It looks like THE MET has made a really unfortunate mistake not only on the logo, but on the entire surrounding brand system.
Branding
Posted inIn Brief
Tokyo Plagued by Another Logo Plagiarism Fiasco
Tokyo has been working hard to strengthen and promote its brand as it gears up to host the 2020 Olympic Games, but the Japanese capital is having a rough time of it, hiring designers who are short on inspiration.
Posted inOpinion
What’s in a Museum Rebranding?
On Monday, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts unveiled its rebranding.
Posted inNews
Norway Unveils Landscape-Inspired Passports and ID Cards
Norwegians will soon have a wonderful reason to renew their passports. Just weeks after Norway’s central bank revealed its new, abstract currency, the National Police Directorate (NPD) announced that Neue Design Studio has won a competition to reimagine the country’s travel documents and identity cards.
Posted inArt
Are You Talking About Rembrandt the Artist or the Tooth Whitener?
Since his passing in 1669, Rembrandt has had a vibrant second life selling cigars and teeth whitening kits. His “artsploitation” — like that of monk turned liqueur Fra Angelico — offers a cautionary tale in a world searching for untapped and undefended brand equity. Social media reveals the odd cultural conflations of artists as products and brands.
Posted inOpinion
Keith Haring Products Redefine the Ability to Find Pleasure in Art
Last week I got an email advertising a collaboration between Shepard Fairey’s apparel company OBEY and the Keith Haring Foundation, resulting in T-shirts, tank tops and baseball hats — including one with an unsettling combination of Haring’s three-eyed face and Fairey’s OBEY graphic — sold at mall hipster-mecca Urban Outfitters. This was enough to make begin questioning the Keith Haring Foundation’s treatment of the artist’s legacy — and then I heard about the Tenga x Keith Haring sex toys.
Posted inOpinion
Damien Hirst Brands a London Restaurant
World-renowned artist Damien Hirst created two art works for a new London restaurant that opened last week, Tramshed.
Posted inArt
Brooklyn Artists as Brand: Ralph Lauren Fakes it
I know its naïve to think that anything is safe from advertising and branding these days. In fact, just two weeks ago Hyperallergic’s contributor Alex Cavaluzzo listed the top ten objects with unnecessary designer labels that included everything from the kind of expected (a Missoni bicycle) to the absolutely absurd (Cynthia Rowley diapers). While I shrugged off these items as kitschy designer ephemera, something about Ralph Lauren’s ad campaign for his new “dressed-down” label, Denim & Supply, rubbed me the wrong way.
Posted inOpinion
Can You Ever Have Too Many Logos?
MIT’s Media Lab just rolled out a new logo. The trick is that this logo isn’t just one image, or anything you’d expect from traditional branding. It’s actually a self-generating logo with over 40,000 possible variations, including thousands of shifts in colors and composition. Now, is there such a thing as too many logos?
Posted inOpinion
Branding Vintage Condoms: Remember Your Rubbers!
You’ve seen it before with heroin bags, but now check out a typology of a different, (potentially) less dangerous sort. Here’s a collection of vintage condoms, from wrappers and “envelopes” to actual tins, which look really cool. The branding is the funniest part– would you buy a condom called “Sedatex”? How about the subtle “Pousse L’Amour”?
Posted inNews
Are Plutocrats Collecting Art or Collecting Artists?
Felix Salmon just posted an incandescent piece on the State of the Art World seen through the lens of Davos. At a meeting of plutocrats and artists, Salmon sees collectors buying art not for its aesthetic quality but for its aura: the respect and awe that comes with owning something really expensive.