Off the Wall

            Founded in the beautiful United States of America, Vans celebrated its 46^th birthday this month. According to Jason Le, a writer at Sneaker Freaker. com, Steve Van Doren, who worked for the 3rd largest shoe manufacture in the United States, Randy’s, started this nationally known brand. Vans started off just as a shoe brand and today sells all different styles of shoes, clothing, stickers, accessories, and also gives sponsorships. This company is made to target young kids. It started off just targeting just surfers and skateboarders since the shoes were being produced in Southern California. Later, as the company developed a bit more, Vans started to accommodate BMX riders and snowboarders. Today it doesn’t matter who are, how old you are, or what sport you may do, Vans now makes all types of shoes and boots that can fit nearly every occasion. And in the 46 years of production Vans still maintained the same classic taste and style.

            Vans even maintained the same logo pretty much. If we showed Grandma or Grandma the Vans logo (shown above) and asked what do they think this company sells, they might assume automotive vans. So why does Vans have a logo that doesn’t clearly state what they are trying to get the consumers to buy? Why is the logo so plain? The Vans logo is plain black and white to have a classic feel as though they’re not trying to sell you something false. They don’t feel the need to add flashy colors to hide their product behind. Vans uses black and white to show that their product is what it is and they stand by it. The “V” in Vans is extending to the right over the rest of the letters in the logo to show their expansion eastward over the United States. The Vans logo font is a plain font just bolded. It’s close to Arial font but isn’t quite it so it must be a specifically made font for the Vans company.

            In 1976, Vans came out with a new logo and adopted a slogan. This logo was the official logo for Vans’ official skateboarding shoe. Today it can be found on almost any Vans merchandise. This new logo has the same old classic logo but inside of a skateboard with their new slogan, “Off the Wall”.  This new logo can be found in black and white or white and red. Still only using two colors keeps the image that the product is what it is take it or leave it. But by adding red and taking away the black it makes the logo bolder. Being bold is genuinely what the targeted group was supposed to be, big tough athletes that get back up once they have fallen. When Steve Van Doren was asked what the new slogan “Off the Wall” meant, he explained that in the 70’s skateboarders would say that phrase when riding in pools. It could also be interoperated as the brand being awesome, crazy, cool, unique, and rebellious.

Helchelsica

For this blog post, my class and I were asked to visit this website and take a quiz that would match a text with our personalities. I got Helvetica as my result.  According to the quiz I am, “an industry standard, classic, reliable, and a little bit boring. I shouldn’t let the haters get me down and that I have plenty of friends who think I’m the best”. This definition of Helvetica as my personality is for the most part accurate. I do consider myself very reliable, I believe classic looks are timeless, and I tend to be boring in my nature.

            Not many people stop to wonder why certain types are used on posters, billboards, or even a simple candy bar. There are hundreds upon thousands of different types of text that we as a society are exposed to though out the day. Some texts are used to make a product recognizable at a quick glance. While other texts are used to help provoke emotion or clear up a message.

            Why was Helvetica developed? Helvetica was created in 1957 to be used as a more readable and easily displayed typeface. This was very important as different media forms and a modern advertising industry was beginning to flourish. Soon after being produced, Helvetica became the most widely used font of its time. With its clean, smooth lines, it reflected a modern look that many graphic designers wanted. At the time, many European countries were recovering from war, Helvetica was the font used to express newness and modernity.

Sadly, about 20 years after breaking the scene, a font called, Frutiger, put Helvetica into retirement. Frutiger was said to be the “humanized” version of Helvetica. The only difference with Frutiger was a slightly jagged and varying widths Helvetica’s once naked design. From there on out designers craved new fonts that were more expressive and energetic. Although, today one of the most used fonts is Arial. Arial was developed by a company called Monotype and was released as a cheaper Helvetica substitute.  They’re vary similar but Arial has replace Helvetica as the digital standard, especially on the Internet.

 Fonts have changed over the years to fit the needs of growing industries. In modern times, each text has it’s own personality and flare. Text can be helpful in conveying a message or emotion. Or it can be simply used just because it’s easy to read.