When a graphic design professional works with a brand logo, their task goes beyond simply selecting the best position or background color. They must also adhere to the company’s visual identity—often encapsulated in a brand manual, a document outlining the rules and instructions for using the brand’s graphic and identity elements. But what happens to logos when they meet the real world, when they step out of corporate identity manuals, branding agencies, and designers’ portfolios? What happens when they encounter memes, counterfeiting, protests, fashion, pop culture, or counterculture? Michele Galluzzo, graphic designer and researcher, seeks to answer these questions in his new book, Logo In Real Life, Notes for a Social History of Visual Identity (published by Krisis Publishing), out on November 19th.
With a foreword by Chiara Alessi and editing by Silvio Lorusso—previously featured on WeVux with the publication What Design Can’t Do—Logo In Real Life offers a counter-narrative where graphic icons become “open works.” In a participatory archive—first born digitally on Instagram and now also in book form—filled with distortions and rip-offs, Michele Galluzzo presents logos in a new light. They are no longer untouchable objects born solely from the genius of professionals and masters but fluid forms that emerge from the bottom up, interacting with the public and their context.
Across its 280 pages, readers will find chapters such as “The Pirelli Contagion: A Brief Social History of an Unusually Shaped P”, “Plagiarizing, Attacking, and Unstitching Fiorucci: An Analysis of a Viral Identity”, “Wandering Logos: Losing Commodores, Louis Vuitton, and Coca-Cola Along the Way”, and “Logos Out of Bounds: The Anti-Authorial Graphics of LGBTQIA+ Movements”, among others.
In her foreword, Chiara Alessi explains:
[…] this is a social history, a collection of essays, an atlas, and in some form, also the story of its author’s work. Yet it is neither the work of a graphic designer nor a study of political graphic design. Instead, I’d say, if I may, it’s about the politics of graphic design. And, in my view, ‘this is where we are.’
In an excerpt from the book, Michele Galluzzo states:
Paying attention to the manifestations of disorder that emerge from the social history of visual identity—or graphic design in a broader sense—can be especially useful in understanding the current state of graphic design as a discipline: a state of confusion, a chaotic scenario.
If we consider the duality of logos—as both a potential viral symbol of a specific brand identity and a starting point for memes, satirical, and sarcastic content—Logo In Real Life becomes a rich collection of stories, a visual narrative of our emotions, our irony, and our relationship with brands and their imagery. Logo In Real Life is available for purchase here, and you can preview some of the featured logos on the project’s Instagram profile. For more information, visit Michele Galluzzo‘s website and follow him on Instagram!