Meet Hiep: First-Prize Winner of the Logo design contest for EU Justice and Legal Empowerment Programme

HIEP’S CALLING

Hiep graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of Viet Nam in Ha Noi, majored in International Communications and Culture. However, his heart and soul were leaning towards the aspiration of becoming a graphic designer. After sophomore year, he started to realize his calling and set out a plan to pursue it. His endeavor is to become a respectful and knowledgeable person like his former graphic design teacher.

JOINING EU JULE’S LOGO DESIGN CONTEST

Hiep decided to participate in ‘JUST ART: Logo design contest for EU JULE’ after the contest was launched a few days later. “In university, I also involved in a Law project as a graphic designer,” Hiep shared. “It was not much of a success. Learning from that failure, I entered the contest with the hope for a second chance”.

Hiep spent a considerable amount of time to research about EU JULE and the topic of justice, legal empowerment and vulnerable groups.  The keyword 'symbol of mother and child' gave him a slight idea of a potentially fascinating logo so he decided to withhold to it as a stepping stone. “I spent roughly two days sketching and developing the products”.

“It’s a strategy,” Hiep emphasized. “As I wanted my artwork to be client-oriented, I tried out two versions of logo so that the panel of judges would have more options to choose from”. Hiep formulated two different versions of his idea: one complicated and one simplified. “With this strategy, it would make my two logos contrasting each other; hence, the comparison makes it easier to demonstrate their strengths and weaknesses as well as to compliment each other differences”.

HIEP’S LOGO

“The idea sparked on me was a combination of the image of a scale and the symbol of the Celtic mother and child. The ‘mother and child’ symbol signifies two of the vulnerable groups that EU JULE supports, while the scale is associated with justice and rule of law - which represents the purpose of the programme,” Hiep explained.

“I chose a circle as a surrounding shape,” Hiep continued to demonstrate. “Technically, the shape of the circle symbolizes protection. In terms of color, blue is also associated with protection and comfort”. After feeling satisfied with the concept, Hiep created a professional proposal with the aforementioned ideas and mocked them up in a template, making it a persuasive win.

ABOUT THE CONTEST

Hiep was among many excellent contestants who participated in a competition entitled 'JUST ART: Design logo contest for EU JULE Programme'. JUST ART was public as a Facebook event, hosted by UNDP, UNICEF, European Union in Viet Nam, Ministry of Justice and Oxfam in Viet Nam.

The contest lasted for 10 days, from 25 October – 5 November, 2018; nevertheless, it attracted many participants around Viet Nam such as in Lai Chau, Ha Noi, Hue, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City. The age brackets, hobbies or fields of study were not limited as the competition aimed at people who care about creativity, art, law and human rights.

Winning the first prize, Hiep received:

• 1x Wacom Intuous
• His winning story is shared on various social media platforms
• 1x pack of souvenirs
• 1x certificate from UNDP

EU JULE’S OFFICIAL LOGO

EU JULE’s team worked with Hiep afterwards to finalize the design and have the official logo for the Programme:

ABOUT EU JULE

By strengthening the rule of law in Viet Nam through a more reliable, trusted and better accessed justice system, EU JULE supports vulnerable group such as women, children, ethnic minorities, poor people and many others to have increased access to justice and be able to invoke their rights.

The EU Justice and Legal Empowerment Programme in Viet Nam (EU JULE) is funded by the European Union with financial contributions from UNDP and UNICEF and is implemented by these two UN agencies in partnership with the Ministry of Justice of Viet Nam.