Talk:Cool S

variant

In ~1968 I was taught to draw it with shorter ends:

    / \
   | |\|
    \ \
   |\| |
    \ /

I hope this is clear. —Tamfang (talk) 03:13, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

A lot of people remember drawing it in the 60s, but sadly we can't put that on Wikipedia because we need reliable sources. I hope someone finds something earlier, but so far, the earliest known evidence of the S is Jon Naar's photographs, according to most reliable sources.

But you could add that variant (and the one with horizontal lines, and the S chain) if you find a reliable source that mentions it.

Out of curiosity, where did you learn to draw it in 1968? 💖平沢唯を愛してる💖 (talk) 22:55, 5 January 2025 (UTC)

Pasadena, California. —Tamfang (talk) 01:58, 6 January 2025 (UTC)

Hello, I have added a line about people seeing it in the 1960s with two references from News.com.au and Vice. According to the News.com.au Wikipedia article, it is a very popular site in Australia and employs some award-winning journalists. Vice has no reliability consensus per the Perennial sources page. However, based on the nature of the subject and lack of characterization of the sources as depreciated, I think common sense indicates they are safe to cite. Evaporation123 (talk) 07:19, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

News.com.au is a reliable source, and Vice is probably reliable in this case for this claim (so long as it's saying people "claim to have seen it", not that they *did* see it.)⇒SWATJester ^{Shoot Blues, Tell VileRat!} 15:06, 10 April 2025 (UTC)

Islamic Manuscript with Depiction of Cool S

I found this site which appears to show the "Cool S" in a medieval islamic manuscript on the rightmost figure. https://warfare.6te.net/14/Zoology_of_al-Jahiz-p25a-lg.htm. I would like someone more experienced to check the veracity of this, the book they cite can be found on here: , the illustration is on page 221/211. ZinZorius (talk) 02:46, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

Sorry, but this is original research. The Cool S is a simple pattern, so it appears by coincidence in many places and times. Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors is another example. But this article is specifically about the graffiti symbol, not every time a Cool S-like design was drawn in history. Unless you can find a reliable source that connects the medieval manuscript to the graffiti symbol of 1970s New York, you should remove that section you added. 🎸唯ちゃんを愛してる🐱 (talk) 04:14, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

Ok, thanks for replying so quick ZinZorius (talk) 10:23, 23 July 2025 (UTC)

Question about referencing "The Universal S" by LEMMiNO in this article.

So, I was considering adding a reference to "The Universal S", by LEMMiNO to this article. The only problem is that it's effectively a documentary built from non-primary sources and some primary sources. Would referencing this video be allowed on Wikipedia?

The Video In Question 806mtson (talk) 05:49, 12 January 2026 (UTC)

Name question

Something seems less than encyclopedic about the "Cool" in the title.

What about something like "Mechanical_S"? - inspired by both the oldest (1890) source:

https://archive.org/details/mechanicalgraphi00will/page/n77/mode/2up

and fundamental aesthetic elements similar to simple machines - wedges, levers, inclined planes, etc. ~2026-14187-09 (talk) 18:57, 5 March 2026 (UTC)

WP:COMMONNAME. Veverve (talk) 18:59, 5 March 2026 (UTC)