Funny how 40 years swoosh by: June 1971 is the date the Nike Swoosh was launched. Designed by Carolyn Davidson for $35 - a "Bargain Brand," the Dept. of Nike Archives notes in its extraordinarily understated tabloid-sized newsprint history of the mark (produced for the "benefit of Nike employees"). What others might take an entire book (and many trees) to convey - explaining the origin and history of the Swoosh logo - the "DNA" accomplished in a mere 28 pages.
Included are commentaries by designers and design critics, former employees and recollections by Phil Knight, the co-founder of Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) that evolved into Nike.
The origin of the mark goes like this: Knight wanted to differentiate BRS's custom product from the ones they were importing from Onituska in Japan: "...so Knight turned to a graphic design student he met at Portland State University two years earlier." One day in 1969, the student, Carolyn Davidson, was approached by Knight and offered $2 per hour "to make charts and graphics" for his business. For the next two years Davidson managed the design work on BRS. "Then one day Phil asked me if I wanted to work on a shoe stripe," Davidson recalled. The only advice she received was to "Make the stripe supportive of the shoe." Davidson came up with half a dozen options. None of the options "captivated anyone" so it came down to "which was the least awful."
Well, the rest is history. And the Swoosh emerged from "the stripe" and is one of the most recognized logos in the world.
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it's so good logo
Seems to me that Nike footwear design has gotten worse and not better with time, going off those original footwear design ;)
New era of a logo design starter. The legend.
i I’m a 6th grade student at buena vista middle school and this article is about home work. I hate home work because it is taking up my sleep and other things. And for all of you home work haters like me we all say lunatics unite!. Some day we all will renegade, and rebel against all of the education system of the united states of amarica and make sure that all home work is banned forever. Home work does not benefit any thing it limits freedom of our 17 years of childhood, It makes kids more obese, it cuts in to all our sleep schedule, and like I said about rebellion we all will fight back against teachers and the education system and we will fight to the death until there is no more homework because we need time to play our video games, watch tv, ETC. And anyone who likes homework what is your problem. All kids hate home work. Because we stay trapped in a building for 6 hrs listening to the teachers blabbing away about something boring and then we are let free though