COP3 Synthesis & Design Boards

Synthesis

Throughout the dissertation, ’Discuss, Identify and Present Evidence on How the Uncanny can work Successfully and Effectively within Advertising and Design’, many theories, tools, advertising methods and techniques are considered and examined. Such as, the uncanny, the uncanny valley, typography, the evolution of type, how type can become uncanny, surrealism, distortion and emotion, to name a few.

‘Advertising centres around being remembered… the uncanny and its careful use can both aid in the success of an advertisement and create negative associations that can hinder the success of the advert… negative memories [are stored] more permanently, this will affect the viewers in the ‘long-term’ (Clark et al. 1993 p.63) which is the most successful way of advertising.’

 Since the main two focus points of this dissertation are advertising and the uncanny, it was appropriate to concentrate on creating an advertisement for the practical part of the module. This ensures a strong synthesis between both the dissertation and physical design work as they both embody all of the previously mentioned subjects and theories.

‘It is understood that utilising the uncanny is not appropriate for all types of advertisements. Only certain things would lend themselves… usually something which is predominantly lighthearted and…playful… which is more casual and social rather than forthright and serious.’

From this, it was clear and self-evident that creating an additional advertisement for Playstation, as discussed within the text, would be appropriate and relevant as it is ‘playful… more casual and social’.

  Research into previous Playstation advertisements revealed that the colours of the keys in combination with the old 4 colour logo, green, blue, red, lilac and yellow are bold and used within the design, along with the use of surrealism and distortion which was present in many of their campaign ads.

  Playstation's 1999 advertisement, mentioned in the dissertation writing, ‘named Mental Wealth by Chris Cunningham, combines the methods of emotional and physical disturbance influenced by the distortion of imagery as seen identified within surrealism.’ This has already in fact been successful with uncanny imagery but not so much with type, this is where the practical piece produced along with the imagery can fill this ‘gap in the market’, at least for Playstation.

‘Using editing software creates something which appears both familiar; the human form, and yet unfamiliar; her eye and facial structure and so she is ultimately seen to be alien which Freud labels as ‘peculiar’… Her appearance is not negative in an alarming sense, nor is the memory of the advertisement, it simply has an uncanny effect of which embeds itself into the minds of the viewers as this is perceived to be ‘peculiar'. Considering that the process and storage of negative memories is done differently and more permanently’

The technique of editing and distorting an image to make it uncanny has obviously worked previously for Playstation, amongst other advertisements and images. This is a relevant way to also edit and develop the imagery for this practical. Here, the dissertation serves as a guide on how to edit and create the appropriate visual outcome to support the writing itself.

 As to create more of a synthesis, when editing the photographs the skin was cleared of any blemishes as to appear more robot looking, linking back with the uncanny valley. By removing the details and blemishes of the skin it also removed some of the humanness, appearing uncanny. The eyes were enlarged, creating distortion and a change in proportion to the face. Colour is a large part Playstation’s advertisements too, as found through research, so it was essential that bright colour was also used. These in combination provide a very ‘loud’ and bold image.

 Emotion and expression were also discussed within the dissertation which was experimented with. Within the imagery, it was essential to capture something which provided and tone of voice and connotation to what this character is like. The juxtaposition of such an angry character with the sleek, clean clothing and accessories creates ‘cognitive dissonance’. This was important to represent as it is another large subject within the dissertation.

‘Type is another fundamental part of creating effective and successful design. Type within advertising is a subconscious communicator in many ways, in this case (FIG8) it visually reads and represents the kind of design and imagery that will be seen within the exhibition…’ 

‘… after all ’typography is what language looks like’ (Lupton. 2014 p.1)’

This proves that using an unheimlich typeface, named ‘My Uncanny Type, which was developed in 2015 (Taylor Pycroft) for a study of the uncanny, is more than fitting to use as this too reflects the tone and content of the overall practical and written submission.

‘…it is recognised that glyphs themselves have all evolved from something inherently human; speech and writing and not from type design. They visually represent what a typeface would have looked like, a more formal representation of handwriting… Even though it is much more subtle in comparison to the human face, the possibility of the uncanny and uncanny valley within type is still present none the less. There can be a justification of applying uncanny to type because of the humanness/humanity within it… Type truly became uncanny with the entry of sans serif typefaces'

In the case of ‘My Uncanny Type’, it can actually be seen, through previous blogging how the design developed from being human and handwritten to digitally designed. Not only this, but the final usable typeface is sans serif, which as mentioned, is perceived as uncanny because of the still visible ‘humanness/humanity within it’.

 The placement of the type is familiar, as it is in the centre, like the Playstation ads. Whilst the typeface used is unfamiliar, therefore, isn’t this slightly uncanny?

 Through creating such a colour heavy and clearly emotional image with a darker, more subtle type poster creates a juxtaposition and visualises again, how both can be used to produce something uncanny, and mentioned again within the dissertation.

‘the uncanny… is difficult to find ones way around in. Expressing that the audience can be easily lost within the uncanny.’

In relation to the type poster, after careful consideration and feedback the chosen tagline was ‘Play in your world. Live in ours’ as it links well with the discussion of dreamscapes and surrealism within the dissertation in addition to the theory of the uncanny and uncanny valley, suggesting that there are two ‘worlds’ in which you can exist in, ‘yours’ which is neat and beautiful and ‘ours’ in which you lose all control (the loss of our internal, and external ‘consistency’). This also relates back to the discussion of dreams and surrealism within the dissertation. The loss of this ‘consistency' and control of what is seen and how it is seen is removed because of the intrusion of the character. She is so close to the lens and therefore the audience that it is an invasion of their personal space, no matter how far away they move, the model will always have the control.

 As for the background of the type poster, it was inspired by the existing gradient backgrounds already used by Playstation in combination with the quote above.

This is reflected in the subtle white light in the blackness (being lost and then finding ones way). The white type also represents this search to be found, connoting that maybe to play Playstation is the only way out, again linking back to the idea of dreams or nightmares. Something familiar and unfamiliar.

 The orientation was inspired through my dissertation as most, if not all, of my figures were landscape, such as TV ads and billboards. This too, when referring to posters, seems uncanny as most posters are portrait, especially when the image is intact a portrait and so is appropriately synthesised with my dissertation and research.

Overall, the theories, ideas, research, methods and tools discussed in the the said dissertation have influenced the practical work a great deal. On the other hand, the practical work supports the writing, examinations and findings within the text by visually representing how the uncanny can be used within successful advertising through imagery and type.

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