After winning the Canada 150 logo contest in April 2015, UW global business and digital arts student Ariana Cuvin will see her design on flags across the country.</p>
The Department of Canadian Heritage plans to confirm an order with two bidders within the next couple of weeks for about 4.1 million three-by-six-inch paper flags with Ariana’s winning logo. The government has officially stated that no individual order can exceed $400,000. These Canada 150 flags, tentatively one for every nine Canadians, will be distributed to Canadians during planned events en route to the country’s 150 birthday in 2017.
Since choosing the logo from the contest’s 300 submissions, the federal government already funded the printing of many mini flags that were distributed to attendees of various Pan Am events, along with traditional mini flags of Canada. The government also decided to use Cuvin’s logo during the 2015 Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa, which Cuvin attended.
Seeing her design on the flag that many Torontonians and soon millions of Canadians, own is a “pretty cool feeling” according to Cuvin. Cuvin expressed appreciation for the increase of views her porftolio has received, as well as the number of positive comments professional designers have forwarded to her. In a previous interview with Imprint, Cuvin said “I’m going to be honest: I didn’t think I was going to win … I knew that I would be getting a lot of negative comments and a lot of criticism.”
After her design was selected during the contest set out for students last spring, Cuvin and the federal government have both received an abundance of negative criticism. The government was condemned by professional designers for what they felt was exploitation since the contest was originally opened for professionals, then later opened strictly to students when none of the professional designs were accepted. Cuvin received negative attention from professional designers for her choice to use the maple leaf as the base for her design.
Cuvin said she received too much criticism for her design “lacking” the quality of what a Canada 150 logo should be. She added, “They don’t realize how hard it is to summarize an entire country into one symbol or design, but my interpretation seemed most fitting to me. The maple leaf is Canada’s most iconic symbol.”
