Politics:
Brett Ommen, (2016) The Politics of the
Superficial, Visual Rhetoric & the Protocol of Display. Alabama
Graphic design is believed to have
influenced political changes in the UK during the 21st century, as ‘we assign graphic design, like all forms of
communication, cultural significance because it appears everywhere’.
Political
parties have policies, opinions and messages that need spreading to a wide
audience of people in order to inform members of society in the hope that it
will then lead to a vote in their favour. Graphic design allows for identities
to be formed, advertising to take place and for the parties to communicate in a
visual way; methods understood to be most effective. The development of graphic
design over the years has also meant that visual communication can be carried
out by a much larger group of people than when only fine art was around. As a
result of this, those within society often respond to the campaigns of the
parties by visually presenting their personal responses and political opinions.
The ability to have these responses published in a number of ways allows for
opinions to be spread ‘everywhere’ and therefore increasing the ‘cultural
significance’. There are many ways in which graphic design is shown to
influence members within society, suggesting that political changes in the UK
during the 21st Century may be as a result of this influence.
Alina Wheeler says that ‘design is intelligence
made visible’ (2006), effectively communicating
with elements such as colours, shapes, layouts, scales to ensure messages reach
target audiences. Graphic design has allowed for political parties in the 21st
Century to establish visually consistent branding and effective methods of
visually communicating policies with ‘cultural significance’ throughout society.
A very dominant focus is colour, representing each party with one main colour
to ensure that associations can be made when anything is published,
‘appear[ing] everywhere’ in a number of different ways.
There
are large amounts of studies on colour influence by the likes of Goethe (1810)
who focused on the experience of colour in his Zur farbenlehre, Sir Isaac
Newton’s whose rational approach looked at the separation of light into a
spectrum when passed through a prism, and also Max Lüscher’s (1999) best known
research into colour psychology based on the reactions to different coloured
cards, have all shown that as individuals we respond differently dependent on a
number of factors. Although graphic design can be shown to influence political
changes, there are also other factors such as an individual’s cultural
upbringing, personal interests that also play a part in political opinions and
followings within society. Rather than colour influencing the political followings
of individuals, it is predominately used by political parties to build
established identities that can then lead to a number of effective associations
within the campaigning procedure.
Brands
are known to use the natural human instincts such as fear, happiness,
attachment to promote ideas, spread powerful messages and sell products. An
example of this can be found by The World Wildlife Fund, an organisation known
for the controversial and fear-inducing imagery used within the campaigns and
advertisements. This method has proven to be powerful and instantly cause the
audience to stop and think about what us being said and alongside a strong
visual, the message will cause the audience to react appropriately. The quote ‘stop climate
change before it changes you’ is fear evoking, but by pairing it alongside a
sad fish head on human shoulders, the fear within the message is instantly
increased and the danger of the change is displayed in a personal way by using human body parts. The method of evoking fear is
something that Graphic Designers can use when campaigning for political
parties, ensuring that the target audience is left to fear the impact of voting
for the opposing party.
Not
only does the Labour party effectively use the colour red to ensure that the
audience can associate the message to their particular party, but also uses the
power of evoking a feeling of guilt within society in order to strongly
influence the audience to be influenced into thinking that they will be
negatively effecting lots of people if they do not vote for the party. The NHS
is a service that within society is seen to be important and a priority in
terms of ensuring that funds are given to it. The subliminal use of colour
enables the building of ‘cultural significance because it appears everywhere’,
evidencing the influence design has on political changes during the 21st
century in the UK.
Scarcity,
the fear that there is a deadline or that something will run out soon, is
another approach to ensuring the visibility of a campaign within society. In terms of advertising, this is often
through the reminder of sale end dates, releasing limited edition products or
by announcing that products are close to selling out. The added pressure
of something desired disappearing soon is an effective way to force the
audience to purchase it before it is too late, similarly in politics this
device is used to make people nervous about the date by which they need to have
made their decision by. The Labour party released a poster in 2017 with the
quote ‘ON JUNE 8TH, DON’T PUT OUR FUTURE ON THE LINE’, an example of
how scarcity can be used in political campaigning. The increase of
advertisement style campaigns in the 2017 political elections may have been
successful in comparison to methods in the past as design approaches have been established,
tested and proven to increase consumerism. This allows for politicians to take
advantage of this knowledge in order to effectively have a large influence
within the 21st century society of the UK.
The
digital age that we now live in means that advertisements and prints that previously
only existed in a physical form, can now also be published online and available
to a much larger audience of people within society – particularly the younger
generation of voters. Wim Crouwel says that ‘you can’t do better design with a
computer, but you can speed up your work enormously’. This increased
distribution of designs, ideas and campaigns within society in the 21st
century once again relates back to the idea that there is more ‘cultural
significance because it appears everywhere’.
Wally
Olins stated that for about a hundred years the world of communications was
dominated by advertising agencies which all had the idea that there was only
one important audience to target – the final consumer. If this was an approach
that political parties were to take, then they would only be communicating to
those that already know about the policies and want to vote for the particular
party. The development of graphic design in the 21st century has
proven that there are a number of different types of audiences that designers
need to be addressing when advertising a particular product or idea, not just
the final consumer. Consumers, pressure groups, financial community,
competitors and the media are thought to be the most relevant audiences for
Political Parties to be targeting their designs and content to. Addressing all
of the various audiences will allow for new people within society to become
aware of the political policies, those that already follow to widen their
knowledge and for competitors to respond to what is being published within
their own designs. Labour has some well-known campaigns that respond to the
opposing parties and the policies that they release. The campaign quote of ‘the
choice at this election is between a labour party who will build a Britain for
the many and a tory party who stand only for the few’ plays on this advertising
knowledge that has been established, targeting an audience that may already be
more inclined to vote for a particular party, but morally want to feel as
though they are helping more than just themselves with their vote – so with
influence may change their minds.
A
democratic society aims to give everyone the freedom to vote without any
pressure to vote in a particular way in order to please. Graphic design is
known to break the conventions of non-bias design in order to target the
negative aspects of opposing parties. ‘We assign graphic design, like all forms
of communication, cultural significance because it appears everywhere’ (2016),
suggesting the influence of which graphic design is able to have within society
in comparison to a discipline such as fine art which may be available to a
smaller audience of people. There has been a large growth in print media since
the 1980s as fine art was something more commonly created for those with a
large amount of disposable income. The increased level of publicity that a
growth in print media will have allowed for results in political parties to
publish a lot of content to a large number of people potentially leading them
to believe that the association they now make to the particular advertisements
and subliminal messages in the form of colour schemes, phrases etc. has an
increased ‘cultural significance because it appears everywhere’.
As
well as using the well-known methods of visual communication to influence society
with particular political policies and opinions in a non-biased way, another
method used within Graphic Design is purposefully breaking the conventions
known. Pierre Bernard (1991) states that ‘graphic design […] continues to be
created and to structure itself in an autonomous and diversified manner’
meaning that the diversity and ability to go against factual and serious ways
of expression can also be used within society to influence the political
changes in the 21st century.
Alternative
posters have been released by Graphic Designers with subliminal messages, very
strong opinions and all with the ability to heavily influence a large number of
people within society. Democracy encourages individuals to express opinions
with freedom to share to a large audience of people. Although there was a large
response visually to the Brexit referendum in 2016, since the confirmation that
it will take place designers have published a sense of regret in terms of
reality that they could have done more to provide society with more information
on the effects of staying/leaving. Marina Weller says ‘we created clever
campaigns, beautiful campaigns and funny campaigns, but we created them for
each other’ insinuating the realisation that graphic designers have the means to
publish within society and easily communicate to a large audience of people. The
official campaigns may be thought to have ‘cultural significance’ simply
because of the presence they have within society, but with the pushing of
non-official responses to the policies to be spread throughout society could
graphic design be seen to have more of an influence on the political changes in
the UK if knowledge was shared to the correct target audience – those that did
not understand the implications of Brexit.
The
increase of young people voting in the 2017 election may be due to a number of
different elements such as targeting particular audiences, digital age
increasing publicity or alternative campaigns and responses interesting those
who follow trends in order to fit in within society. Graphic design may be
considered to have played a part in the increase of you people becoming more
aware of politics, accessing information and visuals online. The 2005 election
showed that 18-24 year olds accounted for only 7% of all votes cast and, but
with the years progressing the engagements from this age range increased. 60%
of 18-24 year olds voted in the EU referendum on comparison to the small amount
of 43% in the previous year’s general election. Designer target their followers
when publishing work which hold strong opinions, presuming that their followers
will see it to be a more worthwhile opinion if it is to come from someone they
appreciate the work of. The designers have the ability to influence audiences
with new trend ideas, so taking this approach to something more serious like
politics it is likely that there will be the same effect.
Graphic
design appears to have the most political influence in terms of left-wing,
often portraying a negative association to the right-wing political parties and
their beliefs. Design and artwork would be assumed to support the interests of
the dominant classes as they have disposable income to wage the designers to
produce the material with the opinions that the want to spread around society.
It seems that fine art may be funded
more so by this ‘dominant’ class as opposed to Graphic Design, due to the
prestigious status the art holds in comparison to more accessible and ‘trendy’
prints of graphic designers. The growth in print media has provided designers
with the power to reach a large number of people, sharing strong visual
messages. Supermundane is one example of an agency that released a series of
posters aimed to please the left-wing political supporters or make others feel
guilty and potentially change their minds. Quotes such as ‘Open your eyes to
the Tory lies’ makes it clear that the posters are aiming to influence those
within society to act against the Conservative party and vote for a left-winged
party such as Labour. The claim by Steven Heller (2017) that ‘all graphic designers,
like all creative people, are somehow politically progressive’ suggests that
the political influence within society may lead to changes in the UK as time
progresses as a result of graphic design.
In conclusion, it seems evident that graphic
design does influence political changes in the UK and especially in the 21st
century due to the digital age and increase of alternative visual responses. As
Wim Crouwel said ‘you can’t do better design with a computer but you can speed
up your work enormously’ meaning that more politically relevant prints are
being made and distributed within society to a larger audience than when
everything would have relied on traditional printing methods. The development
of graphic design as an overall discipline has encouraged those with the skills
and interest to visually respond to the political campaigns and policies that
are released by each of the parties. The general increase of effective
publishing and promotion of the party’s policies allows for more people to be
aware about politics and as a result, ‘we assign graphic design, like all forms
of communication, cultural significance because it appears everywhere’.
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