by Marco Bevolo
Spoiler alert!
“…To conclude, and answer the intial question posed; yes, it is feasible to treat a cultural entity as a brand, deploying all related design and marketing tools. On the other hand, the nature of a cultural institution is not measurable purely in commercial terms, and the mechanisms governing the laws of reputation and perceived value in the cultural semiotic sphere might slightly differ in focus and intensity than those ruling in the purely commercial world.
But the real question is: could the notions of authenticity and integrity as we identify them at the heart of the branding of culture, of the branding through culture, actually constitute the seeds of a new paradigm for branding in general?”
Marco Bevolo is a visiting lecturer at the University of Leeds, UK, and an advisory board member at ISISUF in Milan, C3 Gallery of New York and MU of Eindhoven. He is Design Director at Philips Design and lives in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and Turin, Italy.
The article is based on a study performed on behalf of Istituto Internazionale Studi sul Futurismo of Milan and the content was presented during lectures at the Nijenrode University of The Netherlands and at the School of Design at the University of Leeds.
