COP: AUDIENCES

An Introduction to Research Methods in Graphic Design, by Ian Noble & Russel Bestley:

Chapter 6: Audience and Message:

§  Within communication, we not only think about our role as communicators but also about the viewers who construct a meaning from what we communicate – the active audience.

§  This empowers the audience and individuals. Can be problematic, as what the client and designer want to communicate can sometimes not be recognised.

§  Problematic relationship with client, as they may have an idea of what they want to be communicated, how and to who. The designer must educate the client, and the primary concern of the designer is to communicate with the target audience.

§  Not just about collecting images for inspiration but having a method for how the designer is going to use these images - Audience-centric focus.

§  “Process school” design work and how it is coded (what means is it presented through, eg magazine) and how is it decoded by the audience: Passive approach – what the designer means will be interpreted exactly by the audience.

§  “Semiotic school” borrows its practise from linguistics. Anything that represents something in one context can be interpreted differently in another.  

§  Brand loyalty: Understanding of specific type of audience is important so that the audience has it incorporated into their everyday life and identity

An introduction to Information Design, by Kathryn Coates & Andy Ellison:

Chapter 2: Information Design for Specific audiences

§  User experience is important way of seeing how usable things are, particularly the functionality.

§  Messages within design can feed into toxic ideologies and concepts – it’s important to consider semiotics of design to ensure messages are positive and non-assumptive

VISUAL (TEXTUAL) ANALYSIS

-explores how images may be interpreted by specific people

-concerned with visual “grammar” of the image and how it can relate or influence its interpretation

-Nothing can be done with a text, or a piece of graphic design, until the context concerning it is understood or acknowledged

-Three levels of context to understand:

              1. The rest of the text

2. The genre of the text: Genres are like codes that producers and audiences use to communicate to each other

              3. The wider public context in which the text is circulated

SEMIOTICS:

§  Semiotics is great way of looking at communication: how meaning is constructed through languages (spoken, visual, written and so on)

§  It reduces communication to “sign systems”

§  Representation occurs between the encoding (communicator) and the decoding (audience) of the text

§  Sign = signifier (the word, an image etc.) This works by being contextually specific, as meanings are socially constructed and subject to change

https://gdblogs.shu.ac.uk/b2003536/wp-content/uploads/sites/346/2014/10/Saussure.jpg

Considerations:

-Age

-Sex/Gender – traits, roles, expectations, femininity, masculinity, non-binary

-Race/ethnicity – ethnic practises, culture, religion

-Class – socio-economic, money issues, social resources, class cultures

-Occupation – blue collar, white collar, students, professionals, work vs leisure

-Geography – global, regional, communities, locale, place

TASK: Textual Analysis of Editorial and Publishing Work:

LEFT ALONE ZINE

 

-          About a journey – text is on a path. Could be tracing of an island, or path of a ferry. First image could be where the ferry left from, or the first destination, and last picture the end destination. The designer does not want the viewer to understand and immediately know these things and so does not make it clear, forcing the viewer to actively think and interpret their own opinions and ideas about it.

-          Writing can be recognised as making the shape of a shoe to present a journey.

-          This helps the pages become interactive, and suitable for an audience made up of art and design fanatics and professionals who enjoy looking at designs and want to be able to question the meaning of the work

-          The page numbers are universal: because they are situated at the bottoms of the pages, the viewer will assume the numbers present where in the zine the pages are.

-          The meanings of the photos are subjective, but the content in this case is objective. Additionally, the relationship between the images and text are subjective.