OUGD601: COP PRACITCAL globalisation good examples

Mc Donalds

With more than 32,000 restaurants in 118 countries, a notorious brand that considers cultural values and has successfully globalized is McDonalds. This huge franchise has done it better than any other. When people think of McDonalds they envisage the same restaurant in every country all over the globe. McDonalds have done incredibly well, keeping such a strong stable brand, with a staple look and yet have adapted to fit in with different cultures.  (Jane Pavitt) writes ‘McDonalds nurture their relationship with locality… in order to become neutralised’. Although they don’t alter a huge amount of their branding, they cater for local cultures. There Local variations in the menu get changed and advertising altered to fit in with a culture. During the year of the monkey in Singapore McDonalds, they advertised four monkeys. These symbolised luck, fortune, longevity, and happiness. This is also an example of selling a sense of roots. It’s a great example of how the franchise adapts to fit in more with local tradition to ensure inclusion within the culture. McDonald’s colour scheme is something which also been adapted in recent years, changing European stores backdrop from the classic red to a new hunter green. This suggests McDonalds have clearly thought about the cultural connotations of their colour scheme. In Asia red symbolises luck, courage and respect, this isn’t the same in Europe where it represents danger and anger. This decision to change to a more neutral, friendly green for their European stores was no mistake.

 

Ikea

Founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea has become a globally recognisable brand, with stores all over the world, from Japan to Croatia. In part, this success can be credited to the company’s universally appealing brand attributes of low price, sustainability and function. Using a bright bold blue and yellow colour scheme Ikeas branding is strong and memorable.

Starbucks

With around 20,000 stores in 63 countries the world’s most popular coffee shop has made its mark from Brazil to China. Starbucks has changed with trends, changing its logo many times over the years. Now having globalised the world market, they are rbanching out into new ventures and other products apart from coffee.

OUGD601: COP PRACTICAL about globalization

Definition:

globalization

/ɡləʊb(ə)lʌɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/

noun

noun: globalisation

1. the process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

   
   

   "fears about the increasing globalization of the world economy"

Opinions of globalisation:

(Thomas and Walsh) summarises postmodernism as ‘a globalising post-industrial world of media, communication and information systems…basis of a market-oriented world of consumption rather than work and production’. This summary sheds light on key features of postmodernism, them being globalisation, and a world of consumption and communication. (O’sullivan) defines globalisation as ‘the growth and acceleration of economic and cultural networks which operate on a worldwide scale and basis.’ These ‘economic and cultural networks’ make reference to financial and communication systems, these could be argued as key to bringing us into the modern globalised world we live in today. These developments, particularly in technologies allowed people to communicate much easier and much further distances than ever before, which opened a whole new market for new products for new customers around the world. According to (Appadurai 1990), there are cultural flows that all participate to make globalisation possible. He discusses 5 flows; ‘Ethnoscpes’ for example tourists, immigrants and gusetworkers. ‘Technoscapes’ the movement of technology and machinery. ‘Finascapes’ the flow of money through markets. ‘Mediascapes’ the distribution of media. Finally ‘Ideoscapes’ texts and images which are produced and consumed.  Both mediascapes and ideoscapes relate directly to graphic designers. To some extent this states the important role in which we play as designer in relation to globalisation. We do this through the distribution of our designs ideoscapes across cultures through the means of media mediascapes, such as newspapers, magazines, television and film.

OUGD601: COP PRACTICAL initial thoughts / research avenues

Things to research:

Globalisation:
- what is it?
- history
- succesfull brands
- unsuccessful brands

Classic brands:

- logos thats last forever
- longevity of brands

Contrasting cultures:

- east to west
- key differences

Language:

- different type
- different shape
- different meanings

Key considerations:

- politics/ history
- cultural
- identity

Graphic design avenues:

- colour
- type
- layout
- icons
- symbols
- style

OUGD601: COP further plan

At this point in the project I had a much better understanding of the kind of book and areas to look into in much further detail. I knew needed to have a much better understanding and knowledge of the relationship between graphic design and culture. Graphic Design as Communication was the key book which allowed me to gain a huge amount of knowledge from the views of many designers and philosophers giving me varied opinions on culture and globalisation. No Logo was also very helpful allowing me to see a view based around the negative aspects of globalisation, this linked in nicely giving me an opposing argument. Below are themes talked about within the books and possible avenues and quotes to reference in my essay.