Beyond the Brand’s Grave. A Hypothesis of a Digital Afterlife for Defunct Brands.

Authors

  • Francesco E. Guida Polytechnic University of Milan image/svg+xml
  • Carlotta Bacchini

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.34624/jdmi.v9i21.42430

Keywords:

Digital Afterlife, Digital Memory, Brand Identity, Speculative Design, Defunct Brand

Abstract

In 2021, Mark Zuckerberg introduced the Metaverse as the next evolution of the Internet – a vision that, while not fully realised, has sparked new debates about the future of digital environments. 

Since its inception, the Web has served as a vast repository of traces, memories, identities, and information for individuals and social entities. But what happens when these traces persist or are reactivated within immersive digital spaces, evoking the concept of a “Digital Afterlife”? By framing brands as complex, living-like organisms, this study explores their persistence through digital memory and symbolic traces, examining how past actions and ethical stances may shape their posthumous identity in immersive online environments.

Through a speculative design methodology supported by a literature review, the research culminates in the Brand Afterlife Meta-Agency (BAMA): an original fictional yet structured design framework in which a defunct brand’s legacy is translated into a symbolic 3D modelled avatar shaped by brand data and user perceptions. Rather than offering empirical validation, the speculative scenario opens a space for critical reflection on how memory, ethics, and digital design converge to shape brand identity beyond its commercial lifecycle.

Author Biographies

  • Francesco E. Guida, Polytechnic University of Milan

    Architect, author and Associate Professor at the Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano. He teaches at the Bachelor's in Communication Design. PhD in Design and Technology for the Cultural Heritage Enhancement (2009). Starting from the early 90s, he has been a graphic design consultant. Since 1997, his contributions to visual communication, public communication, and sign system design have been published in journals, books, and conference proceedings.
    He edited the following books: “Comunicazione Coordinata per i Beni Culturali” (“Corporate Communication for the Cultural Heritage”, 2003); “Type Design. Esperienze Progettuali tra Teoria e Prassi” (“Type Design. Design Experiences between Theory and Practice”, 2011, with Giancarlo Iliprandi); “On the road. Bob Noorda, il Grafico del Viaggio” (“On the Road. Bob Noorda: Travelling with a Graphic Designer”, 2011, with Cinzia Ferrara), which was awarded in the ADI Design Index 2012. Recently, he published "PINK. Women of Italian Graphic Design. From the Origins to Contemporaneity" (AIAP Edizioni, 2025).
    Previously associate editor of the journal «AIS/Design. Storia e Ricerche» (with which he gained an Honourable Mention at the XXVII Compasso d’Oro Award for the issue 12/13, 2020, entitled “Social Design. Design and the Common Good”), he is an editorial board member of «PAD. Pages on Arts and Design».
    President of AIAP, the Italian Association of Visual Communication Design (2025–2028).

  • Carlotta Bacchini

    Visual designer and art director. Her practice spans visual identity, digital and interactive projects, developed alongside commercial work and research-driven, experimental approaches. She is a co-founder of Common Index, a design and research collective. Her work focuses on the construction of visual scenarios that sit between the real and the imagined, using speculative design as a way to inform and guide the design process.

     

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Published

2026-07-22

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 21 (2026): Brands in the Age of the Hyperdigital

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2026 Francesco E. Guida, Carlotta Bacchini

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