OUGD401 SEMINAR - RESEARCH AND CRITIQUES

Today we had a seminar just explaining what this mornings session is going to be about. Then we got split off into two groups, my group was set a task to go to the library and select at least 3 books to do with our chosen theme, my chosen theme being gender representation, that will help us in our research of our theme. I scoured the library for books to do with gender representation, as I was at this point unsure as to what exact direction to pursue this theme in. 

I found several books of interest:

• "The stuff you can't bottle. Advertising for the global youth market" by King Adz
• "Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture" by Maria Elena Buszek
• "Sex Appeal: The art of allure in graphic and advertising design" by Steven Heller
• "Gender Advertisements" by Erving Goffman

I will use these books to form the basis of my initial research.

In the second half of the session, we had a group critique with one of our tutors, and discussed our chosen theme, the direction we thought we could possibly go in, and what kind of physical outcome we could produce. I got feedback from my peers and tutor on the possible direction my project could go in. 

It was suggested I could research into pin ups in the 1950's, what the pin-up style was then, and what the "modern-day pin-up girl" is like now, how she has transformed into this potentially new image. It was also suggested that I could research into gender representation in the 50's and what it is like nowadays, but focusing specifically on pin-up style girls of a modelesque quality in advertising, also focusing on one kind of advertising, such as for make up or kitchen appliances. Or contrastingly, I could research a broad kind of advertising, as analyse the differences between the different products being advertised and the kind of advertisement that's being produced.  I could also compare the sex appeal between the 50's pin-up and now, how her image has changed, for example is she more sexy back in the 50's, but now has more power, as the role of women changes? Following on from this I could look at the power of women in advertising, for example, are women powerful characters nowadays in advertising, but in the 50's did they play more the the housewife role? How rare is female power in advertising? Is it becoming something that is more common?

I could also look at the Coca Cola Girls book by Chris H Beyer, as this shows how the role of women models advertising Coca Cola has changed over the years, and the progression of the woman in line with the progression of the brand.