Gate 2 Task 9

Carolyn Davidson, born in 1943, is one of the most famous female American designers. She studied design at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. She actually began as a journalism major but switched to design after taking a design course to fill an elective she needed. In 1971 she received her bachelor in graphic design. Her first design job was creating charts and graphs for one of her professors for his meetings with Japanese footwear executives. She was very successful and this lead to her designing posters, ads, and flyers for the same company. In 1971, her professor needed a logo for their new line of running shoes they were about to introduce. They then asked Davidson to come up with some ideas. She came up with five, one being a swoosh with hints of Nike the greek goddess of victory. She was payed $35 for this job, but this nike swoosh is one of the most recognizable brand logos in the world. A few years after the company went public, the owner gifted Davidson 500 shares, worth $1,000,000 now. Because of the grest success of this design, none of her other work ever received as much recognition. However, over the years as Nike has evolved, so has the logo. Davidson has been altering the Nike design as the company grows. I chose Davidson because when I was looking for designers, to my surprise, they were all men, and it was hard to find women amungst the group. Davidson was just so successful and her design could be recognized by so many all over the world. I thought it was important to focus on the success of a woman.