University of Toronto has two interesting institutes: Martin Prosperity Institute and Best Institute. The former is an academic place for the global-scale prosperity and inequality. Its research papers discuss the creative classes and cities (Richard Florida), the integrative thinking and strategies (Roger Martin), and the global crowdsourcing for problem solving (Don Tapscott). The latter is a relatively practical space where the start-up companies focusing on health-care products and services run their offices.
While visiting them, I found there are two different ways to play with words. At the Martin Prosperity Institute, a visual art piece hangs on the wall saying PROSPERITY. At the Best Institute, a verbal notice posts on the door saying “Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies.” I find these two pieces are very creative but in different ways: the former changes the visual aspect of the word, whereas the latter changes the verbal (meaning) aspect of the word.
“(May) All Live Young”
The author introduces the Martin Prosperity Institute and Best Institute at the University of Toronto. The former is an academic space that deals with world-class prosperity, inequality, integrated thinking and strategy, and the wall is decorated with a colorful visual aspect of the word ‘PROSPERITY’. The latter is a practical space that deals with health food and services of start-up companies, and a small-sized poster with the phrase “Come to the Dark Side. We have cookies.” The words are used in different ways to express the nature of the organization in an interesting way.
I agree with the author’s opinion, and in relation to this, I would like to introduce the health & beauty (H&B) store, ‘Olive Young’, as an example of two ways of playing with words converged into one. Olive Young’s verbal identity is ‘(May) All Live Young’, which means that everyone wishes to always stay young. In addition, as a visual identity, the image of an ‘olive’, a nuclear fruit with oval light green flesh and hard seeds, is placed in the center of the logo. Olives, a representative Mediterranean vegetable and popularly known as ‘good for health,’ symbolize natural beauty, abundance, and sustainable life. This is in line with Olive Young’s slogan ‘All Live Better’ and Olive Young’s vision of ‘Life is realized through healthy beauty.’ Interestingly, the similar combination of olive [ ɑːlɪv ] and all [ ɔːl ] live [ lɪv ] vocalizations became a brand identity in itself that designed the company’s characteristics linguistically, visually, and phonetically.
It goes without saying that the Olive Young event period has a greater impact on Korean women in their 20s and 30s than the 2024 Paris Olympics period. Olive Young has become a cosmetics distribution platform with the largest number of offline stores in Korea. I believe that the secret to success and challenges are the ‘Today’s Dream’ pickup service, ordering and pickup across online and offline channels, discovering and collaborating with small and medium-sized brands, and pioneering trends. Like Olive Young’s ‘verbal identity’ of ‘May Live Young’, I hope that it will grow into the closest brand to daily life that can be found even when the current 2030 major customers are 4050 or 6070.
(https://global.oliveyoung.com)