Wraight it: A hit and a miss

Since the inception of the World Cup in 1930, the branding of the event has been an important part of the marketing strategy.

Initially introduced to promote ticket sales for the first World Cup in Uruguay, the official poster captured the imagination of the fans and fostered a shared patriotism. With the first official emblem being launched in 1950 to coincide with the Brazilian World Cup of Soccer, the branding of the event exploded to include the likes of mascots, songs and ball insignia.

This upcoming World Cup will be the 19th Fifa World Cup, and the first time that the tournament has been hosted in Africa, and is seen as both a national achievement and a success that must be celebrated and enjoyed by every African. It was imperative that the event carried an identity that would encapsulate the pride, culture and spirit of South Africa and its people. The branding was seen as the optimum way to foster a sentiment of community by allowing every South African the opportunity to become involved in the event.

A call for poster designs was presented to a number of agencies, each of whom were allowed to submit two designs. Three designs were chosen following exhaustive judging criteria conducted by a panel comprised of Local Organisation Committee chief executive, Danny Jordaan, Fifa secretary-general Jerome Valcke, Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi, South African playwright and author Wally Serote, artist , Vega School of Brand Communication director Gordon Cook, and Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad.

These were then presented to the nation for review, and any South African could not only vote for their favourite, but stand the chance of winning the first two tickets.

"We want this to be an African World Cup and a people's World Cup," explained Jordaan. "This is the beginning of our attempts to involve the people of our country in shaping the very important messages and images of this Fifa World Cup." Fifa general secretary Valcke echoed Jordaan's sentiments, stating that it was important for the people of the host country to have a final say in the choice of the official poster, which will represent the country up to the last match day.

By popular vote, the poster designed by Switch was the ultimate winner, and in my opinion, a worthy one at that!

"Africa is intimately connected to soccer. We saw this as our chance to tell Africa's story: how the game has transformed and inspired the continent; and how we in turn have added our own spirit and flair to the game," said Gaby De Abreu, creative director: the Switch Group.

"Because this poster will be used throughout the world - acting in essence as an open invitation for the 2010 Fifa World Cup event - we wanted it to communicate instantly. It needed to go beyond language: breaking down barriers and capturing the spirit of the continent and game," says De Abreu.

Though the poster selection was handled in a manner that evoked national sentiment, the choice of the official logo missed the mark completely.

According to the statements, Fifa and the Organising Committee for the Fifa World Cup in South Africa (SAOC) worked in cooperation with Think, the industry council representing the South African design industry, to draw up a short list of agencies from 20 Think-affiliated agencies. The short list included Grid (Johannesburg), Orange Juice (Durban), Enterprise IG (Johannesburg), Switch (Johannesburg), Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town) and Two Tone (Johannesburg).

At the official unveiling at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Fifa World Cup Germany, a collective groan could be heard from the majority of South African designers and citizens alike. Though I cannot say that I share the same deeply-rooted feeling of disgust expressed by many bloggers, I cannot believe that this is the best work that our nation of highly talented graphic designers would produce. Not only has the actual design come into question, but also the method in which the tenders were handled. As previously mentioned, the tender was only open to certain agencies, and as many bloggers have intimated, was based on the agencies' BEE rating.

A similar situation arose at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, spurring German graphic designers to launch a website that protested the official logo by presenting 11 alternatives to the now familiar smiling faces. In the absence of toyi-toying in the streets, the South African response was inspired by this group of designing vigilantes, swapping strikes of protest with a site entitled "Not the 2010 Logo".

The website was created as a portal for designers who felt that they were unjustly excluded from the opportunity to submit an emblem for consideration. The general consensus was that the official logo was not an accurate reflection of South African design, the website allows designers to submit their offerings. The quality of some of the submissions are truly inspiring, and I would would hazard to say, much better than what we have.

Examples of work found on Not the 2010 Logo website: