Field Journal 5: Women in Advertising

Jules Cheret, a French graphi artist, changed the way women are view and the role they play in advertisements. I feel as though someone was on the right track about Cheret when they dubbed him “the father of women’s liberation. Before, women were seen as either the traditional homemaker who took care of the children and kept the house running. Cheret featured women in a very positive light. He featured “self-assured, happy women who enjoyed life to the fullest,” which was a very approachable and relatable image that most women could identify with. Without even realizing it, this gave women a way of expressing themselves without saying anything. They were able to express themselves through the cloths they chose to wear, the way they positioned their bodies in the photos and the expression presented on their faces. This allowed women to be appreciated for not only the stereotypical roles they fell into, but for the natural beauty they possessed.

Cheret's

From 1952

Being the Jules Cheret is from France, I decided to take one of his posters, a Moulin Rouge poster that he did and see how his original has evolved to a poster created in 1952 and a recent one from 2001. Cheret’s initial intention to use women who are happy and enjoying life is still seen throughout all three posters.The one from 1952 seems resemble Cheret’s ideas about the women he puts on his posters, happy, confident in low cut dresses dancing.  The 2001 version seems to be a more modern way that shows how women are happy when they have a man to call their own.

 

From 2001

It is sad to say, that what Jules Cheret started in the Nineteenth century has now turned into a competitive industry that does not always portray women who are self- assured and happy. Most of the models we see now a days on the front of magazines are airbrushed to “perfection”, portraying an unrealistic image for others striving to be their best. But what is exciting is that recently different people are trying to bring things back to the way Cheret saw things. The Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty is a nationwide ad that is trying to reinstall the idea to be comfortable in your own skin.  

Another example popped up in the news this week. Texas teenagers are starting their own campaign called “Redefining Beauty.” The girls have decided to go make up free each Tuesday because they are sick and tired of the way the media portrays women and instead want to celebrate natural beauty. People are starting to become fed up with the recent way women are  being shown in the media and hopefully we can go back to the way Cheret did it, portraying self-assured happy women. 

Photo Credit:

http://www.accents-n-art.com/canvas-prints/jules-cheret/baldumoulinrouge-M00612.html

http://www.posters.ws/20157/moulin_rouge_1952

http://annebowman.wordpress.com/2008/10/29/diy-save-the-dates-b-movie-posters/

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/brandnewday/archives/2008/05/surprise_doves.html

http://www.tekbuz.com/texas-high-schoolers-go-makeup-free-for-redefining-beautiful-club-412th-edition/18141/

Field Journal 4: Kodak “You press the button…we do the rest”

I had no idea that Kodak was the first company to create a camera that was accessible to anyone, so I decided to find out a little more about the progression of the Kodak camera. As the book mentions, the first Kodak camera was introduced to the public in 1888 by a man named George Eastman. Kodak’s slogan became “You can press the button… we do the rest,” simply captivating people to see how quick and easy using a camera could be.

A year later, in 1889,  Eastman introduced transparent roll film that soon lead to the development of Thomas Edison’s motion picture camera in 1891.  

Pocket Kodak

In 1895, seven years after the Kodak camera was introduced, a smaller version of it, known as the Pocket Kodak camera was introduced and quickly became popular. It was the first camera that had a viewing window in the back where you could see what you were taking.

Brownie

In 1900, the Brownie (shown to the right) was next to be put on the market.  It introduced  the snapshot and became extremely popular all the way until about the 1960s.

Retina

Around 1940 the Retina was produced in Germany and introduced to the market. This new model  was neat and compact yet had sort of a chunkier look to it that was the look back then. A new feature presented on this model was the lever-wind for rolling the film up when done as well as a shutter release for more control. In high school I took a black and white  photography class and had to use cameras similar to this model, and although the features on it seemed unusual at first, once you got the hang of it is was simple to use and produced quality black and white photographs. 

Kodak continued to improve from there. They then created cameras that could take colored photographs with better rolls of film, to the single-use or disposable cameras to the most recent digital cameras that can do everything from take video to because to post  picture and videos straight from your camera to the internet within seconds. It is amazing to see how far we have come since 1888 until now and can’t wait to see where the latest technology will take us in the future. 

Credits:

http://thedigitalstory.com/2010/01/a_look_back_at_georg.html

http://blog.seniorennet.be/retrocameras/archief.php?ID=316

http://antiques.lovetoknow.com/Antique_Kodak_Cameras

http://kodak.3106.net/index.php?p=216

http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=2/6868&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=25241

Field Journal 3: The Sparks of Reformation

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Who would have thought that the Bible, the first book created, would allow someone to find their voice in society? After writing his own book, Martin Luther a German professor of theology and priest, nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the doors of Castle Church in Wittenberg. This sparked the Protestant Reformation and the first time that someone have ever written out their beliefs; beliefs that were different than what was written in the Bible and practiced by the Catholics. This reformation “shattered Christianity into hundreds of sects” states our textbook, Meggs' History of Graphic Design. To me, when thoughts and beliefs are written out for all to see, it is stronger than someone just saying what they believe. When it is in print, it can last forever.

Not only did the ability to print books and manuscripts enable people to become educated as well as to document important information, it was the start of freedom of speech. Martin Luther negatively wrote about the Catholic Church and did not feel guilty about it or the need to apologize to the Pope and others. Although radios where not invented at that time, Luther’s views and beliefs were heard all around Europe simply because he was able to write out his thoughts in a book  which can easily  be passed around from one person to the next.  This just shows how being able to write and publish whatever you want gave people more of a sense of freedom that they may not have been able to have before. This new way of communicating your ideas allows more people to have a voice in their respective communities.  It doesn’t matter where you come from, the ability to write your thoughts out and mass produce it means that your thoughts can be shared not only with your community but with the surrounding communities as well. I am sure that most people in Europe had no idea who Martin Luther was before he wrote his Ninety-Five Theses, yet the freedom and ability to express himself through his writing got him well known throughout Europe quickly! I feel as though Martin Luther not only sparked a reformation in the world of religion, he also sparked a reformation in the way people learn to freely express themselves. 

Credit: 

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther#The_start_of_the_Reformation

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martin-Luther-1532.jpg (photo)

Field Journal 2: Alphabet

I guess you could say I had a full circle moment when I was reading chapter one. While reading about how the Egyptians use the rebus principle to communicate what they wanted to say, reminded me of an art class I took. One of our assignments was to take a song and turn it into a rebus, replacing any words that we could with a symbol for them instead. It is exciting to learn more about where the rebus concept from my art class came from and learning about it more from a visual communication aspect.

I find it extremely interesting how most visual communication is a way for the symbols to represent the sounds of the spoken language, yet China’s alphabet does not correlate in the same way. I feel as though it would be difficult to learn a language where the symbols and sounds were different from each other, it would be as if you are learning two completely different languages. To think that after all of these years, a country’s prime way of communicating is through symbols and not letters.

When thinking about how the American language has taken most of its words from the majority of Latin words, it was fun to read about the progression of the Latin alphabet. To think that there were only 21 letters in the initial alphabet and that they eventually added letters like J and U completing the alphabet to have 26 letters as it does today. What would we have done without those letters? Would we still have all the words we have today? Or would we still have the same words we have now but have them be spelled differently? It is fascinating to think about how our written language would be if we didn’t have all the letters of the alphabet. Maybe without all the letters we would have to still use symbols to communicate? These chapters got me thinking that symbols may be more effective in communicating something than trying to communicate through words. Like with logos, take the Pepsi logo for instance, when you see it you instantly know that that is the logo for Pepsi which is a soft drink that is very popular among Americans. Who knows, maybe symbols could start to become more prominently used sometime in the future.

This shows the original Latin alphabet compared to Hebrew letters.

http://ohlundonline.blogspot.com/2008/10/oldest-hebrew-text-discovered-at-king.html