Branding has such awful connotations! When I hear the word, all I think of is giant international companies and conglomerates, sweatshops, fast food chains and that plastic rubbish island in the Pasific Ocean. In my mind, branding seems to be a way of enforcing all these dreadful things. But then I came across a book called “Look Both Ways” by Debbie Millman. It’s an illustrated essay collection about design in everyday life.
In it, there is an essay about a little girl, her dad and her best friend. Every now and then, her dad takes her to work and afterwards let’s her choose a hair accessory. She goes on describing how she decides which one based on the image & identity each hair accesory would give her. It’s all very innocent. The essay is illustrated on a chalkboard in childlike handwriting.
The innocence shatters when her best friend gets a nicer hairpiece, something she’s never seen before at her dad’s shop. She gets jealous of it and – more importantly – jealous of her friend’s indifference toward an object so desirable to her. See the link below if you want to read it. I thought it was a great representation of brands & branding in everyday life; how we use them to express ourselves (especially in our teen years) but how in the end that image we build can be very empty.
LCC MAGD GROUP V 