication between the different players in the creative field. A person sitting in the United States can request gaming software designs from a company in India. All details including the final product and payment can be exchanged through the internet. “The rapid and sometimes bewildering growth of creative industries linked to digital technology has been ascribed to two phenomena: the integration of the world economy in which the sharing of creative ideas and processes becomes easier and the global growth in disposable income.”5 Product design and packaging is a complicated process that is only becoming more complicated as the world becomes more globalized, a factor that has strongly influenced my design approach. Globalization has ensured that the concepts of postmodernism have reached most of the world now. Postmodernity implies the movement of the individual from a cognitive world into a semiotic world in which knowledge acquisition and production is manipulated by new signs and symbols.6 Consumer behavior in the postmodern age is greatly influenced by forces such as conflicting core values and beliefs as well as perception.7 Basically, this means that people are beginning to see more than one meaning within a single image. “Postmodernism is the art form of a consumer society characterized by an outgrowth of mass production, mass media and mass marketing.”8 As technologies grew, so did the postmodernist movement, reflecting rapid changes occurring in the urban landscape and in the designs that would appeal to consumers. Postmodernism introduced the element of using symbolism in the message displayed as a means of persuading the consumers in new ways. A new vocabulary of advertising slogans emerged having different meanings than the literal textual interpretation of structured literature. For example, companies used catchy phrases and words that symbolized an alternative meaning. Apparel giant FCUK used this four letter symbol as the brand name, letters that are often re-arranged in the English-speaker’s mind to spell out a word with strong sexual connotations. Television was influential in this transformation since sublime messages were inserted to utilize the individual psychology of the viewing consumer. One of the product designers currently working in the field that has had influence on my work is Saihei Makinami. His designs retain the simplicity and innocence of the child, which appeals to consumers who are tired of constantly being marketed to, while they also speak volumes about the various brands he promotes. The following design, for example, conveys a sense of refreshment and enjoyment because of the fountain-like spray that rises from the letter ‘l’. 9 His design for Jolly Shandy soft drinks reflects the fun-loving casual nature of the product with an exclamation point as emphasis and the product name itself used as background design. The font used reflects the loose attitude of the product while the colors used helps to distinguish between flavors. 10 These designs are postmodern because, although they seem very simple, they are very complex representations of the brand and the product itself. For my own personal practice, my focus is more on the behavior of female consumers and will be disseminated within an emerging economy. This has had a great deal of impact upon my designs as I have worked through my programme. Female identities are formed, particularly in an emerging market such as China, Russia or Taiwan, based on the various traditional conceptions that have been held regarding the appropriate ‘roles’ of women as compared to men. In the Western traditions, women have been associated with home, nurturing and family. As a result, she has traditionally been restricted to occupations such as nursing, teaching and housecleaning. “Being female is associated with specific behaviors (gardening), specific roles (homemaker), specific occupations (elementary school teacher) and specific traits (nurturance).”11 Her behaviors are strongly influenced by whether she wants to be associated with this traditional viewpoint or if she wishes to associate herself more with the changes coming upon her nation as the effects of globalization begin to reach into the rural country sides and urban centers. Within the commercial world, this determines the success or failure of a product. For products attempting to appeal to the younger generations, it is mandatory that designs take a more modern approach. They need to display innovation and appear relatively simple if they are to appeal to an audience that demands immediate gratification and suffers from information overload. More traditional women, the older set, often also want to identify themselves with the more worldly and sophisticated ideas of postmodernism. Looking toward the future of my career, I have already applied for a scholarship to work within a government department in the country of Taiwan as a product designer. Working within this department, I will be able to earn a salary at the same time that I am learning more about the country, the people and the designs that work within this market. The country appears to have a very creative emerging economy. Focus on the creative industry started only in 2002 through the initiative of ‘the developmental project of cultural and creative industries’. Growth rate is very high at 7.5 per cent per annum. “Among Cultural and Creative Industries, crafts, radio and TV, publishing, architectural design, advertising, designing and digital entertainment sectors have higher added value, and these sectors have a lot of potential in Taiwan.”12 Product design, being specifically mentioned in this way, indicates it comprises a significant portion of this sector making this market particularly attractive. Taiwan is a market that has been long associated with cheap, mass produced products, but this is no longer the scenario and Taiwan is ready to change its image in this regard. They have successfully begun an earnest attempt to compete with other Asian giants like Japan and South Korea. “Results achieved in international design competitions by Taiwanese companies such as BenQ, Asus, Qisda, Tatung and design studios such as Duck Image and Nova Design account for this fact.”13 This indicates that there is significant room for growth in this field and opportunity for enterprising designers to make their own way. My plan is to remain in Taiwan for approximately two years during which I will be able to develop a relatively good picture of how the Taiwanese implement their creative capabilities while I earn a salary and make a home for myself. The learning outcome that I will get from such an association will stand me in good stead elsewhere as well should I choose to begin working in other markets through online communication, such as with Russian or Chinese markets. This experience would help me gain the knowledge I need to design products that can be marketed internationally from Taiwan, helping to break its reputation as a market for poorly made products. It has become clear that this sector has a bright future. As mentioned earlier it is one of the fastest growing industries in the world today. It does not require too much capital to enter into the field at least in a small way. Being creative does not cost money. This is also an area where a person can start in a small way. In the future after my stint in Taiwan, I can get into the field on my own and try to grow into a big business unit slowly and steadily. Apart from design knowledge and consumer psychology, it is imperative that a person who is looking seriously at this industry should have certain business skills also. Skills such as accounting, marketing, administration, human resources, auditing and communications are valuable and, in many cases, essential to success. This is because in spite of being in a creative field, it is also a business and hence such skills are essential for long time survival in the industry. Another important factor to remember is that creative industry is closely related to intellectual property rights. Any person, especially those in the creative field, should respect this fact. It should be remembered that stealing such IPR’s is not only unethical but counter productive. Some one can do the same thing to our creations too. By working with other firms and within the governmental department, I will be able to gain more experience regarding what additional skills will be required Works Cited “Asia’s Creative Heart is Beating in Taiwan.” Reddot Online. Available 2 September 2008 from Baxter, Mike. Product Design: Practical methods for the systematic development of new products. CRC Press. “Brand Loyalty High Among American Consumers.” About.com – Retail Industry. (2008). Available 2 September 2008 from “Buyer Behavior – Cultural Factors.” Tutor2U. Available 2 September 2008 from Carr, Stuart C. & John F. Schumaker. Psychology and the Developing World. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996. Golombok, Susan & Robyn Fivush. Gender Development. Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 100. Scott, M. “Playing with Pictures: Postmodernism, Poststructurism and Advertising Visuals.” Advances in Consumer Research. Vol. 19, (1992). “Taiwan Culture & Creative Industry. Cultural & Creative Industries in Taiwan.” Cultural & Creative Industries Exhibition, 2007. Available 2 September 2008 from Venkatesh, A. “Postmodernism, Consumer Culture and the Society of the Spectacle.” Advances in Consumer Research. Vol. 19, (1992). Wilson, Evelyn & Gill Henderson. “Melt.” Today’s Market. Available 2 September 2008 from Read More