SMALL holder and former Re- connect editor MARTIN FOSTER has been branding… No not his livestock, these are animals kept to the highest welfare standards!
ARE you a Rolling Stones fan? Fancy a Stones cricket bat? A ‘tongue and lips’ logo- adorned rugby ball? These and many more items of ‘genuine merchandise’ are available in a special four-window display of Stones goodies in the Oxford branch of Selfridges to mark the launch of their latest tour – and to celebrate the fact that they can make a shed-load of cash simply by sticking their logo on all manner of random stuff. A velvet armchair emblazoned with the surely ironic slogan ‘It’s only rock an’ roll’ for just 10 grand, anyone? Or a pool table for a mere £8,200? Surely your three-year- old would LOVE a Stones logo’d leather biker jacket? I just listened to a radio interview with the member of their entourage responsible for their merch – the words ‘band’ and ‘brand’ were virtually inter-changeable. Muso fans have been wearing the names of their fave bands across their chests since Jagger was a boy, of course, but when did the excesses of rock and roll stop referring to good ol’ healthy drug abuse and hotel room trashing and start to reflect the branding of anything big enough to carry a decent logo? The game-changing growth in online music streaming has meant a big re-think for musicians right across the fame spectrum. Revenue from sales of recordings have plummeted and artists are instead having to get out there and perform live to keep the dosh rolling in. Not in itself a bad thing – gigs and festivals are thriving as a result. The last Stones tour, A Bigger Bang in 2005-7, grossed over $500,000,000 – including merch sales, but probably more T-shirts than velvet armchairs. Many of the larger festivals have themselves succumbed to the same temptations, their fields emblazed with brand names, making them look more like shopping malls than temples of rock. And all hail the events that have deliberately turned their rebellious backs on the corporate dollar – Beautiful Days, or The Green Man Festival in the Brecon Beacons, for example. But is there anything wrong with a bit of fancy badgery? Surely it helps to guide the consumer – when they see the Stones logo, they know that this way comes a little riotous rockin’ rebellion? Albeit from aged gentlemen with a taste for velvet armchairs… The big corporations attach so much importance to logos and the image behind it that they spend a great deal of time and money to get it just right. In 2000, the nature-loving BP corporation spent a little over $200,000,000 on rebranding to include a flower in their logo. Although the Stones tongue and lips classic was actually created in a few evenings by RCA student Jon Pasche in 1970 after Jagger visited his degree show. Jon got 50 quid for the “logo or symbol which may be used on note paper, as a programme cover and as a cover for the press book”. So, contrary to that famous line in Sierra Madre – ‘We don’t need no stickin’ badges!’ – maybe we do. Reconnect just wouldn’t be the same without it’s instantly recognisible masthead across the top of each cover. And (prepare that hypocrisy alert), we at Tigley Tump worked closely with the wonderful designer Robert Doets to create a logo that would reflect what we represent here: practical considerations of space, aesthetics and world supplies of ink and paper mean that while we could explain, every time that we mention Tigley Tump, that we’re an off-grid small-holding just outside Totnes run by family and friends who believe in sustainable living and producing food without destroying the earth, our hope is that our name and logo is becoming associated with those ideals. So when we launch a new product (our wonderful compost, for example – check out Facebook/TigleyTump), people hopefully recognising it as coming from a good place. Literally. As a form of graphic shorthand, then, the logo works a treat. Unfortunately, like everything else it gets its grubby hands on, things have become a little messy in the commercial mess of consumerism. How did it become cool to wear logos like Nike, Hugo Boss and the like that do nothing but celebrate the manufacturer? They do, of course, also tell people that you can afford super-expensive items of clothing – a good chunk of the price of which goes back into advertising the brand; the studio-created glamour of which we all want to be associated with all the more. Is there a more pointless cycle in modern life? It even puts me off buying heavily branded items of clothing from charity shops. Another pointless old-man- rant? Possibly, but while the big corporations continue to pump millions and millions into fuelling the brutally destructive consumerism machine, I feel obliged to sometimes use my little voice, no matter how quiet and humble, to suggest perhaps we could sometimes consider where and how we spend our cash – and just what ethos that cash is helping to support. Must dash – I need to start work on our new range of Tigley Tump golf clubs…