Design
The City, Covered With Logos
Are corporate logos diminishing the sense of place in cities?
Cities in the U.S. and across the world are being literally overrun by brands, their visual landscapes taken over by corporate logos. The map above by CityMaps (via Maria Popova) illustrates just how extensive this has become in New York. (The maps are currently available only for New York, San Francisco, and Austin).
“Manufacturing products may require drills, furnaces, hammers and the like,” wrote Naomi Klein in No Logo, “but creating a brand calls for a completely different set of tools and materials. It requires an endless parade of brand extensions, continuously renewed imagery for marketing, and most of all, fresh new spaces to disseminate the brand’s idea of itself.”