stripped back: images and postmodernism

Everyday we are bombarded with hundreds and probably thousands of images, all with the purpose of making us want and when we want, we purchase. Our society has become more and more concerned with consumption and the transition into postmodernism, it could be argued, was the driving force behind the transformation of our attitudes regarding the issue of consumption. Richard Hebdige, who wrote a book in 1979 entitled Subculture: The Meaning of Style talks about postmodernism as an arena where competing ideas, definitions and social tendencies are active. And with technological developments occurring at the speed of light, out society has become more concerned with fantasy desire and the visual, than reality and needs.

The reliance we have upon mass media images and the false representations they offer, mean society has developed an inability to distinguish between the 'real' and the 'hyper-real'. This could be attributed to the prevalence of advertising and the forceful nature of images and branding which goes hand in hand with the promotion of product or company. Which brings us to Antrepo, a design agency whose recent project was all about simplicity and stripping back branding. I wonder if all packaging was stripped back and a basic approach taken to all product design, whether we would purchase the amount, or types of products we do. 

A company's branding is one of the most fundamental things, but in essence, the below images show that the branding can still be achieved with a simpler format. In some cases I feel the simple design elements give the product a more sophisticated and high-end feel, like the Mr Muscle, Red Bull and Evian. But you can decide for yourself. 

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