ABSTRACT

This article examines the emergence and design of letter-based city logos in order to discuss what they reveal about writing and cities, and the dynamics between them. Developing a political economic and social semiotic analysis, I suggest that these letter-based logos respond to an increased competition for attention in society—strongly linked to new media technology and patterns of mobility in late capitalist economies. I further argue that they illustrate globalizing linguistic processes such as the truncation, commodification and adaptation of language to global audiences and technologies, and thereby contribute to mask the social and material reality of the branded cities. The article contributes to the broader examination of the ways in which cities and writing interact by drawing attention to the continued spread of abstract and standardized register forms for representing institutional power and distinction within globalized markets, and by discussing their local socio-economic embedding.

摘要

本文研究了基于字母的城市徽标的出现和设计，以讨论它们揭示的关于书写和城市的内容以及它们之间的动态。通过进行政治经济学和社会符号学分析，我建议这些基于字母的徽标可以响应社会对注意力日益增强的竞争，这与新的媒体技术和晚期资本主义经济的流动模式紧密相关。我进一步认为，它们说明了全球化的语言过程，例如语言的截断，商品化和适应全球受众和技术的趋势，从而有助于掩盖品牌城市的社会和物质现实。