This
is the story of the famous KOME Diamond Sticker, as told by
its designer, Bob Simmons. Bob was Dan Tapson's first
Program Director circa 1972 & 1973...
You may want to know the history of the straight up or
straight ahead roadsign that became the hot bumper sticker
for the South Bay. Ahem. It was mine.
The station was looking for a bumper-sticker design. Dan
Tapson and Gary Rodrigues brought in some "other" designs
and we had a meeting about them. I had a mock up of mine
too. At the time Gary wanted to go with his design, and I
had a tantrum. I literally pounded on the desk and
said...."I know I am right about this! People are going to
like this!" I think I threatened to quit and made other rash
promises and veiled menacing gestures...Dan finally
relented, saying something like, "Well if it is so imporant
to you." Gary sulked....just as I would have I had not won
this round.
So the the yellow and black road sign was launched--courtesy
of my tantrum. I was always mad that the artist used an 'art
type' press on letter for the arrow, rather than getting an
arrow that looked like the real road signs. Little things
count. The first time they ran out of the Yellow and Blacks,
they printed up Gary's round, zig-zaggy design. Those
stickers were distributed, but they sure didn't catch
on!
TED adds: Funny that Bob comments on the arrow not being the
type you find on the road signs. One of the things I always
liked about the arrow was that its shaft was just one or two
pixels off-center. (Of course, we didn't use the word
"pixels" back then.) I also remember seeing a yellow decal
on a VW bus in upstate New York!
JONA adds: After Bob left, the Yellow and Black sticker
returned, and was more popular than ever. Eventually it was
switched to Black and Yellow for variety--then Black on
White, and then the bands' names were added. It must have
been the most successful sticker in the history of
logos!