The designer says it all...

“I almost not believe that I was able to convince the jury with my creation and can hardly imagine that it will appear all over Europe”

I don't think anyone can sum it up better than that. ;-)

Cliché and awful. And I personally dislike the use of OSF here.

Gawd that's hideous! I don't know where to begin....

Another reason to see me as a German and not as a member of Europe.
But maybe other unions might have something to laugh about, if there members see this logo.

Georg

Preußisches Bleisatz-Magazin

I really like it.

peace

@ Paul

Correct. Its like "Love & Peace" out of the 70ies.
If the designer had a good dope?

But, who cares. May be he's a very nice guy.

Preuße

Preußisches Bleisatz-Magazin

Well, I've seen worse. ;-)

I think what bothers me about this is the "r" -- if it were more in keeping with the size of the other letters, the balance would be better. As it is now, you get the feeling the drugs were wearing off and it was late at night.

Linda

Reminds me of a ransom note, some might say that's fitting for the EU ;-)

The T touching the O, the spurious use of accents (how do you pronounce this anyway, togethair?), the weak outline on the t, the puny R, the size, font and kerning on the bottom line (you could drive a truck btw the N and the C)...

The concept is nice, but it looks thrown together in about 10 mins, on bad drugs.

An "Ö" is in english is pronounced like in "turtle".
So the pronounciation of "TÖGETHER" does not make any sense.

Preußisches Bleisatz-Magazin

That beat out these two entries.

The top one is sure useless for people who are colour-blind....

Yeeeehh..
The skandinavian rider invadors unfriendly overtake of EU.
He,heee..
How nice. So this time we (the germans) are not the ones ;-)
We do not have these accents.

Georg

Preußisches Bleisatz-Magazin

Which colours??

Preußisches Bleisatz-Magazin

Dang, the others are pretty awful too. Maybe they should have had an american design it... lol

From the Top Ten, the Spanish entry, with the big non-brush stroke Zen-like ring... I could see design/brand firms actually coming up with that... and selling it for millions.

Blue/green and red/orange are the two most common combinations that don't work for folks who have colour discrimination issues.

Maybe a color blind Europe might not be such a bad thing... :-P

For a monolithic entity like the EU to pick this is cool. I know it's not typographically sacrosanct, but who cares? (Oops!) It's fun and that is something in short supply when it comes to governing bodies. And life in general come to think of it…

peace

Given the point it makes the word together might work without the ®, but only if the designer had bothered kerning it to take out all those hideous gaps and fixed that awful tension point between t and o.

At least it's in English. That'll keep it from seeing too much use in all the anti-anglophonic nations.

>For a monolithic entity like the EU to pick this is cool.

Somewhat like GW's people posting his iPod play-list?

If he had David Allan Coe on it… :)

peace

Perhaps the jury members were under the of 4 years old? And the competition was open to pre-schoolers only - and sponsored by Life Savers?

Hiro

I can just imagine the specifications for the contest:

"Must portray a long history of tradition while being relevant to the present and future. Must incorporate references to every culture in Europe while representing a single unified vision. Must include at least one letter in a typeface by David Rakowski."

Okay, maybe that last one wasn't a real spec, but I would bet that something like the other two were. The judges probably each had an idea of what they wanted the logo to look like, and this conflicted with everyone else's idea. I've seen this kind of thing happen before.

- Lex

Actually it looks like they asked each country to contribute one letter and then just strung them together willy nilly.

Ahem...forgot what happened last time we decided to criticise the cover of CA? Remember the author intercepting the conversation and the crisis that followed?
Anyway...I'll take the risk, I didn't like it either but, like Linda, I've seen worse.

The mark that represents the government of Brazil also has this childish feel...Paul,you might like this too...

I personally don't like it very much, the accents bother me a bit buy hey, we don't know what the brief was, so why chastize the designer, we have all done stuff we are not particularly proud of at some point. No?

At least it’s in English. That’ll keep it from seeing too much use in all the anti-anglophonic nations.
Anti-anglophonic nation??? Such as....?

I don't like this as much but it's kind of fun.

> Perhaps the jury members were under the of 4 years old? And the competition was open to pre-schoolers only - and sponsored by Life Savers?

Of course you're right Hiroshige - naiveté is really, really stupid!! :)

peace

So the idea of portraying a nation in a fun, childish way, is ok?
Or would that be better to portray it in a corporate way?
Which way is the best to visually represent a country? Are some countries more "fun" than others? Are some countries more serious than others? From which point of view? The EU is not really a country, is it? It's just a set of agreements and laws so what's the point in giving it a "fun" look?

>Ahem…forgot what happened last time we decided to criticise the cover of CA? Remember the author intercepting the conversation and the crisis that followed?

I've said it before, but I think if the designer wants to step up to defend their work then we should welcome that, hope everyone posts comments with that in mind. As GW said "Bring it on!" - the CA tread was different it degenerated into politics and Rolex discussion.

A better example would be the Typographic Heresy Book thread where the designer was a good sport and came onboard to set the record straight.

Lol, I forgot all about the rolex!!!!
Of course I was kidding (btw: Gerad Huerta's intervention about his AC/DC was brilliant too)
The CA discussion degenerated into politics and I think this one has got lot of potential for this too...but I think the CA one also degenerated because some comments where slightly ...catty towards the designer (my comments included of course) which is why I think the best way to approach this kind of critique is always by considering the reasons behind a specific logo and see it in relation to what it was trying to achieve and the brief.

>Of course I was kidding

Cool.

>some comments where slightly …catty towards the designer

I think that's the key - don't say anything you wouldn't say to them on the phone - after disabling caller ID, and disguising your voice with a device purchased from Radio Shack of course... "where is the Rebel Base?" ;-)

I don't think the objections (at least mine) come from the fun or 'childish' look - to me it's a nice idea but not executed well enough. I think it's great that they held an open competition for this.

I'm not sure the designer needs to defend it - I think we GET it - and it's better than most of the finalists.

the idea isn't so bad, but the execution particularly good.

>but not executed well enough

I like that.

I will digress for a moment:

A long while back I posted a montage of signage in my neighborhood - there is absolutely no coherent look and quite frankly a lot of them are really poor designs…

but

When many people started chiming in how signage needs to be so much better executed and typographically sophisticated, I tried to imagine what that would look like and I didn't like what I saw. I just don't want to live in a world where everything is kerned and spaced and immaculately executed. That notion really bores me.

Now may I have a little cheese with my whine? :)

peace

>I just don’t want to live in a world where everything is kerned and spaced and immaculately executed.

If you ever get offered a job at Apple, turn them down ;-)

I don't think I have to worry about that too much… :)

I do have a master plan to try and stem the tide of what I see as massive sandpapering:
more natural media with all it's inequities. That and just believing in myself, taking my own photos, etc…

A dillettante with a design brief? To a certain degree…

I'm having fun.

peace

Maybe it's just sooo bad it's brilliant?

Anti-anglophonic nation??? Such as….?

The French still weren't happy about anyone else expecting them to use or expect them to speak English the last time I was there. Hell, I think they were one of three countries that refused to announce their Eurovision votes in English. Somehow I doubt that they'll be especially happy that the EU is using English in a celebratory logo.

I just don’t want to live in a world where everything is kerned and spaced and immaculately executed.

I don't either, but for a contest with a 6,000 Euro payout, I'd make the effort to clean things up a little.

> but for a contest with a 6,000 Euro payout, I’d make the effort to clean things up a little.

Then you wouldn't have won. It's pretty obvious… :)

I don't like really analyzing graphics anymore, I try to just let them effect me, and this felt like fun. It wasn't taken too seriously and right now I can really appreciate that.

Actually this thread has cemented a direction I was toying with and now feel really committed to.

Thanks. Cool…

peace

The logo looks frivolous. Its as if it was a design for a childs toy. The Union should be treated as a serious subject, even in celebration. They should remind themselves why they needed the EU and why its more important in this current world. I would have liked to see something that stressed unity rather than individuallity.

Together but still individual. I think it's the best idea of all the finalists and I think the "fun" appearance is OK - it make this Union living :) The execution... could be better.

_______
AL
lenart.pl

So the idea of portraying a nation in a fun, childish way, is ok?

I don't know about fun, but childish certainly fits the bill for Brazil. The vast majority of the population can be manipulated just like little children. And the little children are about to re-elect big daddy Lula so the party can rage on for another four years.

Maybe both the EU and the Brazilian logo are private jokes for the people who commissioned them.

oh come on! what a waste of time and money.

the top ten ... http://www.logo-competition.eu/65.0.html

----------
Paul Ducco
Graphic Design, Melbourne
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Little Mischief

The vast majority of the population can be manipulated just like little children. And the little children are about to re-elect big daddy Lula so the party can rage on for another four years
Wow. I agree with you again (I agreed also with the issue of visual pollution etc..on the other thread btw) but since I am not Brazilian I feel bad about dissing the country I am living in...
If you had said something similar about the US (and I think Bush certainly deserves the same treatment you gave Lula) you would have immediately people at your throat calling you anti-american and blah blah blah...if you know what I mean.
Anyway, talk about waste of money...you probably know the marca brasil. Also tons of money ( and I mean a ridiculous amount of money considering the much more urgent issues) involved in a survey to find out how people see Brazil...the author of marca brasil told me the survey involved asking half the planet what do they think when you say Brazil. Then they picked only the positive things, right? Cheerful, sunny etc etc. so I imagine they had to descard all references on violence, pollution. poverty etc since it would not have any use for the logo anyway. Do you follow me? So why bother asking if then you take only what you want to hear. Now that is a bloody waste of money if I have ever seen one.

The marca Brazil for those who don't know, it's used to identify products made in Brazil for export. I am not criticising the thing in itself just the waste of public money for the survey. Just give the designer a brief for fcks' sake and take it from there!

Well, it was obviously only for young folks, which explains some of the, um, design decisions.

Linda

here's the marca brasil

Have you read their bio? In my opinion, such competition deserved a well established branding shop.

Would I want to do it (if I was a designer)? Yes, but not until I have enough real world experience.

And let's not talk about the "it's so bad, it's good" aesthetics, please. As we can see from this example, it's all about the intention of the designer.

Joking anyway. that's funny, because there is no type there, it's all LETTERING! ha. pedestrian. ALTHOUGH the exit sign is awesome.

Blobjects are soooo 90's...

Until this day, I have always regarded European design as superior to my lowly American rubbish. Today, I feel I can be just as horrible designer as anyone. I aspire to obtain a piece as ugly as the one above.

Sorry, but i didnt liked the one which got finalized.
Am surprised how that can beat this one. It looks more
meaning full and well composed.
>

Sorry..
It was not to hurt anyone, was just a thought.
Don't mind plz.
>>satya

I saw all the entries of this"UIA2005 Istanbul" logo desgin competition held in year 2005. There were few identities very similar to what im seeing here...but the identity which got finalized is very nice.

here is the identity.

and here is the link to the website.
http://www.uia2005istanbul.org/uia2005istanbul.org_en/www.uia2005istanbu...

OK. Third place - nice design but boring. Second place - nice design but boring. First place - not very nice design but (IMHO) brilliant idea. Who should be the winner? Do you think the jury could choose really sh*t logo?

_______
AL
lenart.pl

Have a look at the latest post on http://www.designobserver.com for another perspective.

An interesting website, if you like this sort of thing....

Linda

hey thanks for the link man..really good one.

The wining logo reminds me of this: