"Identity - Trademarks, Logotypes and Symbols"
2002-02-20 until 2002-08-11
National Museum
Stockholm, , SE

Widening its mandate concerning current and modern design, Nationalmuseum presents Identity - Trademarks, Logotypes and Symbols. The exhibition reveals, from the viewpoints of both design history and commerce, the process that makes a logotype into a symbol or a strong brand. Identity - Trademarks, Logotypes and Symbols illuminates the modern history of design but also the co-ordination between culture, commerce and research. There is also focus on how knowledge is growing about the role and importance of logos, symbols and brands.

How are we affected by the brands around us and how do we use them to create our own identitiesNULL How is a brand builtNULL What happens with brands and logos when companies mergeNULL Where is the line between advertising and artNULL The exhibition has sketches, graphic art handbooks, posters, film, photography and objects, all loaded with the brand message. The development and design history of selected logos are given extra attention. Partner companies are AstraZeneca, Kooperativa Förbundet (Cooperative Union), Posten (Swedish Post Office), Tera Pak and Trygg-Hansa. Also involved are the Red Cross and Nationalmuseum, with its own design progression.

Identity - Trademarks, Logotypes and Symbols is a co-operative project involving Nationalmuseum and the Stockholm School of Economics. The project consists of an exhibition, a catalogue and a series of seminars. The seminars illustrate and inspect symbols and trademarks from the viewpoints of economy, society and design history. The purpose is to open a discussion and invite reflections on the making of a brand, the moral and ethical aspects of branding, the brand as mass-produced art artefact and the construction of identities.

The six seminars will be held in Nationalmuseum's auditorium, concurrently with the exhibition. Several will be combined with research seminars at the School of Economics. Three speakers have been invited for each occasion. In charge of the seminars is Associate Professor Ingalill Holmberg of the Stockholm School of Economics.

A score of writers have contributed to the catalogue. Among them are historians, art and design historians and business economists. They include Professor Majken Schultz, Copenhagen School of Economics, design historian Marie-Louise Bowallius, Stockholm's School of Arts, Crafts and Design, Copenhagen architect Per Mollerup Ph.D., and Olle Granath, former director general of Nationalmuseum. Also represented: business economists Frans Melin Ph.D. of Lund University, Lars Strannegård Ph.D., Associate Professor Miriam Salzer-Mörling D. Econ., and Associate Professor Magnus Söderlund - the three latter from the Stockholm School of Economics. Doctoral candidates Johan Eriksson (Art History), of Stockholm University, and Håkan Jönsson (Ethnology) of Lund University, are also among the contributors.

IMAGE:
Poster from the Red Cross

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