skndugan

"Good job, Kevin! Looks amazing."

"Hi there, yes absolutely. Which ones would you like to use? Feel free to send me an email if you need high res files or any supplementary information. skndugan@gmail.com"

"Thanks for the comment, appreciate it. I've actually had this concept approved for a gallery exhibition in my city this March, so pictures to come! The ball is rolling."

"I do agree with you Oliver, I have little hope big agencies would ever change because exactly what you say - short term financial profit. But I think its very important for people, such as myself, who will be working with these big agencies one day to be self-critical of my practice, and where I can enforce positive ways of communicating, while using my practice to do so. "

"This is a big goal of mine, my school and my career is going to be so commercial. Everything we do. I am slowly trying to introduce these things into my school work this year, and its going well!"

"Totally doable, although I am guilty myself of the bad practices, I think this is all very doable and I hope to be able to do this in my career in advertising and even in my school work this year if the opportunity comes up."

"Thanks, I think its interesting as well because its not something we consciously consider. Its something we just accept as designers, that some fonts are feminine and some are masculine and their uses are based around that gender distinction. So I am trying to consider the best way to approach this project to make us consider this deeply ingrained acceptance of typographic gender roles, and bring attention to them and question them. Any input?"

"Very interesting piece, its nice to see you guys collaborating even after the workshop!"

"Feedback on this project welcome - still working out details in the concept before I execute. "

"A late reply from me as well. Thank you everyone who posted links and information though, I appreciated all of it and always find it interesting to see things and different perspectives regarding this issue.

I do agree with what Oliver says here, as my late contribution to this topic, and I too would like to know what he is asking, and I would like your opinion and suggestions, Jody, as it is very clear you feel very strongly about this!

As a final input from myself, I think it would be really interesting to focus the next friendly competition theme around the idea balance (or imbalance...) because it would build on the last theme of "love, conflict and imagination", and I think it would expose not only imbalanced power relationships, inequality etc. but also open the door for balance, constructive criticism etc. and positive relationships."

"Haha, exactly!"

"There's a term for that since you mention nazi's - feminazis, haha.

"

"I am interested to hear more about the gender equal practices you are familiar with, Alana, in areas that are deemed as "not-gender-equal".

You also made another important point, I was hoping to make but kind of missed the ball on - the importance of being mindful of changes, and to not fall into, as you phrase it, "the disastrous spiral of making-the-rest-of-the-world-like-the-west", what works and doesn't work for the west will not always be the same when placed into another context with different values and traditions."

"You brought up a good point, Jason - that's an extremely important consideration.

I think dialogue on these issues is so crucial to truly understanding systematic influences. For example, I would never ever identify myself as a "feminist" because of the environment and society I have grown up in, if anything I sometimes feel as though, in Canada, women have it a bit better off than men (for example: car insurance prices), yet I absolutely recognize this is not the case, and not even close to the case in other countries right now. I feel this way completely in the context of my own country, because this is where the majority of my experience lies.

However I also recognize not all countries are this fortunate and how many big, big changes are still needed for even the slightest bit of equality.

I think its important to recognize whether or not we as communicators are being ethnocentric in our views on these issues. I say that in the sense, it would be very close minded of me to assume every country is like Canada, and there is no need for change (which is far from how I feel). But I also say this because although, due to our more liberal backgrounds (some of us) and upbringings in more equal countries than others, I think its fair to expect there to be some biased expectations that all countries should strive to be more liberal and equal, and certainly as equal or liberal as at least what you have experienced first hand, no?

I'm not sure all people who experience these imbalances are unhappy, or want change. I do not know, I am not them, and I do not like generalizing big groups of people, if I only hear the want for change from some. I think its realistic to consider that maybe a lot of them are okay with it though? Because of the systematic influences they have developed in, of course. Does it make imbalance wrong or right? I am not sure, I am still figuring that out for myself."

"Hmm, I just find occasionally some "feminists" I have spoken with on the issue tend to come off as sexist towards men in a sense, and well, it goes back to the old saying: two wrongs don't make a right. I haven't found that on this string, but more so through interactions I've had at my school etc., and to me that is off-putting, because it's not constructive at all.

And yes, I guess to some extent as well, I hope feminism is geared towards that issues that are socially constructed between the genders.

I don't think feminist positions ARE sexist, not all, anyways. Certainly not In theory - they shouldn't be, but I think some women who identify themselves as feminists are sexist towards men, again, nobody really on this thread, but ones I have met who just hate men for these social imbalances and power issues. It's not constructive to me."

"Maybe we should focus on something more along the lines of "anti-sexism", occasionally hearing some feminist positions, for me, is off-putting because I do feel some sexism in comments I hear (not so much in this thread, but in my day to day life), and immediately I take the feminist position much less seriously.

But in regards to what Jody is saying perhaps this does just come back to power dynamics and conflict in the world, rather than just "inequality"."

"Oliver, we have ideas! Haha."

"Yes! Maybe we should just focus the next friendly competition around the theme of "inequality","

"Sarcasm's too hard to detect through only typing still... somebody needs to get on that and invent an emoticon or something... ha.

@karm3ns33ta

I feel a lot of these issues you bring up are real problems in many countries around the globe. I do not disagree at all.

Except for the question - "are women free from the social pressure of being feminine?" - I do not believe this can be attributed to a "gender imbalance", but a close-minded society in general. I think in these unequal societies men also face similar issues, for example: "are men free from the social pressure of being masculine?" - I am going to go out on a limb, and assume, NO for the most part, and go further and assume homosexuality and sexual diversity faces even more inequality than simply being a woman.

So really, the inequality is on an even larger scale than only women's rights in these countries, and these are bigger problems than just "gender imbalance".
"

"Definitely! As I said, some there are definite equal opportunities in certain countries (such as mine) I believe, but others definitely not so much. But just because there are so many countries with massive gender imbalances in the world, its unfair to make a generalization that it exists everywhere. It certainly is a huge issue in many places, even in certain aspects of countries where its otherwise equal sometimes. It just provides hope and to some extent a framework for change, one day for other places, don't you think?

I too have heard this about the United States. I've never considered the United States to be very "progressive" in comparison to some other countries, however."

"I think for the most part, today, women do have many of the same opportunities as men. Certainly in my country I feel they do. In some countries, its absolutely not equal, but in some I would say it mostly is.

In response to the domestic labour being upon a women's shoulder, from a Canadian perspective, I disagree. I believe that is a choice, and not a gender social imbalance. Just as Oliver said the mentors were chosen based on their participation in Memefest from the beginning, so more men just took more interest to this particular community than woman, but its been open and the choice has been there. Simple as that. "

"I have no words. The picture of Vladimir on the pole (dancing?) is amazing. So funny. Haha."

"I do agree with you both as well, although I did notice the gender imbalance, not once did this ever really bother me. Interesting that there was an imbalance, but I liked what the mentors brought to the table and found them all all very different and inspiring on individual levels. "

"Truly a warm, inspirational and educational experience. Thank you again for all the hard work everyone put into making this happen - it was an education I couldn't get elsewhere, and I truly appreciate everything, everyone did. Thank you again."

"Jody - I do agree with what you have posted, and I did notice the obvious imbalance during Inspiration Day as well, I think you raise an important concern especially regarding an open dialogue within radical communication.

Oliver - It may yield some interesting and discussion-worthy results to focus the next friendly competition around traditional and non-traditional roles in society regarding gender, sexual identity etc. I think doing something along those lines would encourage more women, as well as people in minority positions in society to participate, and further open the discussion and create collaboration with less dominant voices in the Memefest community."

"It also reminds me of the statement "make love, not war" - nicely done."

"** edit: "bold SANS serif font ** - it was late."

"I do apologize for the late response, I am finally getting a chance while I suffer from jet-lag in Amsterdam...

The re-brading itself is rather vapid - its selling a shallow image and that is it. There is not consideration for the core values of the institution, as a designer that is the first stage in the design process - to determine the audience and intention. The intention here does not go any further than selling the modern cliche of "cool", and clearly the audience has not been overly considered, as it is a general image aimed at what young adults may consider "cool". I don't believe opening the re-design to the student community would have made it stronger though, either, as some core design fundamentals could have been overlooked (although there certainly seems to be a lot lacking as it is). I do believe there should have been some initial contact between the members within the Humanities community and the person dictating the goals of the re-brand to the designers responsible. It seems as though one person informed the designers of the "goal" - to make the institution appear attractive, to invite more applicants - and being "cool" is attractive, right?

Aesthetically, the design is amateur. There is no consideration for the placement of the random geometric shapes (why do they enhance the design at all?) in relationship the other elements of the overall design. Typographically, its a mess - which is such a shame for what comes across a typographically dominant design. I question why the designers thought it was important to emphasize "CIVILIZATION BEGAN THE" in bold serif font. Although the core message of the design is completely unconsidered, it would have had a much stronger impact if they had only emphasized "CIVILIZATION BEGAN". I do understand their intent on combining the sans serif with a serif font - however their font choices are also lacking if their intention was to contrast the old with the new. And don't get me started on the unnecessary widows...

Also, am I the only one who finds this design overly masculine and not gender equal? The colour palette, font selection, image of a male etc, seems a little gender-specific for what you think would be a gender-equal department..."

"Thanks! Look forward to meeting and working with all of you :)"