For my third and final piece, I decided to parody a pre-existing brand. The brand that is being parodied as you can probably tell is Polo Ralph Lauren. I decided to replace the old logo with a similar looking vector image of a grim reaper that I also “appropriated” and slightly edited to fit the look I was going for.
The addition of the “YOLO” (You Only Live Once) to replace the “POLO” text also adds to the general theme of the piece as the acronym has become so well known that it speaks for itself. I suppose that the image could be interpreted as a social commentary on the growth of blind mass consumerism and the need for “stuff” as well as the futility of being materialistic as you cannot take any of these physical items into the afterlife (if you even believe that such a thing exists). The image also blends icons of two different generations together in a way that I feel works for the look that I was going for, as the Ralph Lauren logo has been recognisable for decades now and the popularity of using YOLO has come and gone as an internet fad. The irony of its short lived presence in popular culture is even almost poetic.
