{"id":528867,"date":"2017-03-08T13:48:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T18:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/?p=528867"},"modified":"2018-12-30T15:35:15","modified_gmt":"2018-12-30T20:35:15","slug":"celebrating-carolyn-davidson-designer-original-nike-swoosh-logo-internationalwomensday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/celebrating-carolyn-davidson-designer-original-nike-swoosh-logo-internationalwomensday\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating Carolyn Davidson – The Designer of the Original Nike Swoosh Logo \/\/ #InternationalWomensDay"},"content":{"rendered":"
words \/\/ Darren Griffin: <\/strong><\/p>\n Back in 1969, in the hallways of Portland State University’s Graphic Design department, a chance encounter helped shape the very nature of branding forever, and for the better.<\/p>\n Carolyn Davidson, then a student at the university, was speaking about a particular course and unfortunately, why she couldn’t take it. An assistant professor in the department overheard her saddening tale and grew intrigued. He approached her to inquire further. That assistant professor’s name was Phil Knight.<\/p>\n The student in question was Carolyn Davidson<\/strong>, a designer whose work would eventually change the course of sportswear.<\/p>\n Knight, at the time was also running Blue Ribbon Sports, the West Coast distributor for Tiger shoes, made by Onitsuka Co. LTD. He asked Davidson about what he had overheard, which was that the particular course was too much for her to afford at the time. In turn, he offered her a job as his assistant, creating graphs and charts in preparation for his meetings with Onitsuka Tiger in Japan, for which he had grown too busy to do himself. Davidson accepted his offer and began working for Knight at a rate of $2 an hour.<\/p>\n The partnership between Davidson and Knight continued throughout her time at Portland State. But somewhere around 1970, tensions began to mount between Knight and Onitsuka. Ever ready, Knight had an exit strategy in motion. He had designs for cleated football and soccer shoes ready and waiting, with a production factory in Guadalajara, Mexico on stand-by. What he didn’t have, however, was a fluid logo that would speak for his soon-to-be-named brand just as well as its products would.\u00a0That’s where Carolyn comes in.<\/p>\n