The successful flight of the boomerang
An Introduction to Corporate Branding, or the History of the Logo for the Summer Olympics in Sydney
Introduction to Corporate Branding or the History of the Logo for the Sydney Summer OlympicsBy Werner Catrina The Australian aborigines provided the signet for the Olympic Games with their boomerang. FHA Image Design is responsible for the entire image system of the Sydney Summer Olympics.
"The irony is that a Melbourne design firm designed the logo for the Sydney Summer Olympics," writes The Australian newspaper. That sounds about the same as if a Zurich agency had designed the logo for the Basel Sample Fair; there has always been rivalry between the two Australian metropolises. A running figure composed of three boomerangs, including the lettering Sydney 2000, shows the logo for the upcoming Summer Olympics, which will hold the whole world in suspense from September 15 to October 1.
"Why don't you come over on Wednesday after work, and we'll have a glass of wine," Richard Henderson explains spontaneously when I call him from the hotel in Melbourne. The Group Design Director of FHA Image Design looks as if he has a lot of time on his hands, even though the company he runs with two partners employs sixty people.
FHA had to compete twice for the logo
At six in the evening, the studio at 123 Rosslyn Street in West Melbourne still looks like a beehive, and the iMacs shimmer in all colors in the large rooms of the converted old brick warehouse. Henderson, in his forties, picks up the journalist from the design stronghold of Switzerland at the reception and leads him into the meeting room, which is discreetly equipped with the latest high-tech and has the dimensions of a loft.
Trevor Flett (Creative Director, Marketing Strategist), Richard Henderson (Group Design Director, Design Strategist) and Jeff Arnold (Production Director) founded the company 20 years ago. The three initial letters of the family names resulted in the company abbreviation, which was retained, even though there has since been a change in the management team.
The Melbourne design firm had already won the campaign competition years ago that put Sydney ahead of the other Olympic bidders to win the Games. With this bonus, the team led by Richard Henderson entered the arena again to create the logo for the Summer Olympics.
The relaxed-looking design director remotely reviews cascades of designs on the large screen. "The first sketches are always done on paper," he explains, "because the quality of the lines is best on paper; on the computer, we optimize and retouch until the design is just right."
FHA entered the race with a very clear logo showing the Sydney 2000 lettering intertwined with the Olympic rings with a stylized hand above. This logo won, but a few days later the perplexed FHA team was told that the competition would have to be relaunched because one jury member disliked the proposal.
Designers inspired by the music of the aborigines
For better or worse, FHA knelt down to work again with four other invited agencies. "We said now more than ever, this is a challenge we want to win!" recalls Henderson. "My team worked on the Olympic logo at night and other jobs during the day."
The half-dozen graphic designers involved plastered the walls with Australian subjects, listened to Aboriginal music; Aboriginal-decorated stones and other objects were placed next to the screens for inspiration.
"We wanted originality and energy," explains Richard Henderson, "and we wanted a logo so simple you could draw it in the sand."
Thus the running athlete, composed of the boomerangs, distilled out, with which FHA once again outdid all other opponents. Critics, however, note that the Aborigines, who have been pushed to the fringes of Australian society, are being used as a fig leaf, so to speak. They even say it is cynical to misuse a symbol of the indigenous people as the logo of the Olympic Games in Australia.
One of the reasons for the renewed victory was that FHA created a comprehensive solution, the "total Brand". The image system encompassed the entire pallet from the poster to the logo for the sponsors to the T-shirt and the Olympic shopping bag. "I'm proud to show this process," explains Richard Henderson, "there was sweat and tears behind it, but also feelings of happiness. Some employees postponed their vacations, even risked their relationships by working all night."
As a nasty interlude, a lawsuit came out of the blue, claiming FHA Image Design had cribbed the boomerangs idea from its competitors. "For almost a year, we were out," Henderson recalls, "but then the accusations were debunked, they called us back in, and we were able to keep working."
To the logo with the running man, FHA created a second layer: five rings reflected in the water as a signet for Olympic Sydney, a city surrounded by water. These slightly blurred rings have been omnipresent in Sydney long before the Games, appearing as a signet in newspaper reports, fluttering on flags and neckerchiefs, and will probably forever be part of the city's corporate identity.
Image Guidelines as a bible for merchandising
As the first agency in the history of the Olympic Games, FHA first designed the campaign for the elimination that led to Sydney's victory as an Olympic city; then the logo and image system for the Olympic Games and also for the Paralympics, which will take place after the Summer Games.
The image system comes in a thick book, the "Image Guidelines"; clear, bold colors predominate. Henderson describes working for the Olympics as a marathon, where you don't look back, only forward. "We put in so much time because we want to show the world what we can do."
Six people worked on the Olympia logo and the full spectrum of its application, with each design always "going through multiple hands," as Henderson puts it. The budget for the job was tight, he explains, without naming any amounts, but in the end the effort will pay off for FHA.
Despite increasing international competition and rapid global networking, Richard Henderson is convinced that certain basic principles still apply. These include "dedication, patience, assertiveness, humor and, of course, the godsend of creativity.
50 international sponsors are throwing up a billion Aussie dollars, as the local currency is called here, earning the right to adorn their products with the logo. Local sponsors are pumping another half a billion into the big event, which will have the Global Village cheering along.
"What we've done is a global-brand image project of massive proportions," says the Group Design Director, "our strategy encompasses all forms of expression from packaging to ads and sponsorships to TV and pictograms to uniforms."
"Our work for the Olympics helps to show that design really does add value for clients," Richard Henderson holds as he walks out, "we don't do l'art pour l'art, the creative process is always ultimately tied to business. But we still feel the same thrill as we did 20 years ago!"
I ask Henderson if he lights so much fire because of the after-rest. He looks at me with surprise and amusement: "Our work is not for the museum! That's just the way it is, we know that everything we make ends up in the trash sooner or later."
"The irony is that a Melbourne design firm designed the logo for the Sydney Summer Olympics," writes The Australian newspaper. That sounds about the same as if a Zurich agency had designed the logo for the Basel Sample Fair; there has always been rivalry between the two Australian metropolises. A running figure composed of three boomerangs, including the lettering Sydney 2000, shows the logo for the upcoming Summer Olympics, which will hold the whole world in suspense from September 15 to October 1.
"Why don't you come over on Wednesday after work, and we'll have a glass of wine," Richard Henderson explains spontaneously when I call him from the hotel in Melbourne. The Group Design Director of FHA Image Design looks as if he has a lot of time on his hands, even though the company he runs with two partners employs sixty people.
FHA had to compete twice for the logo
At six in the evening, the studio at 123 Rosslyn Street in West Melbourne still looks like a beehive, and the iMacs shimmer in all colors in the large rooms of the converted old brick warehouse. Henderson, in his forties, picks up the journalist from the design stronghold of Switzerland at the reception and leads him into the meeting room, which is discreetly equipped with the latest high-tech and has the dimensions of a loft.
Trevor Flett (Creative Director, Marketing Strategist), Richard Henderson (Group Design Director, Design Strategist) and Jeff Arnold (Production Director) founded the company 20 years ago. The three initial letters of the family names resulted in the company abbreviation, which was retained, even though there has since been a change in the management team.
The Melbourne design firm had already won the campaign competition years ago that put Sydney ahead of the other Olympic bidders to win the Games. With this bonus, the team led by Richard Henderson entered the arena again to create the logo for the Summer Olympics.
The relaxed-looking design director remotely reviews cascades of designs on the large screen. "The first sketches are always done on paper," he explains, "because the quality of the lines is best on paper; on the computer, we optimize and retouch until the design is just right."
FHA entered the race with a very clear logo showing the Sydney 2000 lettering intertwined with the Olympic rings with a stylized hand above. This logo won, but a few days later the perplexed FHA team was told that the competition would have to be relaunched because one jury member disliked the proposal.
Designers inspired by the music of the aborigines
For better or worse, FHA knelt down to work again with four other invited agencies. "We said now more than ever, this is a challenge we want to win!" recalls Henderson. "My team worked on the Olympic logo at night and other jobs during the day."
The half-dozen graphic designers involved plastered the walls with Australian subjects, listened to Aboriginal music; Aboriginal-decorated stones and other objects were placed next to the screens for inspiration.
"We wanted originality and energy," explains Richard Henderson, "and we wanted a logo so simple you could draw it in the sand."
Thus the running athlete, composed of the boomerangs, distilled out, with which FHA once again outdid all other opponents. Critics, however, note that the Aborigines, who have been pushed to the fringes of Australian society, are being used as a fig leaf, so to speak. They even say it is cynical to misuse a symbol of the indigenous people as the logo of the Olympic Games in Australia.
One of the reasons for the renewed victory was that FHA created a comprehensive solution, the "total Brand". The image system encompassed the entire pallet from the poster to the logo for the sponsors to the T-shirt and the Olympic shopping bag. "I'm proud to show this process," explains Richard Henderson, "there was sweat and tears behind it, but also feelings of happiness. Some employees postponed their vacations, even risked their relationships by working all night."
As a nasty interlude, a lawsuit came out of the blue, claiming FHA Image Design had cribbed the boomerangs idea from its competitors. "For almost a year, we were out," Henderson recalls, "but then the accusations were debunked, they called us back in, and we were able to keep working."
To the logo with the running man, FHA created a second layer: five rings reflected in the water as a signet for Olympic Sydney, a city surrounded by water. These slightly blurred rings have been omnipresent in Sydney long before the Games, appearing as a signet in newspaper reports, fluttering on flags and neckerchiefs, and will probably forever be part of the city's corporate identity.
Image Guidelines as a bible for merchandising
As the first agency in the history of the Olympic Games, FHA first designed the campaign for the elimination that led to Sydney's victory as an Olympic city; then the logo and image system for the Olympic Games and also for the Paralympics, which will take place after the Summer Games.
The image system comes in a thick book, the "Image Guidelines"; clear, bold colors predominate. Henderson describes working for the Olympics as a marathon, where you don't look back, only forward. "We put in so much time because we want to show the world what we can do."
Six people worked on the Olympia logo and the full spectrum of its application, with each design always "going through multiple hands," as Henderson puts it. The budget for the job was tight, he explains, without naming any amounts, but in the end the effort will pay off for FHA.
Despite increasing international competition and rapid global networking, Richard Henderson is convinced that certain basic principles still apply. These include "dedication, patience, assertiveness, humor and, of course, the godsend of creativity.
50 international sponsors are throwing up a billion Aussie dollars, as the local currency is called here, earning the right to adorn their products with the logo. Local sponsors are pumping another half a billion into the big event, which will have the Global Village cheering along.
"What we've done is a global-brand image project of massive proportions," says the Group Design Director, "our strategy encompasses all forms of expression from packaging to ads and sponsorships to TV and pictograms to uniforms."
"Our work for the Olympics helps to show that design really does add value for clients," Richard Henderson holds as he walks out, "we don't do l'art pour l'art, the creative process is always ultimately tied to business. But we still feel the same thrill as we did 20 years ago!"
I ask Henderson if he lights so much fire because of the after-rest. He looks at me with surprise and amusement: "Our work is not for the museum! That's just the way it is, we know that everything we make ends up in the trash sooner or later."
