Commonwealth Games identities - a look back

The games would not be held again until 1930, in Hamilton, Canada and is when the first identity was commissioned, pictured on the front cover of the Official programme.

Like the Olympic games, the Commonwealth Games was to be held every four years and be held at different cities of the Commonwealth. From 1930, until 1950, The Games were known as The British Empire Games.

In 1934, London was once again the host city before Sidney, Australia took on the role four years later.

Due to the outbreak of war it was feared that the Games would never be held again, and indeed they would not take place until 1950 when they were handed to Auckland in New Zealand with 12 countries taking part across nine sports.

From here until 1966 the Games would be known as the British Empire and Commonwealth Games through until they reached Edmonton in 1978.

Canada once again received the Games in 1954 when Hamilton was its venue, with a Red Maple leaf adorning a shield. This was the Games where Roger Bannister would famously run the mile in under four minutes.

Four years later, the logo would bare the Red Dragon from the Welsh national flag roaring above the Royal Crown .

The games were finally held in Cardiff twelve years after originally scheduled, having been named as the host city for 1946, which was then forceably postponed during the war.

The Royal Crown would become a staple of the logo for the next few games, featuring again in 1962 for the Perth Games with a Kangaroo hopping along above it, and then again in 1966 for the Kingston, Jamaica games, only this time the crown would feature at the top of the identity.

Scotland first staged the games in 1970, when capital city Edinburgh was chosen as the venue, featuring a Thistle with the crown this time at the centre of the logo.

Christchurch’s logo of 1974 would break away from the short-lived requirement of featuring the Crown, moving to a newly introduced rule that the colours of the Union Jack and other Commonwealth countries would feature, with N’s and Z’s being used to represent both the country and the British flag.

Edmonton, Canada, 1978 was when the Commonwealth Games would become the official title of the Games, the fourth and final name change since its inauguration in 1930 and saw the colours Deep Red and Royal Blue used, with the straight lines found in the Union Jack to resemble a Maple Leaf.

The Commonwealth Games would also introduce the first mascot, created in the form of a Grizzly bear known as Keyano.

The 1982 Commonwealth Games Logo was designed by Hugh Edwards, the winner of a nation-wide competition held four years previously and is said to represent the shape of a bounding Kangaroo, again featuring three straight bands featuring the Commonwealth colours Red and Blue, which formed an ‘A’ for Australia.

The mascot was a Kangaroo called Matilda.

For the 13th Games returning to Edinburgh, the Scottish Saltire and three red lines were used to resemble Roman Numerals X/// to make up the 1986 logo, which was accompanied by a black Scottie dog mascot known as Mac.

Once again New Zealand was to take centre stage in 1990 with a shooting star motif, again incorporating red and blue, and was used a Kiwi Bird named Goldie which was depicted as an athlete across each of the Games’ sports.

Canada held the games for a fourth time in 1994 and would mark the final time that red and blue was used as the only colours of the identity. This time the identity resembled a V, representing the city of Victoria, the city chosen as host for this event.

A Killer whale named Klee Wych was the mascot here, named following a national competition and is broadly translated as ‘the laughing-one’ in the language of the Nuu-chah Nulth people.

While the Royal colours remained prominent for the 1998 logo for Kuala Lumpa’s event, a new colour - yellow - was introduced, inspired by the national flower for Malaysia and came alongside Wira the Orang-utan, an animal which is native to the country whose name means ‘Warrior’ in Habasa Malaysia.

Returning to England, this time to the City of the Manchester, the 2002 logo was a huge step away from what had previously been created, possibly the most radical design change seen in the history of The Games.

Featuring three faceless figures standing on the winner’s podium holding hands to visualise the letter M for Manchester, with each figure differently coloured. Red represented performance, passion and success, blue was used to symbolise intelligence, confidence and reliability and the colour Green used to represent loyalty, balance and generosity.

Manchester’s mascot was Kit, part cat, part lion.

The Melbourne games of 2006 were the first to feature the new design requisite from the Commonwealth Games Federation of including the Commonwealth Games torch at the base of the logo, featuring the colours of red, blue and yellow, which remain to this day.

Developed by Futurebrand, the logo aimed to combine the moment of achievement united with excellence.

The mascot was a South-eastern Red-tailed Black Cockatoo named Karak, named after the animal’s distinctive birdcall.

Dehli will host this year’s Games (2010) and has created an identity which features, as well as the torch at the base, a logo reminiscent of the Chakra, India’s national symbol of freedom, unity and power which can also be found on the Indian Flag and also resembles a flame, tying in with the torch below.

Dehli’s mascot is a Tiger called Shera.

Edinburgh-design-agency Navyblue was the creator of the identity for Glasgow’s bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, again featuring the torch and a design resembling a flame with red, blue and yellow incorporated.

The final logo, released last week, could barely have been further removed from the bid identity, incorporating, for the first time, the colour of Green with a G at the heart of it, representing Glasgow, which means ‘Dear Green Place’ in Gaelic.

The logo, designed by Marque, is circular in shape, and includes numbers relating to the 2014 Games, the 20th time the event will have been held.

The numbers incorporated are 20, - the 20th Games, 17 - the number of sports which will be held, 11 - the number of days the event will last and 1 - the G - as in One City.

The logo has also been created to be represented in each separate colour as it rolls out, the first time that this has happened, while a Gaelic version of the multi-coloured logo has also been allowed - the first time that a Commonwealth Games identity will feature a language other than English - ‘Glaschu 2014.’

At the time of writing, nothing was known about the commissioning of a mascot for 2014.