Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy Selects VCUQatar Student Designs

Nasser Al-Khater, executive director of Communications and Marketing for the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said: “The 2022 FIFA World Cup QatarTM will not only be an amazing experience for fans and players across the world, but also leave a genuine human and economic legacy in Qatar. By utilising the outstanding talent of the VCUQatar students to inform our brand guidelines we are doing just that, giving local students the opportunity to work on one of the world’s most significant sporting events.”

Carmen Smith, brand and special projects senior manager of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, presented the awards to the winners at a ceremony at VCUQatar.  “It’s very important for us to engage with the community and provide opportunities for input into the brand and other projects. The students have delivered an exceptional level of work, which demonstrates both thought and talent. We are very pleased to announce that some of the student work will be rolled into the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy official brand guidelines, which means that the students could see their designs in publications, events and even precinct construction projects,” said Smith.

The three winners whose pictograms were selected are AlDana Al Hajri, Abdul Rahman Anwar, and Yara Al Muftah. The students’ pictograms are currently being tested by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy’s brand agency so they can be incorporated into brand guidelines. The three winners whose monogram designs were chosen are Wurood Azzam, Fatima Al-Naimi and Sara Ebrik. Their designs are currently being assessed by agencies on how they could potentially be incorporated into the design of stadiums.

Students for both projects went through a lengthy research process, assessing the history of Qatar’s culture and design heritage, resulting in the production of 200 different designs that communicated Qatar’s diverse history.

“The opportunity to create work for professional organisations brings the best out in students and the quality of work they produced on this project was on a par with a professional design studio,” said VCUQatar Graphic Design Professor, Michael Hersrud,

“I never knew Qatar had so many birds. This collaborative project challenged me to creatively and formally interpret birds through a pictogram. At the same time, it educated me about my surroundings,” said student Dana Chua.

Another student, Noora Alfadala, said she really enjoyed the pictograms project because it gave her practical experience that she could use when applying for jobs after university. Pictogram design winner, Yara Al Muftah said the most interesting part of the project for her was the challenge of creating a pictogram that would be legible at any size. “This challenge inspired me to create my own boundaries through my pictogram designs,” said Al Muftah.

“Engaging in real world design challenge like the one from the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy while at university studying design gave the students an amazing opportunity to put their skills into practice,” said Muneera Spence, chair of the Graphic Design Department at VCUQatar.   “This initiative enabled the faculty at VCUQatar to embed the real-world project in the classroom while engaging students to learn to respond to design challenges – it provides students with invaluable experience that they can add to their personal portfolios and CVs.”

“These are the second and third projects we have worked on with VCUQatar. We are delighted with the standard of work, the enthusiasm of the students and expect the brand program will produce more high-quality work over the coming years,” concluded Smith.