Botswana brand is an eyesore

Editor | Thursday February 14, 2008 00:00

'It must just hit you and say this is Botswana. But with the Botswana brand, no, something must have gone wrong because it is unappealing to the eye. It is uninspiring.

'It is unattractive and I just do not know if all these people were involved because apparently there was a panel of people involved in the design of the brand. How could people come out with such an uninspiring piece of work?'

It has been said that the Botswana brand must appeal to both local and international audiences. But we doubt very much that the brand, in its current form, will live up to that objective.

In respect of design, the logo - at least to us the intended local audience - looks amateurish. To us it appears that no creativity was put into its conception. It is clustered with seemingly uncoordinated colours. 

The wording for the brand fails even to come to the rescue of the non-descript logo. The wording goes: 'Opportunity and Tranquility Beckon'. Honestly, as an industry whose tools of the trade are graphics and words, we also find the wording of the Botswana Brand to be inaccessible to the intended audience. The words are jawbreakers. 

The rule in mass communication messaging, which the 'Botswana Brand' is meant to be, is to keep it short and simple (kiss). The good examples of these are South Africa's 'Proudly South African' or the sports wear giant, Nike, which simply uses 'Just do it'! 

The examples of successful branding of major corporations and countries are just too numerous to list here. Why then should the intended audiences, in the case of Botswana, be burdened with the unenviable task of always having to reach for a dictionary to understand their brand? This should not be the case.

Whilst we acknowledge that the controversial piece of art that is our logo could have cost a fortune to produce, we strongly believe it is not too late to produce a new one. 

The production of a likeable, marketable and genuinely Botswana brand should not be such a mammoth task. After all, not only has the country produced many artists but it also boasts many reputable graphic design houses which can compete anywhere in the world. 

Give them a chance to sell our country and make us proud.   

                                               Today's Thought 

Projects of this nature should be used to market the country and its people hence attention to detail should be paid to every little aspect of the design.

                                             - Lesang Maswabi