the love symbol
Prince's unpronounceable marque.
Above, is the graphic marque of sex. Or, as he’s more commonly known, Prince.
No one in Pop has written more powerfully about this particular subject matter. The simple lyric from his 1999 album, “I sincerely want to f**k the taste out of your mouth”, for me, puts this beyond reasonable doubt. It’s through these sexually pro-active, perverse, and often humorous, stories that Prince has opened up a different idea of sex. Through his carnal lyrics he invites men to imagine a different way of relating to women, and in return invites women to imagine the possibilities of men that imagine such things. But it wasn’t until 1993 that he gave his idea of sex a symbol: a graphic marque to embody and evoke everything that the mononymous man stood-up for. But he’s not just a sex symbol, he’s actually a symbol—this symbol.
A graphic threesome, the male gender symbol joins the female counterpart and the alchemy symbol for soapstone (apparently to reflect his artistic genius) to make the design of the colloquial Love Symbol both erotic, flamboyant and Omni-sexual—perfect for Prince. And he should know, adding “Designed” to the now ubiquitous legend: "Produced, Arranged, Composed and Performed by Prince".
But, as with every logotype, icon, or symbol, it is only the point of entry for any brand. It only really comes into its own when it’s identity is expressed—and this is something Prince has done to such a standard that most Graphic Designers would be proud to have conquered. To see this you just have to take a look at brand Prince.
To boot the Love symbol, in branding terms, just look at what a crucial part of his identity it forms. I'm not going to go into minimum and maximum sizes but it's certainly helped along with a colour palette consisting of the core colour: purple; secondary colours gold, peach, and black. All of which can be applied onto a variety of suggestive, racy (including bottom-baring), attire—usually ruffled shirts and velvet suits. Photography favours brooding poses, over-flowing with innuendo, and I think we’ve covered tone of voice with those lyrics. These are all brought together in Prince’s cuban-heeled, hip-pumping, sex-crazed, gymnastic performances, that just-so-happen to be on a stage, shaped literally as his Symbol.
But if this sexual meaning and prowess were still in any doubt, one performance left a very graphic definition. At Super Bowl XLI, Prince performed a guitar solo during "Purple Rain" in which his shadow was projected onto a large, flowing sheet. As he let rip, the silhouette cast by his figure along with his symbol-shaped guitar had phallic connotations—he even stroked the neck of the guitar in a familiar motion—now how’s that for brand extension.
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This is an extended version of an article written for Grafik magazine's Logoform section originally published in issue 173, May 2009.
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