NO LOGO by Naomi Klein

In terms of marketing, production, and branding, I knew very little. This article by Naomi Klein gave me some insight as to how they worked together, or, how they don't work together. It rarely occurred to me that there would be some big distinction between these two because I always saw them as the same thing. It is good to know that difference because it lets me as a designer understand what works for the consumer, the company, and the designers themselves. The issue arises, however, of what counts more: the quality of the product or the brand.

A brand creates a world, or an idea, that welcomes people into that world. There is a debate over whether the brand marketing is a way of tricking or luring people into their brand or it is just a pure form of expression. As a designer, I believe that there is some intent in grabbing the consumer's attention during the process of expressing the product's identity. After all, it must strive for survival.

The brand is a world that people live in; it is an identity in which they can express themselves. For the brand to survive, there must be consistency in the positive link between the consumers and the products, especially when starting off. When I say positive link, I mean that the product is what the consumer wants and likes. The brand would eventually live up to this consistency and quality, making itself increasingly known. Lately, however, it seems as if the attention has been concentrated more on the image of the product, rather than the quality. This has become a contentious issue since the budgets of many brands have changed according to this situation.

As quoted by Peter Schweitzer (president of the J. Walter Thompson), "A product is something that is made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by a customer." When I first read this, my immediate impression was that this could be a good thing because there is interaction between the brand and the consumer; the brand expands through the consumer while the consumer uses the brand to identify themselves. However, it is also be considered a dilemma because the brand has become more reliant on itself than the actual product. This is because of competition between different brands of similar products.

Brand marketing involves the sponsoring of celebrities, the way in which the product is displayed in windows, commercials, etc. Every brand looks to others to find better ways to sell themselves or appeal to the consumers. This is similar to networking sites such as facebook, twitter, and myspace. Even though they don't sell any corporeal product, these three in particular strive to stay mainstream that they feed off one another's ideas to update the structures and visuals of their layouts. The more better-looking and functional it is, the more apt people will stay.

Designers must face this everywhere--especially with their audiences. This pull between product and image tells us just how strong the influence of design is.

Bauhaus Exhibit @ MoMA

Last time I went to the MoMA, I saw the Tim Burton exhibition on a Friday in December. Surprisingly, it was well-paced and I got to see everything. I couldn't believe how crowded it was last Saturday! I went to go check out the Bauhaus exhibit for my Seminar in Design class and am required to write a review on it.

This was a good experience for me because I did not even know what Bauhaus was before my professor mentioned it. It is basically a prestigious school of avant-garde art that existed from 1919-1933. It was led by three different directors, all who ran it at different periods throughout its standing. The exhibit displayed different types of innovative works that varied from sculptures, metalwork, cabinetry, paintings, decorations, printmaking, and weaving.

When I first arrived on the 6th floor, I saw the title of the exhibit "bauhaus" written in gigantic red letters with a modern typeface. It almost looked it could be its own typeface title. The name was placed on a giant white wall, off center, leading towards the actual exhibition. Although there was an arrow followed by the phrase "workshops for modernity" beneath, the design of the title alone gave me some perspective as to what this school might have been about. Once I entered the exhibit, the first thing that caught my eye was a large and long painting hung against a pier. The array use of color really told me how attentive the artist was to scale. This was eventually shown in the workshops that further represented the innovative and creative minds of the artists at Bauhaus.

One individual that must be considered is William Morris, who is probably one of the most influential drives of Bauhaus. As a firm believer in the crafts tradition of the Middle Ages, he suggested that there be no distinction between form and function. I believe this is shown in the majority of the Bauhaus exhibit, especially within the interior design. What interested me most about this exhibit was that many artists collaboratively considered functionality and aesthetics together in the building/creating of art via Morris's logic. Many appealed to the modernity, such as the interior furniture designs (chairs, lamps, tables, etc...). It was surprising to me that the extent of the styles/designs of these products are not too far from the things we desire today, despite them existing almost a century ago.

Although many of the products seen in Bauhaus would be agreeable to Morris, others were purely aesthetics and some others were more concerned with modernity. The aesthetic art had no function but to please the eye. One example is a piece of music for a color theory class taught by Vasily Kandinsky, who translated music into visual form. Typography at the Bauhaus was clearly more modern and simple compared to the typefaces back during the Middle Ages. This opposes Morris's logic, for it reaches out more towards abstract forms. One sculpture I saw that was really bizarre was Lazlo Moholy-Nagy's Lichtrequilit einer Elektrischen Buhne (light prop for electric stage). There were so many forms within one form that collaborated to create one aesthetic visual.

Nevertheless, these artworks celebrate the history of design and tells present artists how great works of art evolved from the old to modernity.

Clean Slate.

Welcome to my new page. I now keep a vigilant eye out for any no-goods that might sabotage my new e-mail add. Kept it for about a year now; So far, so good. Also, it's been a while since I last blogged.

Last semester was insane; I promised myself before fall that I would get straight A's, no matter what it took. Throughout all my doubts at the end, I got em! I think I'm rewarding myself a bit too much with all this food. Looking at skinny models makes me want to throw it all up. Speaking of which...

Krystine and I finished watching a whole Season 4 of Project Runway in 2 days. I couldn't believe how friendly the final 3 were with each other! Where were all the drama and stress and catfights!? I liked it better this way, though. The camaraderie was heartfelt. And despite Christian Siriano's 12-year-old-maturity-syndrome, his winning was well-deserved and he actually made me want to make clothes.