Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

Outside looking in: foreign perceptions of Brazilian Design culture
SCAFF, Claudia / MFA / Associate Professor / University of North Florida / United States
JOHANSEN, Douglas / PhD / Jacksonville University / United States
International design / Brazil / Culture / Social / Education
This paper assesses the perceptions of Brazilian design and
culture among foreign designers as revealed through analysis
of creative works communicating the designers’ experience in
Brazil. By examining their personal visions of Brazil, this paper
provides unique insight into the designers’ perceptions and interpretations
of Brazilian life and culture.
1. Introduction
Outside of Brazil, stereotypical cultural icons such as Carnaval,
Cristo Redentor and the Garota de Ipanema have frequently influenced
foreign perceptions of Brazilian culture. Naturally, such
icons clearly fail to communicate a nuanced vision of Brazilian
culture. However, those who directly experience Brazilian culture
may provide a more accurate reflection of how Brazilian
Design is perceived by outsiders.
To understand the effects of first-hand exposure to Brazilian
culture on designers’ perceptions, this paper examines the personal
design statements of two groups of design students that
participated in Brazilian foreign study programs sponsored by
a US university. Each of the groups also worked on a project to
assist local not-for-profit organizations with their promotional
needs. The project required these groups to work closely with
local not-for-profit clients to create brochures, websites, posters
and a wide range of design applications to assist the not-forprofits
with business related activities.
Each of the program participants also created a personal design
concept specifically intended to reflect their experiences while
in Brazil. These design concepts are the primary subject of the
visual analysis used in this paper and reflect the profound impact
of Brazil on the students’ design sensibility. The mediums
used to describe these transformational experiences include a
wide range of design mediums, such as digital, print and mixed
media. The personal design concepts also reflect diversity in
terms of subjects, with daily life, graffiti, color and design sensibility
among other subjects being treated in a variety of styles.
By examining their personal visions of Brazil, this paper provides
unique insight into the designers’ perceptions and interpretations
of Brazilian life and culture (e.g Arnould and Thompson, 2005).
As first-time visitors to Brazil, the members of this group may
also be perceived as first-time consumers of Brazilian culture.
Thus, this study draws on theories of design, Consumer Culture
Theory (e.g. Arnould and Thompson, 2005,) and theories of cultural
differences (e.g. Hall, 1959, Hofstede, 1991, Trompenaars
1996) to offer insights into the idiosyncratic character of Brazilian
Design.
2. Conceptual Development
Culture has been defined as a set of learned behaviors that help
the members of a society to function in that society (e.g. Hall,
1959, Hofstede, 1991, Trompenaars 1996). Anthropologists and
social psychologists have characterized culture as goal-seeking
behavior that helps individuals to successfully navigate complex
societal norms and behaviors to achieve desired goals (e.g. Hofstede,
1991). Cultural knowledge is defined as the widely shared
and highly schematic mental structures that influence a particular
individual’s perceptions and actions (DiMaggio, 1997). So,
individual members of a society learn over time how to behave
to be able to survive and to thrive as members of a society, that
is, they develop the cultural knowledge appropriate to the society
in which they live. Cultural knowledge is seen as specific to
a particular society and a characteristic that distinguishes one
society from another (e.g. Hofstede, 1991).
Culture is thought to be a unifying system of collectively shared
meanings and values (Hofstede, 1991). For example, when perspectives
on what is beautiful are widely shared, a common perspective
on aesthetics or notions of beauty develops (Hofstede,
1991). Over time, differences in the shared values and meanings
between different societies are thought to distinguish one culture
from another. Over the years, scholars have developed many
perspectives on what distinguishes one culture from another
(e.g. Hall, 1959, Hofstede, 1991, Trompenaars , 1996). For example,
Hall (1959) describes such distinguishing characteristics in
terms of cultural context, where high context cultures are contrasted
with low context cultures. Hofstede 1991) asserts that
there are five dimensions of culture that account for differences
between cultures. Others, such as Trompenaars (1996) and
Schwartz (1994) have also articulated similar approaches that
identify and articulate various dimensions of culture that serve
to distinguish one culture from another. While culture, cultural
knowledge and cultural differences are tacit characteristics of
societies, deeply embedded in the behaviors and values of individual
members of a society, they have been widely researched
and patterns associated with culture have been stable over time
(e.g. Hofstede, 1991)
One particular aspect of culture, consumer culture reflects the values
and shared meanings of a society as mediated by consumer
markets (Arnould and Thompson, 2005). Thus, consumer culture
reflects the shared symbols and meanings of a society as they
appear in commercial produced images and texts, for example, in
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies / Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Committee for
Design History & Design Studies - ICDHS 2012 / São Paulo, Brazil / © 2012 Blucher / ISBN 978-85-212-0692-7