HGV Felton Design flag for Crossroads for ideas

HGV Felton Design has created the brand identity for Crossroads for ideas, a joint British Council and Foreign & Commonwealth Office initiative that launches in the UK this week.

The £1.5m scheme aims to bring together talented young professionals and students from the UK and the eight central European countries that join the European Union on Saturday, to exchange ideas and build partnerships.

Over the next eight months, each country will host a range of activities, such as business seminars and fashion shows.

The UK will also hold ‘networking events’ across seven sectors, including strategic design, architecture, and business and finance, for 69 ‘rising stars’ from central European countries and their British counterparts. According to HGV Felton Design creative director Pierre Vermeir, the challenge was to create a brand identity that would be ‘recognisable and easily understood’ by the initiative’s diverse audiences.

The use of the Union Jack flag, with its intersecting bands, conveys the idea that the UK is a crossroads for ideas, he explains, while a ‘vibrant’ colour palette sidesteps associations with nationalism. The flag’s overlying imagery can be tailored to reflect each country’s heritage, as well as the scheme’s key themes.

Applications include posters, promotional literature, event backdrops, bags and a website, www.crossroadsforideas.co.uk.

HGV Felton Design won the work in October after a four-way, paid creative pitch. Vermeir was creative lead on the project.

Eight countries from central Europe – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia – join the European Union this week, alongside Cyprus and Malta.