Crenshaw is the name of an American street-wear fashion label, which started as the line of The Marathon Clothing brand, established in 2017 by Nipsey Hustle, a famous rapper, who was shot in 2019. The Crenshaw branded t-shirts and hoodies have become iconic in the urban fashion of Los Angeles, and later — all over the globe.
Crenshaw started as a tribute to one of the most popular Los Angeles spots, The Crenshaw Boulevard. That was not only the inscription on The Marathon Clothing items but also the name of the 8th album, released by Nipsey Hustle in 2013. The American rapper, whose real name was Airmiess Joseph Asghedom, was born in 1985 and became one of the most iconic hip-hop figures at the beginning of the 2000s. Nipsey was a trendsetter in everything, from music to fashion, and this is why the Crenshaw brand has become an essential part of every hip-hop fan in no time.
The Marathon Clothing store opened its doors to the public in 2017, and it was located on Crenshaw Boulevard. The rapper founded the fashion brand with his brother Samiel and two partners, Carless and Civil.
Unfortunately, the location proved fatal for the rapper, and he was killed outside his store on March 31, 2019. Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle was known as an entertainer once associated with one of the city’s criminal gangs, but in recent years had become involved in community-improvement activities. The day after the incident, he was scheduled to meet with the police to discuss the fight against street crime.
What is Crenshaw?
Crenshaw is the fashion line of urban, hip-hop, and sports clothing of The Marathon brand, founded in 2017 by the famous American rapper, Nipsey Hustle. Today the Crenshaw logo can be seen not only on the streets of Los Angeles, where the brand was born but on celebrities and famous sportsmen all around the world.
In terms of visual identity, Crenshaw is a script lettering, which can be seen in absolutely different colors, depending on the collection and the background color. The bold and slightly condensed cursive characters of the inscription are easily recognizable and look like real classics.
The Crenshaw logo is executed in a bold smooth cursive, and unlike many other scripts, insignias are underlined not by the elongated tail of the last letter in the wordmark, but by the extended tail of the first “C”. The upper part of the “C” is curved inside, finishing right above the central spot of the lowercase “R”. The primary version of the badge is set in black characters on a white background, but the script lettering can be seen in any color.
The script typeface of the Crenshaw logo was designed exclusively for the brand and has no analogies among available commercial fonts. Although some of the characters of the inscription look pretty close to the letters from the following fonts: Di Mare Regular, Ethernal Bold, and Filmotype Keynote.
As for the color palette of the Crenshaw logo, there is nothing that can’t be changed. The primary version is set in a classic monochrome scheme, but when placed on the clothes or advertising materials, the script lettering can turn white, blue, or yellow. It always looks cool and recognizable, and sometimes even uses several shades for one wordmark.