The psychology of stuff: why people get attached to branded objects — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design
Branded objects are handed out as client gifts, at trade shows, to new hires and at dinners, or sold, like the products that Displaay makes from its own typefaces. Some of those objects, from caps and totes to bottles and notebooks, become part of someone’s daily life, while others are quickly forgotten. Below, we are asking what makes the difference.
“I think merch is above all a sign of belonging,” explains Frédéric Jonsson from Merchery, a global company that turns identities into physical objects for brands, studios and events. “When you wear a cap from your local bar, you’re showing everyone that you’re part of that place’s world. It’s not that different from buying a t-shirt from your favourite band; you want people to know you’re a part of this community.” Marina Willer of Pentagram sees the same sense of belonging behind yoga practice Love Supreme, whose brand makes people “want to feel connected.” She recalls consistently seeing the branded bottles they designed in cafés and with people in different areas of London. “90% of people who buy our stuff are other designers and enthusiasts of what we do in type,” adds Andrea Vacovská, Graphic Designer at Displaay. “Probably people who feel about it the same way we do.”
Vacovská has “always collected books, objects, clothes or even just flyers, no matter how valuable they were in price.” For the designer, an object “has to catch your heart somehow.” Jonsson loves the matchbooks that Smörgåsbord Studio designed as part of its work for two hotels, which Creative Director Dylan Griffith counts among his favourite pieces of work. His choice surprised Jonsson a little, given that “it’s such a small object.” People, Jonsson notes, “take them out of the hotel room, and it just becomes this little thing you didn’t mean to keep but did.” For the things companies hand out, Jonsson finds that keeping “comes down to the product, the design and how they feel about the brand,” and that Merchery’s part is “making sure the branding feels like it belongs on the object rather than just being put on there afterwards.”
A yoga class ends when you leave the room. A bottle covered in its explosion of colour, comes with you.
To find the right object for a brief, Merchery begins with the audience and the occasion, and sometimes the deciding factor is a specific Pantone shade that the product has to match as closely as possible, a texture or even a smell. It usually looks first at its own online catalogue and then at its supplier network. It goes to factories once those options run out, or where the brief needs a tailored production. “More often than not, we’re surprised by how much is actually possible,” Jonsson adds.
Merchery built the items for Love Supreme on the back of the identity designed by Pentagram, with an explosion of colour made with ink drops released from a central point. Pentagram designed it for a kind of yoga that looks inwards to release energy and joy. “We create the logo and graphic language first but with the physical applications also in mind,” Willer explains. Pentagram proposed merch “relevant to the yoga offer.” For Willer, what makes the pieces specific to Love Supreme is mostly that “explosion of colour and the quality of the production.”
Jonsson’s test for a custom detail is whether it “couldn’t belong to any other brand.” Displaay puts one of its own typefaces on each Offline object. It began partly because, for a graphic designer, “you might stop liking the designs that the regular market offers,” Vacovská explains, and the bag or sweatshirt you have in mind “is nowhere to be found – so you have to make it on your own.” More important to Displaay in the long run, Offline lets the foundry test its typefaces at different sizes and in different techniques, as small real-world examples of the type in use, or ‘in-uses.’ “We basically create mini in-uses ourselves that allow us to have fun with our work and also make other geeks and collectors happy,” she details.
Each typeface is usually paired with an object through its character or its name. Aguzzo has pointy serifs, so it went on a pencil, chosen as “a typical Czech product that every kid used to have back in our days, so there’s also a sentimental value in it.” Concrette went on a product named the Concrette BOTTLE, a drinking bottle produced by Merchery, as an object that “would contrast enough in its everydayness with the delicate drawing of the typeface.” The typeface itself was named with the same contrast in mind. “There’s also humour in it,” Vacovská adds. “Concrete is liquid at some stage, right? And there’s something to the idea of drinking it.” The Denim BAG came about differently, building on patches that Displaay had already made for its Denim typeface. Once Vacovská found practical dark-blue totes at Merchery that “look great with the Denim patches on as well,” the bag was settled, with ‘Works in any situation’ on both the patch and the bag.
A well-made object keeps proving the story right every time someone picks it up.
“The sourcing of material and the location of production matter, but we think quality and design are what matter most,” Jonsson tells us. “You can have a pen made out of recycled bamboo, but if it’s badly made, it’s still crap, and nobody will use it.” The same goes for a heavyweight, boxy t-shirt: “If you just slap a huge logo on the front and a generic tagline on the back, I’m not convinced people will actually keep it.” A logo can move off the chest instead, to the back, the inside or the label. Jonsson also favours embossing, which Merchery can apply across the products that it offers. “You’re not carrying a bag that just says ‘I work for this company’; you’re carrying one that says ‘my company has great taste,’” he adds. A woven label sewn into a seam or a hem, “really says ‘I created this.’”
For Jumbo, a New York-based furniture studio run by architects Justin Donnelly and Monling Lee, Merchery gave weight and texture to a beanie and socks through a chunky knit and thick cushioning, then took the studio’s palette of lilac, olive green and burgundy straight from its furniture. “You’re supposed to feel the thing, not just see it,” Jonsson explains. “Nobody hangs onto a sock because a name’s printed on it somewhere. They keep it because it feels good and it looks like nothing else in their drawer, and it just happens to be unmistakably Jumbo.”
“If the product is genuinely good, people will keep it even if the design is just okay, or even if they don’t have much of a connection to the brand,” Jonsson notes. “Parloa is a good example for me.” Parloa is an enterprise software company whose identity was created by the design agency Further. “Enterprise software isn’t really a world I’m naturally drawn to, but their branding is great, and the products they give out are genuinely good, so I’d keep them anyway.” Part of Parloa’s merch programme uses Ocean Bottle’s reusable bottles, made from recycled stainless steel and ocean-bound plastic. Jonsson calls that choice a material decision, one that “changes what the object is made of, not just what’s printed on it.”
Love Supreme has ordered bottles, notebooks, caps and more bottles in new colours from Merchery “season after season” since 2023, which Jonsson calls proof over time – “they keep reordering because the pieces are actually getting used, worn, given, refilled, not sitting in a drawer somewhere.” The Lot Radio, an independent online radio station in New York, is “proof in the moment”: its collaboration t-shirt with Merchery sold out in 15 minutes. The t-shirt, in Jonsson’s words, “carries almost pure meaning; it’s a badge for a scene,” while a well-made tote earns its place through daily function. “Context first, then quality,” Jonsson concludes. “Scarcity gets an object opened; it doesn’t get it kept. If the piece doesn’t fit the moment and the audience it came from, being limited edition just makes it a limited edition of something nobody wanted. Quality is what lets the context keep doing its work over time, because a well-made object keeps proving the story right every time someone picks it up.”