Government agency wins DFEE free-pitch

The Central Office of Information has won the job to design the identity for the Department for Education and Employment, in a free creative pitch said to be in line with Government procurement policy.

Viv Wilcock, creative head of one of the COI’s two graphic design arms, does not condemn the free-pitch (DW 18 August): “This is the marketplace we are in. We did not free-pitch alone.”

A spokeswoman for the COI, a Government agency, says free-pitching “… is a situation we find ourselves in. We take the attitude that it is OK as long as the client doesn’t ask too many people to pitch. At the moment this is the way Whitehall pays for design”.

The COI graphics team headed by Wilcock supplied the DFEE with all the designs demanded by the pitch brief: logos, a letterhead, compliment slip and business card, press notice paper, examples of full colour and black and white publications covers, a conference/launch backdrop and an example of signage. Wilcock declined to put a cost to taking part in the pitch.

“We are now working with the DFEE to develop the mark and apply it,” says Wilcock. The department’s stationery is scheduled to appear later this month.

“We are still talking about the extent of the implementation – I hope other things will come out of it,” he adds.