Response Essay 'Exploring Visual Culture'

We consume and experience design on many different levels everyday. By simply walking down the street, we are bombarded by companies advertising their products, selling an image, a lifestyle, creating a want. Every single object that one owns tells us something about a person, who they are, what their income is like and what kind of lifestyle they live. Essentially, in this post consumerist society that we live in, one can conclude that we are what we buy. It is the consumption of goods that somehow becomes deeply tied to the creation and the production that we have of ourselves. Are our consuming habits really different from one another? Are we truly able to set ourselves apart from the rest of society and one another, creating and inventing

Upon the release of the Iphone 5, I stumbled upon a great illustration that represented quite well the population’s increasing obsessions with the Iphone, or any apple products as a matter of fact. In the illustration, you can see sheeps lining up in front of an apple store, patiently waiting for the store to open so that they can get their hands on the brand new Iphone! The only text in this image is four chat bubbles with the words “neeeeeed” above three sheeps. The other chat bubble was used to write “We need you too” above a man standing next to two slaughterhouse trucks. “Novelty has thus apparently overtaken function as prime concern within the design process and consequently design is often perceived as shallow and superficial.” Although this is somewhat true, Apple has succeeded where many others failed, in the sense where they were able to bring together novelty and function in all of their

The new and improved gadget is there for the taking and society tells us that we need it in order to “fit” in a certain social group.

The first Apple product that changed not only the computer world, but the design world dramatically was the invention of the Macintosh computer, January 24th 1984. “It was the first mass-market computer specifically made for the creative person in mid.” This was a game changing product not only for designers but for the consumers as well. It’s user friendly interface allowed for the computer to become more accessible to the general public and not only the programmers for example. The computer became essential in many different areas of the workforce. Apple’s Iphone can be considered it’s second biggest success after the Macintosh. In 2007, Steve Jobs revealed it’s newest creation, the Iphone. “It’s radical design and incredible popularity caused not a ripple, but a tidal wave of change throughout the mobile phone handset industry.” This new product introduced a total different ball game to a worldwide scale. The Iphone also enabled users to unify music and connection with other people using their phone, which to me, as a user, was the biggest and most important change in my everyday