A

Gen

of

Exploding a demographic… semiotics applied

What do Gen Y and

Mr Topsy Turvy

have in common?

Why is Oscar Wilde’s

ghost walking

Adelaide’s streets?

What’s with all the

vulgarity? Why are Gen Y

coveting nanna’s

style?

OLD

TIMER

FU*K YOU

OSTENTATIONESCHERISM

SERENDIPITYDAPPERISMICARUS’S

FLIGHT

Gen Y through the looking glass...

BUBBLEGUM

CULTURE

OLD

TIMER

1

Gen Y are coveting nanna’s style...

The roots of Old Timer culture run deep...

Break-neck pace of technological change

1 2The imperative to be

original

Frustration with transience

Search for ‘timelessness’: fashion

that’s outside the obsolescence cycle

Mass market favours the ‘herd’

Mine the past for ‘one-offs’: carving out an ultra unique identity

Old timer has an industrial bent too...

Crates, steel girders, bare light globes, distressed

materials, visible decay. Modern shops leverage

symbols of urban decay...

OLD TIMER SIGNALS A YEARNING FOR MORE HUMANISED PRODUCTION... THE FRUIT OF TIME AND PROCESS

Mass produced, identi-kit culture is fuelling a yearning for imperfection and idiosyncratic uniqueness

Off the manufacturing line

Cheap, disposable

Carbon copies, homogeneity

Computerised speed, instantaneousness + precision

Death of the trades, computer-aided expertise

Man made, crafted

Built to last

Natural flaws yielding tangible character

Sense of process, a journey

Skilled craftsmen

A peek at three...

ESCHERISM

2

Escherism inverts and distorts the world around us...

Escherism puts a kaleidoscope to Gen Y’s eye...

See the world through a new lens

1 2Adhering to their

rebellious transgressivelaw

A wealth of fresh experiences and

encounters in a safe, hum drum environment

Turning the world around them upside

down

FU*K YOU

OSTENTATION

3

Culture-jammers at heart, Gen Y leverage modern taboos...

BUBBLEGUM

CULTURE

4

Bubblegum culture is Gen Y’s attempt to feel more acutely...

Gen Y culture obsessed with visual representation of

moods (emoticons)

A need for exaggerated, even crystallised expression

Each emotion manifests to bursting point

Hyperbolic, utopian landscapes: debauchery, sex,

heavenly, candyfloss perfection

Larger than life experiences

Bubblegum culture is the antidote to modern life anaesthesia

... GFC fear mongering, nanny state “thou shalt” protectionism, and a society in love with rules and regulations...

All serving to suffocate creativity, play and the capacity

to feel

But exaggeration is also essential in an era of hyperbole...

Bubblegum Culture allows for fresh, invigorating, intense experience against a backdrop of sensory saturation

bolderbrighter

DAPPERISM

5

Dapperism represents an emergent shift in masculinity...

A new gentrified expression of masculinity is emerging...

...Rebelling against the bogan, beer swilling, topless surfie alpha male norm

...and the emergent skinny jean wearing, man-bag touting, feminised masculinity fringe

...it’s a return to traditional tailoring, grooming, fedora and brogue-wearing, trimmed

moustaches, leather watch straps, and gentlemanly countenance...

SERENDIPITY

6

In an era of automation and regulation, serendipity throws a fat dose of surprise into the mix...

Pop up retail: here today, gone tomorrow

Music recommendation for serendipitous discovery

Niche clothes finds never to be repeated

ICARUS’S

FLIGHT

7

Bird symbolism has powerful cultural significance...

Icarus’sflight from

Crete

Phoenix from the

ashes

escapeliberation

resurrectionreinvention

Cultural link between heaven

and earth

transcendence

FOR A GENERATION FIXATED ON REINVENTION AND THE TRANSGRESSION OF RULES AND NORMS, BIRDS ARE A NATURAL MASCOT

True to form, Gen Y leverage the symbolism of birds on their journey