Jan
14
Speaking of tennis, The Australian Open, the first of the four Grand Slams held each year, started on Monday in Melbourne, although this year it looks a lot different from the previous editions. Here’s why.
The Australian Open started in 1905 as Tennis tournament played on grass courts (like Wimbledon) but in 1988 at the risk of losing irrelevance, the aussies decided to move the tournament to Melbourne Park.
At the same time they ditched the grass court for a revolutionary (at that time) green hard court made out of rubber, fiberglass and asphalt, called Rebound Ace. 20 Years later they decided it was time to do some changes again.
The first thing they did was a total rebrand of the Grand Slam. It’s not everyday you can see a legendary sport event go that route, so it’s safe to say it’s a pretty big deal.
The new logo included a more bold and fun typography as well as a more stylized tennis player icon in the middle. They also got rid of the predominant black color used all over the previous brand and switched to a more vivid and joyful bright light blue as the brand main color.
But they didn’t stop there. The State of Victoria and the City of Melbourne got a major rebranding too. With a cost of $ 750.000 and 18 months in the making, designer Ken Cato (www.cato.com.au) says the idea behind the logo is to show the visitors there are more dimensions to the city than they anticipate.
So we’re kind of saying it’s a bit like an onion — each time you peel back a layer there’s a better bit underneath
Pretty clever if you ask me, but I still get the feeling I already seen this before. I wonder where…
Oh that’s right… Apple’s COVERFLOW!
After 20 years of using the green Rebound Ace surface, this year they installed a spectacular bright blue new surface called Plexicushion. Man that sounds cool. Plexicushion. Gotta love it.
The primary behind this was to reduce the heat retention of the court while maintaining the medium, to medium fast pace of the previous surface.
Craig Tiley, Tournament Director said after the annual review of the courts, they established a major rebuild was required.
The blue court looks better, it will be easier for everyone to see the ball and the vibrancy of the color just lifts the entire venue. It is fresh and contemporary”
The decision on the color followed months of testing. Several options were evaluated, with tennis officials eventually settling on two tones of blue, a darker tone for the court itself, surrounded by a lighter tone.
The initial reaction of the players has been nothing but positive, although some player like Andy Roddick couldn’t care less:
I don’t really care, half my family is color blind anyway, so it doesn’t matter, I think that’s something where people are watching on TV so I don’t think it really matters to us too much
He then added ”...just to make things clear, I don’t care”.
So as you can see, there’s a lot more than just watching listening to Sharapova going into labor with each volley (or better yet, watching Djoikivic’s impression of Sharapova), on this edition of The Australian Open so be sure to tune in and follow the live updates on their website www.AustralianOpen.org.
2
Hello there.
Just found your site. Great job!
I like it much.
look here http://live.com
3
Compared to the Dubai tennis court these look like baby courts ;-)
Check
http://www.tenistours.com
for the Dubai tennis court. Its fabulous.
