Hasta La Creative!

Turkish artist Mehmet Gozetlik has created a fascinating study in iconography with his latest work, titled “Chinatown,” where he deconstructs popular Western-based logos and reinterprets them in Chinese.

The resulting work is an interesting study in the effectiveness of a mark, and a true testament to the indelible impression these logos have in our minds. In the video below, Gozetlik shows us a glimpse into his process of creating one of his neon-sign designs into an actual neon sign:

“Chinatown is a Chinese translation of the trademarks in a graphical way” says the artist on his website. 

“It’s a carefully arranged series of artworks showcasing 20 well-known Western brand logos with maintained visual and narrative continuity. ‘Chinatown’ pushes viewers to ask themselves what it means to see, hear, and become fully aware. ‘Chinatown’ also demonstrates our strangeness to 1.35 billion people in the world, when you can’t read Chinese.”

Instead of simply translating the brand names into Chinese, the logos include a generic description of the product written in Chinese. So, even for those fluent in Chinese, the logos appear somewhat unbranded. 

Take a look below at some of these interesting studies in branding and see if you can figure them out on first glance:

Mastercard

Starbucks

Shell Gasoline

Lego

Burger King

London Underground

Converse

Levi’s Jeans

Chiquita Bananas

NASA

7-11

Lufthansa 

Diet Pepsi

Martini

Via Design Boom.

It was the best of times, it was the … well, literally the best of times. Van Halen was the greatest band in the world. George Orwell was totally right about the future. And the Edmonton Oilers were the world champions of hockey.

It was 1984. And speaking of oil, that’s the year Shell started refining in Alberta. To celebrate, eight Shell stations in the area reduced their prices on Wednesday to match their 1984 levels—39 cents per liter.

With gas costing way more than that nowadays, Canadians were surely happy to fill their gas-guzzling vehicles without hurting their wallets, even if just for one day.

Via Global News Canada.

It’s like we’ve gone back in time! #1984Pricing #80smoment #yyc http://t.co/An8PSXB0FO

 

— Shell Canada (@Shell_Canada) October 8, 2014

Shell employees at Wye Rd station are ready for #1984Pricing!! #80smoment pic.twitter.com/hsXZJSDXMv

— Shell Canada (@Shell_Canada) October 8, 2014

Oil brand Shell really needs no help embarrassing itself. Their 2012 Arctic drilling program was so inept (including a rig grounding and a ship fire) that even the U.S. government said they screwed up. But Greenpeace decided to go ahead and give them a hand anyway.

Following their disastrous Alaskan campaign, Shell packed up and moved their Arctic drilling program to Russia, in a joint venture with state owned energy company, Gazprom. Greenpeace wanted to get the word out that Shell’s assault on the Arctic was far from over. What better place to do that than at Sunday’s F1 Shell Belgium Grand Prix, Shell’s biggest PR blitz of the year? Greenpeace International set up remote-controlled banners. The banners, which read “SaveTheArctic.org,” then popped up during the winner’s ceremony, as the German national anthem played. The second banner popped up just after an angry official removed the first one. Much angry crumpling of the second banner followed.

Video of the incident, entitled “Shell’s priceless F1 moment” went viral on YouTube, before F1 management demanded it be removed for “copyright complaints” just before it hit 240,000 views. The reaction to the video should only fuel Shell’s embarrassment. As Greenpeace International Arctic campaigner Ben Ayliffe put it, “Bernie Ecclestone and Shell might know how to fill a racetrack, but they clearly have no idea how social media works. Hundreds of thousands of people have seen the moment Shell’s Arctic plans were uncovered at the Grand Prix, and removing the video will only encourage thousands more to laugh at the company too.”

Indeed, the video has been reposted by myriad other users, and is available at Vimeo and on countless blogs. Shell’s miscalculated reaction to the YouTube post will only add fuel to the fire of public ridicule. You’d think that a company that spends million on branding and PR would know better, but I guess there’s no underestimating Shell’s incompetence.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Kidult nous propose de découvrir cette vidéo documentaire appelée Visual Dictatorship. Expliquant comment les marques utilisent le graffiti pour en fait un art, ce dernier prône un retour à la rue. Visuellement réussie, cette vidéo le montrant apposant différents messages est à découvrir dans la suite.