Setting the Tone for What is to Come

With the launch of Code of Conduct, the On the Banana series sets the tone for what’s to come. What started with a single image, escalated to involve sources from fashion, fine art, visual communication, and hand lettering. On the Banana is a creative experiment about branding and how an everyday, inanimate object can be blown out into a full scale collection. The object in question is a banana. Most of us have them in our homes. They’re a staple on the shopping list. They are well designed. They provide sustenance, energy, vitamins, and even come in a convenient travel case.

What started from this item, grew into a rabbit hole of visual research. When it comes to conceptualization, one must not have any holds barred. It evolved into quirky typographic layouts and simple iconography. Even items associated with it were incorporated into communicative strategy.

There is a common thread between consumption and creation. Both should be treated with a sense of purpose and intent.

For example, with a banana, one might associate plastic bags, mesh shopping baskets, or price stickers. Now, stepping into a semantic point of view, we could consider what each of these items represent. Plastic bags, for example, can suggest environmental consciousness or the lack thereof. Price stickers speak to economy and our dependence on it as a society. A banana can cost as little as $0.10 to some and $1.50 to others. It’s just dollars and cents, but this difference dramatically reflects the economy it exists in at large.

When it comes to developing brand, the successful companies are able to effectively communicate semantic meaning beyond a single object. They can make these connections that run far deeper than the denotative meaning. It is this depth that consumers truly identify with. This is where power of visual communication lies. Taking a denotative symbol for an object and alluding to a connotative meaning.

Going back to the purpose of this collection, I was inspired by the idea of how far this could be taken. The mission of Code of Conduct is to “strive for authenticity over perfection, inspire action over speech, and challenge oneself to find deeper meaning in the everyday.” This collection speaks to the latter of this statement. How can we find deeper meaning in the everyday? And does that deeper meaning need to have purpose? Throughout this collection, inspiration will unfold. It is about the story first and the creative result second.

 

Don’t forget to show some love. Photo: Brando Makes Branding and Nayanika Mukherjee

collection consumerism creative inspiration semiotics typography