Monday 14th March 2016
"A Sign for the Times"
For the second lecture of the day, we were presented with a lecture on advertising - as the heading so aptly represents. Tracey went over various facts that have come around through advertising - she did this by walking us through all the way from the 1960's to the 2000's. But before doing so, we were given some base information on the subject area. This information was that the message of advertising has seen drastic change over the last few decades - moving from very bland and basic designs to those of which are popping with colour and very vibrant, and then back to the more minimalist approach in the 1990's again. Advertising is the lifestyle of the time and this has become clearly apparent since literally billions of pounds are spent and/or made through advertisements annually in the UK alone.
(www.ffffound.com)
Advertising gives people meaning in its own way, if the world did not have advertising then it would be a very difference place today. After a few introductory points, we went on to watch a clip that was very factual - it explained how in 2004, 4% of advertising was digital, then in 2014 at a staggering increase of 40% in digital advertising. It also went on to state that there has been a 530% increase in social networking, resulting in a booming advertising age between 2010-2014. Starting with the timeline, the 1960's was pinned as a strong beginning for advertisements and consumers. This was because of the post-war events leading to alot of money changing hands amongst the public. This was in an attempt to fix the countries economy by giving people the money through jobs to by consumer items of luxury and other qualities. During this booming moment in time the UK was using US advertising techniques - and also came the release of the pioneering Volkswagen car.
Alot of the advertising industry began to fixate on the women of the household, this was happening because of the growing independence from men that the women were experiencing - the 1960's was also the decade of which good design was being noticed prominently by the industry. Moving into the 1970's, we were told of how design was becoming more and more self confident in its styles. This is something that was much needed in terms of design progressing as a practice as it evidently has. Because of this growing recognition as an art, advertisements were given better production value as they became valid sources of finding new consumers. With this sudden flux in popularity in advertisements, political parties became involved as they saw it as a useful way to get in touch with their audience - who at the time were strongly against the conservatives.
(www.blog.designcrowd.com)
Then came the 1980's and 1990's, the 80's saw a dawn of new technological advances, with this surge came a new demand from designers, making them more creative in the process - this molded the access we have as an industry today. And then hitting the 1990's we came into the internet, something that meant advertisers had to quickly adapt to the growing number of possible customers, having to accommodate for the growing interest in their products. But, this also meant that more people were connecting from across the globe, which meant new markets and audiences to mold designs and branding around. In all, this lecture showed some interesting areas to look into should someone be looking at something like branding and antibrands, something that is a tangent from this is the topic of advertising, which was thoroughly covered in the form of a timeline in this lecture.
