I found chapter 02 of the book interesting. The book explains how styles develop in our society and how they are incorporated into our lifestyles. In the beginning, the author starts explaining the meaning of culture and what classifies as a “culture.” I though this was very interesting, because the book talks about trends and how trends can be incorporated into cultures. I think a prime example is what is happening now. There is a trend about using metal straws and recyclable products, and from this, we are becoming more eco-friendly and conscious, slowly but it’s getting there. So, advertisers are now seeing the desires of the people, which are more eco-friendly items, and are creating and advertising products for that market. I was astonished that the book accurately explains something that is going on now.
Something else that the book talks about that kinda blew my mind was the way it talked about our homes. The book explained that our house is a place where we don’t need to visually communicate something, because we are shut-off from the outside world. There is no-one there to judge your fashion, see that your room is a little messy, or see you have some crumbs on the floor. Those are just basics of living, however, the way we advertise has changed our view of what our home should look like. Because there are TV shows and magazines showing pristine cleanliness. From this, we, as a culture, decided that we need to have this unrealistic standard of cleanliness. We’ve decided that just in case someone comes over and sees our place, that the floor should be perfect, the couch should be perfect, our kitchen should be perfect and etc. I was always told that a clean house makes you look put together, but a dirty house makes you look messy and disorganized. These are things that I’ve been told to my entire life, but with no reason. If I leave a shirt or two on my chair, that doesn’t make me messy and disorganized, but it still bothers me. This was a pretty eye opening part, because I realized that designers really can change the way you think. Showing clean houses and pristine decor has changed the way we think.
Another part of the chapter was talking about how all are is political. As an art student, we have all heard this before, but I didn’t think that this applies to all media of art. The book talks about fashion and how we use fashion to visually communicate something to the people around us. I never really thought about fashion as a visual communication tool. I never though of the reason why I liked curtain articles of clothing and hated others. It’s because I want my clothing to convey an aspect of my personality and some stuff doesn’t appeal to it. Absolutely fascinating!
I thought this section was very informative. This is extremely important for the next project, and I will take all of what I learned into consideration.
The Khalil Experience 