The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Logo has been revealed on April, 4th, 2013. The Gold Coast Bulletin asked me to provide some feedback from a branding perspective.
The positives: The logo has vibrant colours that reflect Gold Coast colours and brand associations – the sun(orange), the beach (yellow), the ocean (blue) and the hinterland (green). The fond is quite playful and the zero in 2018 hovers lightheartedly over the swoosh of the 2 – and the Gold Coast is exactly this: playful and lightheartedly. The logo incorporated three athletes that all share legs, indicating the core values of sport being based on a common foundation. So far, well done.
The negatives: The logo is quite cluttered. It contains so many different details (legs, heads, etc) and colours that if printed small, it may just look like a colourful beach ball. Again, a Gold Coast brand association, however, I would argue not an intended one. This aspects may have an impact on merchandise (e.g., sun hat) where the logo will appear very small. In terms of logo recognition, it is the simple logos (think about the Nike swoosh; Apple; or the three stripes of Adidas) that survive over time.
Overall, the logo reflects the ‘brand image’ of the Gold Coast very well and given its bright colours, I believe Commonwealth Games visitors will buy merchandise just because of the beach ball logo.
This article was published in the Gold Coast Bulletin April, 5th, 2013 (Audience 94,000)
