CD statement about logo discussion

Dear all,

Some questions were raised about the process that lead to this proposal and who were involved.

In the beginning of 2008, PRWG board of that time and the former CD decided together about some activites in the field of public relations for AEGEE. Some orientation was needed and tasks needed to be shifted after the resignation of the CD member who was in charge of PR that time.

Among these activities was the establishment of a team taking care on the visual identity of AEGEE. Knowing one very enthusiastic member for this task, a call for the team was launched and they - 6 people with diverse backgrounds in AEGEE - started working.
A common email list was created and the team started analysing the status quo of visuals in the network (maybe some boardmembers and project managers remember that they were approached for sending their promotion material they use for promoting their WG/project for analyse purpose). The first version of a report was drawn up, but the team fell apart due to demotivation because of lack of cooperation from the network regarding the analyses and there was no more progress.

In summer, CD's changed and I - as announced in my candidature in Ljubljana - was highly motivated to pick up this initiative. I got in touch with Bartek, and together we made some more attempts to revive the team. Without much success, we then decided to narrow the analyses to purely the AEGEE-Europe logo and brand, and made a new plan. A team meeting took place in Gdansk (Bartek, Mateusz and Robin), which was reported on the CD blog and in the telegram. PRWG Board was no longer actively involved at this point, but developments were still reported and moral support for the initiative remained.

In Gdansk, the team decided to focus on designing, as it was convinced that only a clear and concrete proposal could get things moving. After the December holidays things went very fast, we set early deadlines for:

1. The EBM, as a good point to start the consultation process on their work

2. Necessity to synchronise with the new website, which had to be ready by April, as the website is our main PR tool on European level, and it's not that easy to completely change the look of aegee.org. CD, ITWG, PRWG, the Brand team, the locals and the external partners all have their own pace, and bringing so many factors together is a challenge.

During the month of January, we eventually reached to the current proposal, getting a first feedback along the way from different people, thus a kind of pre-test. Designers in and outside AEGEE, active and inactive members, older and younger members, journalists, artists, sponsors, the CD, and PRWG board. Why a smaller group of people and not the whole network? Because 11,000 people cannot design a logo together. It takes a designer with great courage and patience to take on a challenge like this, and be sure that it is not a lot of fun to deal with the criticism of a smaller group, let alone a huge association!

We look forward to a lively discussion and welcome all your constructive feedback through the channels provided (information reach you with a seperate email). No matter what you think of the current proposal, a proper visual identity is very important for our association, and any person contributing to the creative development of our association should be encouraged, supported and thanked. So we hope we can all treat the work done with respect and calmly raise our questions and comments.

Please keep in mind that it is just a proposal, nothing fixed and every kind of constructive feedback is welcome. Of course, decisions of that scale are in the end taken in the highest body our associations has, the Agora.

It is a proposal, not a decision

Yours,

Robin