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So… I was watching a couple of episodes of CoolHunting video podcasts that were from maybe 2007 or so, and though I’ve seen them already before… I really started to appreciate what they do:  they not only take into view those people who are in essence, the independent, local shops, the proprietorships that exist in the world, but also those who are involved in larger companies: say, they did a piece on Jacques Polge, a perfumer who works for Chanel.  He goes on to explain his work, and why it is significant to be a perfumer, why perfume as an art is important to him, and all that is very interesting.

Now then I look at what the normal citizen sees every day – the shops that are like Target, and Walmart… then the higher end, specialty stores (I guess I’m speaking for downtown Chicago, especially) such as Banana Republic, Neiman Marcus, Calvin Klein, Chanel… so forth.  I think what has happened is that since a normal person cannot exactly afford to shop at any specialty store, they opt for stores like Macys, Target… which in hand, causes this further disconnect from the makers to the store.  These… say, “third-hand” stores open the market to a lower revenue market, and eventually (at least, this I feel true for myself,) the brand names become more of a wall of names… essentially, they lose meaning because I can go to one shop, and see “everything” there is that is available to me at my income.

Then I see CoolHunting again, and I notice that disconnect… that departure from the whole idea of relationship between a maker (and I use that term loosely) and their market.  Admittedly, the market is expanded, since they have the “third party merchants” that expose your product to the world, but I really am interested in the people behind the scenes; the people involved in creating that product in which probably most of us take for granted.

I know, I’ve made fun of many fashion fads, and arbitrarily hated many products designed for the masses, but there’s definitely a need to observe where products come from, because THAT’S where we go wrong:  when that disconnect happens, and when the designers can only understand their market through the select people their company interacts with, and the select friends that the designers themselves have, they definitely have a limited point of view – and I think, (this is just a guess, but) maybe that’s where design obsolescence comes from… maybe, that’s where we see all these unnecessary products built to last a year and then be thrown away –we see products poorly made, look cool, but are completely impractical… there’s just so much that we miss today because all we see is…. Target.  Macys.  Walmart.  so forth.

I respect these companies and their motives, because that’s exactly what’s driving the market right now.  I just think maybe it’s important to take a look at the core of these companies, and the people who drive their ideas.  Sure, we see a whole lot of douchbag designers who think they’re the shit, but they can’t all be that way, and I’m sure they want to be appreciated just as much as any worker.
It’s not as if I have a lot to say about being a worker like that, but I firmly believe that it’s NOT the brand, NOT the logo, not even the image that is completely important for these large companies, because by the time that company got corporate, that original idea has gotten diluted by the several, maybe hundreds of shareholders who also have ideas.  Sure, that’s important too, I’m not saying their visions aren’t important, but it’s always interesting for me to see that original vision and purpose of the proprietor to create that market, or societal niche for him or herself.

And maybe, iunno, maybe that vision was incredibly stupid… or just bad in general… but it caught the attention of people, right?
(I know I’ve ignored the proprietorships that are still small-scale stores, and maybe I’ll talk about them in another post too )