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Home > Feature Projects > CAFE Logo Design

CAFE Logo Design

Project entry added: 30/10/09

 

Highground were invited to submit design proposals for a newly formed organisation called CAFE (Centre for Access to Football in Europe). 

Their mission is to extend accessibility to football stadiums across Europe for supporters with certain disabilities.

 

An excerpt from their manifesto explains further;

 

'500 million people live within the European Union (EU) alone and around 10% are disabled. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that within the UEFA geographical region there may be more than 100 million disabled people. At least 500,000 are likely to be football supporters - and they have the right to enjoy football in the same way as everyone else: the right to equality of access. This applies to football at all levels. More and more disabled supporters want to travel to UEFA matches and tournaments; as provisions improve, they will feel they can attend major tournaments like EURO 2012 alongside fellow supporters.

 

A European organisation to support this ambition is now required to ensure equal access and inclusion for all existing and new disabled supporters across Europe.  CAFE has been established as a new European charity (registered in the UK) with a purpose to achieve equal access to football across Europe.' (1)

 

CAFE is UEFA supported, so the tender for companies to offer proposals was sent fairly widespread - accordingly, competition was fairly keen, with agencies submitting from across the UK.

 

Rather than focus attention on the disability aspect, Highground presened two ideas which expressed the freedom and positivity of CAFE's intention - bolstered with vibrant colour options and a universal 'joining of arms in togetherness' theme. This theme was applied to a 'footbaling' hub which sat centrally to represent the CAFE 'meeting point' metaphor.

 

Two distinct versions were selected for proposal, as shown below;

 

After much deliberation from board members at CAFE and UEFA to all logos submitted for consideration, a decision was eventually made and design 1, submitted by Highground (and shown above), was selected.  The selection was agreed under condition that some alterations were made, namely, to modify the 'joined characters' so that each became representative of a disability group.

 

A challenge quickly arose to maintain the simplicity of the logo whilst including the visual references to 'someone with imperfect sight', and 'someone who has difficulty walking'.  A further request was also made to straighten the typography encircling the football, which was again necessary to fulfil certain criteria for visually impaired people.

Design 1 - version 2:

 

Rather than re-work the logo and risk losing the original simplicity, neat devices were added to embellish the character shapes to illustrate the disabilities.

 

By adding a walking stick to symbolise 'restricted sight' and two additional lines to represent 'restricted mobility', the essence of the original logo was left untouched, but the visual message now answered the clients request.  With the central, 'able-bodied' character still in-situ, the full representation was complete.  As an easier aside to this, the typography was processed into a single, straight line (Centre for Access to Football in Europe) which now appeared underneath the CAFE wording.

 

The alterations, whilst well received by CAFE board members, still required further changes to reduce the potential strain for the visually impaired.

Design 1 - version 3:

 

Whilst the original pairing of cyan and white-out lettering was attractive, CAFE wanted to invert this colour mix so that dark lettering rested on a white background. But rather than lose the attraction of colour altogether, Highground suggested to introduce primary colours onto the character shapes to add an even more cosmopolitan feel and emphasize the 'universal, all-encompassing' theme. Green, red and black were all added to the icons, whilst the original cyan/blue was shifted to the football illustration and CAFE wording.

 

Version 3 represented the final, accepted version, in use today (left).

 

Comparing to the originally proposed design, what is lost with effects is gained in the message.  Whilst the yellow background and ultra-simplicity is possibly 'cooler' looking, the final version actually delivers the correct message.  Which is the fundamental purpose of graphic design, of course.

Postscript: CAFE were awarded funding for their project by UEFA in September 2009.  The awards ceremony took place in Monaco at the Chapions League draw (pictures below).  In a 'blink-and-you've-missed-it' scenario, the new logo appeared on television screens for a few moments whilst Joyce Cook received a big cheque' from Michele Platini on the behalf of UEFA.

 

Highground went on to develop a multi-lingual website for CAFE with content management facilities.