I’m at yet another electronic music concert where there’s a macwhatever laptop sitting on a table in front of the musician and someone has taped over the logo on the lid. It looks the same as always- really sloppy, an afterthought, and it kind of just serves to draw even more attention to what we all know is behind the tape.
I’m wondering if anyone has ever seen an elegant, or witty, or entertaining solution to this problem? And are there other common cases of needing to cover up branding like this?
Quite enjoy it when I’ve seen people put apple stickers on the back of their beat up PC laptops! Also my friend used to perform live with a Korg synth, he changed the K to a B with some tipex so it read BORG in big letters on the back
I once saw an artist use a die-cut sticker with their logo as the negative space and an opaque substrate, so that the light within the apple logo took the form of their mark. I thought that was elegant.
That said, I love to see people slapping whatever the f they want over their gear, as a matter of personal taste. Especially if it’s a laptop, for some reason — however shoddy or slapped together. It’s the diy noise weirdo in me maybe… austerity is cool and everything but I also like a vibrant and unique presentation.
I’ve seen quite a few bands cover up the branding on their synths (Trans Am being one example), and it always struck me as a good idea. There’s enough product placement and brand fetishism as it is, so doing away with logos on gear, ostentatiously or otherwise, seems like as good a way of making a point of rejecting marketing as any.
Even if we all know there’s an Apple logo under the sticker I don’t think there’s any harm in reducing or diversifying the ambient advertising that we’re subject to any/everywhere. If there’s anything I’ve learned from the “What Macbook should I buy” thread it’s that no one actually enjoys using Apple products in 2019, there’s just nowhere else to go for a lot of people. Why help them propagate their branding?
so here’s a hopefully non-inflammatory question to those who block out branding: would you do it for x y and z boutique eurorack manufacturer’s logo too?
while i personally sympathize 100% that we live within a commercial hellscape with branding everywhere, it seems like covering the branding of the products you’ve ALREADY BOUGHT AND ARE USING is somewhat absurd… and possibly playing into the idea that we can enjoy the fruits of said hellscape while somehow maintaining the moral high ground. just a thought, i mean i wouldn’t blame anyone one bit for doing it.
i did this at pekka’s festival a few minutes before you and i went on stage. mostly because the light is bright, annoying, and distracting. i put tape on the blue LED of my cheap USB hub also.
I actually see a goldmine of opportunity here, I could ask my friend from the link posted above to make a black houseplant sticker with the lines logo lit up by the apple light…
I thought about that question after I posted —my laptop is covered in stickers and crap, and I don’t even use it live. However my Intellijel case, highly visible onstage, is unblemished. It’s interesting to investigate which brands I am OK with implicitly aligning with, vs not. Intellijel is likely to be totally meaningless to most folks in an audience, whereas the Apple logo is one of the most recognizable symbols in the world. I hadn’t even thought about it in that way until now.
I used to have a sticker of one of my favourite bits of Sara Riel graffiti on the back of my macbook. Sadly it didn’t completely stop the light getting through, and it got really grotty after a few years. Shoulda put a bit of opaque tape underneath it.
I recently repaired an old iPhone 4 with a cracked back panel, and the replacement was just plain black, no apple logo or annoying text. It looks awesome, I wish it was still a viable smartphone.
I have a black cover on mine(with extra layer og gaffers tape on image inside to cover the Apple light) so it looks all black.
I also cover up all logos, and in general all writing I don’t need with black gaffers tape on all my stuff.
I am to much of a gear snob allready. Also I want to like stuff for their funcion. Not their name. A little less distractions in my life can only be a good thing.
I guess it is also a little minimalism/wannabe-zen-gimmick as well.
On another note I do like gaffers tape! That I can support! By putting it all over my gear hehe!!
I hate branding and have no issues resulting to black tape if it’s all that will work.
I too would love an apple logo cloaker that looked a bit less sloppy.
I’ve always taped over EVERY logo when performing unless it’s a small independent company AND the logo isn’t distracting / doesn’t insert any feel to the ambience.
I even tape over it on my shoes and such, but I’m kinda extreme about this. Even in the 70s/80s I just felt assaulted by “selling” images.
Don’t worry, I’ve done the tape game too!! Ambient light bleed is certainly tape worthy… I was thinking though that it’s such a ubiquitous problem that maybe someone out there made a more intentional solution!
But yeah, I dig the vibe that “tape shame” eventually just leads to ditching the laptop as an alternative fix
Not sure how punk rock a laptop is to begin with, at least by old school punk standards…
Seriously though, I have a hard time sorting out what means what sometimes, since almost everything is a brand, or a symbol of a commodity fetish, or a badge of privilege, or whatever it might mean to whom ever…
