I’m not sure what intrigues me more about this photo:
It could be the logo, with it’s gleeful morphing of the good ol’ swastika – and the decision to pair that logo with a mascot sired by Superman. I’m guessing that whoever designed all this has little awareness of either history or philosophy – and compared to my quite limited grasp of both, that’s pretty fracking lame. I mean, if the context was even vaguely Ayurvedic, or anywhere in the realm of eastern spiritualism, the swastika is fair game – a billion Indians can’t all be wrong. But this is on a Superman-style outfit, for a gym which is, by nature, about the aesthetics of strength. If the designer of the outfit has somehow seen this blog post, as unlikely as that may be, and is mystified by my ponderings, I can only suggest they google search hitler+superman (and +eugenics, maybe).
My intriguedness might also stem from something a bit less dogmatic, something more intuitively designerish to do with form and function and all that jazz. It might be that dressing a gym mascot with a fake muscle-suit in order to impress potential customers is akin to dressing an unshaven hobo in a silk business suit and asking us to open a bank account. Oh, but hang on, that’s pretty much what most bank ads have ever been, and will ever be … oh.
Ahem. Carry on.
Discussion