OUGD601 - Quotes Research

Further artist quote research found from a book on 'Inspirational Quotes'

OUGD601 - Primary Demographic Research

Physical studies were also carried out within the Leeds and Manchester areas with around 30 recipients. Their age and cultural background was as diverse as possible in order to get results from a ubiquitous range of Nikes demographic audience. The findings were then analysed into statistical figures:

Quantitive Research Results - 

The majority of recipients estimated that they spent around 1+ hours on social media daily, even though these results are from a small range of people limited to Northern England, it still seemed to match up with statistics published by 'The Telegraph' in 2015 of around 1 hour and 40 minutes a day browsing social media platforms.

Every single one of the people surveyed was also signed up to at least 1 social media platform, with 51% stating that they were signed up to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

72% also said that they had shared an online meme at some point

It does however, seem that people still enjoy going out and buying physical items and clothing with 78% of people opting to buy products in store. However, additional comments suggested that most of these people search online first for the item and are also persuaded to go to the store by advertisements they see online

OUGD601 - Nike Financial & Demographic Research

With the Nike company being ubiquotous to a global audience of all ages, their gross annual profit was analysed along with their most profitable regions. The majority of their profits come from first world capitalist countries who are technologically advanced and abide heavily to a consumerist ideology.

http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/nke/financials?query=income-statement

Nike's revenue worldwide from 2009 to 2017, by region (in million U.S. dollars)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/241692/nikes-sales-by-region-since-2007/

OUGD601 - Shia LaBeouf’s Intense Motivational Speech - Just Do It

When thinking about the reliability of memes towards a commercial brand (much like the Virgin Campaign seen in the blog post OUGD601 - Commercial Meme Campaign Research) Shia LaBeouf's motivational speech came to mind. The speech has a strong reliability with Nikes slogan 'Just Do It' as Shia shouts it multiple times throughout the speech. Since the memes occurrence in 2015, there have been many edited reinterpretations of the meme which have appeared on social media sites however, nothing has been created in a commercial sense. Therefore, I decided to attempt to create an advertising campaign which recontextualises this meme and adopts it into the Nike brand.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao0

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shia-labeouf-s-intense-motivational-speech-just-do-it

OUGD601 - Initial Concepts - Mindmap

OUGD601 - Commercial Meme Campaign Research

Influenced by some of the research gathered within the written element of the project, I started to look further into examples of advertising campaigns which have used elements of meme aesthetics, online culture and image recontextualisation. The example above, which has been analysed in the essay, reappropriates an online meme to signify great deals within their company. It is also adopted into a printed medium which shows the influence of online culture within society.

From this, I started to analyse other campaigns which utilise online culture to be relatable and humorous to the viewer. Adidas's 'Boss Everyone' campaign for example, borrows elements of meme aesthetics into their TV advert.

'Thug Life Meme'

Similarly, Reebok created a campaign which shares similar aesthetics. They use crude fonts and unpolished graphic design to create a parody of late night television shopping adverts. The outcome makes the audience aware very quickly that the techniques used are intentional which in turn creates humour and reliability.

 Other examples of campaign reappropriation include culture-jamming by groups such as Adbusters. This results in an entropic and unpredictable meaning, it conveys a message in direct contention with the original advertisement.

OUGD601 - Practical Project Rationale

See how principles embedded within memes can be adopted into graphic design

Create a series of graphic resolutions focusing on image reappropriation and postmodern typographic elements, analyse how my refined pieces of graphic design relate to the practice of memes, what elements they share etc...

5 Things I want to know from the Feedback Crit:

• Any other examples of image re-apropriation?
• Ways which I could present it as a final resolution? Book, Social Media post, etc...
• Other related postmodern artists?
• Any other ideas on how I could relate my essay and practical?
• Related documentaries? Facebook pages etc...

Next crit session on 9th January / Finish the practical project by this point / Have design boards finished

Speak to erin
make practical responses to parodic memes - a burn kit
guide on how to make a meme publication
recontextualising the meme mcdonalds - chicken nugget meme
Aldi brand reappropriation

OUGD601 - Tutorial Session 5 - Analysis & Reflection

Proposed questions to talk about -

• Does the title need reconsidering? Is it too brief
• Introduction too short? Am I speaking in the right tense?
• Paragraphing

Notes - 

• Change 'organism' terminology - possibly to 'process'. Organism suggests that it is a singular system
• Change chapters to subheadings or paragraphs
• In the conclusion highlight how memes are used within the broader terms of appropriation - how they can be exploited by graphic designers. A potential tool for designers

OUGD601 - Tutorial Session 4 - Analysis & Reflection

Proposed questions to talk about -

• How to include quotes from within books from different authors
• How do we reference first editions vs second editions?
• Get page number from Lindgren S, Digital Media and Society
• Can I alter quotes to make them make sense within a sentence? 
• If a book has more than 1 editor, how do we reference?
• What if a quote runs onto the next page?

Notes -

• Hemonogenization - used in the wrong context, it is more used within terms of Modernism where everything is being made the same. Internet culture still withholds cultural diversity and shares culture.
• Reference everything that I say - even things which I know to be true
• 'Eco-Chamber' Effect - Adam Kurtis Documentary
• 'Methodology' used in the wrong context
• Be careful not to change the quotes in any way, use ... is necessary
• Jamie Reid

OUGD601 - Tutorial Session 3 - Analysis & Reflection

Questions formed in preparation for the third tutorial session:

• Run through the practical proposal
• Go over structure, in particular, where Jameson and Hutcheon fit in and how to order thing correctly
• How to reference properly using citations
• Go over the initial research question
• Read through the 1800 words written to this point

Notes taken from the tutorial:

• 8 Chapters is way too long for a 5000 word essay, streamline this to around 4 subheadings
• Relate back to numerous accounts of triangulated sources instead of just relating back to Dawkins
• Discussing 'Kilroy' visual examples should happen later on in the essay which can refer back to quotes and triangulation
• Get structure into subheadings and bullet point everything I want to discuss in each one.

Memes – What else they draw on

• Political
• Consumption
• Brands
•  Society
• Popular culture
• Internet culture
• Complex issues and topics
• A way of being able to digest concepts and issues and circumstances
• Serious underlying issues and themes
• Ironic, humorous, parodic

OUGD601 - Peer Feedback Research Task

This research task allowed the project to gather some external peer feedback from sources within the university community. It was a great opportunity to get a fresh perspective on the project from subjective sources other than the course tutor within tutorial sessions.

Notes have been gathered on the sheet above which will go on to inform future research directions within the project.

OUGD601 - Tutorial Session 2 - Analysis & Reflection

Starting the essay, I decided to look at the origins of the meme definition and terminology and who initially theorised the concept. The term was first coined by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins (1976) in the book ‘The Selfish Gene’, where the author proposes that a ‘Mimeme’, later shortened to ‘Meme, is the cultural version of a human biological gene. I then referred this initial concept to the internet meme to see how memes have evolved with the introduction of technologies such as the internet and social media. South Park, Family Guy and The Simpsons are also examples of how culture is reappropriated within the media and recycled.

Notes:

• ‘Shifman, L. (2014) Memes in Digital Culture, London: The MIT Press'
• Review things which proceed digital culture before moving onto memes within a digital sense
• Triangulation - at least 3 to start understanding the definition
• Retweets
• Start Writing