The creative process goes like this for this specific project:

In a small communication agency, that's the night, and the project manager and the designer (they used to have sex together, but when she stopped taking drug, she found him less handsome). That's late, and they worked on other projects during the time they where supposed to work for the commission, so that's rush night, the logo has to be delivered tomorrow, it's already 2 month late. He looks at his giant screen, brand new mac, she sits on the desk, a design lamp is switched on, that's the only light in the office.

Brenda (the project manager): "we need to do something that stresses the european dimension, and something health related. That's the brief".

Willy (graphic designer): "well, what about a blue background, with yellow stars"

Brenda: "great, but isn't it a bit of a cliché ?"

Will: "that's will be good enough, I'm tired, and we need it for tomorrow"

Brenda: "and what about the patient, something about health"

Will: "Well, what about sticking a big white H, like for Hospital ?"

Brenda:"see, that's taking shape, but we miss the patient, we miss the human"

Will: "Brenda, give me a break, I'm tired, don't have any idea"

Brenda:"Do you want some coke ?"

Will: "Sure!"

Will, pours the white powder onto the desk in two nice rails, rolls up a 50 euro banknote, and sniffs it...

Will: "Ah, that's good! What about twist and stretch the H, so it looks like a stylised bed ?"

Brenda:"Fucking brilliant! but we need to stress the human too!"

Will: "Great, but I'm high as a kite, that's too complicated to draw, I'm going to draw a stickman instead"

Brenda:"Lazy ! Ok, but that's not European enough. Let me think, what is the element that created the European union ?"

Will: "Well, the second world war, because it can't happen again ?"

Brenda:"Yeap, good, all united, like it. Find a visual idea to put that in the logo"

Will: "a swastika ?"

Brenda:"The directive No 93/104/EC explicitly forbid using this symbol on logos paid by the commission"

Will: "What if the patient does a hitler salute ?"

Brenda:"Well, that's 3am, and it has to be delivered tomorrow, let's do that"

The next morning, they go to a meeting at the commission to present the visual concept. Brenda is less convinced than a few hours ago, but they, obviously, don't have the time to do something else. In the meeting room, they present the first version:

The 18 persons from the commission present at that meeting (that's a small project, so they pilot it with a much smaller structure than usual), look at it for a while, while Brenda explains the blue and yellow concept, heading for the stars, but she decides to keep the under coke nazi idea for herself.

Antonionis, one of the head of units present, explains that he likes the idea in general, but that it's too limitative, and that the patient should be more gender neutral, to illustrate that Europe encompass everyone, female included. They discuss quickly between themselves, and in less than two hours, request that Will erase the black moustache. Brenda tries to negociates an additional budget, but the 4 representatives of the financial departments explains that it would require another request for proposal. They are very happy with their negotiation skills when Will accepts to do it within the agreeded initial budget.

Karine, young intern from Latvia, explains that she won't be able to use the logo for her notepad (they had the wonderful original idea of printing notepads for the launch event)n because it's too wide, so they agree to get rid of some letters of the accronym of Hospital European Innovative Legalisation, the initial name for the patient programme.

After another two hours quick discussion, the armband, considered representing more the medical practicionners than the patients is gone as well.

Brenda and Will leaves, go to the agency, and happy to have satisfied their client, produced the definitive logo.

Ok, I'm not 100% sure of all the details, but that's the general idea.

Back to the quizz: As most of you will have guessed if you have never heard of WWII, this is obviously the Europe for Patients' campaign. On the good news, the press release and document about the launch from Androulla Vassiliou didn't provide the link to the site, so the site is so far about completely invisible on the search engines.

(side node from the webmaster corner:

• do put links on your documents and press releases, that will increase your visibility when they are published online.
• do not put a flash as the only mean to navigate on your site, that's very very rude for visitors that don't have flash, for instance blind ones.)

I don't think of any case where putting a person doing a Hitler salute is a good idea, even when the yellow stars aren't stars of David. For the record, I don't think one second than the commission promotes anything nazi related, and as a general rule, "never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence" (Bonaparte).