The Project Reflection- Seminar 1

My name is Linnea Anderson, I’m a fashion design major from Saint Paul, Minnesota. I am particularly interested in vintage fashion, era specific pieces, and costume design. This is what drew me to the movie ‘They Live’ for my Bridge #4 project, it is set in the 1980’s and contained the vintage fashion and 80’s characters that I craved. After watching the movie, I discovered it’s heavy theme which pertains to consumerism in America and the division between the working and upper class which drew me in even more as this is a topic I attempt to stay very attentive to, due to the fast fashion culture amongst my generation. I am very against fast fashion and the consumerist society we live in and try my best not to partake in it. Watching ‘They Live’ and making a zine off of the topic was a very beneficial process to me as it allowed me to understand the economics behind consumerism and how it has been affected in the past due to ulterior factors such as the policies introduced in Reaganomics, which I discussed and analyzed in my Bridge #4 research paper.

My main goal of the project was to fully understand the causes and effects of consumerism on the economy and to find its long term advantages/disadvantages. In the 1980’s, consumerism did help America out of a big recession but soon after spiraled out of control as corporations gained more wealth and power, which has been exponentially increasing ever since. All of this was accomplished through my research paper. I went through a process of writing this and changed my thesis halfway through as I felt I couldn’t fully explain the first thesis I had come up with properly and confidently with the sources I had found. I switched from writing about the division between the working and upper class to simply explaining how Reagan’s presidential policies gave consumerism in America a jump start. This thesis was more clear to me and I could find enough support and evidence of it in the sources I had found.

I connected my research paper to my zine by creating a PSA that was true to the time period, being the 1980’s. I had a lot of fun creating the zine layout as I am very interested in graphic design and take pride in my ability to make my work look very finished, as far as layout and composition goes. I thought about the television announcements that are present in the movie where the working class are trying to warn others about the consumer problem that is arising and wanted to create a zine with a similar effect. I chose black and white imaged and a typewriter font laid overtop of a static background, to give the illusion of a pamphlet that could have been easily reproduced and distributed amongst the workers at the time. I came up with several symbols through our zine exercise practices in studio, that worked together to create an avatar of consumerism. All of the symbols I included can also be tied into today’s society, such as the gun for police brutality, and the television for fake news.

I would definitely do a project like this one again. I feel much more knowledgeable now on a topic that I am passionate about and would love to learn even more about the history of consumerism, across the world not only in America. I am not a big fan of writing research papers but it is still a good practice to keep up with and have the ability to do. This is the first paper I have written where I read actual books for research rather than just various random web pages and I am proud of myself for that. The zine, however, was the most fun for me. I really enjoyed creating something with a purpose and would like to make more zines in the future. I have considered it before with photos of clothes I have made but now I see it is even more fun to add text and a story/message behind the zines I make.

You may view my paper and zine here:

Research Paper

Zine

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