Reflection on Reading Week

Having finished reading Fashion Brands: Brand Style from Armani to Zara that was set as our reading week book, I thought I'd write a sort of summary of what I gained from this book:

The book, by Mark Tungate, was a brilliant and engaging read that provides a depth of knowledge on brands, brand histories and marketing strategies. It is definitely an essential read and on that I would strongly recommend to anyone interested in working any role in the fashion industry. It's definitely and easy read, it gets straight to the point and gets information across in a straight-forward and informal, journalistic way. I think the knowledge i've gained from this book will definitely help me throughout my current module as well as the rest of the course and when I eventually work in the industry itself.

The Six Major Design Movements

Following on from the videos we were required to watch as part of the reading week activities, I decided to try and answer or expand the rhetorical and thought-provoking questions asked at the end of each video:

Gothic Revival
Are you ready to get your goth on?
The gothic revival had a major influence on all design areas, but the area with the most significant influence is architecture. During the gothic revival, hundreds of gothic style churches and cathedrals we're built, many of which are still in use today. Although this is also the main area where the gothic style remains today, we also can still see today the influence on other areas such as literature, as without the gothic revival era, the classic tale by Lewis Carroll 'Alice in Wonderland' may never have existed. 

Arts and Crafts
Have you mastered your machines?
To this day technology has a massive impact on skilled trades that are constantly replaced by machines. This began with the industrial revolution, a historical breakthrough on one hand, but also the death of skill craftsmen. However, many people do still care about how and why products are made, be it technological or not; and good finishes and reliable products are what the consumer expects, something that could be all thanks to the craftsmen.

Bauhaus
How bauhaus is your house?
Bauhaus saw the beginning of the multi-qualified person. Students could study several areas together, sharing ideas and theories, rather than choosing simply between Art or Design. I believe this is the best way to learn, to not limit yourself to a certain area, certain skills or certain ways of thinking. In some ways this reflects ideas of postmodernism, by playing with all areas of Art and Design and blurring the boundaries between them.

Modernism
Do you buy into modernism?
Whilst on the one hand everybody wants a well finished and functioning product, the less is more, in my opinion, can never win, as style will always prevail. The best of both worlds is key, but at the end of the day, 9/10 people are more likely to go for the colour, shape or pattern rather than the functionality. 

American Industrial Design
Does American Industrial design do it for you?
This era just goes to show the down falls in modernist theory. The look, the shape, the colour, the wow factor, those are the things that often make simple products successful; purely because advertisers can have a field day with their descriptions and superlatives. Whilst the overall concept, when put in it's straight forward sense, may leave the consumer feeling somewhat cheated and deceived, this is the point where advertising and sales really came into play. This was the start of sales, advertising and marketing as we know it today, as appealing to the consumers indulgent side, selling them a slice of luxury lifestyle, that is how you get good sales. And it wasn't all bad, as the futuristic and stylish designs of the American Industrial era helped lift spirits and provide optimism for those living through the great depression.

Postmodernism
Planning something postmodern?
Postmodernism is the only way to describe modern thinking; ideas of rebellion, new from old, opposing, questioning. Postmodernism provides an edge, a push for complex thinking and rhetorical, unanswerable questions; something people crave in the average day-to-day mundane life of modern society. Modern society is a place where health and safety and facts and figures come first, where there is only right or wrong; postmodernism is the questioning of that, the questioning or science and the unknown, the idea or paradoxes and the impossible. The idea of something wrong being right, some good being in evil, and vice versa. 

Reading Week Activities

Reading Week 

Book:

Fashion Brands: Brand styling from Armani to Zara

Tungate, M  (2012)  
ISBN: 0749464461

Once a luxury that only the elite could afford, fashion is now widely accessible. While brands such as Zara and Hamp;M have made fashion an affordable choice for the mass market, sports brands such as Nike and Adidas have transformed the image of their products from merely practical to fashionable. How has this transformation occurred? Fashion Brands explores the popularization of fashion and explains how marketers and branding experts have turned clothes and accessories into objects of desire. Full of first-hand interviews with key players, the book analyzes every aspect of fashion from a marketing perspective. It examines how advertising, store design and the media have altered our fashion sense. The new edition includes chapters on fashion bloggers and the rise of celebrity-endorsed products.

Video:

Design in a Nutshell: One-Minute Animated Primers on Six Major Creative Movements

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/06/11/design-in-a-nutshell-open-university/

From the fine folks at Open University — who have previously brought us delightful 60-second animated primers on philosophy’s famous thought experiments and the world’s major theories of religion — comes Design in a Nutshell, a lovely six-part series of their signature animated primers on six major design movements.

Gothic Revival gave us many of the ideas that changed architecture, includingthe magnificent vaulted ceilings of European cathedrals, and without it Lewis Carroll may never have given us Alice in Wonderland:

The Arts and Crafts movement emerged as a rebellion to the negative impact of mass-production and the Industrial Revolution, and its romantic ideals still reverberate today:

Bauhaus, one of the 100 ideas that changed graphic design, revolutionized design education by introducing a cross-disciplinary curriculum and embraced the intersection of innovation and inspiration:

Modernism emerged from a disillusionment with history after the World War and spanned every corner of creative expression, from art (e.g., Agnes Martin) to music (e.g., John Cage) to design (e.g., Charles and Ray Eames), becoming the single most influential creative movement of the 20th century:

After The Great Depression erased consumer demand, American industrial designset to out rebuild the world of tomorrow and reignite people’s appreciation for objects by making things that previously didn’t need to appear attractive now sleek and desirable, effectively bridging form and function and ushering in The Century of the Self:

Postmodernism criticized modernism for having failed at reinvigorating society and set out to transform culture politically, philosophically, and creatively, pushing society to question why things are the way they are:

3-Part BBC Documentary on Perfume