Inspiration can come from many shapes and forms from sources to our connection with others and their works. Our understanding and choices are frequently built upon those we are influenced by. For the past few years, I grew up surrounded by influencers, innovators and critical thinkers who made me who I am now. Using the decision-making process, a personal timeline is designed to highlight and summarise my influencers.
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
INFLUENCERS/ HEROES
The assignment requires to look at our influencers, innovators and critical thinkers. All of them seem pretty straight forward but what is an influencer, a term frequently used by brands. An influencer is ”an individual who has the power to affect purchase decisions of others because of his/her authority, knowledge, position or relationship with his/her audience” (Influencer MarketingHub, n.d.). Followers often operate in a particular niche in which they actively engage with an audience. Micro influencers are becoming more influential but also more common because they gained a sizeable social media following and have in-depth knowledge about a specific niche.
Campbell (1988) believed that we all undergo on a hero-like journey and that during our lives “we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.” In this above-mentioned brief, I decided to add ”heroes” after watching a TED Talk on ”inspiration”. “Our heroes show the path to our desire, our role models inspire us to be more like them and our mentors help us to uncover and unleash our true potential” explain Dyan deNapoli, Senior Penguin Aquarist at the New England Aquarium, in her TED Talk. She confesses she would never have achieved all of her amazing encounters without having influential role models and mentors. The urges to seek out heroes, role models and mentors who can help us become the person we aspire to be. These can help us to move one step closer to our dreams since we all have to potential to achieve them, but we need other people to help us realise our greatest potential.
We choose our influencers and heroes, which shape our hero-like journey. How do we make a decision? What are the decision-making parameters/ factors?
DECISION-MAKING
Decision-making is a cognitive process, where the result is a choice between two alternatives. Often decision occurs in a moment of uncertainty when the choice will lead to either benefit or harm. According to Plato, decisions can be rational or emotional and argued that emotions were naturally in opposition to reason. Recent studies proved that emotions are more than just a distraction within the decision-making process. Antonio Damasio was one of the first neuroscientists to include emotions in our understanding of decision-making. He explains emotions can lead to bias decision but the absence of emotion doesn’t mean better decision-making (Damasio, 1996). The absence of emotion would actually make decision-making impossible and arguably logical decisions are always based on emotions. So, emotions are necessary for decision-making (Barbey, Colom and Grafman, 2014; Damasio, 1996).
A recent study from Barbey, Colom, and Grafman (2014) showed evidence in the discovery of discovering the neural mechanisms of emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence guides us in managing our emotions to achieve personal goals, to cope with the immediate situation, make decisions and solve problems of a personal and/or interpersonal nature (Barbey, Colom and Grafman, 2014). Thus, emotions play an important role in decision-making, thus influencing future decisions (Naqvi, Shiv and Bechara, 2006). From a customer experience perspective, decisions are based on emotions and self-interests, so brands can help consumers to discover what feels right and most advantageous to them (Camp, 2012).
Although emotions play a big role in decision-making, according to Dietrich (2010), there are also several factors which influence decision-making like past experience (Juliusson, Karlsson and Gӓrling, 2005), cognitive biases (Stanovich and West, 2008), age and individual differences (Bruin, Parker and Fischoff, 2007) and belief in personal relevance (Acevedo and Krueger, 2004).
In the context of the above-described brief, a personal influencer timeline, the article looks at the past experience and the belief in personal relevance.
Lead researcher, Dr Zoe Kourtzi tells in his research how past experiences help when we have to make complex decisions based on uncertain or confusing information (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, 2009). Decisions are weight according to experience, often without thinking about it. Kahneman describes how people make decisions are determined by the memories of experience by the remembering self. Kahneman explains decisions aren’t based on a product experience but on memories of a (brand) experience (Widmer, 2016). Thus, his findings highlight the impact of the memory of experience on decision-making, which has an effect on the consumer experience and the quest to build brand loyalty.
Personal relevance refers to “the extent [to which] consumers perceive the object/objective to be self-related [or in some way instrumental] in achieving their personal goals and values” (Celsi and Olson, 1988). Rothman and Salovey (1997) and several later studies concluded the framing effect [how our choices are influenced by the way they are framed through different wordings, settings, and situations (The Decision Lab, n.d.)] occurs when people are involved with the issue. In other words, when a person is highly involved by an issue, he/she is more likely to process the relevant message in details (Petty and Cacioppo, 1983). Several studies showed that the level of personal relevant (high or low) can define the influence of a message on a person, thus on the decision-making process (Ghuge, 2010). According to Acevedo and Krueger (2004), when people believe what matters to them, they are more likely to make a decision based on their motivating factor.
CONCEPT
Goal: To design and present a personal timeline that highlights influencers, innovators, shakers and heroes. These influencers and heroes are shaping our understandings and guide/shape our choices. The following master assignment can be used as a possible starting point for future work.
Message: A look into my last 20 years of influencers, critical thinkers and heroes.
Format: Digital illustration/ infographic.
Idea generation: Ideas are formed by associating unrelated concepts in an unexpected or unusual way (Collins, 2018). To increase the change of having greater ideas, the brainstorming tool is used. It is a great way to generate ideas in a short period of time (Collins, 2018). To be successful, you need to look for unusual/ wild ideas, go for quantity of ideas, defer judgement, and combine/ build on ideas to create a new one. A couple of sketches were also done as a visual reference for the final product.
Final visualisation
Feedback: From a visual aspect, it seemed to be pleasing for the audience eye, although they found it difficult to see a DNA shape in my timeline. When looking back, I understand that the DNA shape disappears within all these shapes and information. I am also not satisfied with the colour palette. There is nothing wrong because there are analogous colours but they don’t convey any message in this visual. From a content aspect, I received little questions on my presentation, so I assume the presentation was clear. I believe that the presentation could have been clearer if I included more visuals.
FINAL RESULT
Not satisfied with the previous outcome, for the final design, I decided to design a new visual. This new visual represents a more accurate representation of the main influencer in my life, Windows 98. Thanks to my parent’s purchase of a 1998-computer, I started to explore the endless possibilities from this new technology using its communication tools, design software, web-research browsers and creative/ entertainment (coding, gaming and video) platforms. It opened up a new and broader universe than I could have ever imagined. I was no longer just a French kid, but an all-around kid! As catalyst to my curiosity and creativity, the new visual is a representation of Windows 98’s interface symbolising my generation and the main tool that influenced my identity.
My timeline is integrated into the Windows 98 window as if I was able to look at the parameters/ set-ups of my DNA. I believe that these influencers and heroes shaped my DNA, obviously not on a physical level but on a mental level. To summarise these various influences, I decided to divide into three parts my timeline, which corresponded to the human growth: childhood, teenagehood, and young adulthood.
CHILDHOOD: FROM 6 TO 12 YEARS OLD
- Ministry of French National Education: The French Education shaped 18 years of my life. The education is rather authoritarian and vertical, where you have to listen to your teacher and not question his lesson. The school crashes a lot of children because of its system. I would often find myself bullied because I would often ask questions and did not follow student clans/ bossy leaders. I would find the school system and teachers not supportive and not inspiring. It only raised within me this idea of achieving justice and fairness.
- Walt Disney: Born in the 19990s in a Western country, it is unavoidable to be influenced by the Walt Disney Studio. I grew up with the movies Snow White, Bambi, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins. A colourful cartoon world, the Walt Disney portrays in a very black and white world ‘evil vs good’ and aesthetics/ attributes expected from women. Despite the negative connotation of these movies, I was greatly inspired by drawing these characters and imagining stories when playing with dolls with my sister.
- Les Minikeums: It is a French youth show portraying 1990s caricatural celebrities puppets. The show was hosted by three puppets who were sharing their passion for technology, fashion, sport, song, and dance. Each show was a parody of news show. The show also played humouristic scenes with songs leading to a CD called Les Minikeums, L’alboum that I own and love very dearly. I really enjoyed this show because it developed a more critical eye to the news and various trends in the 1990s.
TEENAGEHOOD: FROM 13 TO 19 YEARS OLD
- C’est Pas Sorcier: It is a French youth science show hosted by three journalists who travelled around the world, interview specialists and conducted experiences to cover difference sciences topics like space and astronomy, geology, geography, botany, sport, health and many more. This show developed my curiosity for sciences and hunger for more knowledge. I really enjoyed the way the experiences were originally conducted using models.
- Japanese mangas: France was very influenced by the Japanese culture and more particularly its manga and animations. My favourite mangas at the time were Detective Conan, Bleach, D.Gray Man, Full Metal Alchemist and many more. I really started to draw more on a daily basis by re-drawing my favourite manga characters. It influenced my drawing style for a very long time. Until today, I am still very strongly influenced by them from a drawing and animation perspective.
- Hayao Miyazaki: A fantastic Japanese manga-artist, animator, and filmmaker. Co-founder of the Ghibli animation studio, he produced, with many talented artists, renowned movies like Princess Monokoke, Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Howl’s Moving Castle and many more. Fascinated by the drawing, Miyazaki particularly captivated me for the themes explored in his stories more particularly the environmentalism theme with the movie Princess Mononoke and My Neighbour Totoro. It inspired me to draw with the intention to surprise and question the viewer.
- Albert Uderzo & Renée Goscinny: My father owns a large collection of Astérix & Obélix comic strips. I have read them all and really enjoyed going through the adventure of these two characters. Again, I really enjoyed the caricature of the ‘gaulois’ in these strips. I also motivated me to draw small strips of my daily life during classes.
YOUNG ADULTHOOD: FROM 20 TO 26 YEARS OLD
- Kendo: Kendo is a Japanese martial art, a heritage of the art of the warrior/ samurai. I have been practising this art for 8 years and I have gained many values through it such as assertiveness, determination, calmness, and focus. My teacher was also a great inspiration to me and taught me a lot about the kendo philosophy and surprisingly some management skills thanks to his job experience as a crisis manager at Rijkswaterstaat in the Netherlands (Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management). He taught me about the
- The Netherlands (Groningen): I moved to the Netherlands 9 years ago and did my higher education in ”Dutch” schools. By opposition to the French education, the Dutch education encourages students to be curious by questioning and looking for clues to answer the explored topics within the curriculum. By following this education, it made more assertive and curious to find more information on the given topics. I also learned from the Dutch such as being straight-forward and getting your message clearly even if it is not positive because it is more time and resources efficient when conducting businesses.
- Pam Warhurst: Pam Warhurst, a British community leader, activist and environment worker, gave a TED Talk, which inspired me to create a change around me. In her talk, she shows her determination in growing food locally by planting on unused land throughout the community. After watching this talk, I started to look into the sustainable food (forgotten vegetables/ fruits and seasonable products) and the permaculture. Based on her talk, I started to think of a new way of consuming food by focusing on local production, check my ongoing project Season In. This project may be the base of my master final project.
Disclaimer: With more time, I would ideally create this final work as an interactive piece with clickable links and pop-up windows.
In the end, I do not have one hero or influencer, I want to become my own hero by pushing the boundaries that are in front of me. I may still have to meet the mentor or role model who will guide and inspire my hero-journey. For now, I mentioned a number of influences shaped my curiosity, drive, critical thinking and develop my personal taste. These are very important because they help us to understand where we come from and how to arrive where we are at this moment. Influences should not be neglected but embarrassed because they can help us to form new connections or spark new forgotten interest.
CRITICAL REFLECTION
Influencers and heroes shape who we are as a person and may influence our daily decisions and thoughts. The assignment was interesting to undertake because it pushed me to think back on what key moments (translated into influencers and heroes) that marked and shaped my journey as a young adult. It was not difficult to recall them but it was difficult to choose, which of these influences made a change or created a real impact on me.
Looking at influencers and heroes can help to see recurrent patterns, a thread of interest thanks to a repeated interest. These should not be forgotten because they can be a source of inspiration (Pam Warhust for my start-up idea) and spark creativity in future projects (drawing style of Miyazaki).
Through this design, I can see that themes like storytelling, illustration, education, marketing/communication, and social engagement, are pillars of my identity. Some of these themes could be explored further to deepen my knowledge or even could become the foundation for the master project preparations. Not only, the themes of influencers and consumer decision-making could also spark ideas for a good thesis topic.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Campbell, J. (1988). The power of myth, with Bill Moyers. New York, USA: Doubleday.
Collins, H. (2018). Creative Research, The Theory And Practice Of Research For The Creative Industries. 2nd edn. Bloomsbury: London, the United-Kingdom.
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Ghuge, S. (2010). The role of personal relevance and mood on the persuasive impact of gain and loss frames in advertising messages about a vaccine against alcohol addiction. Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
Influencer MarketingHub. (n.d.). What is an Influencer? [Online]. Available at: https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-an-influencer/ (Accessed: 15 November 2018)
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