PADI LOGO While teaching a junior open water one weekend, my student asked me
what the significance of the diver carrying the torch means that is
depicted in the PADI Logo.
I presumed that the meaning signifies something along the lines of - we
are the leader in diver education, "lighting the way" but thought there
might be a bit better and more thorough explanation that he would
appreciate.Here's the answer provided by:Mary
Kaye Nesbit | Training Advisor, Training
& Quality Management| PADI Americas | 30151 Tomas Street | Rancho Santa Margarita, CA
92688-2125 Office: (949) 858-7234 X2388, (800) 729-7234 X2388 | Fax: (949) 267-1255 | marykaye.nesbit@padi.com | www.PADI.com
In the book, "Scuba America: The
Human History of Sport Diving" by Zale Perry and Al Tillman, the story of
the PADI logo is told on page 180. PADI's co-founders John Cronin and
Ralph Erickson designed it, inspired by the National Geographic world logo and
a famous photograph of Cousteau divers carrying torches underwater. The U.S.
Divers company, for which Mr. Cronin was head of sales before founding PADI,
had a catalogue out with that photo on the cover at the time, which was 1966.
You might enjoy a few of the
details especially considering these were the days before computer-based
graphic design.
In the book, Ralph Erickson is quoted:
"Since I had two years of mechanical
drawing in high school, (we decided) I would draw the logo with the world.
Drawing the world with longitude and latitude was the hardest thing I have ever
done... I drew two circles - one inside the other and started using
press-on letters to get our name into it. I worked on this eight hours a day for
two weeks... Finally, I succeeded, and I was elated and called John.
"We decided we would have a diver
with a torch in the center of the world. The torch was for education -
lighting up the world of diving.
"Neither one of us could draw a
diver. So we asked a diving friend of mine if he would do it. I told John that
we might have to pay him twenty-five or thirty bucks for his work. Keep in mind, we
only had thirty-five dollars...
"Within a couple of days we had the
diver and torch (logo) and we were ready to go.
"...Incidentally, a year and a
half after we started PADI, John... got a call from one of our instructors,
who told him that in our logo, ‘Professional' had only one ‘s'
in it. John sort of wondered what we should do about it. I thought we had
enough money to have it done professionally (this time). I had been so
engrossed in those press-on letters, ... I unconsciously left out the one ‘s'
and at this stage of the game, I wasn't about to try it all over again."
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