Basis for essay

What is the role of print media in the digital age?

Introduction

With the introduction of modern day smart phones and tablets, the role of print media has been in question. For me, print media plays such an important role in everyday life, as it sees that you can’t walk down a high street without seeing posters and billboards for the latest toy. This in itself, in my opinion, has greater effects on the everyday consumer as it’s something they see on a daily basis and they get to interact with it more than most digital media. There’s just a certain aspect of print that has more feeling within it weather it a surface gleam from a billboard to the feel of the type of paper in your hand from a brochure, each one leaves a lasting impact on the consumer.

Over the last 10 years print media has lost ground in this digital media boom, facing competition from the latest technology, internet, social media and many other forms of digital media. The recent announcements of daily newspapers cutting back to less than daily frequency with its prints while boosting digital efforts, is yet another of many examples. While print media has undoubtedly declined, the need for print media in terms of advertising and marketing is still needed. Print media has much more of a feeling and interacts with the consumers more with the likes of the textures and smells of magazines having an effect on why they are bought. This is evidenced in The Guardian’s newspaper article ‘Digital magazines: how popular are they?’ (19 august 2013) in which Ami Sedghi gathered the sales of major magazines brands which showed that digital editions of the printed journals had significantly lower sales figures than that of the printed editions.

One way print media is keeping relevant is by having a link to its digital media counterpart. For instance the use of QR codes on the likes of posters can drive traffic to websites in a quick and effective way. Statistics have shown that campaigns that combine printed resources with internet advertising yield up to a 25% higher response rate than using internet alone, according to the Direct Marketing Association. Typefaces within Print mediums have much more credibility with the consumer while the internet seem to be lacking this, it just seems that with print has a sense of being more trustworthy than that of digital content. In fact many studies have shown that print is still considered more credible with the vast majority of the public than online material. This is down to the fact print is more permanent, it has to be made to last, while the web is fluid, it changes constantly, information can be rewritten very easily or even deleted by anyone.

Forms of print media

Newspapers:

There is a wide range of different types of newspapers that are around, including local, regional or national titles published in daily, evening, weekly or Sunday editions. Each newspaper target different audiences with a mix of content, often including sports, entertainment, business, fashion and politics. Each paper Advertisers can buy different sizes of advertising space within newspapers, from to ads featuring text, photographs, illustrations and graphics in sizes up to a full page or even a double-page spread to grab the reader’s attention. This is one of the cheaper options for companies to advertise themselves to the public, as it can just require a onetime payment while they while have to pay a continuous fee to use certain online advertisement sites.

Magazines:

Magazines come in a have many different styles which can be elegant and modern like vogue to the cheap and busy like OK! These offer advertisers extensive choices of readership and frequency. Consumer magazines cover a wide range of interests, including sport, hobbies, fashion, health, current affairs and local topics. Many business and trade magazines provide coverage of specific industries, such as finance or electronics. Others cover cross-industry topics, such as communications or human resources, while still others focus on job-specific areas, such as publications for executives, marketing professionals or engineers. Publishing frequency is typically weekly, monthly or quarterly. As with newspapers, advertisers can take advertising spaces from classified ads to full page ads in black and white or colour.

Billboards:

Advertising on billboards and posters gives advertisers the opportunity to reach consumers on the move. Putting posters in retail malls, for example, helps advertisers reach consumers close to the point of purchase. Posters or billboards in train stations, airports or busy town centres have the potential to reach large groups of consumers. Advertisers can change the messages on billboards and posters at a frequency of their choice.

Post (flyers, mail ect):

Advertisers use direct mail to reach smaller target audiences or selected prospects. Direct mail often take the form of a letter, brochure or flyer sent via the postal service. Advertisers can compile their own list of prospects and customers for the mailing, or rent a mailing list from a specialist firm.

Made you look documentry write up

Recently, I attended a screening of a graphic design documentary at one of the country's oldest cinemas in Leeds, Hyde Park Picture House. The documentary was entitled 'Made You Look' and it focused on the UK's ‘Do It Yourself’ graphics art scene and interviewed some well-known artists and creative businesses including:. Throughout the film, everyone interviewed expressed their views and thoughts on how the impact of the digital age has affected both Illustration and Graphic Design by making creatives dependent on using computers now more than ever in the 21st century. It's made me think if I have become too reliant on using computers to create work. Looking back, I have never actually created a Screen-print or used a letter press and that's made me realise I haven't explored what graphic design has to offer and the diverse ways of creating art just by using back to basic techniques.

I think a part of this is due to how I've acquired my knowledge of graphic design throughout the course of my education prior to studying at LCA. In view of this I want to gain an understanding about the more hands on approaches of creating work and experiment with them while at Leeds College of Art. This excited me more after the Q&A with the director of the film and a few independent artists, who spoke highly of the various techniques whilst still acknowledging the power of working on a computer.  Anthony Peters said something that stuck with me after the event.  He said "Work that's been made with a computer will always look nice but work created with screen prints and techniques like it have more character to them, there may be some little mistakes or smudges on it and it might even have finger prints of the artist who made it all over the back, but that's what makes the work special.  Its a one of a kind.   You don't get that with computer printed work."

Research:

• Sedghi,A.(19 August 2013) Digital Magazines: how popular are they? TheGuardian [http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/aug/19/digital-magazines-popular-circulation-figures]

• Linton, I. () Small Business Chron [http://smallbusiness.chron.com/online-advertising-vs-print-advertisements-41549.html]

• Kippham, H. () Handbook of print media Technologies and production method [https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VrdqBRgSKasC&oi=fnd&pg=PA4&dq=role+of+print+media+in+the+digital+age&ots=c7vXGT3MQq&sig=2N2Ul_zOscAhzOtdB4r38YLDH6w#v=onepage&q&f=false]

• Jurgenson, N. (9 July 2012) We Need a Word for That Thing Where a Digital Thing Appears in the Physical World The Atlantic [http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/07/we-need-a-word-for-that-thing-where-a-digital-thing-appears-in-the-physical-world/259570/]
• Lukovitz, K. (5 November) Perception Vs. Reality: Print's Power in a Digital Age MPA The Association of Magazine Media [http://www.magazine.org/node/25206]

• Made you look documentry

Research

The Guardian

Refrence links

• Sedghi, A. (2013). Digital magazines: how popular are they?. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/aug/19/digital-magazines-popular-circulation-figures. Last accessed 15th December 2015

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• Williams, Z. (2015). Adult colouring-in books: the latest weapon against stress and anxiety. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/26/adult-colouring-in-books-anxiety-stress-mindfulness. Last accessed 14th March 2016.

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Thoughts

• I found the 'Digital magazines:how popular are they?' article from the guardian to be very informative to my aims to my essay question as it looks at the magazine industry as a whole to see the effects the digital world has had on their sales. It was really interesting to see how different types of journals have been effected by this such as Vogue having a decrese in both of their print and digital sales where as total film has had its sales increase in both areas. Its clear that the type of magazine effects how it will sell. Magazines such as woman lifstyle magazines have a stonger print presence than that of the other genres.

• The 'Adult colouring-in books' article was quite beneficial to my essay as on the surface it speaks about how this new book craze has sort of swept the nation. While it also speaks about the effects that fabs have on any market and the print medium isn't exempt from it. We've all seen it where a new book would come out and grip the nation as it seems everyone has a copy. This ultimately comes down to the majority (not all) of people being influenced by celebrity's suggesting the book to their followers who then suggest it to their friends and so on. We saw this with the likes of 50 Shades of Grey, Hunger Games, Harry Potter  and now these 'Adult Colouring in Books'.

Research

Print Power

Refrence

Print Power. (2015). Why print media. Available: http://www.printpower.eu/Why-Print-Media. Last accessed 12th december 2015.

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Thoughts

• An article that talks about the pros of print and why their successful from it being a sensory media experience to ho including other sets of media can increase the effectiveness of a marketing campaign. The article makes some overall good points in favour of print, in particular, its first point which looks into how print effects our senses. It looks at how the feeling of paper, the smell of the ink, the sound of turning the page can trigger a number of sensors that are constantly effecting you as you hold or read the publication. This is also looked into with another source i looked at which was the article 'Online Advertising vs. Print Advertisements' from the small business journal which spoke about similar topics from the 'why print media' article

1     Hamel, G. (2014). Online Advertising vs. Print Advertisements. Available: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/online-advertising-vs-print-advertisements-41549.html. Last accessed 1st December 2015. Kippham, H (2001). Handbook of print media Technologies and production method. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag . P04-08. 

Study Task 5

What is the role of print media in the digital age?

Print club London host many events to get people involved with screen printing any one recent one was the film 4 screen print exhibition showing the prints that  where created for Film 4's film festival. These movie posters, having made with print media, seem to have added to the film festival by attracting people to films they've never seen due to these beautiful posters. Unlike digitally printed posters, these seem to have more character, more depth, they capture the eye and the more you look at these piece the more little details you see.

http://printclublondon.com/2015/film4-summer-screen-prints-exhibition-highlights/

Mapping out the essay

• Introduction
• Look into examples of he use of print media in the last 2 years
• Talk about the introduction of the iPad and its effect on the magazine industry. Plus similar examples
• Reasoning for both sides of the argument ( why print media is dying and why it's still going strong )
• Analysing the graphic design aspects of the previous few points
• Conclusion

Bibliography:

• Heller, S. and Vienne, V. 2012. 100 ideas that changed graphic design. London: Laurence King
• Made you look. 2015. [documentry] Anthony Peters. Dir. UK. David Waterson
• Postman, N. 2006. Amusing ourselves to death public discourse in the age of show business. UK. Penguin books

study task 4

Paraphrasing Exercise

In 'The Designer as Author', Michael Rock looks into texts relating to what it really means to call a graphic designer an author. He states that the meaning of 'author' has shifted throughout the last 40 years and that earlier definitions aren't associated with just writing but rather 'the person who originates / gives existence to anything'. He goes on by saying that while looking into Roland Barthes 'The death of the Author' he states that it is closely linked to the birth of critical theory, especially based in reader response rather than intentionality. Michael concludes that Barthes Post-structuralist text seems to criticize the status attributed to the author by ending his essay by supposing that the birth of the reader must be at the cost at the death of the author.

(Roland Barthes, ‘The Death of the Author’, in Image-Music-Text, New York, Hill and Wang (translated by Stephen Heath), 1977)

study task 3

Extract:

Rock, M. (1996) 'The Designer as Author', Eye, no. 20 vol. 5 1996. Link

The authors tone of voice:

In the article that Michael Rock has written, it seems that he is attacking the subject of the designer as an author. Throughout the text, he continuously directs questions towards us, the readers, to make us think about the points he has stated about the subject. Questions such as, 'What does it mean to call for a graphic designer to be an author?' and ' What is an author?' are two examples of this. This can also be seen with him using such phrases as 'death to the author', 'the birth of a reader must be at the cost of the death of the author' to further his investigation into the subject matter.

Quotes

• (4) What difference does it make who is speaking
• The notion that a text is a line of words that releases a single meaning, the central message or the author / god is overthrown.
• Communication between sender and receiver, severed from the authority of its origin, and exists as a free-floating element in a field of possible significations.

http://marker.to/832Kiq

Critical Comparison Essay

Critical comparison between Uncle Sam Range and East Africa Transport Old Style and East African Transport New Style

The Uncle Sam Range (1876) Advertising Image by Schumacher & Ettlinger, New York

Empire Marketing Board (1920) – ‘East Africa Transport Old Style’ and ‘East African Transport New Style’ by Adrian Allison

The Uncle Sam Range advert tries to persuade its audience into believing it is the best cooker in the world.  It is extremely patriotic with the stars and stripes colour scheme literally everywhere in the room. The iconic Uncle Sam epitomizes America and is strategically placed in the centre of the room displaying dominance, trying to manipulate the world to become the ‘perfect American’ by purchasing their product.  Slavery is depicted as an acceptable part of the culture at that time through the black servant cooking food for the white guests and the symbolic ‘American Bald Eagle’!

Other hidden details in the advert which ties in social values at that time are the clock hand pointing to the date 1776, the year independence was declared and guns on the wall.  This all American advert uses its propaganda war symbol, Uncle Sam, as the main selling point of the advert, depicting power and strength.  The use of old American western font portrays an historic era of the gold rush giving connotations of wealth and prosperity linked to the American Dream.  It’s quite ironic the advert tries to show other countries how powerful a country they are yet uses a cartoon format and patriotic dominance that makes it almost laughable. 

In the Colonial propaganda posters, it seems that these where aimed for the general public of the British Empire to show how much ‘good’ they were bringing to Africa as well as Westernizing their country. You could also say that they were aimed towards the rich sector of Africa in order to show them what they could invest in and spread the message of the empire. There also seems to be an image of gender stereotyping in these posters with the ‘before’ poster showing mainly women and children carrying supplies and looking tired while the after poster shows a more structured, civilised scene with men doing all the work, similar to the prejudice views of British society at the time.

The second poster shows how colonisation had changed Africa for the better, with modern technology such as trucks, boats and a bridge.  In both examples an art deco style is used with a bold and eye catching font.  The colour white is used throughout as the superior colour: white borders, white snow, white road, white shorts on all black workers, more in the second ad.  Both convey the message that the Empire will improve life and culture in the colonies, as well as showing the white man is in control by the heroic pose on the only white man on the second poster.  

After researching and studying all the posters, I think it’s clear that these illustrations have similarities showing a falsified history for the better for those who created them. The main theme throughout is dominance and is aimed at white middle to upper-class people, showing a supposedly successful white man in the centre of both ads portraying power.  The imagery is very powerful; however it really shows inequality and racism.

Made you look

Film screening and Q&A with the director

Recently, I attended a screening of a graphic design documentary at one of the country's oldest cinemas in Leeds, Hyde Park Picture House. The documentary was entitled 'Made You Look' and it focused on the UK's DIY graphics art scene and interviewed some well known artists and creative businesses. Throughout the film, everyone interviewed expressed their views and thoughts on how the impact of the digital age has affected both Illustration and Graphic Design by making creatives dependent on using computers now more than ever in the 21st century. It's made me think if I have become too reliant on using computers to create work. Looking back, I have never actually created a Screen-print or used a letter press and that's made me realise I haven't explored what graphic design has to offer and the diverse ways of creating art just by using back to basic techniques.

I think a part of this is due to how I've acquired my knowledge of graphic design throughout the course of my education prior to studying at LCA. In view of this I want to gain an understanding about the more hands on approaches of creating work and experiment with them while at Leeds College of Art. This excited me more after the Q&A with the director of the film and a few independent artists, who spoke highly of the various techniques whilst still acknowledging the power of working on a computer.  Anthony Peters said something that stuck with me after the event.  He said "Work that's been made with a computer will always look nice but work created with screen prints and techniques like it have more character to them, there may be some little mistakes or smudges on it and it might even have finger prints of the artist who made it all over the back, but that's what makes the work special.  Its a one of a kind.   You don't get that with computer printed work."