The Rise of the Brand: the history and theory of logos and identity marks

Brands and logos are all around us, from the clothes we wear and the objects we put in our homes, to the hoardings that line our streets and the adverts that cover buses, taxis and trains. There is an enormous interest in the growth of branding on the part of students, scholars and the general public, but very little work that addresses the topic from a non-business perspective. This book, by contrast, will provide an accessible account of the historical and cultural significance of branding, which will connect the creative and design-led aspects of branding to its broader social relevance.

The aim of this research is to present a social and cultural history of the rise of 'the brand' and to explain why this particular aspect of design practice has become a focus of debate across so many aspects of social life. The research will lead to a monograph that traces the rise of the brand from its origins in the Roman Empire through to the present day. It will explore the early role of brands in marking people, animal and goods as forms of property, as well as their role during industrialisation as a way of distinguishing mass-produced goods from one another and marketing them to a wider public. As part of this account, the research will also consider the ways in which brands have historically been used as part of national and imperial political projects, and how they have com: more recently to be seen as indices of the increasing 'marketisation' of daily life and the extension of a Western-dominated form of globalization.

The book will also include new empirical material that investigates the work of branding across a range of sites. It will present case studies of a number of brands (including Sony, Apple, Guinness, Pepsi and Toyota), as well as interviews with designers, branding consultants and advertisers, to show how and why branding has become more central to cultural production in recent years. The book also examines the impact of the branding and design industries on apparently non-commercial aspects of public life, including the branding of sports organisations and events (including, for example, the 'London 2012' Olympic bid) and the marketing of cities, nations, charities and political parties. The book aims to provide a more nuanced account of branding than is currently available, and will show how an array of forces have combined to produce the current centrality of branding to public culture.

The applications of this research are wide-ranging, since it is cross-disciplinary in approach and likely to appeal to readers from a range of backgrounds. It will serve primarily as a contribution to scholarship in the areas of design history and theory, media and communications, social and cultural history and cultural studies. It will also be of value to readers in disciplines of law and postcolonial studies, since it will incorporate substantial research into intellectual property law (specifically trademark law) and its relationship to contemporary geo-politics. In addition, the research will have a direct pedagogical value for students within the disciplines listed above, since it will remedy omissions in the existing literature and will be written in a clear and accessible style. Finally, the book will be of interest to the general reader who wishes to understand the social significance of this aspect of design and marketing.