Susan Boyle performed her world famous Britain’s Got Talent audition here, and on the 8th of March 2010, the Clyde Auditorium or the Armadillo as it is more affectionately known was home to the official unveiling of the new English and Gaelic branding of the 20th Commonwealth Games.

Glasgow 2014 / Glaschu 2014 – The story behind the Brand

This is the first time a Games logo has been produced in a language other than English, however given the importance of Gaelic to Scotland (it is still the mother tongue to at least 60,000 Scots) and the diaspora of Scots throughout the Commonwealth it was important that this be recognised.

The process to create the official brand was launched at Glasgow School of Art back in June 2009.

66 agencies in total, including 4 of the world’s top media groups all registered their interest.  Whilst half of the agencies were Scotland based, it was Glasgow agency Marque Creative that was finally appointed to develop the official brand of the 20th Commonwealth Games.

Taking into account the brand values and personality they arrived at a creative brief which was Time, Data and Measurement.  As the 20th Games, it was significant and fitting to celebrate this point in time. 

So they looked at the key numbers:

• 20th Games
• 17 Sports
• 11 Days
• 1 City

Each of the 4 concentric circles within the logo represents these individual factors. 

The official “True Red” full circle is for the 20th Games, the next ring in “Triumph Yellow” represents the number of sports and is exactly 17/20ths of the full circle, the Games which will be held over 11 days are represented by the “Heritage Blue” circle which makes up 11/20th of the full circle and at the heart of it all the “Green” G which represents Glasgow, the host city, which in Gaelic literally translates to “Dear Green Place”.  There are strict guidelines around a Commonwealth Games logo and this colour of Green is a first for a Games logo, which had to be approved by the Commonwealth Games Officials.

At a cost of £95,000 and like many city’s before her, Glasgow’s Games branding was always going to be a hot topic.  Early feedback is positive, whether it is because the branding was created by a Glasgow based company, or simply it has all the right colours (if you know what we mean), there is no denying the city now has a strong brand identity, which will be ubiquitous on the run up to the Games in 2014.