Vernato
January 17th, 2010
Time to time you come a cross to a thing you don’t know what it basically is and you scratch your head. Alban from Vernato approached us and said: “We are a new brand that focuses only on world cultures. We are two Europeans that came to the US at an early age. We looked around and there were no brands that designed what we had in mind. We went ahead and build a whole brand on the message of Cultural Meaning, or Meaningful Culture. Every piece of t-shirt that we introduce has a cultural meaning behind it.”
Message of cultural meaning? I’m a little bit lost there but nonetheless I think the basic consept should be rethought a little bit. Personally I think the culture and cultural meanings go deeper than just a word of the nation in question and some plain national symbols. Some of the shirts (like Russia) might even go a littel bit to the unbalanced surface of nationalism… Well, you can judge it for yourselves above. But good luck to guys anyways.
January 17th, 2010 at 9:34
Hello,
First of all, I would like to thank you for mentioning us in your blog. It’s nice seeing people write about us, even in a negative form. Maybe, we were not clear and we can do a better job communicating our brand to you.
Loving and appreciating your nation or any nation for what it has achieved is completely different from nationalism. We are not putting anyone above or below. The fact that we have 8 nations should communicate that. Our brand focuses on bringing out the best out of each culture. Each nation has its good parts and its bad parts; but in the end, we are part of them. I will take Russia as an example as well. The fall of Hammer & Sickle in the design signifies the fall of Soviet Union. It’s an important part of its culture and we have featured it in the design, along with many things that are focus on the Russian people. The symbols that we have used have deeper meaning. You should understand that it’s a t-shirt and not a documentary from the History Channel. You cannot go that in detail with a t-shirt.
Being a proud Russian is a great thing. The same goes for being proud of being American, Jamaican or Filipino. Nations, along with people contribute to our world as a whole and we should be more proud aware of them, even in fashionable way.
And finally, there have also been major brands such as Puma that have created a line of simple flag t-shirts. Did Puma really want to portray nationalism?
I hope I was clear. I can answer any other questions. You can also read more about our brand in “The Brand” section of our website.
Sincerely,
Alban
January 17th, 2010 at 15:16
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January 18th, 2010 at 3:55
“Being a proud Russian is a great thing. The same goes for being proud of being American, Jamaican or Filipino.”
Mmm, yes, this is the part I didn’t get. Can you be proud for your culture in general, not by putting the obvious national symbols on front of that? And you said something about cultural meanings. Just putting the obvious national symbols are not much of telling about culture, they’re just emblems of those in power. Emblems of the ruling force. Not the culture itself. You get my point?
And most of them all I’m just curious to know to whom these kinds of shirts are aimed at? I mean the russian shirt is the same kind people sell on the markets in moscow to tourists. I hardly believe any russian would wear that kind of shirt just to show off his/her culture(maybe only in the hockey or a football match). The fall of the hammer and sickle do not show as a “fall” in there and I think in Russia they are now more to be a part of “fashionable” retro-revival.
Here is an example where the national emblem is taken out of it’s context and the designer has played with it a little: http://www.zazzle.co.uk/emblem_of_russia_tshirt-235668438487279006 Maybe to put a little bit humor or some twist in it would do the trick?
But most of all I’m very glad you answered this post, it reflects that you have the ability and willingness to think and develop what you are doing.
And furthermost, I didn’t try to be negative in purpose. I just honestly thought there would be a little bit room left to rethink the concept, that’s all. And just for my 2 cent’s for you: If you need to tell people by words what your brand and shirts really mean are their purpose any more filled? Shouldn’t the shirts be able to communicate themselves alone? Wouldn’t that be a target for launching a brand?
But once again good luck with your brand and let’s see how it is developing!
February 4th, 2010 at 0:40
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