Why People Collect Things
Collections: Why do people collect and how the design of Urban Vinyl toy revolution brought a new era of collectors.
‘Not just objects are collected we are collected…empire is a collection of countries and of populations; a country is a collection of regions and peoples; each given people is a collection of individuals, divided into governed and governers- that is collectables and collectors’ Eisner and Cardinal (1994:2)
This essay will firstly define what collecting is. Then it will look why people collect, looking into people’s individual views as well as the view of expert psychologist and palaeontologist. It will also examine if age and gender affects habits of collecting. Another area to be explored is the idea of part work magazines and the collections they create. Following this my case study will look at the phenomenon of Urban Vinyl Toys and how it has created a new era of collectors. How collectors are targeted and created in marketing will also be explored throughout. This subject was chosen because of my keen interest in collecting Urban Vinyl Toys and a future project designing my own designer toys, I believed it would be a good research method to understand why people collect, and use this information to help me aid putting my items into the consumer market and them being successful.
In beginning to define what collecting is, my first source was the dictionary definition. ‘Col·lect·ing 1. To bring together in a group or mass; gather. 2. To accumulate as a hobby or for study.’ (Dictionary.com, acc. 12/11/09) It didn’t define it in enough detail so went on the hunt for more definitive answers. In 1932 Durost defined ‘A collection is basically determined by the nature of the value assigned to the objects or ideas possessed…If said object or idea is valued chiefly for the relation it bears to some other objects or ideas, or object, or ideas, such as being one of a part of a series, part of a whole, a specimen of a class, then it is the subject of a
‘Not just objects are collected we are collected…empire is a collection of countries and of populations; a country is a collection of regions and peoples; each given people is a collection of individuals, divided into governed and governers- that is collectables and collectors’ Eisner and Cardinal (1994:2)
This essay will firstly define what collecting is. Then it will look why people collect, looking into people’s individual views as well as the view of expert psychologist and palaeontologist. It will also examine if age and gender affects habits of collecting. Another area to be explored is the idea of part work magazines and the collections they create. Following this my case study will look at the phenomenon of Urban Vinyl Toys and how it has created a new era of collectors. How collectors are targeted and created in marketing will also be explored throughout. This subject was chosen because of my keen interest in collecting Urban Vinyl Toys and a future project designing my own designer toys, I believed it would be a good research method to understand why people collect, and use this information to help me aid putting my items into the consumer market and them being successful.
In beginning to define what collecting is, my first source was the dictionary definition. ‘Col·lect·ing 1. To bring together in a group or mass; gather. 2. To accumulate as a hobby or for study.’ (Dictionary.com, acc. 12/11/09) It didn’t define it in enough detail so went on the hunt for more definitive answers. In 1932 Durost defined ‘A collection is basically determined by the nature of the value assigned to the objects or ideas possessed…If said object or idea is valued chiefly for the relation it bears to some other objects or ideas, or object, or ideas, such as being one of a part of a series, part of a whole, a specimen of a class, then it is the subject of a