[Questions] How did the A symbol come about? Do help! thx

[weix2]

Greetings fellow ayumi fans, just a few questions from me. I'm currently doing a research on Ayumi for my project, hope you guys would aid me! Thank you!

As far as I know, Ayumi is the only artiste that has such a strong icon till the extend that it's like a brand, like Apple or Nike. Most or everybody would be able to recognise the "A" as Ayumi.
Questions...

1) How did Ayumi's "A" symbol come about?

2) When was the symbol first introduced to the people? Was it first introduced as a back cover design for her album, "LoveAppears" ?

3) Is there a rationale behind it or was it just a representation of her name only?

4) Was the main purpose of it to be like of it's current state, to be a strong icon?

Hope you guys would help me out here! Thank you so much!

1) I'm not 100% sure, but avex probably just decided to slap the letters "A" and "H" together. See, A.H. = Ayu's initials.

2) Umm, yeah, I think LOVEppears and appears were the first releases to use the A+H symbol. See, it was basically nonexistant before those two releases, I believe. And another A was used on the "A" single, but that was a different A. It consisted of four strokes, which represented the four a-sides on the album.

3) The latter, I believe.

4) No idea. >.< Sorry.

[lotusoka]

I'm kinda thinking it just came about from the way she signed stuff.

But I'm not sure either.

[elvis810]

No, the A was designed by her fans in a competition~!

.. Do you have proof of that?

Wrong forum, moved to enquiries.

[[AHS]MortalSex]

1) I'm not 100% sure, but avex probably just decided to slap the letters "A" and "H" together. See, A.H. = Ayu's initials.

2) Umm, yeah, I think LOVEppears and appears were the first releases to use the A+H symbol. See, it was basically nonexistant before those two releases, I believe. And another A was used on the "A" single, but that was a different A. It consisted of four strokes, which represented the four a-sides on the album.

3) The latter, I believe.

4) No idea. >.< Sorry.

yeah something in that way

I read somewhere that Ayu designed it herself.
The first design was a pie-inspired symbol found in the "A" single. The second one is a combination of A&H.

[chibi_sunny]

Actually the "A" is supposed to represent the "pi" symbol from math, which is neverending. you can notice that the "A" is curved like the symbol.
i'm not 100% sure if Ayu created it, but i think she did.
Hope that explains!

[Delirium-Zer0]

chibi, you're thinking of the original A. There are two A's... i don't know if anyone noticed, but the trademark A is the right-side half of the pi-A (from the single) mirrored over itself. If you cover the left half of the pi-A, it looks like it could be either A symbol.

And ayu didn't start signing her name with the A looking like her logo until AFTER her logo. If you look at pre-LOVEppears signatures, it looks more like the pi A.

[weix2]

Originally Posted by Delirium-Zer0

chibi, you're thinking of the original A. There are two A's... i don't know if anyone noticed, but the trademark A is the right-side half of the pi-A (from the single) mirrored over itself. If you cover the left half of the pi-A, it looks like it could be either A symbol.

And ayu didn't start signing her name with the A looking like her logo until AFTER her logo. If you look at pre-LOVEppears signatures, it looks more like the pi A.

if so, does anyone have any pictures of ayumi's signature with the 2 variations. I tried yahoo and google image search but it was to no avail.

[Delirium-Zer0]

I'm only finding old, pi-looking pics of her signature (even among autographs as recent as 2003), but i do have a pic with the signature more like her well-known logo somewhere, just not on this computer... i really think the pi symbol might have been based on a cross between pi (makes sense since the theme of the A single design is circles) and her signature... the A logo is probably just a variation on that. (I don't think it's a cross between the A and the H as some people say, i think it's just a stylized A.)

[JackieRos]

[qwerty]

Ugh, thank goodness she's still using the current "A" symbol. The former ones were just ugly.