As Wade Jeffree said – the days of purely subliminal capture of a brands identity may be numbered as end users shift their allegiances, gathering information in new and innovative ways.

New Super Identity examines brands and their designers that are reactive to local and cultural needs, as they experiment  and challenge their competitors to do likewise. People store a brand in three parts – rational, emotional and behavioural. One of these things will be dominant in each area, based on your personal experience and what you’ve been exposed to and they interconnect to form your interpretation of the brand.

„I think direct access to the public is the only way to do something where you’re not going to be censored.““

Doug Abraham 

…Is an owner of a clothing store Bess in New York and a media magnate. This  creative director is shocking, arousing, hilarious, terrifying and thought-provoking all at once.

Instagram brought Doug Abraham to life, where he is also popular as @BessNYC4.  He created a real cult thanks to his aggressive mode of violations of socially acceptable (read: imposed) boundaries. Abrahams’ first Instagram account under @BessNYC was reported and closed because of the large number of reports for controversial content that was published. Furthermore, the same problem happened with the next two accounts he attempted to open. His profiles were forcibly shut down every few months, but that did not stop him. Last but not least profile he opened is @BessNYC4 which is still in use.

Abraham creates unique collages with found images; cutting them, chopping and reworking to cast a different view of some subject to show his world-view. Moreover he re-examines contemporary terms of beauty, sexuality, horror films or animals and believes that taboos are what moves a certain public. His work resembles of Linder Sterling/Ludus’ work in the seventies with The Buzzcocks and her obsession with the objectification of females, fashion and porn.

Abraham worked for dozens of famous fashion brands like Dior,  Valentino, Calvin Klein, Prada, Givenchy, Chanel, Versace etc.

Abraham stated how he never received negative feedback from the brand, however he received plenty of negative feedback from the public. He believes good branding for him happens when he reworks ads that go to some place that will upset the public. Image of a nipple is not anything new, or something that has not already been well-known, but people respond to it louder than on images of violence. In one of his interviews, he said that he got plenty of negative feedback from the public, but he sees it as a result of having a large audience and not as a critique of his work. Most public companies can’t do anything that incites controversy, so they are missing out access to the public consciousness: mixing things up a little bit for people. This master of attracting attention claims that his goal is to brand image, not products. He likes to play with people’s attention, so he got them to do it in social media exactly when he wants it and with what he wants it. The same occurs with branding where brands want someone who will attract attention to them by any means necessary. Doug does it with a range of Teletubbies to S & M. The matter that attracts people’s attention is the one that sells the product.

Consumers were once described as the judge and jury of brand communication. And it’s spot on. Whatever a brand says about itself, it is how it is received by the people it hopes to influence that ultimately matters.

That is all mystery about branding today.                 

Doris Berečić