This archive report was first published on 25 July 2019.
On July 20, 2019, a hackathon was held at Nairobi Garage, where 385 submissions for a new logo for East African Breweries Limited (EABL) were narrowed down to the top 20.
Among the top 20 was Elvis Otieno Atieno, a third-year Film and Animation student at Multimedia University in Nairobi, whose design was chosen as the winner of the Got Skillz? talent competition.
Elvis' design featured barley in the iconography, a nod to one of the ingredients in the manufacture of alcoholic beverages. He customized the font in circles to represent unity and stability and coloured it purple to represent the loyalty that alcohol consumers have to the brands they consume.
Elvis' design won the hearts and minds of the judges because of its memorable independent device, modern welcoming font, clean and simple execution, and adaptability for various uses.
As the winner, Elvis will take home Sh1 million and will undergo mentorship at WPP-Scangroup, where he will learn from some of East Africa's most experienced creative designers.
John Kinyanjui Nyambura, a 25-year-old, and the group Wiptem Creators, came in second and third in the competition respectively, winning Sh500,000 and Sh300,000.
According to EABL's Corporate Relations Director, Eric Kiniti, the competition provided useful insights on the talent amongst young creatives.
"Listening to the contestants explain their submissions on Saturday afternoon at the hackathon, we were able to get a full appreciation of the depth of talent that East Africa offers," said Kiniti.
