Study Task 1

johnny cupcakes is an illustrator and clothing designer that has built a successful business and international following based on a some vibrant fun designs and a a very simple premise. Johnny cupcakes reuses the same 'fat kid' character with imagery from american diners that are an iconic staple of american culture. He draws references from popular culture through films, cartoons, music and so on, his work could be described as "a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres

of culture." He often uses references from cult classics and iconography from the past focussing on 80's and 90's culture. This may give some indication of the illustrators age but once the image is introduced to the viewer any of the meaning disappears as the viewer redefines the image based on their own knowledge. "Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing." I think the same can be said for illustration as the images only gain meaning as they are given it by the viewer. I was born in 1984 and grew up listening to hip hop so I am drawn to the clothing made by Johnny Cupcakes that features those specific references, however there are plenty of designs from the same era that I am not familiar with and so have no impact on me aside from the design itself.

It is the viewer that dictates the meaning of the image based on their own experiences, culture, biases, prejudices and loves, "The reader is the space on which all the quotations that make up a writing are inscribed without any of them being lost; a text's unity lies not in its origin but in its destination."

Taking into account the target audience is a huge part of being a successful illustrator and although in al lot cases there will be no huge differences in knowledge in the multicultural, information age we live in it is still easy to stumble into the discovery through conversation, reading or illustration that your view point is yours alone and is based on a very specific set of influences. Andrew Saris proposed a set of 3 criteria based on François Truffaut's ‘politique des auteurs’ (auteurs theory): "the director must demonstrate technical expertise, have a stylistic signature that is visible over the course of several films and, through his or her choice of projects and cinematic treatment, show a consistency of vision and interior meaning." I think this set of criteria can be applied to the work of johnny Cupcakes, his work maintains a signature style both through the aesthetics of his designs and his repeated use of set visual devices such as characters and logo's.

Although the subjects of Johnny cupcakes work vary there are common themes that run through his body of work. His work is based often based on popular culture from the 80's and 90's, he does not try to subvert the original meaning of the subject matter but rather celebrate its memory, it is very much a nostalgic look back at that era. Some of his work can not really be given a specific date such as his designs based on Halloween, baseball or other American cultural institutions, however the common theme could well be childhood memories. I think this is an interesting choice of subject matter in that its entire appeal depends on the viewers previous knowledge of the subject matter, this could seem like it would limit a target market but what it does is give your work an instant appeal to a large audience even if they are not familiar with your work. The success of this choice of subject matter shows the power of popular culture and the fondness we have for childhood memories.

Although Johnny Cupcakes choices of subject matter could inform us about his life, age, nationality I think the only thing it tells us for sure is that he understands the strength of his subject matter and the size of the demographic he caters to. His work engages the interest of his audience at which point we assign meaning to his illustrations based on our own experiences.