Stussy’s logo is incredibly stylish and reminiscent of Japanese characters. Because of its uniqueness, it has become a symbol of an entire generation. At the beginning of its career, the company produced surfboards, and now it is a private fashion house offering different types of youth clothing: sportswear, casual, hip-hop, and surf street. Its founder is Shawn Stussy. The central office is located in Irvine, California. The time of origin is 1980.
Before starting a fashion brand, Shawn Stussy made surfboards. In the 80s of the last century, he wrote his name on one of them with a black marker with a wide stem. Then the businessman transferred the image to baseball caps, shorts, and T-shirts, which he began selling directly from the car in Laguna Beach. The result is a new brand name. Her popularity grew.
Jan Stussy, his uncle and a professor at the University of California, a film producer, engraver, and artist, helped the entrepreneur make a logo from a personal signature. In 1984, Shawn Stussy merged his company with the business of a friend, Frank Sinatra Jr. (just the singer’s namesake). Then they engaged in producing and selling clothing together. As a result, an interesting print in the form of an emblem helped the merchant rise to a high level because he began supplying goods to Europe.
In 1988, business partners opened their boutique in New York’s SoHo district. But the biggest activity in work was observed throughout the 1990s when Stussy stores began to appear in other parts of the United States. Outside the country, the brand was only available in premium specialty stores.
Meaning and History
In 1996, the trademark rights passed to Frank Sinatra because the founder left the company’s presidency. Despite the change in leadership, the brand has retained a well-promoted identity, with the name including the previous owner’s last name and the logo with his personal signature.
The logo designer is Shawn Stussy himself. This is his signature, which he used to decorate handmade surfboards. His uncle, Jan Stussy, helped him transform it into a full-fledged marketing tool. The engraver corrected the text and added his features, that is, strokes from his signature.
What is Stussy?
Stussy is an American company and its brand of fashionable clothing is in the youth-sports style (surf street, hip-hop, casual). He appeared in 1980 in Laguna Beach, California. The headquarters is currently located in Irvine. The brand was founded by Shawn Stussy, a former surfboard manufacturer.
Now the beachwear legend’s visual identity is highly valued and considered stylish. It consists of a set of randomly arranged bold stripes. But this is only at first glance. If you look closely, you can see individual letters. For example, “S” is slanted and goes to the left, “t” is padded at the top with a long crossbar with two dots, “u” and both “s” are zigzag, and “y” is similar to “v” with a vertical line on the right.
Since the company’s original product was associated with extreme sports (surfing), all lines in the logo are sharp, angular, and jerky. Along the edges, they are not even but wavy, resembling water ripples, very small waves. But in fact, these are traces of a black marker with thick lead, used to make the prototype of the modern symbol.
Font and Colors
The inscription on the logo is illegible because it is individual and handwritten in a cursory style. We can surely say this is grotesque since all the letters are even, without serifs. The sign’s initial palette is black and white. Dark glyphs were on a light background. In a modern interpretation, the color scheme varies with the surface shade on which the emblem is located.



