I snapped the above picture in Chicago yesterday while trying to carry on a conversation with a kid in Middle School. While our failure to communicate may have been due to my multi-tasking, it could also have been that I was at a loss for memes.
For example, if you want to connect with youth this month you can try saying “ 6-7” . This meaningless utterance is the latest example of how you can go from rap song to basketball player to a new viral phrase in minutes. Eye rolls notwithstanding.
Memes and meaning.
Spreading memes is different from making statements. There are few things more grown up in the English language than statements with staying power. Crafting them requires the ability to zig while others zag (prefacing an older meme) to rise above the robots in the age of AI.
Which brings me back to my photo.
The Marina Towers on the left were designed by Bertrand Goldberg, who studied under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Bauhaus. Mies designed the building in the middle.
The Marina Towers remain the most photographed buildings on the Chicago River and the city in general. No one takes pictures of One IBM Plaza anymore.
The Mies-inspired modernist approach became a repetitive standard in the 1960s. I could Photoshop Mie’s famous Seagram building into this picture, chop off a few stories, and you have the same building. It’s almost like the modern variant of Agentic AI, where AI produces work autonomously with no input from the user.
I am not an architect, nor that intelligent, but his aesthetic seems easy to duplicate.
From Agentic to Iconic.
The Marina Towers, on the other hand, with their curvilinear forms, remain iconic. Jeff Tweedy of Wilco (who has just released a superb solo album BTW) had them grace his band’s iconic work (see below). Using a Mies building for an album cover might signify the Agentic Apocalypse (his buildings are usually stark and dark).
And yet, you can do far worse than having a building or a brand designed in a classic mid-century style. As I noted last week, IBM has a proud design history, helped in great part by another Modernist, Paul Rand. The fact that Steve Jobs loved him and that many massive brands since Apple have tried to emulate Apple ever since has been good for the zag.
Which brings me to the third building, which signifies zip. The attractive Chicago Trump tower is tall, but not the tallest building in Chicago. It neither butts into a current conversation nor inspires a new one, except for the huge, garish, plastic sign executed in a leftover typeface from the 80s that adorns its lower flanks.
As you can see above, it did inspire a protest meme of sorts shared amongst justifiably aggrieved architects, but where’s the zig, much less the zag, in that?
This post has nothing to do with politics. A great Art Director once told me that unless you start a conversation with a real politician your opinions are meaningless. If that makes you mad, well, then go out and make a statement with your brand right now.
To make it stick, start on the left.
P.S. I have a specialty agency, ABabode, that helps “placemaking” brands like Calligaris, Teknion, and Herman Miller dealers. Till robots sit on artificial chairs, the industry is AI-proof. See more at ababode.com
