Challenge

Memes as tote bags

The challenge was to design a tote bag related to my thesis research and produce at least five bags to distribute and record any responses of note.

The thesis should be making an argument, through design, about my given research. The form is generic and open to interpretation.

Process

Type of tote bag = nature of memes

Tote Bags are objects of everyday use that do not attract too much attention except for the visual or text on it sometimes. Likewise, the usage of memes in general has become a day to day form of communication and people with strong political opinions are taking advantage of this fact. Memes, being subtle lightweight messages, can integrate well with everyday objects.

Design Response

Word game on

Meme culture being a remixed culture in nature, I made use of existing forms of tote bags like a grocery bag, a shopping bag, a newspaper, the plastic cover of a newspaper and Pratt’s library bag. I tweaked the content on these to fit the needs of my political meme catchphrases; also highlighting the fact that currently politics is campaigning based on meme hashtags, which is a word game which can be very powerful.

The different bags highlight the different attributes of memes -

• Trader Joe’s grocery bag - memes are sarcastic and have double meaning
• Sephora shopping bag - memes are bold and target the soft spot of voters they are bold
• Newspaper - memes can be random or small in size but have a powerful impact
• Existing cloth - memes use social media as an empowering tool
• Plastic cover - memes bolster transparency but misinform too