Statement
This project uses data visualisation to explore the differences in consumer fatigue towards ordinary necessities and high-priced necessities based on the relationship between prices and sales of goods in daily consumption space and reveal deeper systemic imbalances.
My line of enquiry is: How can visualising the price spectrum of daily necessities—across different brands and versions—make visible the inequalities in consumer society?
I focusing on basic items like water, meat, fish and other daily necessities, I collect and categorise price data across budget, mid-range, and luxury versions.
The iterations test how graphic communication design—through charts, diagrams, icons, and visual metaphors—can expose the hidden systems of perceived value, consumer aspiration, and market overproduction.
By shifting from branding aesthetics to information aesthetics, I aim to develop a graphic language that critiques price inflation, “premium illusion”, and the ethical cost of choice in overproduction markets.
Bibliography
1. Baudrillard, J. (1998). The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London: Sage.
“It is not objects but the meanings that are consumed.”
Over the past century, global consumption have undergone unprecedented changes. In the 20th century, consumption was centered around basic living needs—people bought food, clothing, and simple necessities. However, with the advancement of industrialization, urbanization, and globalization, consumption shifted from fulfilling survival needs to shaping identity, seeking experiences, and expressing the self. Today, reflections on the essence and future of consumer society have become a significant topic.
In his book The Consumer Society, Jean Baudrillard pointedly stated, “It is not objects but the meanings that are consumed.” (Baudrillard, 1998) His theory of sign-value consumption has helped me understand why does a £3 bottle of water seem “better” than a 30p one, when functionally they are the same? It sharpens my visual critique: my diagrams highlight how perception is manipulated via branding, not utility.
2. Papanek, V. (1985). Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. 2nd ed. London: Thames and Hudson.
“Much of design today is wasteful, misleading, and based on the illusion of choice.”
Today, data visualization has become a vital tool and expressive medium for graphic designers.
After reading Design for the Real World, the well-known design theorist and writer Victor Papanek’s statement—”Much of design today is wasteful, misleading, and based on the illusion of choice” (Papanek, 1985) —prompted me to reflect critically on the nature of data visualization itself. While it is often seen as a means of revealing truth, it can just as easily be used to obscure it.
This realization underscores the core of my project: a pursuit of clarity and critique rather than aesthetic embellishment. My aim is to make the systemic inequalities behind pricing choices legible and legibly designed.
3. Lupi, G. and Posavec, S., 2016. Dear Data. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
“Weekly hand-drawn data postcards visualising personal data in poetic, subjective ways.”
This project demonstrates the multifaceted nature of data—it can be both analytical and emotional. Lupi and Posavec collected mundane, personal data (like “how many times I said thank you”) and visualised it using hand-drawn symbols, patterns.
For my project, Dear Data reveals how visualisation is not just about clarity, but also about intimacy, personal identity, and storytelling. It inspires me to adopt more expressive forms—like color and texture—to add critique into visual communication. In addition, their use of slowness and imperfection also reminds me that small data—when thoughtfully visualised—can speak more truthfully than large, impersonal datasets.
4. Aldi UK, 2011. Like Brands, Only Cheaper [TV campaign]. Available at: https://www.marketingweek.com/inside-ad-campaign-of-the-decade-aldi-like-brands-only-cheaper/
“We were trying to dispel this paradigm that in life you get what you pay for.”
This well-known advertisement campaign compares Aldi’s low-cost private label products with expensive branded goods, using humorous, side-by-side visual setups to challenge assumptions about price and quality. It reinforces my interest in exposing value perception and pricing psychology through graphic design. The minimalist, confident tone of the campaign, combined with its strong visual clarity, strongly informs my own data visualisation approach. More importantly, it proves that critique of consumer culture doesn’t always require complex academic framing—sometimes accessible humour and simplicity are more powerful. I aim to adopt this attitude in my design iterations, using clarity and contrast as deliberate tools of resistance.
5. Laranjo, F., 2014. Critical Graphic Design: Critical of What?. [online] Modes of Criticism. Available at: https://modesofcriticism.org/critical-graphic-design/
“Critical graphic design is not a style, but an attitude—a reflective practice that questions the conditions of its own production.”
Laranjo’s article is foundational to understanding what it means for design to be critical in both method and intention. He argues that critical design should not only focus on social and political issues, but also the role of design itself in perpetuating power structures.
This directly relates to my current project, which uses data visualisation to expose inequality. Laranjo challenges the idea that neutrality exists in design, aligning with my intent to usedata visualization not just to inform, but to critique. His framing pushes me to ensure that my visual language not only shows inequality but also reflects on how design may have contributed to it.
6. Rock, M., 1996. Designer as Author. [online] 2×4. Available at: https://2×4.org/ideas/1996/designer-as-author/
“Authorship may suggest new approaches to understanding design process in a profession traditionally associated more with the communication than the origination of messages.”
The article critiques the idea of the “designer as author”, a concept that became popular in design discourse during the 1990s. Rock believes that over-emphasising authorship can turn the designer into a solitary genius figure, which risks ignoring collaboration, context, and criticality. For my project—where I visualise daily public consumption data to critique economic disparity—Rock’s idea meaningfully pushes me to reflect on my own role. This helps me stay critically aware of how my design choices actively mediate, and potentially distort, the information I present—especially in carefully visualising pricing hierarchies across different social classes.
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