75% say no to 2010 logo

The website was created to give all South African designers an opportunity to design an unofficial logo for the 2010 World Cup. This is a response to the logo design process, which was a closed bid and only open to six design agencies.

No other sporting event captures the world's imagination like the FIFA World Cup. The next FIFA World Cup, which is in 2010, will be hosted in South Africa. It will become the 16th nation to host the tournament. The slogan for the 2010 tournament is ‘Win with Africa in Africa'. The logo for the 2010 World Cup is an African map, with the stripes of the South African flag. Many designers watched in surprise when the official logo was unveiled right after the 2006 World Cup – way ahead of schedule as traditionally the logo has been unveiled only two years before the event.

Many designers feel that the logo is below standard – but instead of promoting criticism, the website invites designers to prove they could have done better through a democratic, one person one vote competition, in which the decision is left to the public to vote for their favourite logo.

Created a wave

www.notthe2010logo.co.za believes that if the design process had been far more democratic and transparent as it would have also encouraged more people to look to design, branding and advertising as a career. This would have created a wave of previously disadvantaged designers entering the industry.

The notthe2010logo.co.za competition was launched in November last year. The website was created simply as a portal for designers who felt that they were unjustly excluded from the opportunity to design an emblem or logo for the 2010 World Cup. Many designers feel that the current logo is not a good reflection of SA design and this website affords them the opportunity to submit their own creations. The website also aims to mobilise designers to begin designing the official poster and mascot so that it can be submitted to FIFA for possible consideration.

The site was inspired by the national effort behind the design of the new South African flag in which anyone could contribute a flag design. This was a brilliant PR exercise and the result was a flag that unified the country. This exercise should have been mirrored for the 2010 logo.

The website runs an official competition in which designers are encouraged to submit logo designs that the public will vote on to decide the overall winner. The competition ends on 1 September 2007, but the website will remain online long after that to give all the entrants exposure all the way until 2010.

Already won

The designers who have submitted designs so far have already won, as many people are approaching them for work. We hope that the design community will get more involved by submitting more entries and showcasing what could have been possible to the whole world.

While the aim of the website is to give African designers the opportunity to showcase their logos and will not become the official logo by any means, the winner will get some great prizes for their efforts and become recognised as creating the best unofficial logo – the winner will receive a prize booty which is to date is R11 900.00 and the designer with the most votes will take all.

Sponsors of prizes are encouraged to come forward to support the idea, and in turn get exposure on a website that has already achieved almost 300 000 visits.