Reading and lecture
Martin Hosken’s lecture opened up some interesting questions to consider when trying to work out what create my ‘self’.
What are my values?
How do I know what they are?
What is a value?
How am I influenced by the values of those around me?
Where do I come from?
Who am I?
Is it nature or nurture that makes me, me?
He highlights the idea of the ‘unconscious self’ which is something I found very interesting. The idea that the choices we make are not as considered as we might think, and that our unconscious self may really be in the driving seat is disconcerting yet interesting. Design therefore often needs to grab the attention of peoples unconscious self firstly.
This also draws into the idea he talked about of ‘Nudge theory’, as a way to alter peoples behaviour in a particular way by tapping into their unconscious self as a gentle ‘nudge’ towards your required outcome.
Our unconscious self being vital brings up a lot of ideas when it come to how to create designs. If someones unconscious is really so integral to their behaviour as Hosken suggests, design needs to tap into that. Possibly the message can therefore be more subtle, and create a feeling and emotion more than spelling it out clearly. This soften but deeper connection might be easier for the unconscious self to pick up?
The idea of selling to peoples unconscious desires instead of to them is something I can definitely see all around in today consumerist society. Even more so now, with the prevalence of social media and technologies companies having such a strong grasp on how to grab and then hold the attention of our subconscious selves. This means people spend time on social media, news pages etc. and unconsciously take in all kinds of advertising, leaving feeling unfulfilled and full of desire to spend money and buy things they didn’t previously know they needed. This form of adverting and design is incredibly powerful, if a little scary.
“people must be trained to desire. To want new things before the old is properly consumed”
Martin Hosken
I like the idea of harnessing this power, but seeing if it is as powerful when trying to ‘nudge’ people towards more positive behaviours. Can you use the power of the unconscious to change peoples attitudes to race, the older generation, the environment, mental health etc.?
Hosken also waves the idea that brands have tapped in so deeply to our unconscious selves that we no longer know what we really want, and simply desire what they are telling us to desire. The powerful forward surge of technology only works to increase this. We can now not escape the constant bombardment of advertising thats is trying to attract our unconscious. Maybe this hardens it and makes it harder for content to filter through? Or maybe the lines of what we want and what we are told to want are now so far gone that they are no longer reachable?
‘The lack of attention to ourselves in the physical environment is the price we pay for investing in ourselves in the digital one’
Martin Hosken
Im interested in Hosken’s idea that the more time we spend on our digital selves the more our physical selves become less real.
In some ways these ideas make me want to take a step back with my design and hold on to the physical and slower design of a pre digital time. If you can achieve the aim of grabbing someones unconscious self with a real tangle product through the constant digital noise then the achievement is then possibly even higher?
Giddens brings the idea of thinking about the self and the question of identity as being something that only really took off in late modernity. In medieval times, lineage and social status were more fixed and individuality was not as prized as it is today. He also believes that ‘being in the now’ is a way to generate a self-understanding, along with writing a journal or auto-biography.
Workshop Challenge:
Define your values as a designer and communicate them through a designed artefact.
I thought deeply about what made me me, what values I wanted to bring through from this into my work. I also asked others to offer up words to describe me, and it was interesting to see where these words overlapped and how they mentioned parts of me that I had overlooked.
From my list of 20 words I finalised it down to these five that I felt came together well to encompass a lot of my self and how I wanted my values as a designer to be.
Caring – for people, for the planet. Care about my impact on the world and helping to build a sustainable future. hands, nature. Often caring too much about things to a stressful level.
Unconventional – nonconforming, always going a different way to others. a bit weird, silly and childish. Also looking at things with a childlike enthusiasm, mostly nature.
Adventurous- always thinking aboutmountains, being scared of a lot makes me have to be brave a lot. Push myself out of my comfort zone, always trying something new
Modest – hidden face, shy, self-depreciating, uncertain and anxious
Nature-loving – tree / flower, my design is inspired by nature, my happiness comes from nature, and I want my work to have a positive or minimal impact on nature
Create a visual mood board for each word.
A mood board is a type of visual presentation or collage consisting of images, text, and samples of objects in a composition. It can be based on a set topic or can be any material chosen at random. A mood board can be used to convey a general idea or feeling about a particular topic
I started off by looking through the photos on my phone and collected ones that made me feel something. I felt like this was a good place to start as every photo I had taken shows what had grabbed my attention originally. I then searched for similar images online to add to my moodboard, focussing more on the feelings of the words than their literals meaning.
I looked at the colours I had organically picked to make up my moodboard and picked them out so I could use them as the basis of my design.
Create a single visual expression that conveys you
I started off by creating simple representations of each of my words and combining them into a digital design. I liked how the design said a lot about me and would take time for viewers to understand and decode each element. However, it looked quite busy and a little overwhelming, so I thought people might skim past it without taking the time to decode the design.
I moved on my thinking to try to make something real and tangible, I feel happiest about my work when I can see the physical product that it has become. I also feel like something printed out makes people slow down and spend more time looking at than something digital.
To show the importance of nature to me personally and in my work, I wanted to use nature in my visual expression. I played around with printing from leaves, creating collages and doing cut out potato prints. I found however, that these, although great fun to produce, ended up looking too childish and I wasn’t satisfied with them.
I then dissected each layer of the design, printed it and cut it out so I could print each layer with paint building one on top of the other. This again looked a little messy and childish but I liked the idea of layering the design on top of itself. I took each dissected part of the design and spread it out onto separate pages to create a book format, layering sections on top fo each other to create cut through holes from one page to the next.
The cut throughs also work to show how each part is linked together and how you often think you know what someone is like but you are looking at it wrong and underneath it’s something else.
I cut holes that run all the way through the book to hint to the idea of the unconscious self that you can’t quite see or understand but is an important part of the self.
I used a local printers to print the book. However, ideally I would have made the book smaller, chosen some beautiful coloured paper and used a layered printing method like screen printing or risograph printing to create a really tactile and beautiful looking artefact if I had had more time and finances available.
After talking to Paul I am swapping the front image to be the second page, so will update this video to reflect that.
Conclusion
I loved looking into the self this week. Our lecture and reading explored ideas of the unconscious self and how graphic design can grab the attention of your unconscious self often before it attracts your conscious self. It makes you think about design in a different and more emotional way, you need your work to grab someones attention with its emotion and look before you try to impart your meaning on the viewer. Especially in today fast paced world, you may not get the chance to show your meaning if you’ve not captured the viewers attention beforehand.
In my workshop project I wanted to create something tangible and attention grabbing that would entice viewers to spend a little longer on it and figure out the meaning behind it. I used each page as a graphic refection of part of me, with hole cut through to link each page together but also show how things are often not what they seem, and people often have much more going on below the surface than is apparent. I added in holes through to the back to represent the unconscious self, that is always there but not seen or understood.
Lizzie Wa Design 
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