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Personalised car stickers
個性化汽車貼紙
Family portraits on wheels
輪胎上的全家福
Windscreens are the new Facebook
擋風玻璃變成了新的臉書網
IN THE Middle Ages, heraldry allowed knights to show off family histories in amazing detail, lugging shields or banners into battle that explained their ancestry, whether they had married an heiress and their status as a first or younger son. Eight centuries later American drivers are catching up, thanks to personalised “family stickers”: tiny stick-figure depictions of an entire household (most typically displayed in one corner of a minivan's rear-windscreen). Though the trend's origins are obscure, there is a consensus that it began in Mexico several years ago and at first involved generic outline figures, revealing ony the number of children in a family.
在中世紀，騎士們可以使用非常精細的紋章來炫耀自己家族歷史，在戰場上帶著有家族紋章的盾牌或旗幟可以闡明他們的血統—和一位女繼承人結婚，或者身為家中長子或幼子。八百年后，汽車司機也開始這樣做了，而他們使用的是個性化“家庭貼紙”：一副小小的全家簡筆畫描繪。盡管這股潮流的起源已經不甚明了，但幾年前在墨西哥興起了一種默認觀點，首先就是在車上貼通用類數字圖，表明了家中孩子的數量。
Now the stickers are well established north of the border. And, thanks to a combination of American individualism and advances in custom-manufacturing, they are morphing into ever-more-detailed family chronicles.
如今貼紙在邊境線北部也開始流行起來。由于美國個人主義和先進的定制加工業，它們變成了更加精細的家族編年史。
Chroma Graphics of Tennessee, a supplier to such firms as Walmart, recently designed its first kits to celebrate households headed by same-sex couples. The pick-and-mix kits—designed at the request of a large retail customer, but not yet on sale—include two father-figures, two mother-figures and an assortment of children and pets, says Brenda Sellers, the firm's president. The packaging is in rainbow colours, bearing intertwined pairs of two male and two female astrological symbols as a final clue.
田納西州的彩色圖案是一些公司如沃爾瑪之類的供應商，他最近計劃推出首套慶祝同性戀人擔任戶主系列貼紙。該公司總裁布倫達·塞勒斯表示，這套組合貼紙是應一個大型零售商客戶要求推出的，但尚未對外出售。它包括兩個父親形象，兩個母親形象，各種各樣的孩子和寵物。包裝是彩虹色的，上面有兩對互相交錯的同性男女占星符號，作為一個最終暗示。
In Idaho a sign-maker, Woodland Manufacturing, has pioneered hyper-personalised stickers. Visitors to its online www.familystickers.com retail arm, can combine thousands of different heads, bodies and accessories to depict, say, a bearded, balding x-ray technician, married to a bee-keeping mother (in hat with veil) whose kids enjoy ballet and baseball, and who own guinea pigs.
在愛達荷州有家標牌制造商，名叫林地制造，他提倡超個性化貼紙。訪問他家在線零售網站的訪客可以將上千種頭部、身體和附屬部件結合描繪，一個禿頂但胡子濃密的放射線技術員稱。該技術員與一名勤勞的婦女（戴著有面紗的帽子）結了婚，他們的孩子喜歡芭蕾舞和棒球，還養著荷蘭豬。
Most are bought by women, says the firm's marketing boss, Aaron Ellsworth. The number-one seller is dog stickers: “For a lot of people, their pet is their family,” says Mr Ellsworth. Candour is a trend, with customers asking for large Xs to place over divorced spouses, or tiny halos to place over a family member who has died. Some lovelorn folk leave gaps in family line-ups, labelled: “Position Open”. Coloured stickers are big just now, and also zombies.
該公司的銷售經理亞倫·埃爾斯沃斯稱大多數貼紙的購買者都是女性。賣得最火的是犬類貼紙，“對于大部分人來說，他們的寵物就是家人。”埃爾斯沃斯說。坦率是一種趨勢，顧客會購買大型X符號來代表離婚夫妻，或者小小的光圈來代表去世的家人。一些失戀的人在家庭的一行貼紙中留出空位，貼上標簽“空窗期”。如今彩色的貼紙和僵尸貼紙也賣得很火。
Two powerful forces are at work, suggests Mr Ellsworth. The internet now allows consumers to order customised products directly from a factory. And in a fast-changing world, “all of us want to feel unique”. Those medieval knights would have understood.
埃爾斯沃斯稱有兩種強大的力量在起作用。如今的網絡可以使顧客按照自己要求直接從加工廠訂購產品。而且在如今這個瞬息萬變的世界，“每個人都想使自己顯得與眾不同”。那些中世紀騎士會理解這種心情的。
