Sunday 20 March 2011

Task 4 - Communication Theory

Use Shannon & Weaver's model of the communication process to write a 300-400 word analysis of a work of Graphic Design. Comment on the ways in which the piece of Graphic Design attempts to communicate to a specific audience, using techniques of redundancy, entropy or noise. 




Laswell's maxim - "Who says what in what channel to whom with what effect?"

The piece of design I want to talk about us the coca cola advert in the centre on the tower in Times Square - a highly busy place to advertise in terms of noise. The channel in which it sits on the centre of the tower is a strong focal point in Times Square so it has prime location amongst the noise.
Coca Cola in my opinion uses high levels of redundancy in their advertisements - they are all very predictable in what they present in terms of colour (red and white), content (logo and bottle image). However it seems to be an effective method for them - everyone knows straight away when they look at the advert who it is and what is being sold. But then that is why the message is redundant - as we are bombarded by Coke adverts constantly, we take less notice and the message does't go in as much - however they have such a strong foundation and global awareness maybe the pieces just need a great level of redundancy - it is a deliberate tactic for combating noise and especially in such a heavily advertised place such as Times Square it seems to stand out amongst the rest of the adverts and the noise surrounding it. 
There doesn't seem to be a need for entropic methods in Coke's advertising as we all know it is a huge brand and doesn't need any extra gimmicks in their designs as the product and name should just sell the product to the customer. 
Viewers see the adverts and because it is so redundant in the message transmitted it has built an automatic response in people who often choose Coke as a brand probably because we are so bombarded with drinks messages that the Coke adverts combat the noise produced by the other adverts and is more well known.  They don't need to decode any messages as the imagery is straight forward.

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