The official logo for the 30th SEA Games (which you can see here) hasn’t been getting great reviews so far. Designer Ronald Gary Bengil Bautista, for one, felt that the design didn’t work. “I understand that style can be subjective, but there are some elements in branding that are pretty standard,” he says. “If your design is representing an athletic event, it should look the part,” he explains.
Check out Gary’s vision of the logo in his original Facebook post here:
On his personal view as a designer, Gary was not convinced the unveiled SEA Games 2019 logo represents the event well. A lot of people have expressed their frustrations with the official design, but Gary wanted to express it through more than just a post. “Instead of voicing out what I believed should have done with the design, I thought why not just show it instead?”
With his redesign, Gary kept the 11 rings concept that represent the participating countries forming the archipelago of the Philippines as the host country. “I recognized that the concept itself wasn’t bad on its own,” he shares. “It’s how they executed it.”
Instead of the map of the Philippines, Gary chose another symbol that can also represent the country. Being a Davaoeno, the obvious choice for him was the Philippine Eagle. “It’s iconic, respected, and considering who our current President is, it’s quite relevant,” he explains.
“It probably helps that I’m from the South and I see all these Eagle imageries and branding quite often,” Gary shares. Coincidentally, Gary has also been doing some redesigning of logos from local brands and discovered that he enjoys them quite a lot. “I do them as design exercises, so reimagining the SEA Games logo was also because I thought it was fun.”
Gary stresses that he is not intentionally digging on the chosen design, but that he did share his redesign right away because he thought this could possibly lead to having the official logo changed. “That’s what I want most out of this,” he admits. “In my humble opinion, that event deserves a different design and this is what I think it should be. I even posted that I’ll be willing to sell it to them cheap or even give it for free. Just change it. Please.”
What do you think? Which logo do you prefer?
Check out Gary’s Instagram account for more of his designs here.
