Postmodern factors in advertising poster in Vietnam

OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM Scientific supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Tien Dr. Trinh Dung External Examiner 1: PGS. Le Anh Van Vietnam University of Fine Arts External Examiner 2: PGS. TS. Doan Thi My Huong Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies External Examiner 3: PGS. Nguyen Xuan Thanh Vietnam University of Fine Arts The dissertation will be defended before the Institute-level Examining Committee VIETNAM NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CULTURE AND ARTS STUDIES 32 Hao Nam, O Cho Dua, Dong Da, Hanoi At .............................................. (hh/dd/mm/yyyy) The dissertation could be looked up at: - Vietnam National Library - Library of Vietnam National Institute of Culture and Arts Studies 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Advertising poster is a category of Graphic design created by combining graphic elements to form a key image in order to have messages, which help to increase the sales of a product or services. It is not only new ideas but also the diversity of creativity that made advertising poster unique; and it is not only special on aesthetics but also on the harmony of beauty and commercial factors that are created for the specific business goal. In terms of art, advertising poster uses visual elements in order to create the general concept and use visual languages to construct the key image. On the top of that, the success of advertising poster depends on design methodology that shows brand’s characteristic, and suitable with the awareness of contemporary aesthetics. In art history, advertising poster varied according to different milestone of eras. Nowadays, with a large diversity of graphical styles, the new and outstanding methods of postmodern factors such as rules breaking, interaction and variation have changed creative thinking and made a large diversity for advertising poster in terms of applied art. In market economy, advertising poster is the most important tool to make a name for a brand, a product or service so that people can recognize it. Currently, advertising poster has changed and become more flexible. It is not created purely for printing or for providing information. Generally, it is easy to see a remarkable outbreak of commercial posters that have postmodern factors. For advertising poster, aesthetic and non-aesthetic factors are connected to each other that form the subject of research. As a result, they formed a subject matter that researcher studied for the thesis. Fristly, as advertising poster is an artwork of applied art, in order to study about aesthetic factors, the non-aesthetic features also should be analysed. Secondly, the research studied the relationship of aesthetic and non-aesthetic factors in order to define artistry are the mostly focused and highest expression of aesthetics. Thirdly, in terms of advertising posters’ characteristic, the aesthetics cannot be distinguished from the non-aesthetics in researchs because the shortage of dometic research on graphic design. In order to make it clear, the research should focus not only the meaning itself but also on 2 contents and form, which make an artwork more valuable. It is considered that advertising poster in Vietnam is keen, innovatory and developing alongside with the market economy when looking at the integration of Vietnamese posters to the international design trend. Inspite of the late beginning, more than ten years later than the world, graphic design of Vietnam can keep up with that of the world. As the speedy changing trends of Vietnames advertising posters, the study and learning of the movement of poster’s aesthetics including facts, causes, nature and results etc., are meaningful and practical. Especially, this study uses the current point of view to compare the changes of advertising posters in Vietnam. This is the gap that help researcher to form and to develop suppositions of the thesis, which contribute to create basic theories of poster to be applied in education and reality. 2. Aims and Objectives of the study 2.1. Aims of the study In the era of International Integration of Vietnam, there are a large number of changes of advertising poster, including postmodern factors. 2.2. Objectives of the study The object of this study is advertising poster, focusing on commercial type. The thesis analyses how postmodern factors have been expressed in advertising posters, especially in graphic elements, from concept to execution. To be more details, they are: Perceiving advertising poster as an artwork of applied art should be in a connection with international and domestic art movement. Studying the changing of advertising poster should be posited under the interaction of tradition - modern, adaptableness - alteration and development in the era of directed market and international integration of Vietnam. Analizing the effect and developing trend of postmodern factors in advertising poster of Vietnam at the current time and in the future should be used to form the thesis statement. This task should be done based on the foundation of traditional culture in order to add the new value to the diversity and sustainable development of international integration period. 3 3. Scope of the study Scope of the time: focusing on current time (from 2007 to now) in order to illustrate that postmodern element shows its best in advertising posters. With different events of policies, economy, culture had contributed to the distinction between the current postmodern elements and they were in the previous periods. Obviously, for understanding the changes of advertising poster nowadays, there should be a general studying on history throughout comparison, analysis so that the the thesis object can be defined on the basis of scientific analysis. Scope of the space: the research context of commercial posters is Vietnam, focusing on Ho Chi Minh City, where developing economies has diversified and this is the national leader in every aspects. It is also the place that international businesses, brands, advertising agencies settle their offices. Besides, this city is subject to fluctuations, which govern the most powerful, fastest in the cultural and artistic exchanges, the place is said to be keen in receiving the international art trends and elements and the place to distribute advertising campaigns nationwide. 4. Situation of research related to the title All over the world, the trends of postmodern art and advertising poster are topics that drew great attention of researchers on both theory and reality aspects. 4.1. Situation of research on Postmodern art Situation of research in the country: The majority are short articles on art magazines as a way of expressing personal ideas of writers about the trend of postmodern art. There are few domestic studies about this subject with some outstanding works such as: Chủ nghĩa hậu hiện đại - Cỏc vấn đề nhận thức luận [47], 2011, Trần Quang Thỏi. This book is referred from many academic sources which present the closed connection of art and other fields like Philosophy, Science, Art and so on. Situation of research in foreign countries: From the impacts of the postmodern art on composing, foreigner researchers have discovered more about its with different angles from theories research to analyzing the applications of different trends of art. Some typical works such as: Art since 1960 (World of Art) [86], 4 A world history of art (2009). Minimalism [80], Installation Art [72]; Performance art: From Futurism to the Present (World of Art) [89], RoseLee Goldberg. Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970 - 1990 [79], Jane Pavitt. 4.2. Situation of research on advertising poster Situation of research in the country: The existence of advertising poster in Vietnam is quite new in comparison with the other kinds of arts that have long history. Mostly, documents of researchers and critics are mainly written on politican or social propaganda posters. About commercial poster, if there was, just focused on marketing strategies or the failure or success of business. From the point of art, it’s hard to find out any theory research on advertising poster design in Vietnam. The majority are essays, reports or lectures taught at universities that were mostly translated from foreign resources. Situation of research in foreign countries: Written documents on advertising posters vary in a wide range of research such as: the history, the applications, reference books, catalogues and so on. These sources are useful for researchers to study and apply ideas to the contents involved with thesis. The historical research such as: A history of graphic design, is a great book for researchers to discover knowledge about graphic design history. Besides that, there are a wide range of images, from other resources such as books, catalogues or the Internet, ect. Each documents is a contribution to the research of the thesis. They illustrate that postmodern elements exist in every types of art including applied art. Athough the contents of these reference resourses do not directly mention about the postmodern in advertising poster, they are the foundations that researcher uses to create the specific theory in order to analyze the subject of study in Vietnam. 5. Research questions / Hypothesis of the study These hypotheses are created from the research questions, the significant argumentation from the phenomena, essence and applications, including the three following assumptions: Hypothesis 1: Advertising poster in Vietnam during the time of integration has a large number of changes, including the contribution of postmodern factors. 5 The objective of the first hypothesis is that studying the phenomenon: whether or not the existence of postmodern elements in advertising poster. If there are postmodern factors, what the level is, and which format of postmodern factors in advertising poster? Beside postmodern factors, wherether or not having any other factors and the role of postmodern factors is in advertising poster from the point of artistic view nowadays. Hypothesis 2: Postmodern is a factors which express in advertising poster, specifically from the concept to the form and means of expression. The objective of the second hypothesis is to understand the meaning behind that phenomenon, in which makes the value of the object of study. Specifically, postmodern elements are in which aspect of a commercial advertisement and its level of expression in Vietnam, in the approach of graphic language, which are explained in the design process. This is an important contribution of postmodern factors in advertising poster in term of art in Vietnam currently; it has created a new way of design and perceive advertising poster. Hypothesis 3: Postmodern factors have positive impacts on the aesthetics of advertising poster, contribute to these values: in terms of art (creating a new vision and conception of artistic creation); in the aspect of society (meeting the needs of enjoyment of the public at present time); and in economic terms (contributing to the development of the economy). The goal of the third hypothesis is to accept the advantages and disadvantages of postmodern factors. Hence, proposing developing trend of postmodern elements in advertising poster to meet the aesthetics of society based on traditional artistic and cultural platform of Vietnam in the time of international integration. 6. Methods of the study This thesis uses interdisciplinary research methods through gathering information, document analysis, artwork analysing, experimental research, interview, using qualitative method, quantitative, comparative method, design methodology, etc. 7. Significance of the study The thesis contributes a needed database for graphic design theories, the basis to identify postmodern elements in advertising 6 poster. It provides specialized reference materials for research and application for practice, especially for lectures on advertising poster in education institutions. 8. Design of the study Beside the Preface (20 pages), the Conclusion (7 pages), Reference Document (7 pages) and Appendix (56 pages), the content of the thesis is structured into three chapters:  Chapter 1: The foundational arguments and reality of postmodern factors in advertising poster (37 pages).  Chapter 2: The expression of postmodern factors in advertising poster in Vietnam (43 pages).  Chapter 3: The effectiveness and the development tendency of advertising poster influenced by postmodern factors in Vietnam (39 pages). CONTENT Chapter 1 THE FOUNDATIONAL ARGUMENTS AND REALITY OF POSTMODERN FACTORS IN ADVERTISING POSTER Generally, the thesis illustrates definitions related to advertising poster and postmodern elements. And simultaneously consider the manifestation of postmodern factors in the reality as the whole research object. 1.1. The concept of thesis of the research In this section, the thesis focuses on some definitions of poster, advertising poster and postmodern art and its trend, then it identifies the postmodern elements through some characteristics and execution of advertising poster. 1.1.1 The concept of poster, advertising poster and some features of advertising poster 1.1.1.1 The concept of poster, advertising poster Poster: Bases on is a different type of dictionaries such as English-Vietnames dictionary, French - Vietnamese dictionary, Dictionary of Fine Art, poster can be considered as a type of Graphic design which is a category of Applied Art. In Vietnames, it is called as: affichộ, bớch chương, tranh cổ động, ect. In term of function, poster is form of information-spread which has a specific purpose and is placed publicly to common viewers. 7 Advertising posters: In terms of marketing, advertising posters are used as methods of branding, introducing products and sending messages to customers. They are paid to create messages for commercial purposes with some requirements such as: places, positions and the contents of advertising for a period of time. The contents of these posters are brands, products or services. Nowadays, advertising posters diverse widely on both content and form. They are not only made to hang on walls but also to display in other ways such as: 2 sides-printed, widen the creativity, blurry the boundary of different types of art, apply changing effects, interaction, space-arrangment, co-techniques, high-tech materials, ect. Currently, the word “poster” is used widely in education as well as advertising industry. In order to make the thesis close to reality, the word “Advertising posters” will be used as a common term that is used for commercial communication (including content and form, size and material). 1.1.1.2 Types of posters and some features of advertising poster Types of posters: Poster is a mean of communication which is widely used in different fields such as advertising, propaganda, information, etc.. Each kind of poster is applied for different cases such as propaganda poster for political – social – environmental purposes, or advertising poster for commercial messages. Based on different usages, each type has its specific characteristic such as: information in propaganda, selling products in advertisement. Some features of advertising poster: Advertising poster is a work of co-oporation between artistry and the economy, a combination of different features that affect the aesthetics of the artwork. Throughout the reality of development, the specific characteristics of advertising poster can be remarked with some characteristics such as communications, commerce, aesthetics and feasibility. 1.1.1.3 Advertising poster is an artistic artwork In general, art can be divided into two trends: art for art’s sake and art for life’s sake. In art for life’s sake, the distinguished features that create the differences between these purposes are not only the aesthetics, but also the applicability that can satisfy the requirements of human in modern society. They emphasize the specific characteristics of industrial design, a kind of visual art including 8 advertising poster. Obviously, recognizing the artistic value of advertising poster should base on the key image that applied different methods of visual combinations with the materials such as lines, colors and shapes and forms. 1.1.2. Conception of Postmodern, Postmodernism and postmodern elements in art creativity 1.1.2.1 Conception of Postmodern, Postmodernism Postmodern: In English, it is called as Postmodern, the concept refers to a period of development in economic, science, technology and art of human being. It was introduced when the modern doctrines had become old, and they were considered as the "grand narratives". Postmodernism: In terms of terminology, in English, it is called as Postmodernism, French is post-modernitộ. According to researchers, Postmodernism is “an interdisciplinary cultural movement, appeared in 70s of the 20th century in Western Europe and North America, then developed widely throughout the world. Theoretically, the two phrases “postmodern” and “deconstruction” are not only two new philosophical concepts but also two of the most trendy terms on mass media, related to the two philosophers of postmodern theory: Jean - Franỗois Lyotard (1924 - 1998) and Jacques Derrida (1930 - 2004), by whom developed from the theory of the two great German philosophers: Kant and Hegel. Among the theory of postmodernism, especially epistemological deconstruction, upholding "communicative competence and the ability to create situations in communication" is to make changes in form and concept art, particularly in advertising poster today. 1.1.2.2 Postmodern factors in art creativity In terms of art, according to some researchers, the Postmodernism art’s expressions were assumed to appear from 1910 to 1920, the founder was a French artist – Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968) with his controversial works, particularly are the Bicycle Wheel (1913), Fountain (1917), etc. The time of 1960 to 1970 seem to be the peak of the postmodern, created a movement which affects widely in art creativity around the world. These radical concepts had strongly influenced art creativity, created lots of trends. The most remarkable trends of postmodernism 9 movement that have postmodern elements are: Installation Art, Performance Art, Body Art, Conceptual Art and Video Art. In Vietnam, according to researchers, before the year of 1986, Marxism - Leninism, Ho Chi Minh’s ideology and the Revolution’s strategies always took a key factor in life awareness and art creativity. At that time, postmodern elements were not appreciated with its true essence and they had begun to affect the works of art in from the beginning of 1990s and developed after 2000s. 1.2.3. Postmodern factors in advertising poster The advertising posters expressions are always open with art trends in general and in particularly with designs that have postmodern elements, including these following significant factors: Existential factor, focusing on the illogicality, human’s satisfactions, surprising amazement, weirdness, humorousness, etc, in living environment, making instantly emotions. Positivistic factor, that focuses on the role of knowledge and deconstruction method in order to represent social reality. Therefore, scientific approach is the best way to analyze the structure of all the events that happen in nature, social, human and even in creating art. Rationalistic factor focuses on the conceptions, philosophy used in design, which made poster be “directed” from the expression to the presumption’s results, that is the media content. Eclectic factors are those with the conception of freedom, breaking the rules, irregularity, blurring all the subject’s barriers by showing the desire, creating strong impact, expressing public awareness. The approach of this factor focuses on the randomness, moment of movement, interaction, those types were designed based on the environment and situation of advertising subject. These advetisements expressed naturally, appreciate the differences in thinking in the approaching social reality. 1.2 Advertising poster’s development overview Generalizing the progress of changing to see the aesthetic changes of advertising poster in every period of time, especially the changes of postmodern factors in advertising posters in the reality of Vietnam. 1.2.1. The development of advertising poster in the world Commodities exchanges always attach to advertisement and 10 poster was the earliest methods. It represents the quick development in technology and life style, as well as consumer’s taste and design methodology. Advertising poster was formed along with the development of writing, printing techniques, which developed with human’s civilization and commercialization. In the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, art history saw new perspectives in art creativity and they were considered as being outrageous with the desire to change, to finish the domination of Functionalism”, they were postmodern elements. Until the 80s – 90s, the decades applied the extraordinary changing of technology, making important changes in international art and applied art, marking the birth of a lot of art styles, which are considered as sudden changes. In the 21th century, the striking development of the industry had impulsed the development of advertising poster. Remarkably the advertising posters which contain postmodern factors are more and more expanded. 1.2.2. The development of advertising poster in Vietnam The development of advertising posters in Vietnam can be recognised through the historical reflection of the era. Before the year 1986, advertising posters were not formed clearly because the Vietnam War and the economy was mostly isolated from the world. After 1986, our country turned to the renewed periods, the government established new policies, which were more open and internationally integrated. As a result, the artworks of Vietnameses artists had made big changes, more open-minded. Besides propaganda posters, commercial posters started to appear with more quantities than before, but the artistic characteristics were unremarkable. In the period of 1995 to 2000, the time of free market orientation, advertising posters became more popular. However, the expression of these posters still focused on information with full-text billboards, similar format that were uncreative and poor performance. From 2000 to 2005, advertising posters became popular in the whole country, especially in Ho Chi Minh City, the form of these posters already had some changes but postmodern factors were unremarkable. After some periods of exploration and experiment, in 2007, it was clearly seen the changes in creativity trend, in which used varieties of art’s languages especially with some experiment on postmodern 11 factors. After joining WTO (World Trade Organization), Vietnam market integrated with the global economy, it was bombarded with many great scientific breakthroughs that led to the changes of consumers’ predilection. There was a broke out of postmodern elements through different approaches, especially in form, that drew more public’s attention. Moreover, the arrival of international brands and companies, especially international advertising agencies have created new appearance for advertising poster in Vietnam from that year on. 1.2.3. The reality of advertising poster in Vietnam Throughout the history, advertising posters resigned for propaganda posters used for war resistance and united nation purposes. When the economy was open and globalized (from 2007 until now), Vietnam society developed to a higher level with new features for an advanced economy and a globalized society. In that diversified changing, advertising posters can be separated into two trends, tradition and modern. The traditional style with its long terms history in Vietnames fine art used to have directed voice that show honesty, ordinary, vulgarization that closed to the common people. This directed communication style with less creative thinking, somehow satisfied the simple awareness of the society. On the other side, the diferent changes such as the international integration economy, the advanced society, the improvement of public’s awareness and the generational transference, etc., led to new requirements in artistic taste of common people. Traditional advertising posters became impoverished with boring form, melodramatic contents and old communication method, which strictly promoted stiff and boring shapes. These styles could not survive in the environment of images differences’competition currently. The strong changes in forms of advertising posters with postmodern factors became more suitable with the requirement of business purpose and reality life because they are not only honest, vulgarized and popular but also revolutionzed. They are signals of changes in the art of advertising posters that stimulates the creativity and always looking for new ways of expression 12 To sum up In general, the researches and related definitions drew an overall picture about advertising posters. As we can see, in the period of integration, advertising posters have lots of changes including postmodern elements. Nowadays, it is bombarded with new trends in form and creative thinking in advertising poster in Vietnam. Those changes are creating more values in art, economy and society. And in any reference system, advertising poster with postmodern elements is a non-controversial term in the reality of current creation. Chaper 2 THE EXPRESSION OF POSTMODERN FACTORS IN ADVERTISING POSTER IN VIETNAM This research focuses on communication languages throughtout imagery in order to illustrate postmodern factors as a slice of advertising poster but not goes deeply to graphic design principles. To be more specific, all the factors from concept to execution, including color using, images, typography, arrangement and techniques, ect. 2.1. Postmodern factors in the conception of advertising poster The content is the idea expressed in an artwork. In advertising poster with postmodern factors, there are two levels of ideas. Firstly, it has a specific meaning that reflects real life vividly and objectively with events, images and imagery. Secondly, the idea is generalized in a specific trend of ideology 2.1.1. Creation of key visual of advertising poster From the viewers’ point of view, the form will be appreciated firstly. However, the process of designing poster should start from concept to execution. The concept is not simply a disoriented idea but actually it is a process with detailed development in order to reach the communication requirement. It’s also created from an adaptation of designer for having an understandable message. Normally, for having a good concept, designer has to answer different questions for a deeply understanding of the brand and its products as well as its consumers and cultural factors. They are the must for having a new meaningful idea of advertising poster. 13 2.1.2. Key visual with postmodern factors of advertising poster For having a visually effected message, postmodern factors were created for new presentation. There are three approaches in creating key visual with postmodern factors. Firstly, key visuals were created to emphasize the frequency, fragmentation, and continuation in a process, such as a story, that created aesthetic value of the commercial poster. In addition, key visuals were created to represent the every day’s life images, with multifaceted perspective and inner messages. The way of looking for the model from reality and then stylizing it artistically had emphasized more on the meaning, which was pluralistic and had a combination of different values naturally and attractively. This is what it makes commercial posters nowadays have a new appearance in comparison with the previous periods. Besides, key visual of advertising poster with repressed relationships “containing the contradictions between illusion-reality, yes-no, reasonable- absurdity, natural- artificial, etc “, according to Jacques Derrida; has formed complex relationships, and created ambiguity, implicitly, essential iconic symbols. 2.2. Postmodern fators in the expression of artistic form The idea can only make into reality when it has a form of expression; and only the form of expression can demonstrate all the characteristics and methods of postmodern factors in commercial posters of Vietnam. It is both the expressed subject (in relationship with form), and the expressing subject (in relationship with the meaning of the work) and it is the way to decode all the characteristics, methods of existential factors, eclectic, rationalism and positivist in commercial advertisement. 2.2.1. Postmodern factors manifest in color The color identification