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“The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively-- because, without this humble appliance, you can't know wh

“The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively-- because, without this humble appliance, you can't know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a 'box' around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?” — Frank Zappa I think this “grammar of frames” uses the word too loosely. A frame is more than just a constraint, it’s what denotes the boundary between the subject and the world it is contained in. Brands don’t have a frame. Brands are not the art used to identify them. I think of brands as reputation, trust, and emotions connected to a company. The brand is an idea, not logos and advertisements.

asjldkfin 6y ago
I’d argue that your last statement is a false dichotomy. art, logos and ads are arguably all ideas in themselves. on a side note, i’m surprised this post is being upvoted, the design seems pretty antithetical to the HN ethos.
- alexmingoia 6y ago
  I use ideas to mean the non-material. You can hear a song, see a logo, touch packaging. I consider a brand to be akin to a company’s reputation. It exists solely in people’s hearts and minds.
emmanueloga_ 6y ago
I thought the word that was used too loosely is "grammar" ... where's the grammar? Is is just a play of words? (since it seems this is by an ads company called "grammar", although it requires some effort to realize that, I'd say).
- lanternfish 6y ago
  I read it as a (somewhat pretentious) application of this definition of grammar: "the principles or rules of an art, science, or technique", where the technique is 'framing'. Whether there's any actual meat here about principles of rules is another question.
dahart 6y ago
> Brands don’t have a frame. [...] The brand is an idea, not logos and advertisements. Ideas are framed in the facts, context, beliefs and assumptions that surround them and lead up to them. Even though the article defined frames at the top as visual rectangles, the rest of text mixes in unambiguous uses of the social sciences definition of the word ‘frame’. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(social_sciences) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(social_sciences) For example “What is art? How is it made? Where does it belong? Context changes meaning. Frames change the way we think.” The article is freely mixing the two definitions, hopping back and forth between them. I haven’t decided if I like it or not. It might be considered conflating two different things. But I think that’s their very point, and in art and literature, as in advertising, metaphors and suggestions are useful and common. You might even think of this article as a framing that visual frames are as important as social frames, which is an idea that makes a great story for ad firms that are good at and depend on selling visual ads.

asjldkfin 6y ago

I’d argue that your last statement is a false dichotomy. art, logos and ads are arguably all ideas in themselves. on a side note, i’m surprised this post is being upvoted, the design seems pretty antithetical to the HN ethos.

alexmingoia 6y ago
I use ideas to mean the non-material. You can hear a song, see a logo, touch packaging. I consider a brand to be akin to a company’s reputation. It exists solely in people’s hearts and minds.

emmanueloga_ 6y ago

I thought the word that was used too loosely is "grammar" ... where's the grammar? Is is just a play of words? (since it seems this is by an ads company called "grammar", although it requires some effort to realize that, I'd say).

lanternfish 6y ago
I read it as a (somewhat pretentious) application of this definition of grammar: "the principles or rules of an art, science, or technique", where the technique is 'framing'. Whether there's any actual meat here about principles of rules is another question.

dahart 6y ago

> Brands don’t have a frame. [...] The brand is an idea, not logos and advertisements. Ideas are framed in the facts, context, beliefs and assumptions that surround them and lead up to them. Even though the article defined frames at the top as visual rectangles, the rest of text mixes in unambiguous uses of the social sciences definition of the word ‘frame’. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(social_sciences) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(social_sciences) For example “What is art? How is it made? Where does it belong? Context changes meaning. Frames change the way we think.” The article is freely mixing the two definitions, hopping back and forth between them. I haven’t decided if I like it or not. It might be considered conflating two different things. But I think that’s their very point, and in art and literature, as in advertising, metaphors and suggestions are useful and common. You might even think of this article as a framing that visual frames are as important as social frames, which is an idea that makes a great story for ad firms that are good at and depend on selling visual ads.