What Is Post-Branding?
How to Counter Fundamentalist Marketplace Semiotics Published by Set Margins’ publications.
Edited with text by Jason Grant, Oliver Vodeb. Conversations with Brian Holmes, Steven Heller. Part design experiment, part critical theory, part how-to manual, What Is Post-Branding? offers a creative counter to branding's neoliberal orthodoxy Brands aren't just intruding on culture, they are our culture: they are the sponsored mechanisms for constructing and manipulating meaning and human identity. But should we cede such a fundamental human need to the market? If not, why not, and is there an alternative? Now available in a hardcover edition, What Is Post-Branding? is a work of "practical theory" divided in four parts. The first section, DIS-BRANDED, consists of 20 short page-long chapters exposing the ideological underbelly and real-world impact of branding. The second, Mixed Messages, is a provocative visual essay illuminating the texts' main themes. The third section, Manual, presents a framework for a critical alternative to corporate branding, humorously appropriating vintage instructional diagrams as a brand manual satire. This section also includes examples of contemporary projects that have implemented post-branding principles. The book concludes with Context, which features a conversation with cultural theorist Brian Holmes and a discussion with design historian Steven Heller.
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