Zinzin

Archives for October 2016

Warby Parker: how an incognito superhero became an avatar of fine eyewear

Warby Parker eyewear model

Warby Parker is a great example of a brand created from an invented character name, similar to Pink Floyd and Humphry Slocombe. With this invented construction the brand perfectly evokes the milieu of 1920s-1950s history, literature and music, with many eyewear products named after historical and cultural figures: Crane, Chandler, Duke, Winston, Fillmore, Roosevelt, Beckett, Miles, Crosby, etc. But the extra special vibe that the name “Warby Parker” exudes is that of the incognito comic book superhero who spends half of his or her time as an awkward, nerdy dude or gal just trying to blend in with the crowd, though we readers or viewers know their true, powerful identity — think Peter Parker (Spiderman), Clark Kent (Superman), and non-superhero supporting characters like Snapper Carr (Justice League television news reporter) or Iron Man Tony Stark’s amanuensis, the brilliantly named Pepper Potts. And speaking of smart and sassy women, many were portrayed in such period films as His Girl Friday (Rosalind Russell as the feisty Hildy Johnson), Philadelphia Story (Katherine Hepburn as the regal and queenly Tracy Lord) or Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (the incomparable Jean Arthur’s Babe Bennett opposite Gary Cooper’s Longfellow Deeds), and are vitally important to the brand narrative of the unisex-named Warby Parker, making the name equally powerful for selling women’s eyeglasses as men’s.

On its website, the company directly answers the question, Why did we name our company Warby Parker?:

We’ve always been inspired by the master wordsmith and pop culture icon, Mr. Jack Kerouac. Two of his earliest characters, recently uncovered in his personal journals, bore the names Zagg Parker and Warby Pepper. We took the best from each and made it our name.

They did a great job. And of course Kerouac himself was a product of the generation that the name Warby Parker alludes and pays homage to, extending the brand’s metaphor range into the Beat era as well (think Allen Ginsberg with his iconic black-rimmed glasses, for example), perfect for a brand catering to today’s prep school iconoclasts and creative class hipsters. Somewhere out there in the cultural exosphere, Clark Kent is thinking, Peter Parker is slinking, Sam Spade is drinking and Pepper Potts is winking.

vintage eyewear comp

Bob Dylan’s “thought-dreams”: from guillotine to Nobel Prize

Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize today in literature. Think about that for a moment and let it sink in.

The final verse of Dylan’s 1965 song “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” seen in the video above from an early performance, sums up his mood of the artist-rebel trying to stay alive in the mainstream culture:

And if my thought-dreams could been seen
They’d probably put my head in a guillotine
But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only.

Dylan has proved, like many other artists before him — Van Gogh, Duchamp, Stravinsky, to name but a few — that if you live long enough and remain true to your vision, you might just take over the culture that you once felt alienated from.

But like the greatest artists, Dylan hasn’t just sat still for 50 years and waited for the mainstream to catch up to him. Instead, he continues to experiment, change, and evolve. As an example, compare this 1978 version of “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” from the height of Dylan’s “Christian period,” which sounds like it could be coming from a rousing revival church:

Dylan’s continual reinvention continues to day, even at age 75. Here is a more recent performance of “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”:

To further put Dylan’s achievement in winning the Nobel Prize into context — both the context of the 1960s and the context of what’s going on right now in the U.S. Presidential campaign — here’s a cheeky new meme flying around the Internet today:

bill-hillary-dylan

I like to think that if Dylan’s current thought-dreams could be seen, “they” would probably still want to put his head in a guillotine. We need more artists like him.

Signature Works: Edward Hopper, 1950

Edward Hopper signature 1950

  • Artist: Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967).
  • Typographical Style of Signature: Surveyor Slab.
  • Signature Style: In high school Hopper aspired to become a naval architect.
  • Location of Signature: Lower left.
  • Source of Signature: “Portrait of Orleans” 1950, oil on canvas.
  • Institution: M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco.
  • Student of: William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri.
  • Influenced by: Edgar Degas, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Édouard Manet.
  • Influenced: Willem de Kooning, Jim Dine, Terrence Malick, Mark Rothko, and Wim Wenders.
  • Note: Mark Rothko’s “Composition I” is a paraphrase of Hopper’s “Chop Suey”

This is the first post in our Signature Works series. The images come from photographs we have taken of the works in their natural habitat. In this series we will present the unique brands that artists have created over the years with their signature and categorize the typographical style, location, and source of the signature. We also will make notes on each artist’s historical significance, their influences, and whom their work has influenced and inspired. Each image features a specimen signature and also operates as a painting-within-a-painting. Some images function as microcosms of the original painting, others as unique and complete works.