The Power of Logo
The power of logo.
What is the power of logo?
Throughout mankind people have formed groups and alliances to identify themselves. And this sounds logic, because in order to survive the ancient human had to know its friends and enemies. The formation of a group serves multiple advantages. For instance, a group is able to work together on a specific task for example the hunt for food or is able to protect itself better from enemies outside just because its has more eyes and ears than one individual alone. Members of a group can benefit from the resources within the group and the output it is producing. Because of that a member of a group is more likely to survive than the sole individual. So to form or join a group was essential for the ancient human in order to survive. This way of surving didn’t change in modern humans. Today we are part of more groups than before. Not only does everybody carries a nationality, we are also part of several other groups both national and local.
There are many characteristics to identify a group. For example we can look at its behavior as a whole, the use of language, its tools or the physical appearances of the people belonging to the group. What is maybe the most important characteristic of a group is the ideology it stance for and carries out. Based on these characteristics we can identify groups on global (European Union), national (HEMA) and local level (Piet Zwart Institute). The characteristics described are all applicable on these institutions, each intitution has its own market.
When we look at institutions or companies we see logos. Each institution has its own distinguished logo. According to wikipedia a logo is a graphic representation used by commercial enterprises, organizations and individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. In current society a strong logo is vital. The stronger the logo the more impact it has. A logo represents power and with this power a company can make people move. A good example to understand the importance of a strong logo is the video 'Logorama' (2009; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgrHFEVJY4w). While watching this I recognized a large amount of logo's eventhough I haven't interact with many of its companies behind it.
A logo is the first image of an institution people see. It is important that people identify with this logo in order to evoke action. Sometimes a logo is stronger than the ideology of an institution. People recognize the logo engage with it or its products, but don’t realize where they engage with. The true ideology is sometimes hidden behind the facade called logo and institutions can make advantages out of it.
In Sophie Fiennes' documentary 'The perverts guide to cinema' Slavoj Zizek says that freedom hurts and that we don't want to see the truth. There is a curtain which enables us to see the truth. This is being explained based on advertisements of Coca Cola and Starbucks. People consume there products part out of need, but mostly because they want to identity with the company. They forget that instead of this product there are other products of similar or better quality which are even cheaper. Of course credits go to the advertisement department of these companies. Apperently there advertisments are so strong that it makes people dull and ignorent. The power of their logo is to strong to oppose. This is especially highlighted in the triptych 'The men who made us spend'. In these episodes Jacques Peretti investigates the mechanisms of consumerism and the people who try and shape the public's appetites. In the first episode we see how an industry is changing the market purposely. This is called planned obsolescence and means that a certain design is deliberately altered in a way it creates more profit. The example which is shown in the episode is that of a lightbulb. The original lightbulb had a lifespan that surpass the lifespan of a modern lightbulb. But in order to make more profit the industry came with an idea and a design that made the lightbulb life less long. By doing so consumers had to buy more lightbulbs per year and by that the industry would make more profits. Here you see that the industry create a need to spend more to maintain the same condition. Contrary to this we see in the episode a desire to have to latest Iphone 5S. An endless line of people is awaiting the moment the Apple store is opening its doors. Here you see people purchasing a new phone even though they don't need a new phone. In fact consumers can't give a good answer on the question of what the difference is between the Iphone5 and the Iphone 5S the consumers. In this example you see that a company (or a logo) has so much power that consumers want to buy its product even though the old one is still in good condition. The company transformed us into slaves of their products.
In Renzo Martens 'Enjoy Poverty' the power of logo is explained by its accessibility to resources and the market. People who don't have the logo or are not a member of the group can't apply for the same resources. Members of the institution decide who to help and who not. In the documentary there is a scene where 'Doctors Without Borders' leave a certain area for another while there is still a high demand for help. Martens tries to investigate why the institution leaves but is left without answers. 'Doctors Without Borders' says on his website that it treats people where the need is greatest. So why is it leaving the area? And why does an infographic in the documentary shows that 'Doctors Without Borders' is only present in certain area's where there is less demand for help? This again shows that an industry use its power to control a system not thinking of its patients or consumers and this is in line of the lightbulb example described earlier.
Martens tries to learn the local community to commercialize poverty. He learns local photographer what kind of pictures are profitable in the West. Before the local photographers where aiming for the local market, making pictures of weddings. But martens explains them that picture of weddings wouldn't sell in the West and that they have a better chance if they would take photos of poverty and misery. Martens tries to create access for these local photographers at 'Doctors Without Borders', but they are denied because they don't have a press card and don't belong to a certain group. The people who are poor, stay poor.