I ripped this sticker off a phone box on the Headrow last year. I liked how someone had gone to the trouble of finding a Deutsche Post sticker to appropriate after seeing so many of our familiar Royal Mail stickers emblazoned with second-rate tags and plastered round our fair city.

"An ape!" I thought, "brilliant." But why? Why should a primate in a policeman's hat inspire such enthusiasm from a passer-by? For me it has more to do with the ape than the hat, or any combination of the two (or any artistic statement contained therein). Apes are cool. Some are big, some are bad, but they are all big business - inspiring films, cartoons, fashion, magazines and street artists the world over.

So what are apes? According to Wikipedia, apes are "the members of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates, including humans." Apes are omnivorous, and all are expert tree-climbers except ourselves and the gorilla. They are native to Africa and Asia, and most species are endangered. Despite our shared ancestry and the evident intelligence of most ape species, gorillas, chimpanzees and other types of apes are not recognised as "persons" in law. That accolade is only afforded to humans under the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

The ape has been of cultural and symbolic significance for years, cropping up in various religious folklore, usually with negative connotations. Old Christian tales tell of apes as being created by Satan as symbols of lust. But in more recent times it seems the physical attributes of the ape - particularly the gorilla - have been inspiration for generations of creatives.

Gorillas are large, powerful animals which have strong family bonds and organise themselves into hierarchical societies (much like humans). Their strength and dominance is a definite theme which has been exploited. Everyone knows 'King Kong' and 'Planet of the Apes', but the gorilla is also the symbol of the US-based X-Large clothing company. As the largest non-human ape, the gorilla seems a natural choice for a company branding itself for a predominantly male market. Potential t-shirt buyers can identify with the ape as an abstract version of the imagined self: big, strong, king of the ("urban") jungle.


A similar thinking can be seen to have been applied by Japanese brand A Bathing Ape (Bape), which perhaps unsurprisingly uses a non-specific ape as its ubiquitous logo. If any evidence is required of the ape's "brand-cool" one need look no further than Bape: the name is a byword for exclusive, expensive, limited edition skate style.

Even the shelves of your local news emporium are not safe from the influence of these great beasts. The Illustrated Ape is a magazine published three times a year, which invariably features a different artist's interpretation of its namesake on the cover. What significance the ape has to its creators is unknown to me; it seems to be another case of a powerful animal becoming a powerful symbol for a brand to rally itself around. No matter - the subject has inspired some great illustrations.

Unfortunately none of these ape-obsessed creatives have done much to draw attention to the reality of many a modern primate: the threat of extinction due to destruction of natural habitats and poaching for bushmeat. You can help at WWF.org

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The Illustrated Ape  ¶ 11:06 PM