{ Theme }

The theme of this week is the improvement of visual communication, which I have realised through creating the last prototype. I carefully reconsidered the size, materials, and usage of colours to make the publication more understandable without explanation.

Latest line of enquiry:

How people beg for identity, stimulation, belonging, and status through overconsumption is an act whose actuality is uncertain.

Studio Work:

How I improved:

(Layout, Colour, Structure)

• Added the explanation of the structure of this book.
• Moved the receipt on the first page.
• Changed text colour to all black.

(Material)

• The cover page reflects the reader through a mirror effect and asks where your identity is.
• The gradient shows you can be anyone you would like to.

Feedback:

I have iterated to capture the structure of the mass-production capitalist society while exploring my questioning using publications as a medium this semester.

One of the project’s most successful points is that I could reveal the fact that humans and products are consuming each other through the fictional narrative, but it happens everywhere in our daily lives.

However, this project is still in the middle point because I observe that I am also interested in the manipulation to keep consuming by society, and I have not considered this effect so much. Therefore, I am planning to research how people get the desire and fear to get better lives through continuous consumption.

●Presentation link

{ THEME }

I have explored how I can capture the structure of consumption connected to the line of enquiry with iterations of creating publications in two weeks.

Reflection²:

Reflecting on the previous experiment through the structure, I captured the relationship between people as a consumer and a company through an item.

I have got two prior realisations through the experiment. Firstly, I noticed that consuming is not just purchasing. The previous publication contains only the purchasing process, so it is necessary to expand the duration. Secondly, it does not articulate my line of enquiry – so I need to reconsider why I opted for the topic of consumption. The purpose of this project is to reduce over-necessity and meaningless consumption.

Research:

To iterate creating publications as an experiment, I have started to research the current consumption behaviours. The reference, “The world is on fire but we’re still buying shoes”, says there are five main purposes to keep consuming clothes: Escapism, Status, Belonging, Novelty and Stimulation.

Experiment³:

In consideration of the above, I planned the next publication as follows.

1. The opposite relationship between the company and people from the previous publication.
2. Expanding the time duration from just buying to finishing to use.
3. The unique consumption that has a meaningful story.

In addition, I set the original definition of the word consuming, which is “Adding colours to the narratives of your life”.

The additional iteration of making a publication shows meaningful and irreplaceable consumption from my experience. However, I observed that the outcome had lost its criticality because it had become just a self-dialogue.

Reflection³:

Therefore, I went back to the initial question: While residing in Japan, I frequently observed a tendency for individuals to make purchases without a conscious and deliberate thought process. Many people wear similar clothes, live parallel lives, and eat indistinguishable food. I was constantly questioned about how people show their identity through these similar consumption habits.

Latest line of enquiry:

I would like to emphasise through my design that people tend to over-purchase items to find their identity, which is not an essential act.

To connect this line of enquiry with the following outcome, I decided to represent the relationship between people and products consuming each other through the fictional narrative.

Experiment⁴:

This is a juxtaposition of the person who consumed the eyeglasses and the eyeglasses that consumed the person. The story is set in 2060 Tokyo.
Some products embed AI and can make the strategy for their marketing by themselves.

Reflection⁴:

Regarding the contents, it is certainly connected to the latest line of enquiry because this book has the possibility of making people start looking for their identity inside of themselves and naturally reduce their consumption. Yet, it still has some technical issues that need to be clarified for readers. I will improve these points as follows;

(Layout, Colour, Structure)

• The spiral is more noticeable than the title.
• Text is too small and difficult to read
• There is no reason to choose green as the main colour.
• Text colour should be darker.

(Contents)

• The story should be more specific.
• The story should not be the future
  – because the shape of this issue will be different in 2060.
• Consider how I can make it more easy to understand without explanation.

(Material)

• Consider what material can express the purpose of this book which is to make people think about our identity and overconsumption.

●Presentation Link