Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Negative Trend: Logo #1

Formed in San Francisco in 1977, Negative Trend's logo was designed by founding member Rozz Rezabek and future Flipper vocalist / bassist Will Shatter (born Russell Wilkinson, June 10, 1956 - December 9, 1987). Rezabek recalls looking at the bad news in the business section of the newspaper, and then at the worse news on the front page - as always, two perfectly good bellwethers of things as they are, and things to come. As with most good ideas in pop, it's simple, immediately striking (red, black and white were the first and only colors used by primitive printing presses) and easily propagated through knife on desk or paint on wall. The negative symbols also disrupt the circle's usually comforting psychology, anticipating a change in mantra from the "Fuck you - I got mine" of the '70s to the "Fuck you - I want yours, too" of the '80s.

3 comments:

rozz rezabek said...

this isnt quite right ..guitarist craig grey was also involved in developing the logo..the logo was a group effort based on headlines cut for collages..two in particular "where americas youth are headed" and "the trend is obvious' and a story about stocks "Negative trend in stocks"..long story...read my memoir LOVER LEGEND LIAR when it comes out 2010

Craig Gray said...

Actually, this is wrong, it wasn't designed by the band at all, it was designed by my stepfather Ron Gray on a visit to SF in '77. At the time he was working at a small Canadian college, most recently he was the leader of the CHP, the Canadian religious right.

Unknown said...

I was there at the time and Ron Gray designed the logo and presented to Craig. The band did many graphic projects together but this logo was the work of Ron Gray.