Schools Design-A-Disc Competition. And the winner is…
Recently Auckland Ultimate ran a competition open to secondary school students to design a disc that will be used specifically for schools and students.
10 students from 7 different schools submitted 24 disc designs. A panel of 5 judges made up of members of the Auckland Ultimate Executive, individuals aligned with the school ultimate programme, designers and youth representatives had the tough job of selecting the winning entry. The competition was of high quality with one of the judges commenting, “there were many great designs and it was a tough choice. So many of them would make great discs.”
There was however one stand out design, which won favour among all the judges. The winning design was created by Eunice Ng and Chris Zhang of Avondale College. Eunice and Chris submitted their entry along with the following write-up to explain the concept behind the design:
Ultimate is quite a new sport, especially to schools in Auckland and New Zealand. One thing about Ultimate that is different to a lot of other sports that definitely appealed to us was its culture; the ‘Spirit of the Game’ emphasising sportsmanship, especially honesty and fair play with one of the first self-refereed sports. No matter how competitive we get, mutual respect, sportsmanship and fun is equally if not more important. This is why we have chosen the idea of a spirit circle; the two different colours, blue and grey represents the Auckland colours, but also the two teams competing against each other, the interlinking and joining of the two coloured lines shows us Ultimate players’ unity, and how we collaborate together to come to a mutual agreement of a specific play or call. Ten players in each circle can be seen on the disc which represents how us secondary schools plays five aside compared to the usual seven. The circular pattern also gives a nice effect when the disc soars through the sky.
Eunice and Chris’s design will be printed on 200 ultra stars and will soon be available for sale through Auckland Ultimate – $15 for schools and students and $20 for non-students.
Below are some of the comments made by the judges about the winning entry:
- Loved the write up and thought the design was creative, original, and had meaning to it.
- This is an incredibly well thought-through design – worthy of any professional designer. The colours work well together and the pattern reflects the spinning of the disk beautifully. I love how the design looks fantastic on first glance, then on closer inspection the concept and thought behind the pattern becomes clear. The typography in the centre is simple but clean – complimentary to the complexity of the pattern. The font choice also works well with the modern design. I think this design would not only appeal to schools but also to the wider ultimate community – I’d buy one!
- I like the symbolism behind these designs as it is obvious a lot of thought has gone into it.
- The design is simple, clear and incorporates elements of flat design and it’s round (good for a disc). It’s visually appealing and it hints on a sense of movement (spinning), which is nice. The symbols representing the “spirit” of the game are also well done.
Thank you to all those who entered and a big congratulations to Eunice and Chris who will each receive a pair of Five Ultimate shorts as well as a couple of discs printed with their very own design.
View gallery of all entries
