PART ONE:

Supreme’s use of colour and typography

Visual branding is a consistent and recognisable feature of any brand’s identity and can be used to create a positive relationship between the brand and the consumer and promote a desired interpretation (Phillips et.al, 2014). Streetwear brand Supreme consistently uses additive red and white colour blocking in its branding to emulate downtown New York’s youth culture and represent its values of ‘quality, style, and authenticity’ to their target audience (Supreme.com, 2023).

Supreme contrasts a warm red – best described as Pantone’s Red 032 (Pantone.com, 2023) – with a pop of white to create a dramatic, stand out contrast between the typography and the background of the logo. The colour red is known to create a positive emotion in consumers as it sparks excitement and attention when looked at. This colour may have been used to subconsciously present Supreme’s clothing as unique and appealing to its customers (Hilliard, 2013). On the other hand, the contrasting white sans serif font has connotations of purity, refreshment and modernity, an idea that reflects Supreme’s sleek and stand-out branding (Lischer, 2023).

To complement Supreme’s use of a vivid and positive colour palette, a bold sans serif font is used to create a high contrast and effectively emphasise the brand name (Saltz, 2009). Sans serif is simple and instantly legible to the consumer, making it the perfect font style to emulate Supreme’s continuous brand narrative of quality and authenticity.