The Memphis City Seal
Friday, March 28th, 2008
What story does the Memphis seal tell?
Though I am not a branding guru like this website’s father, I do like stories. And what city has a better story than Memphis? “What!!??!!” you shriek, “How can Memphis compete with the majesty of New York, the grit of Chicago or the sheer volume of Los Angeles?” Let us kindly remember, as our teachers have taught us, that a good story captures both the agony and the ecstasy. While other great American cities have had their share of pain and suffering, Memphians have experienced a unique blend.
Between the depths of the yellow fever epidemic and Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, and the heights of Memphian culture definers and our beloved team, Memphis has seen all that and a barbeque sandwich. With that history in mind, what better to capture the essence of Memphis than the city seal? In a town that knows both the cotton plant that built it and the boll weevil that eats it, surely the seal with tell the Memphis story.
After a little examination and a little thought, perhaps you are as initially disappointed as I am. You can find info about the symbolism of the seal here and you will probably be saddened if you choose to do so. You will be saddened because the seal does not tell the whole story of Memphis, but rather only a part of the story. Again, I am no brand wizard, but it seems to me that no seal or brand can truly tell the story of the whole it represents. If that is the case, then why do we consider some brands better than others?
My feeble mind tells me it is because of the nature of a brand. No brand can tell the exhaustive history of anything. No brand can tell of every nitty-gritty detail, every sandwich board and every glaring example of white flight and urban sprawl. But, the brand shouldn’t and can’t have all that weight on its shoulders. If it does, it will crumble and end up telling no story at all. What a brand can do is catch an essence. In a way that is almost mystical a brand can encapsulate the story of a company, non-profit, or even a city. How this is done and how much of the story you tell depends on how good you are at telling stories and how much you can make your brand infer details that can’t be explicitly stated.
So, what you should story or what portion of a story should a brand tell? I don’t know if I can answer that question, but I can go back to our example of Memphis and relate some of what I would like it to tell. I would like to see the strife and struggle that Memphis has had to face. I would like to see the art that Memphis has produced and even more so, the artistic-entrepreneurial hero that Memphis has borne out be recognized. I would like to see the racial struggle that defines Memphis and the hope that drives is to think it can be better personified. I would like to see many of the disparate threads that make up the cloth of Memphis portrayed in the city’s seal. Again, I am no brand wizard, but I have seen good branding in action. I have seen branding that manages to artfully tell a subtle and meaningful story and I see no reason that Memphis can’t have the same wonderful branding.
I’m excited to introduce the first guest writer ever on SlyBrand. Harvey Kay is a native Memphian, fellow Midtowner, heavy reader, and movie fanatic. He’s been a commenter on SlyBrand, 
