utilitarian

I'm doing a bit of a project about brands that are useful at the moment. So this is not big or anything, just something I noticed on my way to a spot of quiet writing at home this afternoon. I live in between three different primary schools and the kids were out on their way home or something as I was getting back. And two of the schools had a pretty relaxed sort of uniform, one had no uniform at all. But they all had branded bookbags like this one. Which struck me as a really interesting way of creating a sense of identity. I remember hating having to wear a stiff, formal uniform, and using my bag as one way of trying to separate myself from the crowd a little bit. Whereas individuality of dress sense is positively encouraged in these children. The thing that expresses commonality is this bag, along with other stuff which they use in a very practical sense. Which is, well, useful. An enabling kind of identity, rather than one that's imposed. A community of activity created through the tools they use, if you want to sound clever about it. Which seemed like an interesting counterpoint to lots of organisational cultures and brands. And that kind of thing.