OUGD501 - Study Task 05 - Establishing an Essay Question/Structure Planning

Essay Map

This essay map should include a sentence which states your thesis, and how it will be addressed. It should also include FOUR sentences, each outlining a different element of your central argument.

You should also refer to how this essay map links to the key sources that you have highlighted and the example(s) of Graphic Design practice.

Thesis:

"To what extent is pastiche unavoidable in contemporary graphic design practice?"

How will it be addressed? I will begin by making a clear distinction between the terms parody and pastiche to clarify the main focus of the writing. I will go onto discuss postmodern design principles and theories in a broad sense

Central Ideas:

• The rise of pastiche in the field of visual communication: How and why is pastiche such a integral part of contemporary graphic design?
•  Have we reached a simulacrum, or have we still got a while to go before we arrive at a rather depressing state of stagnancy?
• Is pastiche necessarily a bad thing in terms of aesthetic? What’s so wrong about being on trend? Questioning originality and individual styles (complication/counter argument)
• Discuss an example or several examples of contemporary design and relate back to the essay question. A hipster publication of some description that demonstrates well self referential systems that are at play within contemporary visual culture, representing a subculture that isn't a subculture
• Discuss what the future may hold in terms of pastiche and simulacrum
• Conclusion 

Academic Sources to reference:

·         McLuhan. M (Originally published 1967) Penguin Classics, The Medium is the Message: An Inventory of Effects

·         Levinson.P (2001) Routledge; New Ed edition, Digital McLuhan: A Guide to the Information Millennium

·         Hoesterey. I (2001) Penn State University Press, Pastiche: Cultural Memory in Art, Film, Literature

·         Greiman. A (1990) Watson-Guptill Publishing, Hybrid Imagery: The Fusion of Technology and Graphic Design

·         Pittman. R.K, McDonald. D, Baird. R.N (1993) Harcourt College Publishing, Graphics of Communication: Methods, Media & Technology

·         Duncombe. S (2008) Microcosm Publishing; Second Edition, Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture

·         Klanten. R (2011) Die Gestalten Verlag, Behind the Zines: Self Publishing Culture

·         Nealon. J.T (2012) Stanford University Press, Post-Postmodernism: Or, the Cultural Logic of Just-in-Time Capitalism