Disgust! Cocaine lines and an account from the Žižkov village. Prague 3 attracted attention with its new logo
“This is my protest against the new logo of my favorite Prague 3, where I spent most of my life. The logo without a vagina cost 500,000 crowns. This is a free upgrade. The fee is collected by Three Sisters, “one of the inhabitants of the metropolis wrote on his Facebook account and attached a photo showing the way in which he parodies the new town hall logo in the style of the emblem of popular bands with frontman Lou Fanánek Hagen.
“However, I think that it is not much on the part of the Prague 3 district,” a reader living in Žižkov told the Prague daily. For more conservative citizens, the move of the city district with a change in visual identity and communication style did not give the best first impression. It is definitely not love at first sight.
“Terror! Three commas for half a million, that’s how they spend on shit. I would like to see proposals that have not passed. Three commas took the authors over half a year of work, so it was probably too creative when they came up with such disgust during that time, “one of the discussants wrote under a post on the official Facebook page of Prague 3. There was also the opinion that it was “worse than from children from kindergarten”. Many people say they would do the logo better and for less money.
The jokers began to fill the virtual space with pictures, where the new logo of the City District is drawn on a ticket in the Žižkov village. The popular collageist Tomáš Břínek alias TMBK, who creates for Reflex magazine, imagined the new visual identity of Prague 3 as drawn lines of cocaine.
Modern, bold, provocative
“I find it great,” said Matěj Žaloudek, chairman of the Green Party’s representative club, who was one of the alternates in the jury composed of experts and politicians. “It is happening exactly what we expected to be a child. It is modern, bold, provocative, “he added for Pražský deník.
The winning design came from design competitions organized by Czechdesign. In the first round, 81 proposals were competed for, in the second round, the jury most appreciated the proposal from Jakub Vaněk Studio. According to the third part of Prague, the style of the winning design works with the symbol of the “three” in the original and contemporary concept. “The jury was impressed by the comprehensive design, thoughtful and high-quality processing, which also contains an overview and a sense of humor,” said town hall spokeswoman Michaela Luňáčková.
“A lot of suggestions came together. In the end, we agreed on the winner unanimously. The fresh and memorable style and the possibility of further work with the idea appealed to us. I am very pleased that its authors are young people who obviously have a relationship with our part of the city, “says the mayor of Prague 3 and one of the members of the jury Jiří Ptáček (TOP 09).
According to information from Pražský deník, the jury, led by the Žižkov patriot Ptáček, was impressed when the authors Barbora Micajová and Jakub Vaněk received beer and drowning as a Christmas present, which they brought back to the mayor for another meeting with a new “visual”.
“Our goal was a relaxed, human and simple visual style. Such that the inhabitants of Prague 3 adopted it and continued to live their lives. Today’s appearance of Prague 3 provides the diversity of forgetting places to meet, which pushes life into the streets. So we based our identity on places of meeting and interpersonal relationships. These are the places that connect, blur the differences between an old woman from Žižkov, a gravedigger from Olšany cemeteries and a director from Vinohrady. They are bearers of memories – the first date, a place to create, morning coffee at the newspaper, cards with a neighbor, the first visit to the cinema or watching the world championships, “commented Micajová and Vaněk.
Critics: Money could be used differently
Critics (including former mayor Alexander Bell of the ODS) mentioned to others that the new logo cost the town hall a lot of money and could be used for more necessary things. “If an e-shop for three motorway signs can cost 400,000,000, then what shouldn’t?”
However, Prague 3 contains that 350 thousand for the authors of the winning design does not only include ridiculed three commas, but the result of work including the creation of a complete graphic manual, export of the logo in various formats and subsequent implementation. What is it? For example, the jury, in cooperation with representatives of the town hall management, had to test what the logo would look like on official documents. Additional costs will be required by the production of printed matter, business cards or a change in the appearance of the town hall newspaper.
By the way, when in 2008 the representatives of Ostrava keep a logo with the name of the Moravian-Silesian city supplemented by three exclamation marks, which were processed by the (Prague !!!) graphic studio Najbrt for almost two million crowns, a wave of dissenting reactions arose. Today, however, many people know Ostrava’s visual identity, and a certain part of the logo contributes to the attractiveness of the developing industrial headquarters, which is becoming the cultural center of the region.
But from Ostrava back to Prague 3. “We meet the authors of overcoming the boundaries of formal brand processing and offer great potential for further development of communication. A simple and well-understood, easy-to-read and memorable logo is positive and its concept is similar most of the time, “said Petr Babák, graphic designer, pedagogue of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague and publicist.
Žižkov’s representative The lawsuit admits that the new graphics are fundamental, but at the same time they can be perceived as a bit problematic when it depicts Prague 3 as a “booze” district. On the other hand, Prague 3 did not want to incorporate into the prepared visual identity, which survives the theme of the Hussites with the military leader Jan Žižka. “People are often reluctant to get used to change. We were expecting folk creativity and ridicule, and on the contrary, we are glad that he is talking about it. On the contrary, I am rather surprised at how many positive responses we have not only in discussion forums and facilities, “said Žaloudek, who is also pleased that the winners are young people. The city district of Prague 3, in cooperation with the organizing organizations Czechdesign, has been providing the public with all the winning designs from 3 February in the information center at Jiřího z Poděbrad Square.