The Underscore Archives

On 5 Jun 2007, at 15:59, Tom Gidden wrote:

> On 5 Jun 2007, at 15:45, Rick Hurst wrote:
>>
>> bah.. they should have just got a work experience student to design
>> it like Nike did with their swoosh logo*,

It was a student designer (Carolyn Davidson) who did it for $35 to  
help build her reputation (this was in '71, though, so that wasn't  
nearly as small a sum as it sounds now). She also got a job with the  
company. She later (early 1980s) received an undisclosed amount of  
Nike stock (in 1983), though I expect it was a fair amount as she  
retired in 2000.

There's a difference between that and a competition, tho, in that  
Davidson was given the contract and got paid to develop the logo —  
she didn't just do it and submit it as spec work hoping she'd get paid.

> That's kinda my point.  The "swoosh" logo was the easy bit.

I disagree. The shape itself is evocative, and at the time it was  
fairly unique (could be proved wrong here, but I don't recall many  
'swooshy' logos that predate the Nike logo). It's not easy to develop  
something like that.

> However, Nike have spent a *hell* of a lot of time and money  
> turning that logo into a global brand.  That's what the £400K's for.

A good chunk of it, at least, yes. Branding is indeed *far* more than  
the logo, and involves lots of work and expense unrelated to the  
logo, true enough.

But coming up with a good logo is anything but 'easy'.


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