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Papal Visit Booklet: Designed by a three year old?
Blogged by James Preece on 15th June 2010
The people at the Bishop's Conference asked me to keep it under wraps but you know what I'm like. I just can't keep a secret.
I'm just such a proud parent.
So proud that my daughter, only three years of age, could win such a hard fought contest.
I understand that top graphic designers from all over England, Wales and Scotland were competing. Saatchi & Saatchi had an entry as did Damien Hirst and that guy who does the adverts for crusha but in the end my little girl beat them all.
It's probably all the practice she's had. Playing around on the laptop in Microsoft Paint.
Of course, it wasn't really drawn by my three year old.
It just looks like it.
Update:
I thought I ought to look in to who actually designed it and I have to ask - why did the Bishops commission Brian Clarke to produce the logo for the Papal visit?
Why not commission a contemporary Catholic artist? Like Elizabeth Wang or Gary Bevans?
Instead they choose an artist who used to go to gay bars dressed as a priest...
In the mid-70s, Clarke dove into the London art scene through a chance meeting with Robert Fraser, the glamorous bad-boy dealer who stood at the center of it all. Fraser was famous by then as a handsome, Eton-educated founder of London's most exciting gallery, the Robert Fraser Gallery, though his fondness for drugs and his utter recklessness with money doomed the venture from the start. In Groovy Bob, a recently published oral biography of Fraser by Harriet Vyner, Clarke recalls favouring clergyman's clothing at the time. The day he met Fraser, he recalled, "I had on a clerical collar and a leather jacket and tight jeans, and Robert tried to pick me up in the toilets."
The two became close enough for observers to feel that Clarke was Fraser's boyfriend, but Clarke denies this. "I would be proud to say I was, but it wouldn't be true." In Groovy Bob, he says the relationship was more complex than that. "That night Robert and I left with two boys from the club," Clarke recounts about an evening at a sleazy Soho club called the Toucan, "and that established a pattern of behaviour that was to characterise a particular part of our friendship for the next decade."
[link]
Did I mention that this guy just so happens to be in control of the multi-million Francis Bacon estate?
Just at a time when the Bishops need millions.
How handy...
Reader Comments
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Clare said...
James
I have been reading along here for a little while now, and share much of the concern you have expressed, particularly with regards to the apparent passivity of the bishops in the light of the latest CES/Ed Balls/sex ed in schools business.
But this level of criticism just seems disappointingly petty to me.
I recognise that this is a somewhat tongue in cheek entry, but nonetheless the tone here seems to be one of unrelenting sniping at Catholic Voices and the Bishops.
There are some real concerns of yours that I share, but +Vincent needs our loyalty, prayers and support.
It's GOOD that the booklet has come out. The artwork is a matter of personal aesthetic and neither here nor there.
Lets not undermine the good that is being achieved during this time when we should be humbly setting aside our ideas of how we think things ought to be done in the interests of unity.
Leadership is hard. Easier by far to find fault from the sidelines.
I was dismayed by the rather poor treatment you recieved over the Catholic Voices training session. But rather than adopting the attitude of the jilted ex at the wedding, grumbling that "they'll never be happy" and "it'll never work out", I hope you can be big enough to wish them well and cheer them on when they get something right.
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Sapientia said...
The booklet may be quite pretty, but why do I get the feeling the artist was chosen for reasons of "inclusivity" and political correctness? I think the competition should only have been open to Catholic artists and designers. Let's hope Pope Benedict isn't so impressed by the logo that he asks to meet the person who designed it.
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Michael said...
Yes, the cover is naff. But it's what's inside that really bothers me. It's so poorly written and verbose. 30-odd pages stuffed full of text!
All the decent points could be made more succinctly, making it a bit more accessible.
Cut the politics and stick to the Catholicism, I say.
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Clare said...
In my opinion, your update is much more pertinent that your main post.
It's a common complaint of people who don't like art to say "my toddler could do that".
I'd rather see a critique of the actual contents of the booklet. But I do wish the more traddy faction of the church, on whose side I tend to lean, would lay off on the constant carping and fault finding.
Whistle blowing and speaking the truth is great. But pettyfogging fault finding is a dispiriting spectacle. I fear that it just polarises groups and entrenches people in their opinions, or those of their 'faction'.
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Ella said...
I agree that the contents of the book should be the main critique but the cover of booklets like this speak volumes, particularly to those in the culture which we live. The cover of this book should speak of what we believe to those in the world around us. It should be a confirmation and witness of our faith.
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Michael said...
As the world’s first carbon-neutral state, the Vatican City State has been at the forefront of international efforts to protect the environment and tackle climate change. Pope Benedict’s 2009 Encyclical Caritas in Veritate focused strongly on environmental issues, calling on the international community to counter mistreatment of the environment, to work to ensure that the costs of exploiting resources are borne by those who incur them, not by future generations; and stressing that the protection of the environment and the climate requires full international co-operation, including with the weakest regions of the world.
The Holy See has also led on practical steps. The Vatican City State is the world’s first carbon neutral state through offsetting its emissions through the planting of trees and installing solar panels on the Vatican’s rooftops.
So good they had to say it twice. In consecutive paragraphs.
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epsilon said...
The most fitting thing for them would have been to follow the Vatican City's example and not print the booklet at all!
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Liberal Traditionalist said...
What irks me is the tosh (on page 26) about Newman's desire to "temper the extravagance of more extreme catholics like Frederick Faber and W.G. Ward."
It's a matter of record that Newman and Faber had lively correspondence with each other; however, how is a 150 year-old difference of opinion relevant to the Newman Cause today?
This topic is badly researched and badly written and probably says more about the author (or pundit) who wrote it than about the then Father Newman's message for us in 2010. Faber died in 1863 - more than 25 years before Cardinal Newman;
I doubt if the Cardinal felt that his dialogue with Faber would be preserved as a spiritual highlight worthy of being recorded in a booklet in 2010.
Only if "Oh Bread of Heaven" or Faith of our Fathers" is to be included in the Order of Service for the Beatification, can the Bishops redeem themselves in the eyes of the catholic faithful.
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Patricius said...
The best that can be said about the cover design is that it is undistinguished and unimaginative. The graphic is weak and contributes nothing to the text. A fair contrast, in my opinion, would be with the logo used for Pope John Paul's visit in 1982 which in a simple but strong graphic combined the cross motifs of the Union flag with the crossed keys of St Peter/the papacy.
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victor said...
What a ripoff! That is a pixel-for-pixel copy of Great Prince of the Forest's cover design for the "Hart Speaks Unto Hart" Global White-Tail Deer conference booklet of 2006!
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Donna said...
Why not have the Papal coat-of-arms and the to-be-Blessed's coat-of-arms ? That would be simple cut-and-paste, and be eye-catching as well.
Heck, just the Cardinal's coat-of-arms alone would be better than this travesty.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/paullew/2281686488/
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epsilon said...
Thank you for the link Donna - I've replaced my other image - this is beautiful!
I think we should start making banners like this for September - maybe we could set up sewing circles in our local areas
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Donna said...
Sounds like a good idea, only:
1. I can't sew worth a darn
2. I live across the Pond and can't afford to come....sigh....
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