While clothes with Obey logo emblazoned on them are extremely popular, many people don’t even realize it has a deeper meaning and an illustrious history behind it.
Technically speaking, OBEY Clothing was established in 2001. And yet, in fact, it has a longer history as it was based on works of street artist Shepard Fairey that had been circulating for more than 12 years by then. Aligned with his opinion on political and social tendencies of his time, the clothing line became just another way of spreading his message all around the world.
Fairey’s designs deal with such themes as self-empowerment and antiestablishmentarianism. He uses the word “obey” sarcastically to describe the way propagandists have always been trying to bend the world to their views.
What is Obey?
Obey is the name of a popular casual fashion brand, which was established in 2001 in California, United States. The brand’s founder is a famous graffiti artist Shepard Fairley, who has put his street-art aesthetics into the core of the brand, making it unique.
To understand the Obey logo meaning, we need to delve into its history. Back in 1989, Shepard Fairey, Rhode Island School of Design student, created an absurd silk-screened sticker, which he called Andre the Giant Has a Posse. The sticker featured the face of the French wrestler and actor André René Roussimoff known under the nickname André the Giant. His most popular role was Fezzik in the movie The Princess Bride released in 1987.
Having created the sticker, Shepard Fairey started a street campaign aimed at reproducing the image as many times and in as many places as possible. To begin with, he pasted the stickers in a variety of places on his own. Later, his friends joined him. Eventually, the image could be seen not only in many parts of the US but also abroad. Today, Fairey often publishes an explanation of his message in publications like skateboard and music magazines read mostly by people between 15 and 25.
The original Obey logo features the central part of André’s face placed in a square. Below, you can see the word “obey” in white over the red background.
The giant’s face can also be given inside a star. In this case, his features merge with the star shape in an unusual and eye-catching way. In one more version of the star logo, the emblem is placed inside a red circle with a bold outline.
The wordmark is often used as a standalone logo, too. The letters are white, while the background can be either black or red. Although quite a few other versions are also possible, they aren’t used as often as those mentioned above.
The simple type featured on the original logo appears to be Futura Extra Bold Condensed Italic.
The basic combination of black and white, which is present on all the versions of the logo, is often complemented by red.