Cattle brands are physical imprints of ownership applied to the flesh of animals. They were, in the nineteenth century, indispensable to ranchers for differentiating their cattle from a competitors’ stock on the open range. The branding symbol’s utility as a legible marker of property ownership declined after widespread fencing delimited the plains. Yet cattle brands remained present in vernacular visual and material culture as decorative features and motifs signifying the Old West into the twentieth century. Cattle brand imagery, largely divorced from its functional origins, was recombined and repurposed to add decorative flourish to a variety of garments, wearable accessories, and domestic objects. This article explores the persistence of cattle brands as a popular trope in mid-century America and focuses on denim jeans, manufactured by Levi Strauss & Co., and, in particular, Lee, companies that fashioned their company logos in the guise of a brand. Through material culture analysis I will examine how clothing companies employed cattle brand iconography in advertising, promotions, and product design to consider a historical moment in the cattle brand’s semiotic shift from indexical trace of property ownership to corporate brand logo.

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从牛品牌到企业品牌：世纪中叶美国的Blue Jean商标

牛品牌是应用于动物肉的所有权的物理印记。在 19 世纪，它们对于牧场主来说是必不可少的，因为它们可以将他们的牛与开放范围内的竞争对手的牲畜区分开来。在广泛的围栏划定平原后，品牌符号作为财产所有权的清晰标记的效用下降了。然而，牛品牌仍然存在于当地的视觉和物质文化中，作为象征旧西部进入 20 世纪的装饰特征和图案。牛品牌形象在很大程度上脱离了其功能起源，被重新组合和重新利用，为各种服装、可穿戴配件和家居用品增添装饰性。本文探讨了牛品牌作为上世纪中叶美国流行比喻的持久性，重点关注牛仔牛仔裤，由 Levi Strauss & Co. 制造，尤其是 Lee，这些公司以品牌的名义塑造公司徽标。通过物质文化分析，我将研究服装公司如何在广告、促销和产品设计中使用牛品牌形象，以考虑牛品牌从财产所有权的索引追踪到企业品牌标志的符号学转变的历史时刻。