JK, the brand

[andy]

Which wouldn't matter if I wasn't designing the assembly area for next year's JK sprint. So pretty please send me some advice before I have to sell the concept to BOF tomorrow.

Shouldn't BOF be selling their concept to you?

What sponsors are likely looking for is professional. If it's something an orienteer might knock up with a quick visit to B&Q then it's probably not... Red and white tape everywhere on canes isn't. Barriers with branding is.
A good podium with a good backdrop (whether branded or otherwise) does wonders for photos, as long as the sun is going to be in the right place at the time of the prizegiving (see, I do listen to my girlfriend).
You want plenty of room for spectators so as many as possible can get close to the action (i.e. make the run in / run through quite lengthy)
Give the commentators the best possible vantage point, give them good data to talk about and make sure they can see as much of the run in as possible.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, I'm sure there are collectively a lot more

[Mrs H]

Graem's lnk takes me to a map of Eastern Scotland, not the USA. Is it a flexible feast of does Mrs H need to brush up on her geography?

must be a Mac thing

[Wayward-O]

On a personal note, I think one of the best things we could do to improve the arena presentation at our major events would be to find a more attractive alternative to that hideous, hideous red and white barrier tape/plastic orange fencing normally used on the run-in, which, while undoubtedly functional, frequently makes it look like you've wandered into some cross between a building site and a crime scene (especially at relays, where there's normally a veritable maze of the stuff).

The barrier fencing mesh is available in a range of colours and can be printed with promotional / other information. For relays, the dfferent routes could be marked with different coloured barriers!
http://www.boddingtons-ltd.com/PDF/PR08 ... meshBF.pdf

[Freefall]

Red carpet?

[buzz]

If they were going to get a logo done then I would suggest it would have been better to employ a professional. If they did employ a professional then I suggest that person tries running around a forest with a large stick up their backside to see if it promotes a positive response.

[Kitch]

Personally, I like it.

Oh give over !
The logo looks like something out of Playschool

I know the JK is a big race, but then I'm an orienteer. (ok Graeme - have been an orienteer)
If I'm not an orienteer you have to explain to me that the JK is a big orienteering race, named after this chap called Jan Kjellstrom, JK - you see. And Mr Kjellstrom was involved in.........etc.

JK is never goint to mean anything to people outside orienteering

So create a Brand image for Orienteering
to which JK can be added.

If you did that then you could escape from the pain of having to incorporate the letters J and K into the logo (which fundamentally cause it to be crap - 32 years I've never seen a really good one, some clever.....ish, but not good).

you could have something that looked a bit more modern, dynamic and exciting.

You could then add the relevant event title eg JK 2012, or British Championships 2013.

I agree the idea to have a consistent image is a good one, but IMO they chose the wrong focus and a poor logo = poor image

[Gross]

we can improve the quality of our events, improve participant’s satisfaction

so wasting money on crap like this is going to make better orienteering? And not funding GB team at JEC isn't.... all those non orienteers at BOF seem to have different ideas But hey, hoo... such is life

[Scott]

so wasting money on crap like this is going to make better orienteering? And not funding GB team at JEC isn't....

To reiterate the point about ringfenced funding: the money Sport England has given us towards the "Quality Events" bit of the last Whole Sport Plan couldn't be used to fund the GB team at JEC. That would have to be funded out of the UK Sport Performance money, and the amount of money UK Sport give us for that is being drastically reduced.

[awk]

The logo looks like something out of Playschool
I know the JK is a big race, but then I'm an orienteer. (ok Graeme - have been an orienteer)
If I'm not an orienteer you have to explain to me that the JK is a big orienteering race, named after this chap called Jan Kjellstrom, JK - you see. And Mr Kjellstrom was involved in.........etc.

.....I agree the idea to have a consistent image is a good one, but IMO they chose the wrong focus and a poor logo = poor image

I'm no expert on this, but I think the idea might have been that the JK is a sufficient sized entity to have a realistic chance of attracting a title sponsor, whereas orienteering is too extensive? I do agree, though, about the logo itself and about the primacy of needing to brand orienteering (which I still believe we should be relabelling O-racing or race orienteering or something that differentiates strolling with a map from racing). It's clever, but can't say it exactly fills me with a sense of high speed sport. I personally prefer the logos being used for orienteering, which seem to fit into a variety of contexts.

On the explanation front, I found it interesting that John Inverdale spent a couple of minutes during the coverage of the Diamond League meeting in Brussels last night explaining why the meeting was called the van Damme (spelling?) Memorial. It's always been a great meeting, but it's the Diamond League bit that was attracting the fields - some of them not overly bothered admittedly other than to ensure they got their end of series lolly! (Although why the triple jump, javelin et al were being referred to as Diamond League Races was a bit beyond me!)

[ic]

AWK >> By all means try to rebrand, but the arguments you were using earlier are flawed, so probably best to avoid those.

In France, "Course d'Orientation" is distinguished from the concept "Orientation" because this word has a common meaning - roughly translated as orientation. Similarly in Germany with "Orienterungslauf".
The same situation does not exist in this country as instead of calling the sport "Orientation", we call it "Orienteering", which is a swedish word introduced to english specifically to describe the sport.

The swedish word "Orientering" is in pretty common usage outside orienteering and it can also be translated as something like orientation, but it can also be translated in other ways for which we would not use the word orientation in english, such as "finding one's way".
Despite this, the word "orientering" is universally used by people outside the sport to describe the sport (i.e. without any qualifier). An abbreviation "OL" does indeed exist and is used similarly to how the british would use "O", for example - OL-skor means O-shoes. Presumably "OL" stands for orienteringslöpning but I have never heard this word used. The word having by far the greatest currency to describe orienteering in Sweden is "orientering" - by orienteers and non-orienteers alike.

Hope this helps.

[awk]

AWK >> By all means try to rebrand, but the arguments you were using earlier are flawed, so probably best to avoid those.....Hope this helps.

It certainly does - thank you (my own mistake on the german translation of 'orienteering' rather than 'orientation' for orienterung, but I have to say I relied on a Swedish friend for the interpretation of OL)! However, it doesn't take away from the premise which is that other nations include the words for racing or running, whilst the British version does not. And whilst the sport is sufficiently prominent in Sweden for people to recognise 'orientering' as the sport, here we still have an image which rather too often has little to do with sport! Whilst the word might originally have come into this country with the sport, it has been at least partially hijacked since then.

[Ant W]

I had a look at the Van Damme website and it's (quite) interesting that although "MVD" appears on the logo, Memorial Van Damme is definitely the name of the meeting and it's referred to as that everywhere on the site. I certainly find it more memorable that it's obviously named after Ivo van Damme than an apparently random acronym (which sounds like a sponsor name).

So whatever happens with the logo, let's make sure we keep the event as the Jan Kjellström International Orienteering Festival.

[campervan]

Is this the inspiration?

http://www.everydaymaternity.com/manual ... p-568.html

[Scott]

If we're looking to rebrand on the basis of Swedish, I've always been under the impression that "tävling" has a rather more competitive meaning than that wretched English word "event".

[PorkyFatBoy]

On a personal note, I think one of the best things we could do to improve the arena presentation at our major events would be to find a more attractive alternative to that hideous, hideous red and white barrier tape/plastic orange fencing normally used on the run-in, which, while undoubtedly functional, frequently makes it look like you've wandered into some cross between a building site and a crime scene (especially at relays, where there's normally a veritable maze of the stuff).

I ran at this event last week and they had these covers over the metal barriers which were made from the mesh fabric that is used on some O clothing.
http://www.squaremilesport.com/relay/bloomberg/gallery-2011.php?Id=9#gallery

The also had these stickers on the pavement around the route.
http://www.squaremilesport.com/relay/bloomberg/gallery-2011.php?Id=11#gallery

and big sticky posters too.
http://www.squaremilesport.com/relay/bloomberg/gallery-2011.php?Id=13#gallery

Obviously having big name sponsors (Bloomberg, Virgin Active) the start live on Sky Sports News and charging £150 per team of 10 helps with the costs.