Consumer Psychology - book notes

Consumer Psychology - book notes and possible useful references

Harvard ref: Cathrine Jansson-Boyd, 2010. Consumer Psychology. 1 Edition. Open University Press.

p.3 how consumption affect people's lives
>Products can hold social status due to what people have learnt from them.
possessions contribute to who you are - william james
>also how people choose to 'groom' themselves

(Background info)
p.4 - 'according to historians, the culture of consumption in Europe started before the industrial revolution (fairchild 1998)'
ref: Fairchilds, C. (1998). Consumption un early modern Europe: A review article. Comparative studies in Society and History, 35, 850-858

p.5 - consumer-related industries grew after the industrial rev - with the increase in population competition rose between the manufacturers and so did the pressure to promote the products.
- first advertising agency opened in 1840s by Volney Palmer (Fox, 1984) only offered limited services,  mostly for slots for ads in newspapers.
- bigger shops started to arise - first being Le Bon Marché in Paris 1852 - one of the first places that got rid of haggling. Then others shortly followed, like Macy's in New York 1878.

(advertising)
p.7 - (schultz & schultz, 2004) playing with people's emotions, in particular sympathy made consumers the most likely to be open to suggestions produced by adverts.

Consumer Culture

I think before I start looking into anything else, I need to fully research into consumer culture so I can get a better understanding of what it is and so will help me in the future when I come to refining my searches.

Books we have in the library i need to look at:

Consumer culture. / Lury, Celia (1996)

Consumer psychology. / Jansson-Boyd, Cathrine (2010)

Ads, fads and consumer culture. / Berger, Arthur Asa (2007)

Always on: advertising, marketing and media in an era of consumer control. / Vollmer, Chris  Precourt, Geoffrey (2008)

Rethinking

So far I haven't found something really juice that I can sink my teeth into, I feel a bit like I'm lightly touching a few things and just kind of all over the place. I wanted to stop and have a rethink. I went back to the thing that I was most drawn to, the article about editorial illustration being dead. BUT I can't view the whole article without having a username and password for this american university... After searching the internet this is all I seemed to find linked to the article -

(a comment from someone that I found on another article about magazine covers)

Although I can't even view the whole article, I still think it might be interesting to investigate around the idea of how the consumer has shaped illustration, it seems, for the worst. 

"viewers have so little time or skills anymore to decode complex covers. Sad but true"

I'm also trying to make sure that I'm always thinking about the practical side of the module too, and I think if I had a subject like this it gives me a chance to be satirical which I love doing. 

'Market Illustration' book analysis

Harvard Ref:

Heller, S. and Arisman, M. (2009) Marketing illustration: New venues, new styles, new methods. New York, NY: Allworth Press,U.S.

I found this book in the library after my dad found it somehow on the internet. It actually had a lot more in it that I thought was relevant than I was expecting which is good. I came across a fair few interesting points that I want to talk about so I'm really sorry if you're the person that has to read through my blog.

INTRODUCTION:

The intro includes a letter from an illustrator who is worried for his future and the book is meant to reassure his worries.

he says: "The illustrators of today should no longer have to be subject to trends that cause their jobs to become rather short-lived. Instead, I would like to see illustrators become more known not only for their process, but their content value. When I say content value I am referring to what we choose to draw, not how we draw."

This is something that every illustrator (I like to think) also believes in and is something that does need to be addressed. Although this book was published in 2008 and still seems to be something that is talked about now. I'd actually say that it's actually happening more then ever before, illustrators seem to become slaves to the industry, churning tacky brightly coloured shit which apparently seems to bring much pleasure to the market. This is also to do with how we draw, so the market wants us to have this style (WHICH DOESN'T MEAN VOICE). I like to think of it like the soul of a human (the voice) and the outside exterior of a human (the style). You could dress yourself in some kind of cool fashion style, but doesn't necessarily reflect your thoughts or your voice or who you are. Anyway, the market wants us to have a style of how we draw but doesn't speak volumes or what you would like to say. Mark Rothko says "there is no such thing as a good painting about nothing." I too like this illustrator is also worried about this when it comes to it. I'd hate to have to produce something that I couldn't care about but the markets loved. It makes me feel like an empty machine.

anyway 

The rest of the book is full of quotes from fellow artists/illustrators that say that the market wasn't really a problem for them. John Hendrix says that the market will come to you! You don't go to the market. Agreed by Yuko Shimizu who said that the internet and having websites means that you don't have to worry about markets because someone out there will like your work anyway. It's so easy to access other people's work now that it just isn't a problem. 

Nora Krug says that the field of editorial illustration has been shrinking rapidly, which isn't really great to hear because I'm quite interested in this subject area. They go onto saying that new areas have emerged instead in the commercial fields - is this industry taking over????? I suppose it's good that there's now more sectors for illustrators to work in, but it makes it more likely for an illustrator to have to produce work that they don't really want to do. 

actually

The more I think about this book and re reading over it, I think it's extremely one sided. Im sure that there is a lot of illustrators that create what they love and haven't had to work for the markets. I think that they've only asked the ones who work for themselves anyway, not giving very accurate representations. It's also an american book, I'm not sure if marketing in america is the same to here... 

I thought art was a verb, not a noun.

I went to the Tate modern as most poor art students do over the summer. It really isn't my kind of thing really, I find most of it extremely pointless and just there to be edgy. But I saw this quote by Yoko Ono of all people that I liked quite a lot. 

I know it doesn't really link in with what I'm doing, but to me it's like people have this idea of what art/illustration is which isn't necessarily true. I don't think you can really narrow it down to being a static concept. Is this because the market would rather show something flat and on paper?

But really I'm not too sure where I'm going with this, I just think I like this quote.

Useful Links?

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1177/0092070300281005
Being market-driven versus driving markets - what I understand from this in my context - you can create work to that of what the industry wants from you, or creating work that influences the industry.

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA112352672&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=fulltext&issn=0010194X&p=AONE&sw=w&authCount=1&isAnonymousEntry=true
Title:Little murders: thirty years ago, editorial illustration in our mainstream media was provocative and smart, driving the words as often as following them. Today much of it is literal and safe, more decorative than idea-driven. How did this happen in an age where image is everything?

I really like this article. Especially as my recent work is quite risque and pokes fun at serious topical subjects so would argue against this the title statement. Although it's an interesting statement and can still be related to what I'm looking at, what illustrators are driven by, why do they create the type of work that they do.

The Business of illustration
S Heller, T Fernandes - 1995 - Watson-Guptill

>I can't find a link for this or really know what kind of source it is but I think it'll be useful

http://www.manifestoproject.it/fuck-committees/
http://tomburtonwood.com/2009/05/tibor-kalman-fuck-committees/
the article from last year - v relevant

Thoughts

When first looking at the questions given, I didn't think any of them really was suited to what I'm interested in. Although I suppose don't even really know what I wanted to write about anyway...
But I went with the social responsibility question, as my previous essays evolved around social issues and I know I can easily slot in subjects that I have previous knowledge of.

After writing the proposal and getting the feedback I do feel more comfortable. I didn't think that this question was relative to my work, but looking back at what I submitted, the images I had put into the presentation are not too dissimilar to what I'm looking at doing within illustration. The style may be different, but I like illustrating subjects which I feel like the public needs to be aware of. For example:

Theresa May riding nuclear bomb 

I personally feel like this is something that needs to be open to the public, and a lot of people weren't even aware that a vote on nuclear weapons was even happening. Although it is clear that my illustrations are pretty left wing and show my views, but I still think it's incredibly important to show as many people as possible what is going on in the world and how it's effecting all of us. I feel like it's my job as an illustrator to show people my age what's going in the world. But what about other illustrators?

So...

WHAT ARE ILLUSTRATORS DRIVEN BY?? SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY? CONSUMER APPETITE??