2011 Research Summary on the Semiotics of Generation Y

1. A
Gen
of

2. Exploding a demographic… semiotics applied
What do Gen Y and
Mr Topsy Turvy
have in common?
Why is Oscar Wilde’s
ghost walking
Adelaide’s streets?
What’s with all the
vulgarity? Why are Gen Y
coveting nanna’s
style?

3. OLD
TIMER
FU*K YOU
OSTENTATION
ESCHERISM
SERENDIPITYDAPPERISM
ICARUS’S
FLIGHT
Gen Y through the looking glass...
BUBBLEGUM
CULTURE

4. OLD
TIMER
1

5. Gen Y are coveting nanna’s style...

6. The roots of Old Timer culture run deep...
Break-neck pace of
technological change
1 2The imperative to be
original
Frustration with
transience
Search for
‘timelessness’: fashion
that’s outside the
obsolescence cycle
Mass market favours
the ‘herd’
Mine the past for ‘one-
offs’: carving out an
ultra unique identity

7. Old timer has an industrial bent too...
Crates, steel girders, bare
lightglobes, distressed
materials,visibledecay.
Modern shops leverage
symbols of urban decay...

8. OLD TIMER SIGNALS A YEARNING FOR MORE HUMANISED PRODUCTION... THE FRUIT OF TIME
AND PROCESS
Mass produced, identi-kit culture is fuelling a yearning for
imperfection and idiosyncratic uniqueness
Off the manufacturing line
Cheap, disposable
Carbon copies, homogeneity
Computerised speed,
instantaneousness + precision
Death of the trades, computer-
aided expertise
Man made, crafted
Built tolast
Natural flaws yielding tangible character
Sense of process, a journey
Skilled craftsmen

9. A peek at three...
ESCHERISM
2

10. Escherism inverts and distorts the world around us...

11. Escherism puts a kaleidoscope to Gen Y’s eye...
See the world through a
new lens
1 2Adhering to their
rebellious transgressive
law
A wealth of fresh
experiences and
encounters in a safe,
hum drum environment
Turning the world
around them upside
down

12. FU*K YOU
OSTENTATION
3

13. Culture-jammers at heart, Gen Y leverage modern taboos...

14. BUBBLEGUM
CULTURE
4

15. Bubblegum culture is Gen Y’s attempt to feel more acutely...
Gen Y culture obsessed with visual representation of
moods (emoticons)
A need for exaggerated, even crystallised expression
Each emotion manifests to bursting point
Hyperbolic, utopian landscapes: debauchery, sex,
heavenly, candyfloss perfection
Larger than life experiences

16. Bubblegum culture is the antidote to modern life anaesthesia
... GFC fear mongering, nanny state
“thou shalt” protectionism, and a
society in love with rules and
regulations...
All serving to suffocate
creativity, play and the capacity
to feel

17. But exaggeration is also essential in an era of hyperbole...
Bubblegum Culture allows for fresh, invigorating, intense
experience against a backdrop of sensory saturation
bolder
brighter

18. DAPPERISM
5

19. Dapperism represents an emergent shift in masculinity...
A new gentrified expression of masculinity is emerging...
...Rebelling against the bogan, beer swilling, topless surfie alpha male norm
...and the emergent skinny jean wearing, man-bag touting, feminised masculinity fringe
...it’s a return to traditional tailoring, grooming, fedora and brogue-wearing, trimmed
moustaches, leather watch straps, and gentlemanly countenance...

20. SERENDIPITY
6

21. In an era of automation and regulation, serendipity throws a fat
dose of surprise into the mix...
Pop up retail: here today, gone
tomorrow
Music recommendation for
serendipitous discovery
Niche clothes finds never to be
repeated

22. ICARUS’S
FLIGHT
7

23. Bird symbolism has powerful cultural significance...
Icarus’s
flight from
Crete
Phoenix
from the
ashes
escape
liberation
resurrection
reinvention
Cultural link
between heaven
and earth
transcendence
FOR A GENERATION FIXATED ON REINVENTION AND THE TRANSGRESSION OF RULES AND
NORMS, BIRDS ARE A NATURAL MASCOT

24. True to form, Gen Y leverage the symbolism of birds on their
journey