My dissertation is going to be reviewing the psychological effects of Sexual imagery used in media on the viewer. This is one of the books that I purchased to review, showing how designers have used this notion to create attention grabbing work; covering every type of medium. It is produced by a design consultancy and magazine publisher; Plazm. This book aims to go beyond the usual showcase of sexual imagery in media by showing projects that are shocking, and rather more erotic than sexual; exploring projects that use abnormal themes such as S&M, homosexuality.
What attracts me more to this book is that it has become a piece of design itself; a desired object. As a review of the book said: “it wears its subject matter on its sleeve,” for unlike any other book on this topic the cover is made of black rubber. It is addictive to touch and bend and has a silver and red writing that draws your attention to it, and unlike a normal book that would have this written on it, your not embarrassed of reading it in public or leaving it around. It wants you to be proud of it and make people around you think, what on earth are they reading?! It gives it a different feeling when you read it, a multi-sensory experience, making it more erotic. The design inside is clean and allows the images to be large enough to explore.
As much as I love this book, it is comprised mainly of illustrations with brief areas of text trying to explain the meanings behind the images. It doesn’t seem to reach it’s point of explaining the socio-political and theoretical messages in the works, and leaves you a little lost. It’s design therefore inspires me more and the selected works themselves, without the help of the authors.
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