Mariana Cutino Mogue

Aztec Power

The UK, specifically London, is known as ‘cosmopolite’, a term coined by Graham Fennell in the book Living the Global City, Globalization as Local Process (1997, London: Routledge) implying ‘…newness, mobility, discontinuity, superficiality and all that is beguiling but false in the modern world’. So many people are living together, in constant movement and, once they settle, with much nostalgia for a history and culture left behind. The ones living there before, the native population, “the originals” as Fennell designates them, are what represents tradition, continuity, community, worth and truth. Contradictorily, both sides, immigrants and natives, ultimately need the same thing: identity and a sense of community. Above all they need to be able to adapt, evolve and take advantage of the opportunities which they begin to perceive in this new, mixed society.

Packaging Design is one of the most powerful ways to reach a consumer or a user of a specific product. It can attract, establish communication and persuade hundreds of people to believe in certain characteristics of a product and eventually make them buy it, making it a part of their daily life. It has the power to tell stories; inside its various shapes, colours, dimensions and faces, it is also full of narrative potential.

 

The aim of this project is to disprove the stereotypical image of what “being Mexican” is in Europe, through narrative and interactive packaging that will encourage the user to read, learn and retain the information the packaging contains. At the same time it explores the possibilities of packaging design based only on its narrative power. It intends to reconstruct a place and change the pre-existing world imagined by the European Market that has been established by the historical and geographical imagination of the people or groups in charge of packaging design for Mexican food products.

Details:

Mariana Cutino Moguel

cutma@yahoo.com