Since the late 1980s, brands have gained centre stage in marketing and in the managerial discourse. From having been a mere marker that identifies the producer or the origin of a product, the brand is today increasingly becoming the product that is consumed. For the corporation, the brand is conceptualised as the essence of the firm, its most crucial “asset”. In the literature, branding is described as a process of expressing core values through the use of persuasive stories. By questioning the conception of brands as corporately managed stories, the article aims to re‐conceptualise branding as a process of aesthetic expression, where the conventional distinctions between senders and receivers become blurred. The paper looks into how brands have become depicted in the branding literature, and thereafter discusses the narrative and pictorial modes of communication. On the basis of this, the article finally discusses how images are used and reused in the joint construction of brands, thus challenging the idea of brands as stories crafted and controlled by the corporation.
This paper strives for a conceptualization of sustainability, design and contemporary consumption. By sketching out how effective production systems have created an abundance of products, the paper links this development to the aestheticization of society and an increased interest in design. In market economies characterized by profusion, corporations engage in activities filling their offerings with aura, aesthetics, symbols and meaning. In such lands of plenty, conspicuous consumption becomes a thoroughly expressive activity and highly problematic for actors with ambitions to design a sustainable future. Our conclusion is that sustainability must ultimately be seen as intertwined with social processes such as fashion, identity and identity construction.
How can one explain the phenomenon that a consumer is able to protest against worker exploitation in the third world outside a Nike outlet and a day later walk in and buy a pair of shoes from the same outlet? In this article we try to conceptualize how consumers handle the expressive and functional aspects of brands in a moralized brandscape. By introducing the idea of `de-coupling', we suggest that both the production and the consumption of brands rest on a logic where the functional and expressive values are separated from one and another. This implies that consumption is not merely an expressive activity operating on the sign level, but rather that consumption must be understood as an intricate play where the relationship between brand image and buying behaviour needs to be further explored.
As a graduation project at a design school in Stockholm, a piece of furniture to be used for retreats in the public space was exhibited. It was named 'The Cocoon' and was a reclining chair covered with a bubble-like construction made out of cloth and steel. The exhibition was a starting point for a number of journeys. In the years to come, the Cocoon reached museums, exhibition halls, newspapers and magazines throughout the world. In this article, we track the travels and illustrate the transformations of the Cocoon. We seek to understand spacing activities behind the travels and view the travels from a spatial perspective focusing on the relation between transportation and transformation, of emptiness, form and content.On May 20, 2000, Beckman's School of Design in Stockholm opened its annual graduation exhibition, where the graduates' graduation projects were on display. In the exhibition hall, there were cups and plates in bright colors and odd shapes, a conceptual graphic design program for the Swedish Parliament including a new Swedish flag, textile design, a coat of fur and goose down, office equipment and a new toolbox. In one part of the exhibition there was a reclining chair covered with a bubblelike construction made out of cloth, plastic and steel. A person sitting in the chair was able to pull down the bubble and thereby create a tiny Volume 11(6): 825-848
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