What Is Post-Branding?: How to Counter Fundamentalist Marketplace Semiotics

Book Overview

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?
A compact pocketbook composed of four main sections, What Is Post Branding? is a work of "practical theory." 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 908327067X
• ISBN13: 9789083270678
• Release Date: September 2023
• Publisher: Set Margins' Publications
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.1" x 6.4"