The Festival Star was the graphic symbol designed by Abram Games for the 1951 Festival of Britain. Games was one of 12 artists invited to submit designs to the

Arts Council An arts council is a government or private non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts; mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing arts events. They often operate at arms-length from the government to prevent pol ...

and the Council of Industrial Design 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. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

. The main device incorporates a profile of

Britannia The image of Britannia () is the national personification of United Kingdom, Britain as a helmeted female warrior holding a trident and shield. An image first used by the Romans in classical antiquity, the Latin was the name variously appli ...

's head, with crested helmet, on the "north" point of a four-pointed compass rose. 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. The logo continues to see use today in advertisements concerning the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial area on the south bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Lambeth, central London, England. The South Bank is not formally defined, but is generally understood to be situated betwe ...

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 from of lightweight

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), 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 ...

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