Comments on: Identity for Celebrity / Kate Moss

By: Matt Davies

Matt Davies — Sun, 27 May 2007 13:51:20 +0000

Colin, I completely understand what you mean about David Beckham and also accept that he is a success. He may not care whither he has a typographic identity that is consistant, but Kate Moss’s model agency, Storm, obviously think it would be benifitial for her to have one. All I am saying is that this may be the way celebrities may go in regards to their endorsements and branding. Not only will they have their talents, personality and picture as a “brand”, but will also have a graphic identity. From a marketing point of view this will create a stronger imaged which can be used when the pictures, and talents of the celebrity are not as positively construed.

Sure Becham is a footballer first, brand second. What happens when he stops playing football? To create a strong graphic identity which desn’t rely on his looks might be benifital in the long run. this is the case with Kate Moss. One day she will be old and wrinkly, but by creating an identity which people can start to recognise now, she may be able to continue on more successfully at that time. I accept she could do this anyway but the point is it may help.

I am simply pointing out these facts, and I for one think this is an interesting move in the marketing of celebrities. Thanks for your comments chaps. More would be most welcome…

By: Colin J C Johnston

Colin J C Johnston — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:22:07 +0000

With regards to David Beckham having an inconsistent brand association profile - how important as a footballer, do you think Beckham really cares about his inconsistent branding image across ALL the company’s he endorses, as long as his identity stays intact, I don’t think he’d have a problem. After all - brands need (or needed) HIM to sell/promote. Brands latched onto him remember!? not the other way round!?

He is a FOOTBALLER who promotes brands - NOT a brand concerned about his consistency / image etc, especially at this stage of his game. Anyway you can’t say brand Beckham would be better if these ‘inconsistencies’ were non-existent, surely. Beckham is a success. To extend a bit…Branding doesn’t ALWAYS have to be consistent to be successful..ever heard of consistently inconsistent? You’d be surprised.

With Regrds to the Kate Moss thing, she and TOPSHOP are already too big / successful with public popularity to be criticised with typographical errors, ok I know you could disect it for days, but the raw image of Kate etc etc is enough to lure those poor teenagers. Kate has been a brand in herself for years and well with TOPSHOP, they’ve been working for years to where they are now.

By: tumbleville

tumbleville — Thu, 17 May 2007 21:12:13 +0000

I’m not sure about Madonna. Graphically, she’s had a theme going on for quite some time, but it appears fairly sporadically. Look at the Immaculate Collection cover, a stylized M on the light blue background, and the way her name is styled on Ray of Light seems to reference it.
Mostly though, she has managed to brand her very name. People react to the word, no matter what it looks like. “Kate Moss” will be forgotten very quickly, we’ll remember that freakishly skinny model that used to do a lot of coke, but Madonna has become a part of the public subconscious by branding her name into everybody’s head.
I’m not sure she’d benefit from the same strategy, because she’s gotten as far as anybody can possibly get.
Jennifer Lopez made a very nice attempt - at some point, everybody knew “JLO”, except that the publicity wasn’t very good in content.

By: Type nerd, has read many books about typography

Type nerd, has read many books about typography — Mon, 14 May 2007 19:36:51 +0000

The “Kate Moss” typeface looks unbalanced. There’s just something unsettling about it that makes it look a bit amateurish compared to the other typefaces used in that black/white ad. Slick and slim fonts should of course go with the same kind of people, especially models, but this font sort of bombs in terms of the kind of elegancy it probably was designed to portray.

The big x-height and the curly s-es that continues well below the baseline makes it a bit confusing as if it was trying to grab a bit of everything and pull it in, but sadly you can’t always pull that off nicely, and this attempt fell flat.

I’m not even going to start rambling on about the letters in “Kate”…