Consumer Culture and Design
Laura Hall
Graphic Design
Summary Definition
Consumer Culture is the act of consumption, purchasing goods or services that can be personal, functional or sometimes not even necessary. The relationship between the consumer and the goods is the central focus of consumer culture and even though consumption is seen as an everyday activity it is also a vital part of social status amongst individuals (Anon., 2010) Some critics believe consumerism to be shallow and sometimes used as a way of obtaining a status symbol, with people’s only reason for purchasing expensive goods to show that they have the money available to do so, and not to meet their required needs. This is what drives consumption in our culture, people buying for no need and this idea of a through away culture as things are easily replaced, creating a circle of never ending consumption. However, supporters of consumer culture believe people are happier when their wants and needs are met and that consumption is the way to achieve this, giving consumer culture a positive view point (Ron Augustine, 2009.)
Brief History
There is a debate about when and where exactly Consumer Culture originated. The introduction of fashion in eighteenth-century England is when Neil McKendrick, author of The Birth of a Consumer Society: The Commercialization of Eighteenth Century England, and his associates believed Consumer Culture began. This introduction of fashion resulted in mass production and mass marketing of clothes through innovations in textiles and printing, because of the high demand from the consumer public. A second historian, Rosalind Williams, believes France to be the origin of Consumer Culture in the late-nineteenth-century. Williams believed The Paris exposition, otherwise known as a exhibition, that took place in France in 1889 and 1900 allowing people from all over the world to congregate and appreciate the styles from the previous century, to be the beginning of Consumer Culture. It was here at this exposition that William believes French retailers and advertisers transformed Paris into a “pilot plant of mass consumption,” and that it contributed greatly to the evolution of consumer culture through the progression of department stores (Anon., 2010)
Finally Roberta Sassatelli author of Consumer Culture; History, Theory and Politics, believes consumer culture to have originated in Great Britain at the end of the seventeenth century. Sassatelli (2007, pg35) believes at the end of the seventeenth century “the growth and diversity of objects on sale identified the start of consumption as a meaningful category, supplanting the notion of luxury in moral discourse.” However it wasn’t until the start of the eighteenth century that the commercialization of goods through means of advertising and promotion began, and at the same time consumption became a large focus in the public eye, constantly spoken about and discussed in newspapers, which coincidentally where funded by means of advertising.
Woman played a big part in the history and development of Consumer Culture, and still do today. It is seen as a natural role taken on by woman to consume or to be ‘born to shop,’ and for it to be partaken as a leisure and/or social activity. The idea of shopping being a feminine pursuit is still relevant today with men who are deemed ‘style conscious’ being linked with this idea of femininity. Woman were seen as the “chief purchasing agents” for their families come the 1910s, purchasing all household items making advertisers and manufacturers knowledgeable of who to direct their campaigns towards. According to expert advertiser Carl Naether, he advised advertiser’s to write “in woman’s own language,” using evocative words, poetic images, French phrases, and soft touches, as all these things provoke woman into thinking they need/want these products. This is because it is believed that woman focus on the social and psychological effects of a product whereas men focus on functionality, so to sell to a woman you have to get into their frame of mind, think how they are thinking and use this as an effective tool in the advertising industry (K. Peiss, 1998).
Relevance to Design
Value and sustainability of products is what is missing in today’s Consumer Culture and this is one thing designer’s have to help reinvent. We have become a part of a disposable culture, and it is a designer’s duty to end this idea by creating, inventing and promoting these products that are sustainably but still offer passion and usability to the consumer. The way products are sold through the aspirational values or ‘being successful’ values is very immoral and corruptive, however an arguable point is that if people didn’t want it, it wouldn’t sell but that is not entirely true and this is what advertising and promotion is here to do. Make people believe they do need and want these products.
Designers have an opportunity here to change this, moving our world towards products that are long lasting and have built in value; described as Artisanal products.
“Artisanal Design; it’s against the grain, and a challenge to show that the atypical is preferable to the typical. But design can and should support the creation of a world where the context of use and the personality of the creator are as important as the shape itself.” (Graham, 2008.)
The way designers, graphic and product designers in particular, can conquer this with new and improved communication and creation of these artisanal products, and the value and benefit they provide. Working towards the end of this throw-away culture we have entered into Hugh Graham believes is the job and responsibility of today designers, but will not happen over night but will whether we want it to or not, or even take part in the process. And that we are better to “engage the future rather than have it thrust upon is.”
The consumer revolution was made possible and relied greatly on the sudden availability of things, things that once were self generated or acquired but now are ready-made and accessible to everyone. These objects have had a complete makeover and ‘re-designed’ to give people the choice of novelty items which at one time only served one purpose which was to be truly functional and nothing else. The form of newly designed products was another area in which design has helped to influence the consumer culture. It gave and still gives the consumer happiness in shopping and takes away the hassle of making things for yourself, with the wide range of choice and variety (Graham, 2008.)
Bibliography
Encyclopedia, 2010, Consumer Culture - Defining, Origins of. [online] Available at: <http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/6480/Consumer-Culture.html> [Accessed 27 September 2010]
AQR Consumer Culture. [onine] Available at: <http://www.aqr.org.uk/glossary/index.html@term=consumerculture> [Accessed 29 September 2010]
The Journal for Multi Media History, 1998, American Woman and the Making of Modern Consumer Culture. [online] Available at: <http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol1no1/peiss-text.html> [Accessed 27 September 2010]
Graham Hugh, 2008, The End of Consumer Culture? [blog] 30 January, Available at: <http://hughgrahamcreative.com/2008/01/30/toward-a-moral-equivalent-of-consumerism/> [Accessed 30 September 2010]
Horning Rob, 2008, The Design Imperative [blog] 29 January, Available at: <http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/the-design-imperative/> [Accessed 30 September 2010]
Sassatelli, R., 2007, Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics. London, Sage
