We all are aware of the big bang theory (not the sitcom) that the universe started out as a single point, inflated over the course of years, and then 13.8 billion years ago, the universe that we know it, began with a big bang, and everything that we know, are and made of was created.
50,000 years ago, our brains went through a genetic mutation, resulting in the biological reorganization of the brain. Some scientists call this “The Big Brain Bang.” Others call it “The Great Leap Forward,” which is so much poetic. (This is not to confused with the Chinese revolution). The human brain underwent an accelerated evolutionary transformation which allowed us to leave our apelike ways and become fully human.
Evolution of the human brain:
This was the time when Homo sapiens began to evolve into the modern species that we are today. The Great Leap Forward activated most of our modern abilities such as abstract thought, planning, cooking, competitive labor, music and self-decoration. This is when humans developed this innate need to look pretty and it wasn’t for seductive purposes, it was for religious and spiritual convictions. We wanted to be more beautiful, purer, cleaner in the eyes of something or someone that we believed had more power than us. There is no culture in recorded human history that has not practiced some form of organized worship and beautified themselves for the rituals.
Approximately 10,000 years ago, human-invented makeup. Men and women began to decorate themselves. They started to self-decorate using things around them like clay, kohl, and other elements.
Symbols and banding:
Branding started around 6000 years ago when in an effort to unite people, our ancestors began to design telegraphic symbols to represent beliefs and affiliations. These symbols help connect like-minded people, this was the earliest form of branding. These affiliations allowed our ancestors to feel safer and more secure in groups, and the sharing helped people stay in harmony around what the symbols represented.
These marks let people know where they fit in. it helped differentiate people who were in the crowd and those, that were excluded. These symbols were created in a very bottom-up manner: they were made by people for people and then shared for free among people to honor the higher power that they prayed to.
Trademark Registration Act:
Logos on products to identify a maker are the modern form of branding whose roots lie in the ancient art of telegraphic symbols. With the advent of the Trademarks Registration Act, brands were given legal recognition on January 1, 1876. The first trademarked brand was Bass Ale, and I sometimes wonder what that says about humans, that first trademarked brand was an alcoholic beverage.
Modern day product logos:
In the United States alone, there are over 116,000 malls, and they all look pretty much the same. There are 40,000 supermarkets, each with over 40,0000 products. You could choose from over 100 flavors and variants of Oreo cookies, since their launch in 1912. Packaging plays an important part in helping differentiate between variants of the same product. Take the example of HUDA beauty lashes, it’s the custom eyelash packaging boxes that help us differentiate between doll, cat, staggered, and flirty eyelashes.
The discipline of branding has transformed a lot more in the last 10 years than it has in the last 10,000, and for the first time in modern history, the most popular, influential brands are brands being pushed up by the people, for the people, for the sole purpose of changing the world and making it a better place. Our greatest innovations aren’t brands providing a different form or a different style of our favorite eyelashes; Our greatest innovations are the creation of brands that can make a difference in our lives and reflect the kind of world we want to build.
Abstract thinking and packaging Design:
Abstract thinking has a lot to do with the way we brand, symbolize, and design packaging for our products. It is our ability to think about objects and ideas that are not physically present. This has led to design centered thinking which is a creative method. It is mainly used by packaging and design industry to seek innovative solutions. Design thinking can enable developing innovative ideas to satisfy consumer needs. A packaging design combines design aesthetics, material application, branding, creative thinking, and the ability to use practical technologies. It helps to identify problems from the perspectives of product packaging, brand image, and marketing. This symbolism and branding that we had in core of our conscious enabled humans to reconsider the meaning. And the importance of packaging design and enhance structural creativity, visual aesthetics, and design thinking.
Conclusion:
Most of us consider branding as a tool of capitalism. I used to think the same before learning that branding has always been a vital part of humanity. These signify our need to relate and connect being a social creature. Branding is NOT just a tool of capitalism; it is the reflective indicator of the human spirit. It is our responsibility to design a culture that reflects and honors the kind of world we want to live in.