The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

The Language Of Design …

I’ve written loads about the importance of design – and not just because I’m married to a designer – however one thing that I’ve never really enjoyed is listening to the bollocks they spout when explaining/justifying what they’ve come up with.

Yes … yes … I know advertising people – especially planners – can be accused of the very same thing, however compared to the design industry, we’re strictly 9th division.

Now what’s brought this all on is that I’ve just read the justification for the Australian APEC logo … and to be honest, it’s left me feeling mentally violated.

To make matters even worse, it was done by a company I used to work for – PRINCIPALS – however given I had the most frustrating time of my career [so far] there, I don’t feel too guilty about naming and shaming, ha.

[OK, it wasn’t entirely their fault I had such a bad time – they were smart and had some great people – however it felt like I was working in a mausoleum, both interms of the atmosphere inside the agency and their desire to do brave and exciting work/thinking]

Anyway, are you ready? 

Sure?  Just don’t say I didn’t warn you …

OK, first up the ‘brief’ … [as detailed by PRINCIPALS]

“The branding for APEC had to epitomise Australia – the optimism, the culture and the style of our nation.

It had to be upbeat and inviting. It had to tell a story about Australia, about Australia’s attitude to APEC and to our stance on cooperation.”

Jesus … that’s a lot isn’t it.

1 Epitomise Australia’s optimism.

2 Epitomise Australia’s culture.

3 Epitomise Australia’s style.

4 Be upbeat and inviting.

5 Tell a story about Australia.

6 Explain Australia’s attitude to APEC.

7 Explain Australia’s stance on cooperation.

That’s not the most single minded brief is it?

OK, so things like incorporating Australia’s culture, style, attitude to APEC and attitude to cooperation would have been easy because lets face it, they don’t have any [ha!] … however explaining Australia’s attitude to APEC whilst still being optimistic would of been a challenge given the average Aussie on the street probably thinks the whole thing is a pile of shit – and not just because they caused massive disruptions in the city for ‘security preparations’.

However thanks to the talent and brilliance of PRINCIPALS, they managed to come up with a design that answered all those requirements and here is the result …

I know what you’re thinking, “NO WAY IS THAT ANSWERING ALL THE ISSUES IN THE BRIEF” … but you’d be wrong because apparently, this is what it all means …

“The symbol is deceptively simple. It’s made up of 21 arrows that symbolise the 21 attending economies and it has an ‘aussie glow’, reflecting the warmth of the welcome extended to all delegates” 

And there I was thinking it looked like a cheapo Christmas decoration!!!

Alright I’m being a mean shit but I’m not actually slagging off the logo [even though I’m not a big fan of it], just its justification … though I do accept PRINCIPALS have created some work that has achieved more exposure than most agencies could ever dream of [On top of being all around Australia [including the Sydney Harbour Bridge and on Aussie currency] it also got tons of exposure thanks to global news channels broadcasting ‘highlights’ from the event] so it’s no wonder they’re right-royally chuffed with themselves.

Still think the rational is a pile of wank though 🙂

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