![]() ![]() Not everyone may connect with either Heron Preston or Target, but everyone gets the modern Americana of brands like NASA, Disney, Peanuts and The Simpsons,” he said. “These enduring symbols speak to everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status. It’s happened with other logos and franchises, he notes, like Balenciaga doing projects with “The Simpsons” or Coach with Mickey Mouse. Nobody is immune from that level of nostalgia so it makes sense that these brands would want to build that into their own collections,” he said. “The folks who work for brands like Heron Preston and Balenciaga are as enamored by the fantasy of space travel as anyone else. It’s politically unaffiliated, he added, and can be marketed to young liberals and rural conservatives alike, drumming up that same nostalgia. It represents “that sort of quintessential American optimism that we can do anything,” he said. Hall, the Brooklyn-based creative director, said, in his mind, donning the NASA logo is far more about brandishing what the logo represents than declaring one’s love of outer space. It was probably only after the “cool kids” started wearing NASA T-shirts on the streets that designer brands picked up on it and sold it back to them. “It’s kind of a reverse engineering of trends.” “You start with kids in cities like New York buying like, old Disney product or old NASA t-shirts, and then suddenly some like ‘cool hunter’ in the fashion industry, like at Urban Outfitters, sees it and suddenly goes, ‘We should turn some NASA-branded t-shirts around,'” Hall said. Essentially, Priestly argued, designers and the fashion media curate the trends, and even the least fashion-interested consumers are influenced by those decisions.īut that’s only half the story, according to Jahn Hall, the creative director of Brooklyn-based design agency Consortium, which works on set design and styling for various brands.īefore Coach, kids were buying NASA t-shirts from vintage stores because they loved the nostalgic feel, the wistfulness of a piece of classic Americana, Hall said. Through this lens, it’s possible to explain the phenomenon through what we’ll call the “Miranda Preistly effect.” Remember that scene in 2006’s “The Devil Wears Prada” in which Priestly, Meryl Streep’s character, verbally dresses down her young, fashion-inept intern? She explains that the blue sweater she’s wearing is actually “cerulean,” and it’s as much a product of fashion-obsessed industry tycoons as anything on the runway. ![]() There was also Adidas, Swatch, Vans and countless others within the past decade. Pop singer Ariana Grande had a song and an entire merchandising line about NASA. If a company misuses the logo, NASA’s legal office will often send a cease and desist letter, Ulrich said.Īfter Coach released its line of NASA apparel, high-end designers including Heron Preston and, more recently, Balenciaga, released their own lines. And, of course, NASA wants to make sure its brand isn’t used for any untoward purposes, such as in a way that suggests that NASA endorses a company or product. Ulrich’s job is just to ensure that the logo is used in a way that’s consistent with the space agency’s approved aesthetic guidelines. ![]() If a company wants to print NASA logos on t-shirts or coffee mugs, it just has to send an email to NASA’s merchandising department, per the legal requirements. It’s not typically how licensing deals work, but, because NASA is a government agency, much of its assets - including photos, logos and even technology designs - are in the public domain. It’s all free of charge, and NASA doesn’t make a dime off it. But the reason there’s so much interest in slapping NASA logos on everything from Vans sneakers to trucker hats may have something to do with the fact that these companies don’t have to license the logo. Not all of those requests get approved, Ulrich added. Last year, there were “over 11,000 requests,” he said - an all-time high. It’s now come to the point that we get out on average 225 a week,” Ulrich said. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |