What does the Cool S mean

If someone asked you to list the most common symbols in the world, what would you say? Well, you'll think of the cross, a star, the peace sign ECC… and you might even think of some brand logos, like Nike's swoosh, Apple's logo and the golden arches of Mc Donald's, but what about another symbol, that is so popular and common that you probably have seen it thousands of times, at school, in books, photos, graffiti and, if you are a fan, also in ancient history cultures, the iconic and mysterious “Cool S".

This infamous symbol has confused hundreds of people around the world who have tried to get to the origin; the question is so complicated also because everyone has the moment when they saw it for the first time, or the moment when someone taught them how to draw it, for me personally it was learning the latest one, an older boy explained to me how to quickly draw some letters, including this S.

But where does this symbol come from? And why is it so irresistible?

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BUBBLE writing is something most of us learnt to do in primary school.

Exhibit A:

... And if you were feeling really fancy (ie on a good friend’s birthday card, or a misguided love letter), you might have incorporated a bit of shadow into the rendering.

But the king of bubble writing was this pointy, slightly-metal “S” symbol:

Julian Morgans, an online editor with Vice, decided to explore the backstory of that pointy S.

“I was about eight when someone showed me how to draw this,” Morgans writes.

“It started with two sets of three parallel lines that were joined diagonally left to right, then capped off at the top and bottom with pointy bits. It was a fierce, beautiful S, and drawing it was addictive”.

After trawling the ‘net, he discovered that the pointy S symbol has been discussed in nostalgic terms on numerous forums such as Reddit.

“It seems The S has appeared throughout all of North America, South America, Europe, Russia, Asia, and Australia. Some people think it’s a ‘90s thing, others report seeing it as early as the 1960s. There were theories that it was the symbol of some ‘80s hair metal band. Other people thought it was the original emblem for the clothing brand Stussy. Others thought it was an incarnation of the Superman logo. No one was sure.

So he decided to ask around the Vice offices.

The in-house graphics guy thought it was the ‘Superman S’.

“I asked him if that meant it was actually from Superman but he said it wasn’t,” says Morgans. “No, I think it’s just what kids think when they’re drawing it. They really just draw it because it’s cool.”

But after calling DC Comics to find out if they knew anything, they ruled out that this particular S had its origins with Superman.

“It doesn’t look like any of the emblems from the old Superman Shield logos,” said Benjamin LeClear, who manages the DC Comics library at their studio in Burbank, California.

“His ‘S’ has a lot of open space and almost never connects to itself.”

One of the producers, Ramona, said it was “definitely called the Stussy S”.

Like the graphic guy’s Superman suggestion, she didn’t think it was actually an emblem associated with Stussy, but refused to believe it had any other name.

“Pretty much every forum on the web mentions Stussy — the Californian surf/street wear company founded in the ‘80s,” continues Morgans.

So he called Stussy.

“No, this is not an original Stussy Logo,” stated Emmy Coates, who has worked alongside Shawn Stussy since 1985.

“I personally get asked this a lot, but people have been drawing this S long before Stussy was established. People have just assumed it was Stussy and it’s sort of spread from there. It’s actually quite amusing.”

When Morgans asked Coates what she thought the symbol looked like, she replied that it looked like the Suzuki logo.

“I was tempted to call Suzuki but didn’t,” writes Morgans.

“I needed to zoom out and take in the bigger picture, so I got in touch with an expert in symbols and semiotics: Paul Cobley.

“Paul is a Professor in Language and Media at Middlesex University in London. According to him the theory that it was a hair metal symbol was also ridiculous — ‘It’s certainly not the Saxon logo ... Theirs was far more sharp and had a staff,”’ he said.

“Then he offered the most likely yet bland explanation of all. That is, it’s fun to draw.

“’The reason kids go through this is probably because it’s a Moebius strip,’” he said, referring to the sort of looped one-surface shapes Escher was fond of drawing.

“It can’t be drawn continuously, but it does have a perpetual flow.”

Morgans concludes that Professor Paul is probably onto something.

“Most nine-year-olds can’t draw, so when someone hands them a magical recipe to create something fairly cool, on demand — that’ll go viral. Especially when the shape has the sophisticated, mathematical lineage of a Moebius strip.

So there you have it. As Morgans puts it, “the S isn’t a Stussy logo or a Superman emblem or a gift from aliens ... it’s just the most fun ever”.

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