Unlogo Intro from Jeff Crouse on Vimeo.
As the Internets work themselves into a kerfuffle over Gap’s laughably bad logo redesign, here’s a different tack: eliminate logos from your world. Developed by Jeff Crouse, Unlogo is an entirely open-source project that draws on Intel’s incredible computer vision library, OpenCV, to train computers to see logos. It then replaces logos with other images, censoring the branding in your world.
kickstarter.com/projects/816924031/unlogo-the-corporate-identity-media-filter
jeffcrouse.info/projects/unlogo/
unlogo.org/
code.google.com/p/unlogo/
groups.google.com/group/unlogo
Aside from giving users digital control over the presence of branding in their environment, the project is an interesting study in brand recognition, imbuing the computer with the knowledge of brand identity with which our own brains have been trained.
Personally, I’m not as bothered by the intrusion of logos so much as bad logos; I love the potpourri of remade Gap identities now circulating on the Web. But that’s the beauty of being able to employ computer vision in this way: it gives tech dominion over the ubiquitous hallmarks of corporate identity, and, through the mirror of the computer, gives us a chance to consider new ways of seeing through our own eyes.
Also, I’m proud to unveil our new visual look:
The Barbarian Group created a generative site, a sort of interactive art response to the Gap logo design.
http://craplogo.me/