'Own Logo' not 'No Logo'

I found a WNYC radio show from September 2002, where Naomi Klein and The Economist's Asia business correspondent Sameena Ahmad debate about corporations, people and power under the headline "Pro Logo vs. No Logo."

The debate is actually more about the nature and role of multinational corporations than it is about logos. Naomi Klein (sort of) tries to convince the audience that her take is not against globalization; it's against undemocratic and discriminating ways to handle change in areas of society that are most affected by multinational businesses. But Ahmad does not want to acknowledge this, and the debate drifts into an unintelligent boxing match between good and evil (both draw on statistics and anecdotes from their personal experience to justify their arguments).

Although things have changed since 2002, the debate about branding and globalization really hasn't moved on from the dead end where Klein and Ahmad left it. Now, I think that there is reason to argue that the grounds of this debate might be changing too. I suggest that instead of No Logo, a new emerging issue in this field is what I call the Own Logo phenomenon. Let me try to explain what I mean by this.

First, in the global entertainment industry, an increasing percentage of sales come from products that were never meant for the masses - that is, products that make up the Long Tail. Recently, niche production has also increased sharply in the fashion industry. Witness the increasing number of designer and crafter communities who discuss trends and techniques, post photos of their designs, and often also sell their hand-crafted products online. On the demand side this means that an increasing number of people prefer products that a) they have made themselves or b) somebody they personally know has made. For the young people who are leading this trend, buying a mass-manufactured garment is totally uncool. Instead, buying a garment that has a (hi)story is awesome. I guess this could be interpreted as a form of self-expression - partly by rejecting readymade mainstream designs offered by global fashion brands, but also (perhaps more interestingly) by inventing new designs of their own.

An essential aspect of the own logo phenomenon is the branding of one’s own creations. Many of the people who have started to make their own designs (including me and my friends) want to tag their creations with their own symbol. The symbol can be their initials, a nickname, or any other sign that they want to adopt as their own brand. These people would probably agree with most of the arguments that Naomi brings up in her book. Still, instead of No Logo, they are signing up for Own Logo.

Comments

[Andrew]

Excellent idea! I also want to be able to re-brand/de-brand my Nikes with my OwnLogo, and I want to do it so it looks cool. I don't want to just use a marker or something, and I don't want a little tag in the margins of a big Nike swoosh.

What we need is instructions and tools for 1) creating and *fabricating* your OwnLogo onto cloth, rubber, lycra, or whatever and 2) *removing* the existing logos on shoes or other products so you can replace them with your OwnLogo.

[Ulla-Maaria]

Thanks for your comment Andrew! What you wrote actually first reminded me about the trend of removing nice logos from branded clothes in the late 1980's and using them for decorating denim jackets. (At least this fantastic idea was a hit among teenagers in Finland!!!) Since that I've seen a Calvin Klein tag attached to a non-CK jacket in Cuba just a year ago.

But what you are saying is personalizing ready made products with a tag that can be identified as your "ownlogo". Wow, it would be great to see examples of this kind of reckless customization! ;-)

[Ulla-Maaria]

Here are two manual trackbacks to other blogs commenting this post:

http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2005/05/02/makers_mark.html

http://theplayethic.typepad.com/play_journal/2005/04/fashion_craftin.html

[Evan]

A friend of mine who dressed very scruffy and ripped up, cut off, punk style in the 80s had a habit of attaching designer labels to his things. He'd buy shirts at the Salvation Army and transfer the part that said DKNY to his torn and stained denim vest.

Thanks for the WNYC radio show summary. That's a form of reporting that more blogs should do.

[Eric]

Interesting thoughts. There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal the other day about the boom in online t-shirt retailers. While the article was not about the Long Tail, I think this is a perfect application of it outside of media products (books, DVDs, music). I think this is exactly the same thing that you're talking about in your posting. Click through to my blog if you want to see a quick blog post that I wrote about the article.

[jegb]

this is quite nice idea, a spanish known person (Elsa Pataky) has lauched her own brand name ptky http://www.ptky.net/ another matter is it nice or really "own" or is it launched with the expectation to get to masses again :)