New York branding research

Today I conducted research into the general branding of New York throughout the 70s and 80s. The first concept that sprung to mind was the incredibly effective and iconic 'I love N.Y.' campaign that can still be seen today throughout contemporary culture.

The song "I Love New York" is the state song of New York. - possibly my No wave playlist could be taped over the top of this overly polished and corny tune as a demonstration of the rebellion against the state that the wave represents. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck3MRdeph5o

I Love New York (stylized I ❤ NY) is a slogan, a logo and a song that is the basis of an advertising campaign used since 1977 to promote tourism in the state and city of New York. The trademarked logo, owned by the New York State Department of Economic Development, appears in souvenir shops and brochures throughout the state, some licensed, many not.

The logo was designed by graphic designer Milton Glaser in 1976 in the back of a taxi and was drawn with red crayon on scrap paper. The original drawing is held in the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. - This D.I.Y aesthetic is something I should definitely try to recreate when experimenting with the design, instead of using the American Typewriter typography that it is known for. 

There is also, of course, the famous name 'the big apple' which is still occasionally used to describe the city, at times in a jovial fashion. This is perhaps due to the time at which the big apple campaign was rolled out and for this reason its hard to even find any visual depictions of it online today. Its history and specifically original origins are fairly ambiguous with a number of false theories in circulation, including a claim that the term derived from a woman named Eve who ran a brothel in the city. This was subsequently exposed as a hoax.

The earliest known usage of 'big apple' appears in the book The Wayfarer in New York (1909), in which author Edward S. Martin writes:

Kansas is apt to see in New York a greedy city.... It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap.

New York. - possibly my No wave playlist could be taped over the top of this overly polished and corny tune as a demonstration of the rebellion against the state that the wave represents. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ck3MRdeph5o

The term then shot to prominence in the early 1970s, however, the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau began to promote the city's "Big Apple" nickname under the leadership of its president, Charles Gillett. It has remained as terminology in popular culture since then. 


However, the name never really took off as a commercial success due to the unfortunate timing of its release. The relaunch of the advertising campaign came as New York was plunged into financial meltdown, in the 694 days between 11 January 1973 and 6 December 1974, the New York Stock Exchange's Dow Jones Industrial Average benchmark lost over 45% of its value, making it the seventh-worst bear market in the history of the index. 1972 had been a good year for the DJIA, with gains of 15% in the twelve months. 1973 had been expected to be even better, with Time magazine reporting, just 3 days before the crash began, that it was 'shaping up as a gilt-edged year'. In the two years from 1972 to 1974, the American economy slowed from 7.2% real GDP growth to −2.1% contraction, while inflation jumped from 3.4% in 1972 to 12.3% in 1974.  This crash if what allowed for the No Wave scene to be born due to the incredibly cheap derelict housing on the East bank, downtown New York, allowing for an influx of young, optimistic creatives. For this reason I feel like the big apple campaign in some way embodies the time period within New York as it was to some extent short-lived but still talked about to this day and denotes the time well. It seems incredible that this era even existed when you consider the affluence of New York and the gentrification of its downtown today. This has lead me to ask 'could a movement like No Wave ever happen again in the developed world?' and I think the answer is definitely no. A was of relating it to the modern world would be to look at the impact of the 2008 recession and see if any avant-garde music or culture scenes have sprung out of that. 




Another area of N.Y. branding I looked into was the general city colours and motifs. I looked mainly at the flag of the city as a whole, however, there are also flags of the respective boroughs e.g. The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, and flags of certain city departments. The city flag is a vertical tricolour in blue, white, and orange and charged in the centre bar with the Seal of New York City in blue. The tricolour design is derived from the flag of the Dutch Republic—the Prince's Flag—as used in New Amsterdam in 1625. For the first few hundred years of its existence, the City of New York lacked an official flag and seal. By the end of the 19th century, the city was flying an unofficial flag featuring a round blue seal on a white field.

In 1914, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the installation of the first mayor under English rule, the City Art Commission appointed a blue-ribbon committee to create the city's first official seal and flag. The committee consulted with the New-York Historical Society to study historical seals used by city government under the Dutch and English, to incorporate their symbolism into the new city seal and flag.

The Committee described their proposed flag this way: 

'In our flag, the colors are Dutch, the arms are English, the crest is distinctively American, but the flag as such is the flag of the City, which has grown from these beginnings to be the home of all nations, the great cosmopolitan city of the world, the City of New York.'— Committee of the Art Commission Associates, Seal and Flag of the City of New York
These strong colours and imagery are definitely something I should consider as representing the opposite of the No Wave movement. They represent the old school establishment of the city which the No Wave culture had no regard for. If I could for example get hold of a New York flag to print over for my flag that would be ideal.