FOCUS ON ICONS

Back in the late eighties, an aspiring artist attending the Rhode Island School of Design by the name of Shepard Fairey was given the assignment in his illustration class to illustrate a fortune cookie. Fairey's fortune cookie stated "sometimes you have to think big". His response to the statement was the defacing of a giant billboard of the then corrupt mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, Buddy Ciancii. Shepard put the face of the famous wrestler Andre the Giant over the face of Buddy Ciancii. Fairey was found out and confessed to the authorities of his graffitti artwork and got off with community service due to his good behavior and corporation.

Fairey had created a logo. The face of a famous wrestler with the statement "Andre the Giant has a possee". On the side he listed the wrestler's weight and height. The sticker has no further meaning. The statement is quite literal. He began putting the sticker EVERYWHERE.


Over time, Fairey simplified his logo to merely the face of Shepard Fairey. This allowed him to reproduce the icon better. It allowed him to stencil the icon so he didn't have to just use stickers. The icon started showing up everywhere; Boston, New York, Providence ... but then a strange thing started happening. Kids and random people started taking down the sticker, photocopying it and making their own. Soon the icon started going national ... and then international. Fairey wasn't even making the stickers anymore.

Some people started feeling threatened by Andre the Giant. They didn't know what his face meant. Was this some type of cultural takeover? Was this a cult? A conspiracy? But in actuality, it was absolutely nothing. It was a face. That's it. But since it was EVERYWHERE ... people started reading into it. People wanted to be a part of whatever Andre the Giant was. Kid's started putting Andre the Giant on their skateboards.

Before Fairey knew it, he had a product. A product based on an icon. What was he selling? The icon itself. Fairey started making t-shirts of the icon. He started making paintings of the icon. He was starting a business.




In about ten years, Fairey was becoming a household name. Well, at least the icon was. It didn't really matter if people knew who Fairey was or not. He made it all the way to prime time when fellow classmate Seth McFarlene put the icon ... on FAMILY GUY!

But Fairey wasn't finished. During the 2008 campaign, Fairey started taking a liking to the politic rhetoric of the then Illinois senator Barack Obama. Notice the about portrait of Obama ... see the Andre the Giant LOGO inside the Obama logo? Little known fact: Barack Obama never licensed Fairey to make these posters. Fairey just did it on his own. But now ... The Andre the Giant logo, which was EVERYWHERE but was still elusive and mysterious ... yet hip and cool ... started showing up on Barack's posters!

Fairey took to the streets with Obama's posters the same way he took to the streets with Andre the Giant a decade earlier. Later that year ... Barack Obama was elected the first African American president!

What can we learn from this? Why was the Obama campaign so successful? What was Fairey's contribution?

Fairey works in a particular field of iconography called "PROPOGRANDA". Propoganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position. Propaganda is usually most successful when it's message is simple and repeated over and over again.

There is an Andy Warhol quote (who can also be argued to be a propagandist, but that's for another time): "the more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away and the better and emptier you feel."

This is what occurred during the Obama campaign. Prior to Obama's campaign, America was, unfortunately, uncomfortable with the idea of an African American president. However, Fairey and Obama repeated the idea of him being a public figure that was suited for president to the point people began seeing it as normal. Their messages were simple: "HOPE" - "PROGRESS" and "YES WE CAN". They drilled into the American public POSITIVE messages. And the more people heard positive messages, the more they felt hopeful.

Let us now observe some more ICONS.

Above is the McDonald's logo. Notice how simple it is. It is an M that is trademarked and the colors red and yellow. This logo is EVERYWHERE around the world.

Because McDonald's is an international company, the icon is used so anyone knows what it is they are buying anywhere in the world. Above someone who doesn't even know this language knows EXACTLY what this restaurant is.



Once again, here is Coca Cola, another corporate logo. Theirs is a bit more complex. Regardless, see how they advertise when selling their product in another country.

You still know what the product is even though you cannot read the language above. That swirl and that red means "Coca Cola".

Here is a photo of Micheal Jordan at a slam dunk contest. Micheal Jordan's skills were so impressive, they became ICONIC of basketball itself.
While Michael Jordan is famous for being a basketball player, he should also be remembered as a brilliant designer/businessman. This icon above is instantly recognizable, easy to reproduce and is now on shoes and clothing just about everywhere. When you see this icon, it means Michael Jordan; it stands for strength, athletic ability, success and fame. When we wear his shoes, we imagine that somehow by putting on Air Jordan's these qualities will magically rub off on us. This is called ADVERTISING.

ICONS ARE UNBELIEVABLY POWERFUL. The Air Jordan logo sells tons of merchandising. When people see the Air Jordan logo on a pair of shoes, they will buy these shoes even if the shoes are $140 when a pair of shoes from payless, which are, arguably, the same exact thing, are about $30. The icon is a symbol.

Now - I am not going to be sitting here bashing Michael Jordan. And perhaps Air Jordans are better basketball shoes (however, they are not going to grossly improve your game). But it is imperative to understand logos because of the BELOW logo.

The swastika is WHY I am telling you all this. This is a complex question with a complex answer, but why did Germany in the 1930ties fall for the absurd philosophy presented by Hitler and the third Reich? Anyone in their right mind knows that you cannot blame a countries economic problems on a ethnicity group. That's like saying global warming is caused by homosexuals. It's ridiculous! However - imagine the above logo, slowly but surely, popping up on every street corner. Imagine the swastika before what we know now. It represented power. It represented national pride. It was a symbol of pride given to a country that was down on its luck and in economic strife.

I am not a Nazi sympathizer. Rather, I teach this as a warning. It is very easy to simply state that Germans in the 1930ties were monsters. But they were human like you and me. And we can fall into the same trap that they did by blindly buying into philosophies that are spread everywhere to the point they seem normal.

WHAT IS POPULAR IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT AND WHAT IS RIGHT IS NOT ALWAYS POPULAR.

The process in which McDonald's food is made is pretty grotesque, not to mention the quality of their meat. Let's just say it's not health food. I implore you to investigate it on your own. What you might find out after reading the book "Fast Food Nation" may make you want to protest in front of McDonalds. But because McDonalds is everywhere and their logo is everywhere, we don't blink an eye about them, even though their employees at their slaughterhouses are treated poorly, usually the staff is underpaid, etc. etc.

This is just one example.

ANYWAY:

Today in class, your assignment is to design a logo for our class. We are the "ANIME ELECTIVE at CLARENCE EDWARDS MIDDLE SCHOOL". That's a mouthful! What would be a more simple and catchy title?

Try to think of something that would represent us well. Something simple and easy to reproduce. Something that says "anime and comic books". Something that says "Edwards Middle School".

We will then individually present all of our logos to the class, discuss which logo is the best and then take a VOTE. The top two logos with the most votes will then go to the next stage and go up against the logos in the B class. We will then vote on the top 4 and a winner will be chosen.

The winning logo will be placed on the school blog as the blog's title. It will be given out on every handout!