Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. In simple terms, and in the case of many young adults like myself, that means buy, buy, buy. People buy unnecessary commodities everyday, whether it’s excessive clothing, or even a Star Wars themed table lamp. If people see something they like they are going to buy it. No matter what the consequence is, and no I’m not saying that people don’t care for the environment, but we buy these commodities without thinking of the consequence. Sometimes without even thinking of what it will achieve for us or where it will end up in the next year or so. Consumerism has it’s benefits but it also has an ever-growing list of negatives. Today I am going to talk about both of these, and what we as designers have done to try and combat this.

Psychoanalysis is defined as a set of theories and therapeutic techniques which are used to study the unconscious mind. This was all made possible by the late Sigmund Freud, carried on by many further practitioners within the psychology field. There are many types of techniques classified within the psychoanalytic subject, including Rorschach Inkblots, the Freudian Slip, Free Association and Dream Analysis to name the most common. These techniques would be carefully distributed accordingly with each patients needs, with the aim of releasing repressed emotions and experiences or in simple terms to make the unconscious, conscious. Typically speaking, it would take the average patient 2 to 5 sessions a week for several years to properly cure a patient. However, I want to take this opportunity to go through each and every method used.

Global Discourse is an interdisciplinary, problem-oriented journal of applied contemporary thought operating at the intersection of politics, international relations, sociology and social policy [scimagojr.com, 2020] or as I like to call it real-world issues. Now there is no denying that the world will never become perfect. No matter how many idyllic situations we dream about in our lifetime, thoughts of a great world, influenced by art, literature and film culture, there will always be social and political issues we will have to face. Yes there is a possibility that we will be able to reduce the amount of pressure put on society by standing against whatever social or political issues we will face in future times, but that is only if we work as a collective for the greater good.

Gender has been at the forefront of many heated debates and discussions with gender roles playing huge significance in what is perceived as right and wrong. Gender has been prominent from the moment life on Earth began. Adam and Eve, the so-called beginning of human life as we know it (a debate for another time) has been depicted in many works of artists from different centuries and countries around the world, yet we always seem to see a similar pattern — male dominance. Eve is believed to have been created from one of Adam’s ribs, (which I find hard to believe) thus establishing male dominance from a very, very early age. This notion has been carried on through centuries, and only now are we starting to see small slight changes. However, there is still a long way to go, and we as a human race can change that.

The Anthropocene is a term that I had never heard of before. Anthropos means human in Greek and Cene means recent geological period. I had never actually realised that there was a word for this. You’d think that throughout all of the talks Greta Thunberg has held, all of the WWF commercials and all of the talk about global warming and climate change, that I would have heard of the Anthropocene, but no you’re sadly wrong. This is a worrying concern. If I, a moderately interested activist, has never heard of the Anthropocene before now, what hope have we got of making a real change in the world. I’d say there is more that I can do to help make a difference for our world, but for those who have no regard for it, maybe getting the term Anthropocene and it’s meaning out there might be a step in the right direction. Acting now is of great importance to us changing the course of climate change.

Wednesday’s lecture led to the mini-task brief of creating a cover for 1 of 4 different magazines. The options we had were spread across the board, and the first two really stood out to me. These were to create a cover for Empire Magazine based on Quentin Tarantino’s career, and to create a cover for TimeOut TimeIn Magazine which celebrated Hallow’s Eve. Both of these options really stood out to me and I was excited to design one of them, (eventually I gave in and designed both because I wanted to). With the Empire Magazine cover, I wanted to try and create a minimalist approach so it got people thinking about the design. To do this, I decided that picking a character from a Tarantino movie would be a great way to do this. So, with that in mind I decided to go with Uma Thurman’s iconic character of ‘The Bride’ and her iconic yellow jumpsuit. I wanted to strip her character down to the bare minimum so that it was a minimalist as possible yet still recognisable. I did this by adding the black detailing of the suit using Adobe Illustrator. I used the colour scheme of Red & Yellow because that seems to be a big hit with a few of Tarantino’s movies. The typography I used was a combination pairing of a more mature typeface accompanied by a more slashed feel typeface, something which I thought was typically Tarantino-esque. As you can see, I also added a samurai sword at the top of the page to separate the words ‘limited’ and ‘edition’ and just to add that extra reference.

I don’t even know where to begin explaining the experience I had. Having come from an Art & Design background throughout my time at High School and Sixth Form, I was always interested in going to see what this experience had to offer. Initially, as any millennial would know, I saw just how great this experience looked via a friend’s Snapchat story. I think that confirmed that I 100% had to buy tickets to go myself. So I ended up going with my girlfriend, a graphic design student like myself, and her mother. Her mother also had an interest in Van Gogh as she was a painter herself.

Personally speaking, I don’t really read magazines. I have no recollection of many magazine distributors, however, I am sure that for my next module at University and that its based around editorial design, I will learn a great deal more. Having done some research of my own, one editorial magazine that caught my eye (excuse the pun) were these Eye magazine covers. Each and every cover is associated with a different issue, all of which are incredibly but beautifully different. They are so simple in design, there is no issue number, no title yet from the visual language, the typography and the colour considerations, you can tell that they are all different issues, all based on a different topic. Everything from colour scheme to typography to imagery, all are completely different, yet they scream Eye Magazine to me, even though I had no idea that this magazine existed until now (slightly embarrassing as it is a graphic design magazine oops). The visual language in itself is exquisite. The logo creates a constant graphic language, something which Eye magazine have clearly and quite cleverly rendered their own. I believe that they work so well because they are so visually pleasing. They don’t follow a specific grid layout and that’s whats so interesting about them. The covers to me feel like you are entering the mind of someone else, or in this case the cover designers mind. They way that the type and imagery are displayed is like the designer has jut thrown his ideas out there, like a type of expressionism. You can tell just by looking at these that the designer/s had fun making them. This reflects in the narrative of the magazine, and what is greatly important for like-minded creatives who buy this magazine. I can’t even begin to choose my favourite design. That’s how you know that the designs on these are simply breath-taking, and I think you can agree with me on that.

…and will print be just a memory? — That is the question. There is no denying that as the years pass, digital media becomes more and more dominant in our lives, and we as humans have become dependant on this sudden change. With the rapid advancement in technology worldwide and from a creatives viewpoint within the industry, will there be any room left for print? Personally speaking, there is no better feeling than smelling fresh printed paper, especially those of magazines. As soon as you turn a page you practically shove your nose right in. The feeling of holding that freshly printed publication in your hand is just irreplaceable and something that digital media cannot re-create no matter how hard they try. Yeah that’s right Amazon, I’m talking to you with your artificial paper fold. The satisfaction of having a physical copy in your hands just shows that you have ownership of that publication. The physical nature of us as humans is to endure some type of ownership. Reading text off of a screen doesn’t quite do it for me. There are multiple reasons why print is important, and will continue to be in the future. There will always be a market for print out there, it’s just about tailoring it to the right people, and I think us creatives can agree that we are included in that category.