Author: Jennifer

Logo History: Adidas

Adidas is known worldwide as one of the leading sportswear company that caters to clients ranging from famous olympic athletes to the average trainee. The company first started out as a little-known shoe factory named “Dassler Brothers Shoe Company” by brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler. However, a family feud split them apart, with Adolf taking full control of the business and changing its name, in 1949, to “Adidas”: the formation from his nickname Adi and the first three letters of his last name. After being able to trademark the three stripes and the brand name, Adolf has been able to expand Adidas into the success that it is now.

Before the feud, the two brothers released cleats that showed two stripes on the side of each cleat. This was for the mere purpose of the shoe’s bend and tightness. After the split, Adolf added an additional stripe to the two existing stripes. He realized that another company, “Karhu Sports,” had trademarked the three stripe logo. So, Adolf Dassler bought over the company to be able to have the rights over the logo. Once acquired, Adolf started using the three stripes on his footwear and his logos. During the 1920s, Adolf had famous olympic athletes such as Georg Lammers and Lina Radke wear his shoes which was a successful marketing technique because they both ended up winning medals. They were both sporting track and field shoes for the 100m and 800m race. His company’s initial logo contained the graphic image of a cleat in between two extended stems that originated from the letter ‘d’. The name ‘adidas’ sat below the cleat and it remained in lowercase san serif letters. The stems from the ‘a’ were made pointy, at an angle. The three stripes were shown on the image of the cleat. Adolf Dassler was adamant that his footwear company would be known as the three stripe company. In 1950, the company changed its logo to a wordmark in reverse on a black background. Seventeen years from 1950, the logo’s black background was removed and the pointed stems were removed from the letter ‘a’. The tittle on the ‘i’ also became aligned with the stems of the ‘d’. Although these two logos contained no graphics, the typeface remained san serif and lowercase.

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The logo went through another change four years later because Adolf Dassler wanted to venture out into mainstream and casual shoes since sportswear competition started to rise. Adolf Dassler’s brother, Rudolf Dassler, was also running his shoe company, Puma, and both brothers were in an intense competition. Thus, the trefoil logo was born in 1971. Keeping the same san serif typeface and lowercase letters, a three leaf shape was added on top of the word mark. The three stripes were added as cut-outs at the bottom of the intersecting leaves. These three leaves are said to signify Adidas’ primary markets: North America, Europe, and Asia.

The Adidas logo changed yet again in 1991. Peter Moore joined Adidas as the Creative Director and he helped revamp the logo that’s iconic today. Peter Moore decided to join Adidas after visiting the company in Germany. He was known as the creative director who refreshed the Nike logo as well. While keeping the san serif typefaces, the three stripes were shifted at an angle, each stripe on top of each other, like a mountain. The message behind this new logo was to show relatability to the consumer of the obstacles athletes face towards success and owning shoes that athletes wear. Although a new logo was developed, the trefoil logo did not disappear and was used to represent the Originals series collection.

As the new millennium approached, the company logo gained a new addition to the family, the global logo. The global logo was created in 2002 to signify that the company’s products were now being sold around the world and so the round shape was used. As always, the three stripes were used at an angle like a claw mark signifying adaptation towards change. The latest change to the logo was made in 2005 by stripping everything off except for the three stripes and the brand’s iconic lowercase name. Going back to its origins and its consistency, the logo carried the three stripes on the left side of the brand’s name. The outer black stripes align with the x-height of the text.

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Up until 1978, Adolf Dassler was able to maintain the success of Adidas. With Dassler’s death in September of 1978, his son Horst Dassler took over and with his father’s trefoil logo, was able to step foot into collaboration territory. This was done in 1986 with group Run DMC where fusion between art and sports started and is now called streetwear. After Horst Dassler’s death in 1987, the company suffered a great loss and became a stock company. By 1990, Adidas would have a new CEO and creative director that were able to resurrect what Adidas has always been, the best sports company in the world.

Adidas has now grown larger with over 59,000 employees producing over 1.1 billion sport and sport lifestyle products around the world. In 2015, thier slogan has become “Creating the New” focusing on speed, cities, and open source. I have worn Adidas shoes since my tennis years in high school. Not only did I like them because of their three stripes, but because it offered the logo in different lifestyle selections from fitness to sports and from fashion to streetwear.

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In the Dr. No title sequence it starts off with black and white and then proceeds into color. There are primary color of red, green, and blue being used. We also see complimentary colors such as yellow and orange. So they’re working welcome together. The shape of the circle is used continuously and no matter the amount of circles, the alignment is clear. They form rectangular or square alignments. The type remains white all throughout the sequence and is overlaid on the figures in the background. While with the circle shape, the type is aligned on either the left or right of it. In relation to sound, there is an attempt to make the circles flicker fast when the beat is faster in the audio.

In the apple sequence, the colors are complimentary to each other with colors of red, blue, etc, and circle shapes are also used. What is different is that they also used shapes that relate to the apple product or app icons. This in relation to the audio interconnected nicely because they also added actual audio that the products use. The type was also creatively used within the shapes that were created.

In Tom Petty’s lyric video, primary colors red and blue against a pale white/yellowish hue. The type was between bold and script. There was contrast between the fill color used for the text against the background. There was also alternation with the colors and text. I loved that some of the text would overlap the text in the background, but it doesn’t blend because of the choice of color alternation. There was careful placement of the text fitting in with the motion graphics, as well as hierarchy. The video also had like an old style texture, almost like film. In Prince’s video, the text color and type was maintained throughout the ad. The colors were in combination with the color palette of the album and the vinyls. So, colors were mostly black and bronze. There wasn’t much play on alignment of the text, it was mostly centered and it fit below the image or by itself on a solid background. This video also gave an older vibe because actual clips of Prince singing were being used.

Pentagram’s Conundrums

These conundrums were enjoyable to see! Some favorites are “Gone but not forgotten”, “Pull yourself together”, and “two’s company, three’s a crowd”. 

• “Gone but not forgotten” – I like the use of the white lines, one to underline and one to cross out.
• “Pull yourself together” – It was funny because the word ‘together’ was too close to each other and that when I thought of the meaning.
• “Two’s company, three’s a crowd” – This one was simple and straight forward. It also felt crowded within the space.

There were some others that aligned the words on their sides, and that was fun to me.

Before starting the design development, research was done about previous logos. From here, search involving colors, or messages, and candidates were done. This really helps to check what kind of message the campaign is working with and what direction they decide to go with. It really is interesting that a new direction or change was the goal but they also chose something that followed tradition, for example the colors used. I like the one they chose but I have to say that I liked the 2nd final option. Maybe it connected with me because of where we are now in terms of social technology.

Differences/Similarities

– There are no page numbers: We use numbers now to know where we left off or to find something we’re looking for.
– Illustrated Text: The initial letter seems to be used to separate paragraphs and they are hand drawn with intricate design/details. Much of the illustration used now is digital
– Separation of text: There is no separation between paragraphs or where something ends.
– The use of colors to fill in text isn’t done anymore, and the use of colors are more so with educational books or media spreads. 

– The text in columns: Usually the format with columns of text are used in magazines or newspapers.
– Big initial lettering: Although it is not apparent in every paragraph, some books do contain chapters with a big initial letter size.
– There seems to be some form of commentary or text on the side which can be found income educational books or even us when we like to notate notes.
– The margins space is reduced much smaller depending on the book but it’s still used when deciding where to place text.

After watching/reading Dr. King’s Drum Major Speech, it gave me something to think about. It resonated with me because through observation I was able to see much more within people and society. The message within the speech was meaningful and powerful. He talked about the Drum Major instinct that we all have within us. This instinct is equal to the basic drive of human life and therefore when it comes to advertisers, we are taken by the persuasion. The Drum Major instinct is our sense in wanting to be better than the other and being the first or gaining attention. In terms of advertisement, he mentions how we are taken by it and even buy the products sold to us, because we would want a better car or a better home or have the latest product. It was an interesting analogy that he also intertwined with religious beliefs as well. 

After watching the RAM commercial, I can understand the intent of using part of his speech. Maybe it was controversial because it was a truck/car commercial, and the speech was much more than that. I neither hate it nor love it, but I understand the meaning as a whole.

I really love the commercial because it was unique. They had one message or focus to give with this ad, which was how the computer will change everyone’s lives. It was the idea that society as a whole was going up against something new, a change. They ended up playing it that one time during the Super Bowl, which also gave a whole new meaning to have commercials were run during Super Bowls. In the recent remake parody from Fortnite, you can see the message of Big Brother being portrayed as Apple. Apple is the Big Brother they’re taking a stand against.