While she didn’t immediately get wealth or recognizition from her work, the designer was eventually celebrated by Nike when they threw a party in her honor in September 1983.Īt the celebration, she was given a generous amount of stock in the company (estimated to be worth upwards of $1,000,000 today). When asked how she felt about this, Davidson never showed regret about only charging $35.Ĭarolyn Davidson photographed by Jon Freeman It then went on to be valued at approximately $34.8 billion by 2020.Įven though there are many factors that played a role, it goes without saying that the brand would not be what it is today without the success of its logo. The company went public in December of that year. By 1980, Nike attained a 50% market share in the US athletic shoe market. After some more hours of work went into the logo, Davidson gave the design to Knight for only $35, which amounted to 17.5 hours of work. Knight was instantly happy with the idea, but Davidson chose to work a bit longer to perfect it. The design also resembles a wing and hints at ‘Nike’, named after the Greek goddess of victory. That’s how the Nike Swoosh, a checkmark shape that indicates movement and speed was born. Her mission was to come up with a stripe that could easily go on the side of a shoe.

He knew she needed the extra money, so they agreed on an hourly pay of $2. When Knight came up with the idea to create his own brand of shoes, he asked Davidson for help to come up with a logo. There, she met Phil Knight, who was an assistant professor. In 1971, Carolyn Davidson was a graphic design student at Portland State University. It’s almost as if the swoosh has a life of its own. Along with athletes and sports followers, the general consumers like Nike products due to its association with being high-quality. The symbol is one of the world’s simplest but most effective branding visuals.

Nike logo design