YASSA

YASSA was a sportswear and sports equipment brand from Yugoslavia.

The textile company Varaždinska industrija svile, based in Varaždin, SR Croatia, was first created in 1929. A new production facility was built in 1957, when the company was called Varaždinska industrija svile, konfekcije i kišobrana. With the YASSA brand (the acronym meant Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslavenski asortiman sportskih artikala; Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: Југословенски асортиман спортских артикала; English: Yugoslav Assortment of Sport Articles) they became one the largest sportswear manufacturers in SFR Yugoslavia. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, the company lost a lot of its export markets and significantly scaled down production, and was renamed to Vis Konfekcija in 1995.^[1]

YASSA was the partner of Yugoslav participants during various Olympic Games, and its name appeared at numerous domestic and international sporting events such as: the Olympic Games in Montreal, Moscow, Lake Placid, Sarajevo, Seoul, and the Mediterranean Games in Split.^[2]

The company's logo and visual identity was created in 1974 by Boris Ljubičić, who became one of the most prominent Croatian graphics designers.^[3]

The Yassa brand was featured as one of the most recognizable Yugoslav brands in an art exhibition called Yugo.Logo, organized in 2023 in Zagreb by the Croatian Designer Society.^[4] After the 1984 Olympics, the design won an award from the Biennial of Design (BIO), organized by the Museum of Architecture and Design [de] in Ljubljana.^[5]