A efetividade na interpretação das mensagens das cores em coleções de vestuário pela geração Z.

Abstract

Fashion designers need to make conceptual-thematic choices that demonstrate creative power, effectively delivering a visual message in their daily activity. Among the elements of visual language used in this codification, color plays an important role in communicating these messages due to its symbolic aspect. This master's work is part of academic research that intersects the fields of design, fashion, and visual communication. That master's research investigates the role of color in the aesthetic-symbolic communication of clothing collections. Therefore, it uses multi-method and qualitative approaches to answer the following question: What are the interpretive possibilities of color messages in clothing collections from the perspective of Generation Z when compared with the designers' intention? This is an applied research, exploratory-descriptive and qualitative research focusing on the young audience. Based on previous research that indicates the influence of age and environment on the interpretation of color and design products, we chose to select a specific group with internet access. This study was conducted online and aims to present new symbolic interpretations of color for clothing products in the digital age, considering the perspective of individuals belonging to Generation Z. Finally, this work was configured from three stages of research. In the first phase, after the selection of three clothing collections that won the Concurso dos Novos, in the Dragão Fashion Brasil, between 2014 and 2019, a semiotic analysis of their respective chromatic projects was carried out in order to identify the relationship of the color chart with the generative concept, observing the constructed symbolic associations. The semantic connections delimited by the semiotic analysis served as a foundation for the second and third phase, where an interview and questionnaire with 11 designers were applied - the same ones who coded the clothing collections analyzed in the first stage of the research -, characterizing their intentionality in the color messages and, with 160 potential Generation Z apparel consumers, discovering their respective interpretations. The data collection methods used in the second and third phases of the research were the free association of words and the semantic differential – adopting as pairs of opposite words the symbolic associations delimited in the semiotic analyses. The collected data were analyzed through basic descriptive statistics and word cloud. According to the results, the effectiveness in delivering color messages varied between medium and high. It was concluded that fashion designers employ two strategies for coding the color chart: maintaining chromatic symbologies already widespread in society; and subversion of color codes. Meanwhile, potential consumers tended to interpret colors according to their propagated sociocultural meanings.