Task 4 - Communication Theory

Use Shannon & Weaver's model of the communication process to write a 300-400 word analysis of a work of Graphic Design. Comment on the ways in which the piece of Graphic Design attempts to communicate to a specific audience, using techniques of redundancy, entropy or noise.

The piece of work that I have chosen is a screen-printed poster by The Delicious Design League for the 'Storming Stages and Stereos' tour featuring bands Bayside and Straylight Run. 

After analysing this piece with 'communication theory’ in mind, the separate parts of Shannon & Weaver's Model started to become apparent and I can now apply it’s theory to the design of the poster.

The information source is primarily the client, the commissioner of the poster, in this case it would be Victory Records whom would be the ones promoting the tour. They would pitch the idea to the designer, who, along with their design skills would be the transmitter, essentially encoding the design. In turn, they would have produced this poster using a series of screen-printing skills using specific paints and stock taking the place of the channel. It then is the turn of the audience, the people looking at this poster and their decoding skills to take the place of the receiver. The message is then at it’s final destination… the brain of the decoder.

The target audience is clear, to the fans of the bands playing, mainly ‘Bayside’, as the type outlining their name is a lot clearer on the image. Bolder and less entropic than the smaller type chosen for ‘Straylight Run’ indicates who are the headliners and who is supporting. There is far more redundancy in the word ‘Bayside’. The technical type on the poster is almost completely entropic, the decision of choosing yellow type on a similar colour background for the small text on the top and bottom of the poster has rendered it almost illegible. This could be noise from the transmitter, in this case being the designer, not knowing much about colour theory, or a poor choice of stock.

Screen printing brings up a lot of opportunity for noise to interfere with the process of getting the message across to the destination. Technical issues often occur with layering the paint, setting up the screen, and positioning it correctly on the stock. This would be noise taking place between the transmitter and the channel. In this case, the decision has clearly been made to create a lot of layers on the print, adding noise intentionally. Some of the layers are entropic, meaning you cannot really make them out at all. 

The receiver, people viewing this poster will know what it’s purpose is. It is aimed at Bayside and Straylight Run fans, essentially rock fans. It catches the eye with it’s bright colours and will effectively let them know of the information needed.