Archives for May 28, 2014

The logo for next year’s European Yoyo Championship in Poland has been revealed! A beautiful and very distinct logo, it’s a refreshing departure from the style we’re used to!

We had a chat with Backspin’s mastermind Piotrek Śmietana to talk about the logo, the city, and the plans for next year’s EYYC:

That’s a beautiful logo, Piotrek, it’s also very unique and unlike most contest logos out there. What’s the story and inspiration behind it?

Well, first of all, thank you! As EYYC15 was my biggest dream so far in terms of organizing events, I wanted to make a very special logo for it. I honestly dislike most of the modern yoyo contests logos – they are often represented more like a child fair logos, rather than sport competition. Such big caliber contest logo must be modern, and have a story behind it. During designing process, I’ve searched for inspiration over dozens of other sports championship logos.

After having a simple concept in my mind, I’ve approached whole EYYC15 Organizing Committee, and we had long talk about the idea. The plan was not just to set up a logo, but entire event theme. After big brainstorm, we concluded that there are three major things I need to combine together – our passion, our national theme and modern feeling.

The logo itself combines shape of the yoyo and one of our most famous national aspects. The floral embroidery around the yoyo is very traditional design of flowers, typical for the region of Poland where the Cracow (the city where the EYYC will be held) is located. Such embroidery has it’s origins in the folklore of indigenous people over the region called here The Gorals (the best translation would be “Highlanders”). The embroidery they make is very specific and one of a kind in entire world. Also, the colors of the titles in the logo reminds of the polish flag – as Poland is the main host of this year European championships.  I wanted to combine all that elements into one. I hope people will like it!

Why Cracow? Tell us about the city!

Many people can be curious why we haven’t decided to run EYYC in the capital of Poland – Warsaw. The answer is simple, Cracow is very magical place and it’s not being called the pearl on map of Europe without a reason. As it’s one of the oldest major cities in Europe, the city economics runs on the tourists – which makes it a perfect place for such contest. People from all around the world can gather for a yoyo contest, and also grasp a little from the Cracow rich history. Also, the city has very large number of beautiful locations, streets, bars and pubs, and walking during the night around is always an amazing experience. I am sure that people will love the vibe around here. Also, Cracow is often called The City of Kings, because of the great medieval castle located in the very center of it, where lie tombs of many great national heroes and kings. When Ann Connolly was visiting Backspin last summer, she told me that Cracow has strong “Game of Thrones” feeling – basing on the show’s popularity amongs community, I am sure that people will like that, haha!

We’ve come to expect great production value and extensive promotion from Backspin, what are you preparing for EYYC?

Well, I must say that this is going to be one of the aspects we want to concentrate on really big scale. During our previous experiences, and having a contact with such big companies as Google or RedBull, we’ve noticed that one of the biggest flaws of yoyo stigma is the media side of it. We approach yoyoing as a sport here in Europe, and if you want to sell it to people as a sport, it has to be very professional and modern. That includes very strong concentration on the medias and promotional materials. You can rely on us in terms of that, and as the main designer of Backspin I will make sure to make all of our goals become real. As the EYYC is happening in Poland for the first time, we came up with an idea of series of promotional videos that we will release consequently one after another that we called satirically “Rocky Road to Poland”. The videos will present different parts of the city and also will feature some of the finest polish players promoting the event. You can expect the first video very soon!

What else can we expect for EYYC in Poland?

As you know, Backspin has a pretty long history on making up events. We were the main organizers of WFC International. Also we are very good listeners and observers, we have taken all the problems we had in the past and discussed about them, learning from our mistakes. We really like the way how the Czech Republic and Japan are running their events, and works of both IYYF, JYYF and CYA are very inspiring for us. We also have some pretty amazing plans and ideas, which no one in yoyo community has done before us, and we will do our best to make this contest unforgettable for it’s attendess. It’s too early to inform about specific things, but you can be sure that we will reveal some big cards during the organization process. Despite the fact that Backspin is main organizer this year, we have joined our forces with some of the best people from the community here in Poland and also CZ-ART Associaton which was responsible for running the first European Yoyo Conference last summer. We are sure, that together as one committee we are going to make something special, and enjoyable for everyone. And as for Backspin – it will be crowning achievement of our event work over the years. But it’s definiately not the thing on which we will end up! I am sure that Backspin will make a little mess over the worldwide scene in the future. 😉

Thanks for sharing your plans and insights, Piotrek! We’re already excited about the contest, and can’t wait to see more about EYYC in Cracow!

Thank you for the interview!