FMP Research: Design Museum- Paul Smith

Fig. 1 Paul Smith Ring (author's own) 

Fig. 2 Paul Smith Work (author's own)

Fig. 3 Inside Paul's Head (author's own)

Paul Smith is a fashion designer who gets inspiration through everything around him, there is a room in the exhibition where you hear his voice repeating over and over tips and techniques about how he does what he does, he says, "Absorb when you look at things". Paul Smith's work may not be a direct inspiration to me, but his approach to how he does his work, his ways of creating, inspiring and being inspired teaches me. He says, "ideas can come from anywhere" and to not spend too much time looking at what other people do, because we shouldn't "go following what already exists." Saying that, at the exhibition, there was a whole hall, of which the walls on either side were filled with other people's work or random photographs, things people have sent him, etc. you can see this in Figure 3. Paul Smith takes inspiration from anywhere and everywhere, but I guess what he's trying to say is whilst registering what's around you, don't get caught up in what has been done, just take from it and move on.

His quotes inspired me more than his work, but I particularly like how he created a brand for himself, specific colours that you will see and you will know that it's him, that he was involved in that project. He is a truly inspiring man, who isn't afraid to thank his wife for being his teacher and his guidance along the way. An honest and skillful designer.  

FMP Research: The Berlin Wall

Fig. 1 Berlin Wall Design I (author's own)

Fig. 2 Berlin Wall- 'Get Human' (author's own)

Fig. 3 Berlin Wall- 'Dawn of Peace' (author's own)

Fig. 4 Berlin Wall- Breaking Down Wall (author's own)

Fig. 5 Berlin Wall Design II (author's own)

Fig. 6 Berlin Wall- Faces (author's own)

Graffiti, to me is a form of protest, a form of expression, expression of politics, issues, views, emotions, personality, music, etc. Just an expression of life itself, and probably one of the most natural ways to voice it visually, through passion and aggression. Graffiti is a very strong art form, it is full of meaning and controversy, what you see you feel, and what you feel is never subtle.

The Berlin Wall is filled with messages either expressed through patterns, drawings or writing, and almost each and every one of them are a cry for freedom and peace, they are all fighting for some sort of change. My project is based on change and awareness, creating awareness about the portrayal of women in advertising, or in other words, highlighting what we are actually aware of.

With graffiti, it's usually either the colours used, or the size of the image that first gets your attention. Figure 1 and 5 are good examples of bright colours being used, whereas Figure 3 is an example of how a simple message can stand out by just using a contrast of two colours, even a simple white on blue works.

Figure 6 is an image of a beautiful section of the Berlin Wall, what I see is society being brought together but not in peace, but being forced to have a single mind. Being forced to follow rules and large groups of people without your views and feelings being cared for. I see sheep being herded in this image, towards the same path, through the same gates and with people that are made to be the same. People in society are different, and this is beautiful, what's even more beautiful is accepting those differences and living in harmony, what's important isn't having a single mind, but having a single heart as a society.  

FMP Research: Helmut Newton

Fig. 1 Helmut Newton Sketchbook I (author's own)

Fig. 2 Helmut Newton Sketchbook II (author's own)

Helmut Newton's exhibition in Berlin was a collection of great photography work. I particularly enjoyed the fact that each image had a scenario rather than just a person/people posing, however, I couldn't help but notice that almost every photograph was an image of a very "perfect" woman. Other than the fact that they were mostly nudes, a lot of them were quite dominant images of women, at the same time, some seemed pretty vulnerable too.

The media seems to eliminate a whole group within society and only focuses on a certain minority, and to be honest, even the minority that we may see as "perfect" in reality would not be perfect enough to earn a place on billboards and in magazines without being altered. It seems like only a certain way of looking is acceptable, this unreachable level of perfection that we still strive to reach seems unfair. It seems unfair that a lot of us feel the need to have to look and be a certain way just to be considered "beautiful"; whatever beautiful is anyway.

I spotted a quote written up on one of the walls at the exhibition, it may not directly relate to my topic but it still stood out to me, "I love vulgarity, I am very attracted by bad taste- it is a lot more exciting than that supposed good taste which is nothing more than a standardised way of looking at things."- Helmut Newton, Press Conference, Austria 1994.

FMP Research: Berlinische Galerie- Dorothy Iannone

Fig. 1 Dorothy Iannone Room I (author's own)

Fig. 2 Dorothy Iannone Room II (author's own)

Fig. 3 Dorothy Iannone Room III (author's own)

Fig. 4 Dorothy Iannone Room IV (author's own)

Dorothy Iannone seems to have given women an empowering role within her work, this exhibition provided us with a close examination of Iannone's work, which reveals an instinctive celebration of life, love and art. Her work involves the idea of non-thinking but merely acting and feeling. Her work is a celebration of union. She expresses that each interaction is filled with tenderness and passion at the same time, no experience is underestimated.

It is quite easy to look at her work and see it as porn, or maybe even a feminist act, but all of these assumptions are just distractions from the work itself. Her work is about unity, equality, love and expression, maybe it's just a symbolic expression, but either way, her work gets you to think.

I like how most of her pieces seem like a switch in roles compared to what we're used to seeing in the media, women are usually given the submissive roles, vulnerability is seen as attractive in females, where as men are given strong, empowering roles where they are seen as the alpha. Iannone creates equality, and sometimes even dominance on the behalf of the female. 

FMP Research: Berlinische Galerie- Franz Ackermann

Fig. 1 Franz Ackermann Room I (author's own)

Fig. 2 Franz Ackermann Room II (author's own)

Fig. 3 Franz Ackermann Room III (author's own)

Above are some images I have taken at the Berlinische Galerie of the Franz Ackermann room. Immediately I noticed a series of collages in his work, he has devised a spatial concept that constructs a relationship between paintings and photographs. Ackermann's work springs from his little drawings, giving us an idea of his own interpretations of his surroundings during his travels. The first thing you notice when you enter this room is colour, the distinct lines and strong, bold, fearless splashes of colour just scream out of the canvases and walls. Although the foundation of his work is based on sketches from his surroundings, in other words, familiar grounds, i.e. Earth, his work, to me feels like it's from outer space, it has an alien feel, but in a good way. Unfamiliar surroundings trigger curiosity, and curiosity leads to exploration, and without exploring, what would one find?

I am considering using his colourful approach within my experimentation, the colours, lines, and contrast he uses awakens not only the eye but the brain too, his work consumes you, and what better way to make a statement and bring your point across?   

FMP Research: Chatline Sketchbook Design

Fig. 1 Chatline Grid (author's own)

This may seem absurd to some, but I collected a whole lot of chatline squares from Metro and Evening Standard newspapers and eventually created a double page grid. I thought it would be quite interesting to look at this specific content within the media which has a more straight forward way of putting women out there, you could argue that they do it out of their own choice, fair enough, but I found it interesting to try and create some sort of image out of images we see so often but our minds don't really register, so placing 48 of them together would surely make them more noticeable.

Fig. 2 Chatline Grid At An Angle (author's own)

Although we don't take much notice of it in our daily lives, it is still amazing to see how everyone who looks at the pages still recognise what it is even with one glance. Makes me question the amount of things our brains do take from our surroundings... especially from the media.

FMP Research: Magazines

Fig. 1 Magazines I (author's own)

I started to flick through magazines and needless to say, I have come across a lot of examples where women are being shaped in order to fit an ideal image of beauty. If you look at figure 1 and 2, you can clearly see the absence of wrinkles, blemishes, scars, spots and lines. Neck lines are removed, eye lines are softened, complexions are cleaned up and the chins are trimmed.

Fig. 2 Magazines II (author's own)

These women are beautiful, there's no denying of that. But beauty is not defined through perfection, plus, what is perfection anyway? Why do these women not even have one line of character on their faces? Something, a sign that says. "I'm human too, and my imperfections make me beautiful."

Fig. 3 Magazines III (author's own)

Figure 3 shows another one of my sketchbook pages, this time the magazine images were found in men's magazines. I find that in a lot of advertising, women are almost dehumanised, only sections of their bodies are being focused on, i.e. breasts, torso, legs, etc. even when the product in hand is irrelevant to the human body. They really must mean it when they say, "sex sells".

Fig. 4 Magazines IV (author's own)

Figure 4 is an image of a few examples of women feeling the need to alter themselves to look a certain way. Of course what's most important is self comfort, and being happy with your body, so if this means losing a few pounds, then so be it. But at the same time it's quite upsetting to see that people are given more credit and attention for looking a certain way, it's because of this that we can't tell whether someone is genuinely doing something for themselves or whether they're doing it to conform to norms, to be accepted and to become this so called "ideal".

FMP Research: Jean Kilbourne

Jean Kilbourne is an author, speaker and filmmaker who is recognised for her work on the image of women in advertising- basically, exactly what I'm looking at. I have watched a few of her talks online, and she points out the unfortunate ways in which advertising manages to effect us. Many people say advertisements do not effect them, that they somehow manage to block them out and live obliviously to them, but most things in life effect us unconsciously anyway, we do not say "I choose to notice that billboard and let its contents affect me".
Advertisers surround us with images of the ideal female beauty, we learn what is expected of us, and the standards women have to try and live up to, otherwise they will never be "beautiful enough". Kilbourne says, "Women learn from a very early age that we must spend an enormous amount of time, energy and above all, money, striving to achieve this look and feeling ashamed and guilty when we fail. And failure is inevitable because the ideal is based on absolute flawlessness." (Kilbourne, 2006, youtube.com) The women in these images have no scars, no blemishes, no lines, no wrinkles, it's almost as if they have no pores! No one looks the way they do... not even the girls themselves.
It's quite sad to think that not only are we exposed to these images of "ideal beauty" which could cause insecurities and lower self esteem, but the women within the images themselves also are obviously not "perfect enough" in reality since their features have to be played around with so much on software before advertisers present the finished outcome.
Adverts sell more than just products, they sell the idea of what is acceptable, of what is beautiful, they sell lifestyles and expectations, for example, love and sexuality. We are put into boxes, given name tags and labels, and we somehow can't break away from them because this is society, and if we live in it, we have to conform.

• Kilbourne, Jean (October 2006). Killing Us Softly: Advertising's Image of Women [You Tube video]. (2:13-2:30). Accessed on: 26th March 2014. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FpyGwP3yzE

FMP Research: Tate Modern

Fig. 1 Pikes I (author's own)

The Homeworkers room in Energy and Process is filled with work that addresses gender division. Figure 1 and 2 are images of Annette Messager's piece 'The Pikes', I saw pain and torture in this piece, the hanging of the doll limbs showed suffering, both physical and mental suffering. The inability to break from a life style you are forced to live, the pikes itself represented just that. Whether you are forced to live a certain way or driven towards it by your surroundings, e.g. by society, politics, family, friends, etc.

Fig. 2 Pikes II (author's own) 

This fits into the topic I have chosen to explore, inequality being the key aspect, and how it impacts us emotionally. Messager's work expresses female experience and emotions. She explores hierarchies of power in the relationships between male and female, nature and culture and vulnerability and aggression.

Through more of my research, I want to explore different interpretations of feminism, as feminist views vary through time, generations, cultures, religions and just society as a whole. The topic is rather broad. 

Final Major Project (FMP)

For my Final Major Project I will be looking at women and how they are portrayed through the media. I want to focus on both the sexualisation of women in the media and also the portrayal of the fixated idea of what beauty is and how this effects females. We are surrounded by images of women, of "perfect" women, of women that don't even look like themselves on billboards. Sometimes you have images of women which are formed by combining 3 or 4 different faces, to create the perfect one, to create a person who doesn't even exist... women are made to compete with this... with fake faces and fake bodies.

But why can't natural beauty be accepted? Isn't imperfection beauty? Isn't it also unfair for those women who are used in the media and have their features played around with? Even them, the ladies we see as perfect, are not perfect enough!

I want to study advertising next year at degree level, but this doesn't stop me from researching into the faults of this industry, as creative, fun and exciting as it may be, it is also cruel, and unfair at times. Advertising is a very influential form of communication, and its power is sometimes underestimated.

Weather: Lyrics and Associations

Fig. 1 Lyrics (author's own)

Fig. 2 Picking out from lyrics (author's own)

In figure 1 you can see that the pages are filled with song lyrics that somehow relate to weather. Since I want to use typography, I want to collect a good set of words for every weather type. From the lyrics I can also get mood associations, for example 'Ain't no sunshine'- Bill Withers. With this song I can link the disappearance of the sun to loneliness.

I took the seasons, associated each season to four colours, and then listed the words I have picked out from the lyrics next to them.

I believe this project is quite a challenging one because I get great ideas and then somehow hit a wall, constantly. The topic I have chosen within the topic 'weather' is quite a difficult one. I am thinking to create a final outcome that sort of symbolises the shape of a train. I want my images to be presented in a small book that opens up to be quite long. Every image will be carry the colours of the season they symbolise.