OUGD505 - Studio Brief 01 - Vaporwave Aesthetics: Type

The use of typography within the aesthetics of vaporwave have origins in Asian computer systems where the traditional Asian symbols would generally be considered "full-width" characters, but the Latin script characters could be fit into half-width blocks because of their relatively smaller sizes.

Ｖａｐｏｒｗａｖｅ　ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ　ざソ衛

In the time of computer terminals and text mode computing, characters were normally laid out in a grid. typically 80 columns by 24 or 25 lines. Each character was displayed as a small dot matrix (a 2-dimensional patterned array, used to represent characters, symbols and images. Every type of modern technology uses dot matrices for display of information, including mobile phones, televisions and printers. They are also used in textiles with sewing, knitting and weaving), often about 8 pixels wide and a single byte character set (SBCS - used to refer to character encodings that use exactly one byte for each graphic character) was used to encode characters of western languages.

Unicode Standard:

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The latest version contains a repertoire of 136,755 characters covering 139 modern and historic scripts, as well as multiple symbol sets. The Unicode Standard consists of s set of code charts for visual reference, an encoding method and set of standard character encodings, a set of reference data files, and a number of related items, such as character properties, rules for normalisation, decomposition, collation, rendering and bidirectional display order (for the correct display of text containing both right-to-left scripts, such as Arabic and Hebrew, and left-to-right scripts).

Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms Official Unicode Consortium code chart

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+FF0x

！

＂

＃

＄

％

＆

＇

（

）

＊

＋

，

－

．

／

U+FF1x

０

１

２

３

４

５

６

７

８

９

：

；

＜

＝

＞

？

U+FF2x

＠

Ａ

Ｂ

Ｃ

Ｄ

Ｅ

Ｆ

Ｇ

Ｈ

Ｉ

Ｊ

Ｋ

Ｌ

Ｍ

Ｎ

Ｏ

U+FF3x

Ｐ

Ｑ

Ｒ

Ｓ

Ｔ

Ｕ

Ｖ

Ｗ

Ｘ

Ｙ

Ｚ

［

＼

］

＾

＿

U+FF4x

｀

ａ

ｂ

ｃ

ｄ

ｅ

ｆ

ｇ

ｈ

ｉ

ｊ

ｋ

ｌ

ｍ

ｎ

ｏ

U+FF5x

ｐ

ｑ

ｒ

ｓ

ｔ

ｕ

ｖ

ｗ

ｘ

ｙ

ｚ

｛

｜

｝

～

｟

U+FF6x

｠

｡

｢

｣

､

･

ｦ

ｧ

ｨ

ｩ

ｪ

ｫ

ｬ

ｭ

ｮ

ｯ

U+FF7x

ｰ

ｱ

ｲ

ｳ

ｴ

ｵ

ｶ

ｷ

ｸ

ｹ

ｺ

ｻ

ｼ

ｽ

ｾ

ｿ

U+FF8x

ﾀ

ﾁ

ﾂ

ﾃ

ﾄ

ﾅ

ﾆ

ﾇ

ﾈ

ﾉ

ﾊ

ﾋ

ﾌ

ﾍ

ﾎ

ﾏ

U+FF9x

ﾐ

ﾑ

ﾒ

ﾓ

ﾔ

ﾕ

ﾖ

ﾗ

ﾘ

ﾙ

ﾚ

ﾛ

ﾜ

ﾝ

ﾞ

ﾟ

U+FFAx

HW HF

ﾡ

ﾢ

ﾣ

ﾤ

ﾥ

ﾦ

ﾧ

ﾨ

ﾩ

ﾪ

ﾫ

ﾬ

ﾭ

ﾮ

ﾯ

U+FFBx

ﾰ

ﾱ

ﾲ

ﾳ

ﾴ

ﾵ

ﾶ

ﾷ

ﾸ

ﾹ

ﾺ

ﾻ

ﾼ

ﾽ

ﾾ

U+FFCx

ￂ

ￃ

ￄ

ￅ

ￆ

ￇ

ￊ

ￋ

ￌ

ￍ

ￎ

ￏ

U+FFDx

ￒ

ￓ

ￔ

ￕ

ￖ

ￗ

ￚ

ￛ

ￜ

U+FFEx

￠

￡

￢

￣

￤

￥

￦

￨

￩

￪

￫

￬

￭

￮

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 01 - Vaporwave

The name is a combination of terms. One of these terms is known as "vaporware", a corporate advertising term for products that are advertised for release but are never intended to make it to market - an insider term for manipulation of the public's desires. The other half of the name comes from Marx's waves of vapor, it comes from these failed promises, and sort of offers up an alternative history of post cold war America:

"All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind".

Debate: Is the genre dead?
- Either the genre has outlived its usefulness as a product on the market (i.e. a change in style) OR
- It no longer has any relevance to our lives.

In a sense it has always been "dead"
- Vaporwave was never a product for sale in the same way as other genres.
- It was never economically "successful".
- An expression of our moment in American history - a take on economic and cultural decline.
- An appropriation of the language of marketing itself, of a planned or synthetic obsolescence, employed before the act of "selling out" in order to protect the integrity of the genre.

Vaporwave arose in relation to huge economic and social forces that are still a part of our lives - globalisation, runaway consumerism and manufactured nostalgia being the main issues.

Definitions:

- A microgenre of electronic music, an art movement and internet meme which emerged in the early 2010s. The music appropriates 1980s and 1990s styles of mood music, such as smooth jazz, elevator music, R&B and lounge music, typically sampling or manipulating tracks via chopped and screwed techniques, and other effects. (From indie dance genres, such as sea-punk, bounce house, witch house or chill wave) - an ironic variant of chillwave.

- It's surrounding subculture is sometimes associated with an ambiguous or satirical take on consumer capitalism and popular culture, and tends to be characterised by a nostalgic or surrealist engagement with the popular entertainment, technology and advertising of previous decades.
- Also incorporates early internet imagery, late 1990's web design, Greco-Roman statues, glitch art, anime, 3D-rendered objects and cyberpunk tropes in its cover artwork and music videos (aesthetics).

Design an object that celebrates (or critiques) an aspect of a genre's specific characteristics.
In what sense do these micro-genres help us understand some wider issues about the society that created them?
Think political, aesthetics, production methods, audience demographic, key intentions or its connections to a specific place.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Existing Deforestation Campaigns

Deforestation Continues With The Turn of a Page: Advertising agency: LINKSUS, Beijing, China.

This print advertisement was produced for Greenpeace in response to their beliefs that global deforestation is primarily due to large-scale industrial logging, which has become one of the greatest dangers to rainforests. Industrial logging threatens more than 70% of the world's endangered forests. The idea for this advertisement was to utilise journal pages to produce a magazine which reflects the rate of the destruction of the world's forests and it's results. The magazine features two main pages, which are of different lengths, allowing for a piece of the image underneath to show through to the previous page. When turned, the tree is seemingly cut and all that is left is the last bit of tree stump over two completely blank pages.

The impact this design produces is quite eerie, suggesting that if deforestation continues at it's current rate soon there will be no forests left, which can and is currently have drastic effects on the Earth, such as reduced biodiversity due to habitat loss and an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming. Each of these produce their own cycle of destruction.

Ideas which I can take from this campaign are how I can produce an impactful message through printed material. The limited amount of text works well to enhance such messages, therefore I should potentially work with producing something purely visual which the audience have to engage with more physically, and not become distracted or bored by long passages of text. This format would also work effectively with one of my initial idea which talks of producing a form of publication or printed material, using recycled paper. Other research of mine also suggests that printed material is more effective than digital media in communicating messages and engaging with an audience.

Save Paper - Save The Planet: Advertising agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Copenhagen, Denmark.

This advertisement was produced for the WWF organisation by the agency Saatchi & Saatchi in response to paper wastage, which also has clear links to deforestation. The advertisement uses a series of images of a paper dispenser which has a silhouette of South America cut from the middle section. This idea was to make people realise that saving the planet starts with them first making an effort to save paper, this allowed them to prove that the survival of the forest is directly connected to what people consume, showing the level of 'green' (used to symbolise rainforests and land) deplete as more paper towels are used.

These could also work as objects in themselves, a design which could be utilised on many paper dispensers over the world and in various public settings in order to reach more people. Ideas which can be taken from this campaign concern the format of production. Perhaps something less obvious should be produced, such as a physical object which could be displayed publically that people can interact with, rather than a form of printed or digital media. The idea of human interaction would bring a more personal aspect into the campaign, which potentially the audience would engage with more on an intellectual and emotional level.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - "Paper Beats Digital In Many Ways, According to Neuroscience"

Paper Beats Digital In Many Ways, According to Neuroscience.

The most recent work supporting paper-based marketing is a study performed by Canadian neuro-marketing firm TrueImpact. The study compared the effects of paper marketing (direct mail pieces, in this case) with digital media (email and display ads).

The technologies used in this study were eye-tracking and high resolution EEG brain wave measurements, alongside conventional questionnaires.
The three key metrics evaluated in the study were cognitive load (ease of understanding), motivation (persuasiveness), and attention (how long the subjects looked at the content).

It was found that direct mail was easier to process mentally and tested better for brand recall. According to the report:

Direct mail requires 21% less cognitive effort to process than digital media (5.15 vs. 6.37), suggesting that it is both easier to understand and more memorable. Post-exposure memory tests validated what the cognitive load test revealed about direct mail's memory encoding capabilities. When asked to cite the brand (company name) of an advertisement they had just seen, recall was 70% higher among participants who were exposed to a direct mail piece (75%) than a digital ad (44%).

A 2009 study conducted by Bangor University and branding agency, Millward Brown, used fMRI's to study the different effects of paper and digital media. It was found that physical material involves more emotional processing, which is important for memory and brand associations. It also found that physical materials produced more brain responses connected with internal feelings, suggesting greater "internalisation" of the ads.

These findings are supported by another study which also used fMRI brain scans to compare digital and paper. The most significant finding from this study was that paper advertising activated the ventral striatum area of the brain more than digital media. A previous study of successful ad campaigns found that the ventral striatum was an indicator of desire and valuation.

Each one of these studies suggest that printed media is better at communicating messages to an audience than digital media, therefore in terms of my own project on deforestation, a printed campaign should be focused on more in order to allow for more overall engagement with groups of people due to the large scale of the chosen issue. It also suggests that the brain produces more emotional responses to physical, printed media which could potentially help to produced such reactions amongst people which would make them want to help the cause more, for their emotional and moral well-being.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2015/09/16/paper-vs-digital/#de45a1533c34

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Digital vs. Printed Media

Research suggests that printed ads are trusted much more than digital ads, the influence of ads on social media s very low - direct mail significantly outperforms digital.
Types of ads that US internet users trust when making a purchase decision, OCT 2016:

• 82% printed ads (newspapers, magazines, etc) - HIGHEST.
• 76% ads and catalogs recieved in the mail.
• 69% ads in outdoor and public spaces (billboards, transit ads, posters, etc).
• 25% digital pop-ups - LOWEST.
• 43% ads embedded in social media.
• 39% online banner ads.

It was found in a comparison study that even the younger generation are more open to outdoor advertising and printed ads than digital, even though this generation spends more time on social media platforms. This information also shows that these ideas are the same for people in different countries and cultures, one having taken place in the US and the other in Germany.

https://www.insights4print.ceo/2017/02/reality-check-on-digital-advertising-vs-print/

This research suggests that in order to convey information effectively to people, a printed campaign should be produced rather than digital, since these are often overlooked. Printed material can be made more personal and therefore engage the audience better, as well as its versatility meaning campaigns can be designed for a canvas, newspaper or leaflet. Whereas, with digital media, the idea is to catch the reader's attention in the first few seconds to then encourage them to read more, however this can be more tricky and elements which concern loading speeds, etc can make for a poor experience which may put the audience off reading and engaging further with such information.

https://www.proactive.marketing/mixed-media-marketing/

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Research Presentation Feedback

• Look at campaign designed by BP using seeded paper.
• Look carefully at the audience - who do you want to communicate these issues to?
• Produce a micro-campaign - aim to change the views of a smaller number of people.
• Using recycled/seeded paper and sustainable materials is an interesting way to produce material to communicate the issues of deforestation - continue to experiment with these methods of production.
• Potentially avoid the use of paper altogether by producing something digitally/a digital campaign.
• Focus more specifically on the amount of paper wasted - continues links to deforestation issues, however is made more specific.
• Conduct a survey to discuss whether there is enough awareness or knowledge of deforestation and the various issues surrounding it.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Research Presentation

Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where afterwards the land is converted to a non-forest use, such as for farms of urban use.

So why is this an important issue?
About 30% of the Earth's land surface is covered by forests.
Annually, we're losing about 18.7 million acres of forests, which is equivalent to 27 football fields every minute.

So what's causing this?
Illegal logging:
- taking wood from protected areas, harvesting more than is allowed or harvesting protected plant species.
Fuelwood harvesting:
- mainly in the form of timber and charcoal.
Clearance of land for use as pastures for livestock and plantations.
Rainforest fires.

So what are the impacts of this?
Increased greenhouse gas emissions:
- tropical forests hold more than 210 gigatons of carbon, and when these are cut this is then released into the atmosphere contributing to climate change.
- it is estimated that 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions are caused by deforestation.
Disruption of water cycles:
- tropical rainforests produce about 30% of our planets fresh water.
- when deforestation occurs, it can throw off the balance of water on land and in the atmosphere, and cause changes in precipitation and river flow.
Increased soil erosion:
- trees help to anchor fertile soil, without them the land and other plants are lost to rivers.
- it is estimated that a third of the Earth's arable land has been lost through erosion.
Reduced biodiversity:
- when habitats are destroyed, species find it harder to survive and are more accessible to hunters, meaning they are more prone to extinction.
- 80% of the world's documented species live in the rainforest.
Disrupted livelihoods:
- more than 1.6 million people rely on rainforests for all or part of their livelihoods, for things such as medicine and materials such as rubber.
By the year 2030, it is estimated that only 10% of rainforests will be left, and in the next 100 years, none could exist at all.

So what changes can we make?
Sustainable forest management:
- such as restoration efforts, a balance has to be kept between ecological, economic and socio-cultural elements.
Offsetting carbon emissions:
- working to reduce emissions.
Create protected areas:
- securing ecosystems through parks and nature reserves for the preservation of animals and valuable plants, such as Mountain Gorillas.
Stop illegal logging:
- through policies and trade agreements.
Promoting sustainable bioenergy:
- producing energy through scrap wood, oils, sugar and starch, crops and algae.

Moving forward?
Potentially produce an issue-led campaign using only sustainable and renewable materials, for example recycled or plantable paper.
Conduct primary research in addition to this secondary research, for example a survey on people's awareness of the issues of deforestation, etc.
Produce a plantable publication, using seeded paper.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Presentation Planning

The presentation should aim to show:
- what topic(s) are you investigating?
- what research have you gathered and conducted (primary and secondary)
- what sources, articles, books, journals, films, websites, etc have you been looking at?
- what are your ideas and plans moving forward?

*Communicate an overview of your findings and a selection of your ideas and research that you plan on taking forward in a clear and engaging format.
*Consider what sort of feedback you would like to receive.

To start, I began with producing a mind map, documenting all the points which I thought were of particular interest and were of a shocking nature (for example, in terms of statistics). I felt these were all the main centre of the issue of deforestation, which would effectively communicate my personal concerns on the issue and why others should feel the same way.

*Primary research is something I need to conduct more of in order to gain an insight into what people already know about the issue of deforestation, how they could potentially help and what sort of object would they like to see produced that would allow the most engagement for audiences concerning this topic.

OUGD505 - Studio Brief 02 - Potential Issues

Based on analysis of this brief, research was conducted into various social, political and ethical issues that the world is currently facing and arguing about. The ones which are initially listed were issues of particular interest, which were thought to work well with my own interests, beliefs and my personal responsibility as a designer (the kind of designer I aspire to be).
https://www.isidewith.com/polls

Mandatory vaccinations:
- should the government require children to be vaccinated for preventable diseases?

Religious Freedom Act:
- should a business be able to deny service to a customer is the request conflicts with the owner's religious beliefs?

Is art/studying an art discipline a waste of time?
Ethical art/printing:
- how much material and paper, etc is wasted when producing art/in the art and design industry?
- what effect is this potentially having on the environment/how could the issue be solved?
- Art and Aesthetics in a Globalising World, edited by Raminder Kaur and Parul Dave-Mukherji.