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.