Today, I’ve been looking at articles pertaining to observations of cute aesthetics. I found this interesting article by Kitty Hauser from the London Book of Reviews website. Hauser reviews two books regarding Japanese cute culture and fashion and how its own economic turmoil has been an influence on cute aesthetics, culture, and fashion.

I also found another interesting article by Gary Genosko called The Natures and Cultures and Cuteness. He writes about the psychology of cuteness. He writes that the feelings we have for babies are similar to those feelings we have when we see cute Disney characters or cute animals. And how we buy into it.

In this article I found in the Speak-Up archives (part of UnderConsideration), author Marian Bantjes defines The Aesthetics of Cute by different categories and characteristics. It’s a really funny read.

Lastly, I found this article on CabinetMagazine entitled Fifteen Theses of the Cute by Frances Richard. In this piece, Richard writes about his thoughts regarding ‘Cute’ and what it ‘is’.

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And here are some images by artist Gemma Correll (who is an artist I recently discovered…I LOVE her art!):

San-X’s cute orange, Mikan (they are so cute!! EEE! I just want to spend money on them!):

I have probably spent in the hundreds on San-X related merchandise too…I mean, how could any one resist stationary that has a cute character like this:

…Beerchan! So cute! Makes me want a drink.

So I’ve been conflicted lately…I’m divided between two topics that I’d like to use for senior project. The first one, a topic I’ve mentioned in other posts, is consumerism. I read the Consumerist blog everyday and I’ve done my fair share of retail work and consumerist. The problem is, I don’t know how to use or expand upon that topic. I guess I could expand upon a visual representation of greed or something a la recession graphics, but that stuff’s done to death (or, you could say, there is a ton of information out there).

The other topic I was thinking of expanding upon is the idea/concept/aesthetics of the term “cute”. I think one of the reasons I became interested in graphic design was my hobby of collecting Korean and Japanese stationary:

psst…Aranzi Aronzo is someone who I really like a lot…

Cuteness has always appealed to me. I like a specific kind of cute aesthetic though. I really like the style that’s seen predominately in the east (which is why I collected Asian stationary). Their style is more simplified and minimalistic.  In the west, I feel the cute aesthetic is a bit too exaggerated and embellished (I’ve never thought Disney characters where cute).

I’ve thought of the following questions: What defines cute? What makes something cute? How is cuteness perceived in different regions? Why is it perceived differently? Why does cuteness appeal to us so much? Why do I feel so compelled to spend money on cuteness? How does cuteness play a role in consumerism?

While looking for stuff regarding this topic on the web, I actually found a syllabus for a class that the University of California (Santa Cruz) offered entitled The Aesthetics of Cute.

I also read this articles regarding cute on Psychology Today and Vanity Fair:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200703/global-psyche-one-nation-under-cute

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200803/cute-the-brain

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/12/cuteness-200912

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Hopefully, this will be the start of something brilliant.

http://www.searskilledmydog.com/

So I’ve been thinking about doing my senior project on consumerism and/or corporations lately.