Nike is a multinational corporation that was started in 64. Over the past 60 years, Nike has helped to change the world of sports by making high quality sporting equipment and apparel. They are also known for the unique font they use. When it comes to logo design and brand identity, font plays a key role. The font you use gives viewers an impression of your brand and reflects the message you want to convey. If you’ve ever wondered what font does Nike use to create such an iconic logo and website, then you’re in the right place. Throughout this article, we will look at the fonts that Nike uses in detail. Continue reading to learn more!
About Nike Font
There are several brands of sports shoes available in the United States, but Nike occupies more than half of the market for sports shoes. Nike was founded in 1964. Originally, it was a retailer of Onitsuka Tiger sneakers called Blue Ribbon Sports. When Phil Knight decided in 1971 to start producing Nike products, everything changed.
According to legend, Nike, the ancient Greek goddess of victory, is closely associated with the emblem. Swoosh is believed to be a mythological symbol of speed and victory, representing the wing of a celestial woman. It was Carolyn Davidson who established this belief. Another interpretation shows an inverted treadmill fragment in the figure. However, Phil Knight has resisted these theories. As he explained, a graphic sign is merely a drawing that expresses movement and energy.
A bold condensed oblique version of Futura Bold is used for the Nike logo. Specifically for the Bauer Type Foundry, a simplified version of Futura was developed in 1928. It was modified slightly by Paul Renner after eight years.
Since the Nike logo is so attractive, everyone is looking at it. A font called Futura Extra Bold Condensed appears in the logo. A geometric Sans serif font in the Futura family is part of the Futura font family. It was published by Linotype in 1936 and designed by Paul Renner. However, Bauer Type Foundry first introduced this font in 1928. A family pack of Futura includes 22 styles. The Futura Extra Bold Condensed font is available for free download.
Futura Font Usage
Because of its strong accessibility, this font can be useful in a wide range of situations. Futura is a multipurpose font family that features 22 styles. Using it, you can develop everything from websites to video games. Besides documents, business cards, letterheads, titles, this font can be used for official purposes.
Due to its sharp features and huge language capacity will also play an important role in designing. Aside from creating banners, logos, and brochures, you can also compose book covers, posters, and magazines.
This font is a Freeware font called Nike Font (Futura Extra Bold Condensed). Feel free to download it for your own use on our website.
Why Did Nike Use Futura?
Nike is a globally famous fashion brand that completely revolutionized the sports industry with its simplistic, athletic swoosh logo and now a wide range of Nike shoes. Nike has always been known for its distinctive typeface. You can see right away how powerful Futura’s design is. Nike used this very well for branding, and we can see how they used it to great effect. In addition to the logo, the font also conveys a message to the viewers.
Due to its bold version, it shows strength, and because it is inclined, it shows dynamism and stability due to the Futura’s geometry. This all works together to create a very powerful message. As a Nike customer, you will also be associated with their brand if you buy their products.
A Brief History Of Futura
Many organizations from many industries used this bold and exclamatory font before Nike embraced it. The New Frankfurt Project has launched in Frankfurt in 1925 to provide affordable public housing. However, it was among the most popular typefaces by the end of the century.
The typeface Futura features a geometric sans-serif style. Based on the Bauhaus style of the period, the typeface is designed to emphasize circles. In Renner’s view, fonts should be liberated from historical influences wherever possible, and modern typefaces should speak to their times.
Futura broke the mold and achieved enduring relevance through this anti-revivalist ethos. Renner’s desire to move beyond the past undoubtedly contributed to the name of his infamous creation, which he reworked from the word “future.”
Aside from his preference for simplicity in style, he refused the “grotesque” sans-serif styles of bygone periods. However, he accepted one major classical influence: the proportions found in the Roman capital letters. Futura’s lowercase letters have single-story forms, meaning they do not have a final, which adds to the font’s almost childlike simplicity.
Renner created a typographic design that truly stood out by shirking the formality of typically printed text by omitting the finials, as typography was once thought to be a handwritten form. Futura also has a tall ascender, or part of a letter that stretches beyond the mean line, another characteristic of the lowercase.
Both the vertical line in the letter “h” and the vertical line in the letter “d” provide good examples of an ascender. Futura ascenders extend slightly above the cap line, which marks the peak of the capital letters. Words and sentences are given a bit of life by this minuscule extension, helping to demand attention and encourage deeper reading.
Futura was matched with the slogan “Die Schrift unserer Zeit” as part of its marketing campaign. Their American distribution operation used the slogan “the typeface of today and tomorrow,” which means “the typeface of our time.” What a great idea! Before a single word of copy was read, Futura’s artful minimalism conveyed a clear and memorable message. Several institutions looking for a progressive aura picked up on this impactful quality.
As a fairly young nation, it was especially popular in the United States. Even though it was popular in the UK, a typeface designed by Eric Gill stole some of Futura’s thunder. Though Renner was staunchly opposed to Nazi politics, Futura eventually became part of the fascist regime’s propaganda. It first appeared on a poster for a Nazi exhibition designed to shame modern art in an ironic twist.
Final Words
The one thing that can be said with any certainty is that Nike uses no customized version of either font. They are both as plain and vanilla as you will find, which is part of the reason why Nike can get away with using them without being accused of plagiarism or infringement. In fact, both fonts are freely available for personal use and download online; you can even find Font Bureau’s League Gothic on Open Font Library if you have better things to do. Both fonts are also used in other widely known brands, like Starbucks. So no matter what Nike ends up doing with their logo over the next few years, we will forever have their iconic ‘swoosh’ to remember them by.