Sep 24, 2018
Logo Fonts In / Streetwear (Updated)
***UPDATE — May 11th 2021***
Well, as much as the world has changed since I originally wrote this, some parts of it haven’t. I revisited this font project recently to update older ones and re-update the updated ones. I wanted to see if I could figure out how to sell these as prints.
It was then this (recent) article came to my attention : https://gridfiti.com/hypebeast-fonts/.
This blog re-created my work. Subject matter, formatting— but also did it worse. I know it’s impossible to own the concept of breaking down visually the branding of something, but it’s extremely clear this was based off mine. As seen below in the screenshot of their supreme interpretation, they are giving false information. At the time of writing this update the article is still active, but I’ve been able to call them out for stealing. We made contact and reached somewhat of an agreement on what to do going forward. I’m not the happiest but they were accommodating to a point.
I’ve since updated them more, which you can see here : www.streetwearfonts.com
Below you can read my original article.
I forget what year I exactly created these, I think it was 2014. Originally I made these for the now dead streetwear blog SLAMXHYPE. This was the closest thing that I’ve made that’s ever gone ‘viral’. No one knows it was me who made them either. Working for the blog, I couldn’t put my name anywhere. Which is fine by the way, I knew that to be the case. Generally that’s how it goes when you work for a corporate entity.
It’s kinda crazy though — these images get pulled up in design meetings I’m in being used as reference or inspiration. I’ve seen them on co-workers screens, random Pinterest boards, Tumblr posts, even other blogs covered the original SLAMXHYPE post (which doesn’t exist anymore).
When I originally made these, I was under a time crunch. I didn’t have a lot of time to make them, I had a deadline. Looking at them years later I can admit they aren’t 100 percent. That’s why after we talked about different brands switching up their logo types on Sup? Podcast Ep. 29, I wanted to update just just a couple of them (I felt like updating them all wasn’t worth the effort). Basically I just updated a few that really bothered me.
I’m sure these are 100 percent still, but the minor mistakes really started to annoying me. Now I feel more confident about them. I’m sure the old ones will still get used more than these updated ones, but whatever. I’m just happy I did it.
Here’s a link to my art Instagram with albums of the originals I did.
Follow Chris on Instagram @notthatcheney & the podcast @suppodcastnyc
