The Festival Star was the graphic symbol designed by

Abram Games Abram Games (29 July 191427 August 1996) was a British graphic designer. The style of his work – refined but vigorous compared to the work of contemporaries – has earned him a place in the pantheon of the best of 20th-century graphic desi ...

for the 1951

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

. Games was one of 12 artists invited to submit designs to the Arts Council and the

Council of Industrial Design The Design Council, formerly the Council of Industrial Design, is a United Kingdom charity incorporated by Royal Charter. Its stated mission is "to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better". It was instrumental in the prom ...

in 1948, and won the limited competition. The brief requested a design reflecting a "summer of gaiety and good looks" The logo (which Games called an emblem) uses the traditional red, white and blue colours of the

Union Flag The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

. The main device incorporates a profile of

Britannia Britannia () is the national personification of Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used in classical antiquity, the Latin ''Britannia'' was the name variously applied to the British Isles, Great ...

's head, with crested helmet, on the "north" point of a four-pointed

compass rose A compass rose, sometimes called a wind rose, rose of the winds or compass star, is a figure on a compass, map, nautical chart, or monument used to display the orientation of the cardinal directions (north, east, south, and west) and their int ...

. Games added a row of bunting flags to his first design concept when asked to make it more festive. The anticlockwise halves of each compass point are coloured, with the clockwise halves white: the "east" and "west" points are red and white, and the "north" and "south" points (including Britannia's head) are blue and white. The figures "19" in blue and "51" in red appear in the lower left (SW) and right (SE) quadrants, with quarter circles of bunting below connecting the "south" compass point to the "east" and "west" points, with six flags either side of the "south" point and a pattern of four flags (white, red, white, blue) repeated three times. A version used on official publications places the logo on a background quartered in a background colour and black, surrounded by four additional compass points. The logo adorned many official publications and souvenirs including beer mats, paper napkins, egg cups, brass pokers and plastic cocktail sticks. It was also used on village signs erected in every village in Bedfordshire by the county council. Games also designed a London Transport poster for the exhibition, based on his logo, with the two-dimensional compass rose converted into a depiction of a three-dimensional structure with four points, resembling a signpost or weather vane, and Britannia's head replaced by the London Transport

roundel A roundel is a circular disc used as a symbol. The term is used in heraldry, but also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of differ ...

. The logo continues to see use today in advertisements concerning the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial district in central London, next to the River Thames opposite the City of Westminster. It forms a narrow strip of riverside land within the London Borough of Lambeth (where it adjoins Alber ...

area of London.

Three-dimensional street hanging

A large, three-dimensional Festival Star was also made and hung over Northumberland Street, London as a focal point for the celebrations. The four-pointed star was made by

Essex Aero Essex Aero Ltd. was an aircraft maintenance and component manufacturer, primarily based at Gravesend Airport in Kent, from 1936 to 1953. Founded by Jack Cross, it is most famous for its rebuilding work on de Havilland DH.88 Comet racer G-ACSS an ...

from of lightweight

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...

sheeting, weighing in at only .''Aeroplane'', 27 July 1951
Copy of advertisement
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References

{{Reflist * http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/exhibits/festival/list_objects.asp?ob=&ob_s=undefined&pr=&pr_s=undefined&de=industrial%20design&de_s=any&num=10&firstob=31&sortby=3 * https://web.archive.org/web/20110603085254/http://www.pallantbookshop.com/books/details/a_symbol_for_the_festival_abram_games_and_the_festival_of_britain * http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conObject.2598 Festival of Britain

Three-dimensional street hanging

Further reading

References