42 - The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything
Brief: rationalise three graffiti tags as a corporate or brand logo (this is the first part, check other projects for part two)
Timescale: two week start to final year experimental project
Intentions: utilising the two weeks as an opportunity to explore and play around creating striking work which is playful, yet logically and intelligently thought out. With the key word of 'experiment' at the forefront of the exercise, truly trusting the process.
Concept: during the film 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy’ a race of hyper intelligent, pandimensional beings get so fed up of the constant bickering about the meaning of life that they design and build a stupendous super computer to calculate 'the answer to life, the universe and everything’. After the uber computer tells them to return in seven and a half million years to receive the answer, the response of '42' leaves the crowd puzzled when received as their rebuttal to the most anticipated question that one could ask.
With inspiration and insight onboard from this film, I have created an ideological concept that could be transferable to many brands with the slogan ‘The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything’. This would be neatly adaptable for a lot of brands, suggesting that their company knows the score; has the answers; and can foresee the future. For example, '42' could be directed towards a new, state-of-the-art computer software company and be applied in a very corporate manner to build a respectable name for them. On the other hand, '42' could be used for a gnarly skate brand with aspirations of starting the dopest new street movement. With just two examples you can see how much they contrast, yet the connotations of the brand bring them both together in the nature of the intentions they would bide by, which demonstrates the versatility of the name and slogan. The slogan holds an almost philosophical, mystical awe about it that makes it engaging for the reader and would captivate them into questioning and thinking subconsciously about the context behind it.
It’s interesting to think about some iconic brands’ slogans and how they don’t really make sense without context. If we look at Nike’s ‘just do it’ tagline, without context it is a meaningless statement. We know Nike is an athletic company, but to do exercise without warming up or stretching, would be a bad choice as this could lead to injury, so you can’t ‘just do it’. Although, being such an iconic brand this is the distinguished slogan we associate with them. We do know the positive intentions they imply, but someone who isn’t absorbed in consumerism and is unaware of their statue and field in the market could misinterpret it.
A rival competitor for Nike would be Adidas, another athletic company, with the slogan ‘impossible is nothing’, a sentence which is clearly flawed and untrue. As there are many things not possible in the world we live in, like being able to eat a fully fledged flamingo or being able to lick your own elbow for instance. Ridiculous examples, but it just proves how outrageous their tagline can be perceived as. We know in the positive light it is meant to motivate and inspire us to exceed our own expectations, but this is another example of how slogans can be senseless and hold empty meaning without context.
With the phrase ’the answer to life, the universe and everything’ it is another example of how such an ambiguous saying can have multiple meanings and be interpreted in many different ways, but with the relevant context it makes complete sense. So if 42 were a transport company for example, 'the answer to life, the universe and everything' would be an appropriate tagline to associate the company with as it could be understood as being handed the opportunity to travel far and wide, opening your mind and opening the door to the bigger picture.
I have played around with the graffiti tag, exploring how the manipulation of its form through a variety of trial and error processes can lead to engaging connotations. I didn’t want to commit to one brand as this would have hindered the exploratory nature of the project, so I have left it quite open with lots of avenues I could take the concept if it were to exist in reality.
Using the CMYK colour scheme with the flashing .gifs suggests that the brand is multi-disciplinary who’s framework is energetic and versatile resulting in a dynamic company that has the capability of transcending and surpassing expectations. Using the laser-cutter to create the 42 provides the option to effortlessly stencil the form onto lots of mediums, from fabric to brickwork, which would reflect the innovative spirit of the company while evoking the institutions dynamic nature.
N.B. heads up to the epileptic in the house - flashing images just a scroll away!
