Re: Subliminal Messages & The Future of Pub Design

In reviewing the posts over the last two weeks, I think Courtney's blog kind of got lost in the shuffle, so I thought I'd answer hers and Adele's in the same post.

Re: Subliminal Messages

I think subliminal messages are bogus and nothing more than a marketing fart.

"Most psychologists agree that subliminal messaging has shown no lasting impact upon the behavior of subjects tested [2]. While research has shown that subliminal messaging may create a momentary change in thinking, this effect is – when present – extremely fleeting, and often impacts only those already primed for a particular behavior. The standard example given is that of beverage advertising. If an already thirsty test subject is subliminally shown images of beverages, their desire for a beverage may increase slightly for a short duration [3]. But even this example is fraught with misconceptions, due to the now infamous “experiment” run by James Vicary, and where we get the term subliminal advertising." Read more here from neurohypnoticscience.com

But I think there is much to be said for semiotics and their role in design. If you're in this class, chances are that you've taken Visual and Verbal rhetoric, so you know that semiotics is  
"The study of signs and symbols, especially the relationship between written or spoken signs and their referents in the physical world or the world of ideas. A core strategic method by which graphic marks, texts and images can be deconstructed and interpreted to determine their underlying meanings."

"Subliminal advertising" just strikes me as a lazy way to try to do the same thing. A way that has been proven ineffective but that people buy into nonetheless because it's easier than actually thinking of an effectual graphic design solution.

RE: The Future of Pub Design

The future of Pub Design is DIGITAL with a smattering of print jobs a few times per year. Interactive apps, websites, ebooks, games, ETC. Those are the future. There will always be a need for print (packaging, marketing) but the older we get, I think printed books (and DEFINITELY magazines) will become more and more rare. 

Because we are mired in a culture that consumes and throws away finite resources  ("Ending is better than mending...") Print will become too expensive. The cost of paper (where's all the trees???) ink, delivery...(will the post office even exist in 20 years?)

And the generation you'd be trying to reach out to in 25 years will have been born into an era where the paper product was dying--or perhaps was already dead. (The generation I am referring to are those of Westernized nations, who have the luxury of technology and worrying about getting the latest iPhone.)

And in my eternal hope that future generations will develop a stronger sense of environmental stewardship (either through organic means, or out of sheer, undeniable necessity) I think one day the idea of so wastefully using paper the way we do now will become abhorrent and all those who, for years, had condescendingly embedded "Please consider the environment before printing this email" in their signature will grin with smug satisfaction at their small role in the "no paper" movement and perhaps swap this platitude out with an equally ineffective and annoying privacy disclosure.