A gentle breeze stirs the leafy treetops overlooking Portland State University's campus in Oregon, wafting past dozens of students enjoying summer sunshine. Carolyn Davidson wishes she could join them, but pressing matters require her immediate attention. However, rushing across the campus grounds on the way to a meeting, little could this 29-year-old graphic design student have imagined that she was just a few steps away from carving her name in the history of advertising.

$2 PER HOUR

Some weeks earlier, Davidson's art assignments caught the eye of Phil Knight, accounting teacher at PSU. A die-hard running enthusiast, Knight had joined forces with his old track coach a handful of years before to co-found an athletic shoes distribution company called Blue Ribbon Sports. Their venture's new range of trainers — and the first of their own design and brand — was about to roll off the production line, but no logo had been decided upon yet.

Now, meeting with both entrepreneurs, Davidson shows them a set of design proposals that Knight had commissioned her to come up with on a freelance basis. The BRS chairman is not truly happy about any of the student's renderings, but an impending deadline for shoe box printing does not allow for a thorough selection process. A decision must be taken on the spot and Knight's finger finally rests on a plumpish, distinctively clean checkmark-shaped icon, suggesting a vivid stroke of dynamic, speedy motion. "I don't love it, but I think it will grow on me", Knight says to the young, anxious-looking graduate. Davidson charges a total of $35 for her services. 35 years later, this small icon spearheads a global brand worth more than thirty thousand million dollars, for on that sunny day in June 1971 Carolyn Davidson had given birth to the logo of Nike.

SWOOSH!

As one of the few symbols in the world which single-handely manage to convey a brand name virtually anywhere in the planet with no text support, the Nike logo is truly a commercial ideogram. Still, this didn't happen overnight; Davidson's simple, elegant design allowed for immediate visual recognition, but the global multi-billion-pound marketing machine the company fired up over subsequent decades also played a vital role. In fact, it wasn't until 1995 that Nike saw their Swoosh logo trademarked without the official brand name.

The need for instant visual identification is deeply rooted in man as a social being. From perennial religious iconography to tall, looming ensigns carried into ancient battles, a graphical element capturing the essence of everything into a simple thing has always been crucial to instill fear, respect or honour whilst evoking a sense of power, skill or character, all in a single glance. Today's branding model simply grafts this primal pictorial call onto the consumer mass market.

LOGO A GO-GO

You can feel this call everyday all around you. How many logos have scrambled for your attention since you woke up today? How many can you spot if you look away from the monitor? All of them try to stand out from the graphic crowd, vying for a coveted place in your subconscious, secretly seeding away their brand's core values.

But many of them fail to even register in your mind, as successfully embedding these values in a distinctive, easily recognisable logotype is a formidable challenge. Give it a go yourself! Shape, colour, stroke and typeface should all mesh into a seamless, cogent whole reflecting your own character and attitude — essentially, what defines you as a human being. And as this definition changes over time, so too should each logo evolve as decades roll past, a development which the fascinanting video below aptly showcases. After all, a successful logo must not only endure a fiercely competitive branding market but also stand the ultimate test of time.