Monday, February 14, 2011

The power of the logo...the power of the icon....

The power of the logo is pretty much that...powerful. We know so many of them, logos, icons, famous figures that symbolize something or represent a product, an idea, a group of people, etc. I cannot even recall how many of these have been present in my life. Yet, they have somehow made an impact in my daily living. Take for instance the famous American icon of McDonald's. Before it was a favorite among my family members and I. Ever since watching the documentary Super-Size Me my views towards it changed. Yes, I still go to it. But only very few times have I gone. That movie, for those that are not familiar with it, tells the journey of a brave young filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, in wanting to only eat McDonald's for 30 days for 3 times a day, with the sole purpose of proving that the food there is actually unhealthy if eaten in frequency. Here in this movie I saw a lot of examples of how icons/logos can have a great impact in people's lives. There is a scene where young children are shown pictures of different people, all of them famous in different areas (even Jesus is being shown), some of these are not even recognized with all the children, but all of them recognize the familiar red-haired clown, Ronald McDonald and how he is associated with making them happy by providing them with highly fatty meals and extremely entertaining PlayPlaces. Aside from the negativeness of the icon, there is also a positive light about it. An icon can create positive emotions in a person...take for example people that are highly admired in today's world. Gandhi is an icon of love and peace that people still look up to with great admiration and an exemplary example of being self-less and kind. The church even has the icon of the temple and how that represents everything we hold dear in our religion as being a house of sacredness and that it is a place where we are close to God. Whenever I look at a picture of any temple I feel warmth and motivated to be a better person each day. Various icons that represent different emotions and ideals can have that good effect in our lives. That is one thing we can try to incorporate in our filmmaking experience. Creating images, representing images, that can inspire people to do something...hopefully something that is good and beautiful. Ideas in the reading that I found interesting were those found in Inside Every Superhero lurks a Nerd, Super, and Wonder. They all share a similar point that superheroes can definitely have an impact in ideology of a given person while growing up. Kids look up to superheroes like Superman and Spider-man because they are common everyday people who have super powers and do good in their communities. They can relate to them because most of them are probably "nerds" or being the ones made fun at at school. Just like when I found in Pocahontas a heroine to look up to in my times of need, I imagine these kids seeing in these superheroes the same thing. To feel some of that power as their own. That is the power of the icon and the logo.

2 comments:

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  2. I agree with you that we each have icons that we look up to or idealize. For me, I've always idolized the Olympics. I'll see the five rings and instantly be filled with joy and excitement. But there are always negatives to icons. I feel like it is important to remember that everyone has faults and that most of our icons are made by faulty humans with problems of their own. It is always good to keep things in perspective.

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