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Pictured is a Toyota Chaser, one of my favorite cars.

Raymond Lugo

9/14/16

Umbro: The evolution of the Rhombus

Umbro is a dominating company within the worldwide soccer circuit and provides a wide array of soccer gear and apparel, most important of all of the being cleats. They are not as well known as adidas or Nike, obviously, but nonetheless imperative and their logo is a very recognizable face of the soccer world.

Umbro was formed in 1924 by Wallace and Harold Humphreys in 1924 as a humble football store. The name of the company is a slight portmanteau of their last name. Their first logo was a humble black rhombus with the company name inside of it. For some reason, the company name as dashes on either side. The name itself is in Old English text.

←–Pictured: original umbro logo

http://www.hdicon.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/umbro_1924.png

The 1930’s is when the logo began morphing into something that resembles the modern logo  little bit more. With a change in font with the name, they got rid of the dialogue punctuation and made the rhombus frame a solid black. There is little change between the 1930’s logo and the early 1960’s logo except for the name of the company wrapping to the shape of a rhombus. Between the late 60’s and the entire 70’s, the logo saw a complete lack of the company name within the logo, much like the current Umbro logo. The 70’s is also when they finally came up with the double rhombus shape that is used to this day.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/34/38/b3/3438b3b9eec10cff39d162ebf8fa4e9f.jpg

The Cooper Hewitt was an excellent museum to visit. Their technology was highly cutting-edge. A great example of this was the pens that were used to interact with various collections, such as the Fragile Beasts collection on the second floor. The tablets in the middle of the exhibit were able to interact with exhibits that you passed, and provide information for each other them alone with allowing you to even design your own furniture pieces such as coffee tables and chairs. Things like this are truly innovative for a museum.

 The Fragile Beasts collection was easily my favorite within the entire museum. It was truly captivating how intricate each piece was. It was also really amazing how elements of plant life and animals come together to become one fluid amalgamation of design that is highly detailed. The pieces within this collection are engravings on paper that were mostly done within the 15th through 17th century. 

http://www.cooperhewitt.org/channel/fragile-beasts/#jp-carousel-20169

Another exhibit that really struck me was the By the People: Designing a Better America exhibit on the 3rd floor. This collection was dedicated to showing off design in a pragmatic atmosphere; where pieces can be used to help the people of America everywhere, with an emphasis on positive change on impoverished communities. It was truly great to see an exhibit such as this, especially at a museum that is in such close proximity to Harlem and other poorer ares of New York. One piece that I really enjoyed in particular was the ‘Farm Hack Tool’ which is this bicycle fitted with mechanisms on it to essentially make it a man-powered tractor. This is truly innovating because it can provide the use of a tractor without the price of one, or the price of oil for it.

http://www.cooperhewitt.org/channel/by-the-people/#jp-carousel-21587

Lastly, I really enjoyed the Eungie skirt from the Scraps, Fashion, Textiles and Creative Reuse exhibit. It showed off a multitude of clothes and bags that are completely made from reused and repurposed fabric and textiles. It is a truly great concept that could be the future of clothing in a post-industrial world in which so much waste is caused in clothing manufacturing. The Eungie skirt, in my opinion, is really interesting because it reminds me a lot of a quilt, except in this case, it’s wearable!

http://www.cooperhewitt.org/channel/scraps/#jp-carousel-21393

I anticipate visiting again and look forward to seeing what other pieces the Cooper Hewitt will have in the near future.