Wet Seal is an American teen fashion mall brand, which was launched in 1962 by Lorne Huycke. The brand is famous for its affordable prices and vide variety of fashion goods.
The company’s first name was “Lorne’s”, after the brand’s founder. It was changed to the “Wet Seal” in 1990, when Lorne Huycke called one of the models on the swimsuit fashion show “a wet seal”.
The humorous meaning of the name is balanced by a minimalist and classic logo, which is composed of a single wordmark.
The wordmark however is not very simple, it consists of two typefaces, so the words of the nameplate in all lower case lettering look alive and playful.
The “Wet” part is executed is a strict and straight Gill Sans STD, designed by Eric Gill. The more elegant and sophisticated “Seal” part uses italicized Garamond font, which was created by Claude Garamond.
The monochrome palette of the logo represents the brand as stable and powerful, showing its authority and seriousness, hiding behind the ironic naming.
Previous versions of the logo featured another typeface, and a butterfly silhouette emblem, which looked more girly and light.