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Jan 18, 2018 / 17:05

Inspiration behind the new logo celebrating 45-year-old tie of Australia and Vietnam

One 24 year-old amateur designer won the logo competition to celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and Vietnam

Nguyen Viet Hung, 24, a fresh graduate from the University of Technology and Economics in Budapest in Computer Engineering won the logo competition to celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Australia and Vietnam. He’s now a Hungarian language teacher and interpreter for a language centre in Hanoi.
Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Craig Chittick and the logo contest's winner Nguyen Viet Hung (L).
Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Craig Chittick and the logo contest's winner Nguyen Viet Hung (L).

Drawing and designing is among his hobbies, though he has attended any official training course on graphic design. “I once designed for some Vietnamese people and students overseas in Hungary, but this is the first time I have participated in a major graphic design contest”, Hung said.
It took Hung a week to complete the initial design, nonetheless he came up with another logo just in three hours, which then be chosen as the winning design of the contest.
Hung shared: “The idea of the logo came from my first memory of Australia which was during the summer Sydney Olympics in 2000. I was seven back then, and I keep remembering the fireworks display over the Sydney Opera House at the opening ceremony.”
It’s the Vietnamese athlete Tran Hieu Ngan Ngan’s victory in summer Sydney Olympic 2000 that inspire Hung the mose. “The image of her wrapped in the Vietnamese flag and running in joy and happiness marked an amazing milestone in Vietnamese sports’ history right there in Australia”, Hung stressed. 
From the above-mentioned memory, he decided to draw the Sydney Opera House with some slim strokes using the navy blue colour found on the Australian flag. I believe that the Sydney Opera house is the easiest feature for Vietnamese people to recognise Australia. The most important symbol for Vietnam is a star which he symbolised with red colour taken from the Vietnamese flag. It represents Vietnam being a star in the region and how step-by-step Vietnam has overcome many obstacles; just like what Ms Tran Hieu Ngan did for Vietnamese sports in Australia.
“I combined the two symbols with seamless strokes to make a completed logo that represents 45 years of good bilateral relations between the two countries. I do believe that this relationship will continue to develop beautifully in many years to come”, the 24-year-old teacher shared.
On January, 17, Australia and Vietnam marked the beginning of the 45th anniversary year of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The beginning of the 45th anniversary year was marked today by the launch of a 45th anniversary commemorative logo and presentation of nine introductory panels to the Temple of Literature of Vietnam.
The winning logo was selected from a competition organised by the Australian Embassy and Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts, in collaboration with the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in November 2017. The competition received over 150 entries from designers across Vietnam. 
Reflecting the friendship between the two countries, the Australian Ambassador officially presented nine introductory panels to the Temple of Literature. The panels will support tourism at one of the most important historical sites of Hanoi, providing information about the rich history to visitors in three languages. This project built on the success of a similar project in 2016 in which Australia presented 14 bilingual introductory panels to the Thang Long Citadel, another historical site of Vietnam.