Over the years logo’s play a big part in forming a brand’s identity, it may be a make-or-break situation in some cases. So, what is a logo? A logo is a combination of an image and or text that conveys to the people/customers the name of one’s brand. Logos have always been with us, back in the ancient Egyptian era with hieroglyphics. Moreover, people today can just look at a drawing of a brand’s logo and quickly distinguish which brand it is. “The history of logos goes back to ancient family crests, hieroglyphs and symbolism.” (Lant, 2018) To a brand a logo is basically its first to communicate to their customers, as we all know the logo itself is probably the first interaction your customer is going to have with the brand. Throughout history we have been exposed to a lot of very memorable logos from our favorite brands to even the Olympics. However, the main logo we are going to look at today is by the clothing brand “Vans”. Vans has a history of simple but comfortable and sturdy products. Moreover, this translates to their logo as well. Vans was established in the year 1966, however their main logo was not made until 1976. “VANS’ “OFF THE WALL LOGO MAKES ITS DEBUT.” (vans.com)
The first iteration of the logo made its debut with the first pair of shoes vans released in the year 1966, it was created by Mark Van Doren, son of one of the founders of vans. The original logo was all typograpghy, the face type they used for it was great it added weight to the logo making it pop out more to whoever is looking at it. The original logo had a solid, all capitalized and bold typeface, during the year 1970 it was a very popular font used by many commercial brands in the market. “The Vans logo has the lettering “Vans,” which looks weird thanks to the stretched out, horizontal line over the letters A, N, S.” (blog.logomyway.com) In 2016 the logo color changed to a very bright red, this move proved to be good as it made the logo more appealing to the eye and also added more weight to the overall tone of the logo. “Red is an evolved signal of attractiveness. In humans, … as more desireable.” (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) Vans also added the term “Off the Wall” which was very popular with the skating scene in Santa Monica. With this the company know who their target audience was and that was the young skateboard enthusiast scene. “Moreover, this turn of phrase is used to depict an eccentric or quirky person, . . .” (blog.logomyway.com) Future relesesas of the new design includes the Vans “Off the Wall” logo enclosed in a Van emblem. This gave a very fun and happy vibe to the logo. “It’s most notable visual detail was the stylized Van shape emblem. Also . . . They used it to call the fancy tricks they performed in empty pools.” (1000logos.net) One of the biggest inspirations for the creations of these logos are the target audience themselves, ever since the company started they catered towards the skater scene. “Like many shoe designs, the skaters who wore Vans shoes directly inspired the company’s logo.” (blog.logomyway.com)
One of the reasons why Vans is very memorable is because of its logo and how the brand caters and stays loyal to its target audience. The logo wouldn’t gave been so memorable if the overall brand itself was bad. However, the logo just played a role in completing the brands identity. How the logo was made was also was of outmost importance, from the typeface used to color used and finally to the addition of emblems as time pass by. Everything added all together made a powerful and memorable that would stand the test of time.
Logos through the years:
1966Â Â
2016
Vans “Off the wall” Emblem
Modern Symbol
Bibliography
History, www.vans.com/history.html#Early%201970s.
Kuniecki, Michał, et al. “The Color Red Attracts Attention in an Emotional Context. An ERP Study.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Frontiers Media S.A., 29 Apr. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4413730/#:~:text=(2009)%20have%20shown%20that%20people,always%20signal%20hostility%20or%20danger.
Lant, Karla. “The History of Logos.” 99designs, 99designs, 2 Sept. 2019, 99designs.com/blog/design-history-movements/the-history-of-logos/.
“The Vans Logo and the History Behind the Business.” LogoMyWay, 27 Nov. 2020, blog.logomyway.com/vans-logo-history/.
“Vans Logo.” 1000 Logos The Famous Brands and Company Logos in the World Vans Logo Comments, 1000logos.net/vans-logo/.
