I was given some golf balls last year — I never got around to opening the bag they were in before the weather got cold. A couple of days ago, in anticipation of good golfing weather, I decided to put them I’m my golf bag. Turns out they were Nike golf balls. They didn’t have any name on them, but I knew they were Nike because they had a “swoosh” on them. The Nike emblem is so well known that some of their products and advertisements omit the Nike name altogether and just use the logo.
Nike is a United States corporation with headquarters in Washington County in Oregon. The company was founded in 1964 by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman and was initially known as Blue Ribbon Sports but switched to the present Nike name in 1971.
The Nike Swoosh is one of the most recognizable logos in the world. I figured that the company paid some major advertising firm big bucks to come up with the design. But that’s not the case.
In 1969, Phil Knight, one of the co-founders of Nike was an assistant professor at Portland State University. One of the students, studying graphic design at PSU, was Carolyn Davidson. Knight knew Davidson was in search of extra funds because she wanted to take oil painting classes, so he asked her to help him out on some projects — at the rate of $2.00 an hour. Shortly afterwards, Knight came up with the idea to strike out on his own and create his own brand of athletic shoes. He asked Davidson, as a side job, to help him come up with a stripe — or an image that could go on the side of the shoe.
Davidson came up with the Nike Swoosh — a check mark shape that was fluid and indicated movement and speed. The image also resembled a wing and helped the company decide on the brand name Nike, named after the Greek goddess of victory. After some fine tuning work on the logo, Davidson handed the design over to Knight… her charge? $35.00.
Davidson continued to design for Nike until 1975. But when she graduated from school, she decided to be a work from home freelance designer — something she continued to do for about 30 years.
Davidson indicated that she didn’t know how long she worked on the Nike Swoosh, but she only charged Knight for 17 ½ hours of work — which amounted to the $35.00 paycheck.
Even though she was paid only $35, she was honored by the company when they threw a party in her honor — and — she was also given a generous amount of stock in the company, along with a diamond and gold ring featuring the Swoosh design.
Over the years, Nike has come up with some great slogans to inspire people to do their best… I remember one that probably fits the bill for Carolyn Davidson — “Start unknown. Finish unforgettable.”
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