Modes of Analysis

Analysis Elle Magazine 

This week, I attended a lecture about Modes of Analysis. This year's lecture was definitely a lot different from what we were all used to last year. Last year, we were very focused on simple creative cultures and basic terminology. This year is certainly a lot more intense and requires a great deal of note taking in order for me to keep up! For this session, we were given a series of tasks to complete in our own time. 

Undertake a Form and Content analysis of an object or image. You should detail this process in writing on your blog
I'm still not entirely sure I understand modes of analysis yet. 
From what I have learnt from the lecture, content analysis consists of two things; Iconography and Iconology. So, with the knowledgeable that I have on Iconology and iconography, I will analyse this image of Gabourey Sidibe that I found on ELLE magazine a few years ago that caused quite a lot of controversy. 
ELLE magazine is known for using A-list celebrities as part of their front cover art work and majority of the front covers they use are usually full length body images of the celebrity at the time. Here's an example of the sort of ELLE covers that I am talking about:

You can see that in most of the front covers, the images are full length body photos unlike the image of Gabourey Sidibe in her front cover. 

From the way that the image is focused close up to Gabourey's face, you can see that the director, editor did not want the target audience to focus on her body. Also the way her shoulders have been covered up in comparison to the women in the covers below is quite a lot. Compared to the women in the image below, Gabourey's entire body has almost been cloaked over.

I found a very interesting article that commented on the skin colour change of Gabourey's face. It stated that "The 27-year-old is one of four celebrities to appear on four separate covers for its 25th anniversary issue. In the image Sidibe’s skin appears to be several shades lighter than her normal colour. The magazine said the four celebrities – Sidibé, actresses Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried, and Lauren Conrad, the reality star – were chosen as examples of young women who were “changing the world”. ELLE has also been criticised because each of the other three cover girls are shown in full length photographs while Sidibe’s image is cropped at chest level.In a statement the magazine said that “nothing out of the ordinary” had been done to the photograph". 

Make a list of genres that are evident in your discipline
I thought that this was quite an exciting task seeing as I don't know all that many areas of Graphic Design. It was a great opportunity for me to research a little bit and findnabout certain genres that I might be interested in for the future. Here's what I found

- Editorial Design 
- Logo Design
- Branding
- Motion Graphics
- Animation
- Typography
- Web Design

This information below was taken from a website called Ezine Articles. 
Basically it can be categorized into four distinct categories: 
1. Image-based 
2. Type-based 
3. Image and type 
4. Symbols, logos and logotypes

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5783204

Make a list of styles that you can identify in your discipline
This are the sorts of styles that I know about so far in Graphic Design. Some of what is listed below are gathered from the internet.

- Vintage/ Retro
- Swiss Style AKA International Style
- Urban Design
- Mainstream Arts

I also found this article about the trending styles within Graphic Design. I found this article very useful for personal use. http://www.creativebloq.com/top-20-graphic-design-trends-2012-1212327
Here are a few examples of what the article contains:

"Graphic Design Trends: Royal Mail Stamps by Marion Deuchars

With polished digital perfection everywhere, the raw, flawed product of the human hand is becoming increasingly appealing, especially in contrast to overly slick digital design that’s too clean and crisp to have a soul of its own. Starting in reaction to the homogenisation of type in emails, texts and tweets – where the personality of handwriting is stripped away – hand-written type adds a real sense of authenticity to a piece of design, as well as a whimsical edge"