We recently submitted a logo for Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation competition. Our logo featured a great deal of symbolism; the Dove is the universal symbol of peace and there were cues for Coventry itself with the Cathedral, Elephant and Sky Blue in the coloured version. We slightly distressed the grey version instead of the hard line used on the sky blue version, because peace and reconciliation isn’t always a smooth path.
Here’s what was said:
“We had 24 submissions and every one of them showed thoughtful insight into searching for a symbol that represents peace within our city. Picking the winner was therefore extremely difficult, and your design was included in the shortlist“
Philip Brown. Chair of Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation.
(Above) The winning entry
Official announcement:
Yesterday Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation announced that after careful consideration the image designed by Coventry artist Andrea Mbarushimana has been selected from 24 entries to win the competition to design a logo for the Committee. The new logo will be placed on all of the Lord Mayor’s Peace Committee documents and websites.
“The Lord Mayor’s Committee has never had a logo before,” said Chair of the Lord Mayor’s Committee Philip Brown, “and we decided that it will help us to raise the profile of the excellent work that the Committee is already doing and the exciting new innovations that we are planning with our partners.”
The competition attracted entries from people ranging from 8 year old Ria Mann to several designed by professional designers such as Nick Price Creatives and Jack Fayter. “The competition was very strong and selecting the winner was extremely difficult,” said Committee Communications Manager Neslihan Ozfaris. “We were delighted with the quality of these entries and thank all those who took the trouble to submit their design.”
In the end the winner was Andrea Mbarushimana. Andrea is a community worker for Grapevine Coventry and Warwickshire, and a freelance artist and writer living in Coventry. “I have worked for peace in the community for more than a decade,” Andrea said, “running exhibitions, performances of the spoken word and events around social justice and promoting multi-culturalism, so winning this competition for the Lord Mayor’s Committee means a lot to me.” A long-time supporter of the Coventry Peace Festival, Andrea is also a Culture Rep for Coventry 2021, City of Culture.
