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Saturday, 14 March 2009
Logo fetishes and brand identity
When a logo works as one of many brand marks to visually represent a brand it is more effectively referred to as a brandmark. If a logo is the sole representative of a brand identity the brand is just a logo and the brand experience something separate. A logo on its own can never hope to carry a brand.
There has been an explosion of logo-centric websites recently. These websites assess logos as things in and of themselves as opposed to representatives of rich, robust and unique brand experiences. The better logos are sometimes quite clever, often demonstrating a competent handling of positive and negative space and sometimes exhibit a healthy measure of visual wit. They also tend to be quite 'designery' but are generally over-worked and overly complex. The bulk are amateurish and just plain naive.
As part of a campaign to bring atention to Ignore Me, the Ignore Me brandmark was submitted to LogoGala with answers to an interview format questionaire. LogoGala has chosen to feature Ignore Me as an interview with Andrew Sabatier. Under these conditions Ignore Me works well to highlight the relationship of form, content and context.
Ignore Me forces the viewer to consider the substance of what is being presented. Is it the form of the Ignore Me brandmark or the content being celebrated? And what implications does the content have on the context? Are logos and logo websites ignoreable or do they offer an opportunity to assess the value logo designers can bring to the business of brands?
Click on the image above to go to the LogoGala interview.
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Like no other
"All babies are born colour blind" and other tasty bits of trivia present themselves while the Sony Bravia website loads up. The Sony Bravia campaign continues with a technically impressive online presence which seems to have gone largely unnoticed.
In line with contemporary brand thinking, Sony provides the tools to enable you to have a unique experience. The Colourwall asks you to submit a picture which gets assigned a specific colour space. The point being to illustrate how colourific their very successful product is. Nice idea, beautifully executed and another opportunity for Ignore Me to assert itself. No massive intruson into a media space but 'Every little helps'.
Enter the following RGB values to see Ignore Me: 255 0 154 and click on the image above to go to the Sony Bravia website.
Sunday, 16 September 2007
London International Creative Competition
"London International Creative Competition is a vehicle for facilitating contact between uniquely talented artists and an international audience," the mission statement on the LICC website says.
Ignore Me is geared towards challenging and changing the perception and consumption of brands. It requires a non-traditional assessment of artistic merit so it will be interesting to see if the art value of Ignore Me is recognised by this competition.
As brands and branding constitute the basis of identity in general (particularly in western culture and increasing globally), Ignore Me is bound to cause significant discomfort. By the finalists we should be able to assess the calibre of 'art thinking' the competition represents.
Monday, 27 August 2007
New Forum
The Ignore Me forum is available again. We're up and running on the latest forum software, which should afford us more protection against the commercial world at its worst.
For some, Ignore Me is nothing more than spam; another brand fighting for attention in a sea of attention grabbers. For those with a more philosophical turn of mind the paradox will be apparent. Particualrly as the means by which Ignore Me asserts itself (and also the reason Ignore Me exists) is the means by which all brands assert themselves. Ignore Me is a consumable realisation of this process. It is a brand which can also be consumed but requires a different type of consumption. In this context we refer to Ignore Me as a meta-brand ie. beyond conventional branding and conventional consumption.
Technically, Ignore Me is an attention paradox. If it asserts itself in a space it cannot be ignored. The only constraint is where and how it can afford to assert itself, which in turn is dependent on the level of appreciation it achieves within a consumer group. As no particular products or services are associated with Ignore Me there are no limits to what it could achieve.
Saturday, 18 August 2007
Spammers, spammed brands and the Ignore Me forum
Due to a significant surge in spambot registrations promoting the usual smut and junk, the Ignore Me forum has been temporarily disabled. Once we sort out a few conversion issues we should be up and running on the latest forum software. There are significant enhancements to the latest version which should provide more control over spambot registrations.
It may be tempting to draw a parallel with the way spammers promote their wares and the means by which Ignore Me asserts itself. This would be an appropriate parallel. Spammers take advantage of vulnerable media to get attention. They either have limited resources to ply their wares or are illegal so they intrude were they can.
Ignore Me exists to make a point about all brands (including spammers and spammed brands) and as Ignore Me is not illegal it intends to use media in the same way mainstream brands do. However, resources are limited so it will take some time for Ignore Me to find appreciation in a wider audience before this becomes possible.
Sunday, 23 July 2006
Saatchi Gallery
In the context of The Saatchi Gallery traditional fine art looks hopelessly ignorable. The sheer volume of work beg the questions, "What makes any art piece more significant than any other?", "How do artists get noticed?" and "What makes art art?".
Any number of these paintings and drawings look just as technically competent as any old 'master'. Of course context is important and art history gives us insights into developments in mass culture.
How can the traditional medium of fine art reveal any new insights into the nature of the world, art itself and the perception of both?
Ignore Me takes a radically different approach. One which takes advantage of sell-ability - how art is packaged and sold. In short the branding of art. All expressions aimed at asserting discrete identities find themselves defining a brand. So if the process of branding is the art piece itself, new insights into the whole process become accessible.
Ignore Me breaks new ground in both medium and content and embodies a new kind of art space. One which is unlikely to be eclipsed or be as pioneering. Ignore Me is the first and perhaps only one of its kind.
Click on the picture or follow this link to view Ignore Me in the Saatchi Gallery
Monday, 3 July 2006
Limited Edition t-shirt sales
Sales of the Limited Edition Ignore Me t-shirts have been slow but consistent. We expect that sales will accelerate as brand awareness grows. The t-shirts are priced at a premium because we anticipate that they will become collectors items.
We will give you a 10 GBP refund if you send us a high quality digital image of you wearing your Ignore Me t-shirt in a public place. We will consider a domestic setting as a public place if there are five or more people present in your picture. Digitally altered images will not be accepted.
All profits from t-shirt sales will go towards the large scale media compaigns as shown in the campaigns section of this website.
Thursday, 29 June 2006
MonaLisaMachine
MonaLisaMachine looks at the relationship of the artwork to its reproduction in culture. It proposes that this reproduction is an authentic art experience in itself.
MonaLisaMachine recognises Ignore Me as describing a brand experience where marketing and art become one.
Click on the picture or follow this link MonaLisaMachine.com
Sunday, 18 June 2006
Ignore Me Transitiontradition
Ignore Me appears on transitiontradition.com as a full length feature in the May-June edition of the online magazine.
Attempting critical distance Transition Tradition acknowledges Ignore Me profoundly.
Involved but not too close, the writers at Transition Tradition interpret Ignore Me in their own terms. The Ignore Me concept accommodates this treatment as it is open to interpretation at all levels. The concept is not grasped to the depth the article attempts but it's an entertaining read and Deborah makes a clever deflection by letting the reader decide what to make of it.
The Muji analogy is interesting. For people who understand what Muji means there is a similar effect. In English speaking countries the meaning is delayed whereas Ignore Me is immediate. This takes the Ignore Me brand experience to another level, beyond the use value of the products or services it aims to endorse.
Ignore Me includes the Muji-esque experience but it is also much more. It raises awareness of how brands demand attention as well as being a high quality product or service experience itself.
Click on the picture or follow this link transitiontradition.com
Saturday, 1 April 2006
Transitiontradition showcase
Ignore Me appears on transitiontradition.com. A full length feature will appear in the next edition of the online magazine.
Transitiontradition.com caters for creative students and graduates making the transition from formal studies to employment. At any point in time there is a portion of the population in this often difficult and uncertain place. Transitiontradition informs a community of students and graduates of the gaps in skills and expectations between them and the commercial reality of their industries.
Click on the picture or follow this link transitiontradition.com
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