Background:
This logo shows that the phrase “your own label” has a dark side as well.
The design is based on the movie poster for THX-1138, an influential dystopian SciFi movie by George Lucas.
The main function of any label is to identify something or someone.
Most of us are now living in a free society, but big companies and paralized states are increasingly trying to label and identify humans, using RFID and tracking technology. Nevertheless the biggest threat comes from whithin: people freely identify themselves, because there are economic incentives (customer loyalty cards) or it allows them to express their individuality (internet communities).
While mass customization is supposed to mean that masses can customize their products, we might soon face a future, where mass customization will refer to customization of the masses.
Spreadshirt has a great moral responsibility, since it can decide which shirt-designs it allows to spread and which are rejected. For example Spreadshirt-founder Lukasz Gadowski decided in favour of the “Stasi 2.0″ t-shirt motive, which scrutinizes the pro-surveillance politics of German home secretary, Wolfgang Schäuble.
So why would Spreadshirt want an Anti-Label ?
- get lots of media attention
- raise the right questions, before it’s too late
- show that mass customization is about empowering the individual
- demonstrate that spreadshirt is a aware of its responsibility
Last 5 entries by shirtnerd
- Hyperspace - October 15th, 2007
- spread it in the streets - September 14th, 2007
- Golden Badge - September 13th, 2007
- Tea Shirt - September 13th, 2007
- your own king - September 11th, 2007
As a German this reminds me of bad things. Black, white and red are the colors of the 3. Reich national flag. And the choice of fonts and the skinhead background increase the Nazi image of this submission.
yes, I’m on the same opinion like bulgrin.
It looks national socialist, I don’t like the font and the colour…
I’m with you about the colours, but the “skinhead bg” comes somewhere else (although it reminds one strongly of our bald-headed mud brains). It is a picture from George Lucas’ first full feature SF-movie: “THX 1138″ [http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0066434/].
Anyway, I don’t like this logo as well, for two reasons: The Third Reich allusions are a bit too strong, and it is not a logo in its literal sense after all.
As a science fiction g33k I like the logo.. I don’t think mr. shirtnerd had any bad intentions in mind when he submitted it. There is a slight issue of copyright here though, and as far as I know mr. Lukas is a strong defender of his rights.
Hello everyone. thanks for your comments!
The logo really seems to work. This is an ANTI-logo. very much like Luciano Benettons anti-advertising. It is supposed to make you feel uneasy and rethink your concept of “your own label”
Concerning the Third-Reich allusions - those are fully intentional.In 1941 the Nazis passed a law that required Jews to wear “their own label” and so they did.
In concentration camps the inmates were labeled again, mostly using colorful triangles
[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camp_badges ]
For example homosexuals were labeled in pink. But it was not “their own label” at the time. Only after the war the gay movement proudly took possession of their own label…
In that case this is horrible.