Tangent Graphic has been named as the lead design agency for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. The Glasgow and New York based agency  are a multi-award winning company specialising in brand identity and art direction.

Tangent will be responsible for the development of the brand in partnership with the Glasgow 2014 organising committee. Tangent Graphic secured the contract over four other competitors by focussing on the design and strategic creation of the pictograms representing the core disciplines of the Games.

Director of marketing and sponsorship for Glasgow 2014, apoplectic  John Donnelly spoke of the deal: “After a thorough procurement process, bronchi we have appointed Tangent as the lead Graphic Design Agency to produce key areas of work such as our Pictograms for Glasgow 2014. I’m really pleased that after our thorough search we found someone right on our doorstep in Glasgow to take on this exciting project, and help us deliver an outstanding Games.”

“We are looking forward to working on a wide range of projects for Glasgow 2014, not least one of the most eagerly-awaited design elements of any Games – the pictograms. We want to capture the drive and motion of each event in every pictogram, reflecting the energy and excitement of The Games.” added Andrew Stevenson, co-founder of Tangent Graphic.

“We are really excited about launching them, as our solution has real differentiation from previous pictograms, and maintains a strong tie in with the Glasgow 2014 brand. We are very proud to be working on an event that will mean so much to both Glasgow and Scotland”.

The ATP has announced that the men’s tennis calendar will be shortened by two weeks from 2012 giving the players a seven-week off-season.

Roger Federer is leading the calls for the ATP Tour to extend the gap in between seasons, which this year sees the top stars have just over a month off before starting another 11-month campaign.

The ATP have responded by extending the break by two weeks, but it now means that the Paris Masters and ATP World Tour Finals are to be held back to back.

The Paris tournament is the last qualifying event for the end-of-season eight-man showpiece, with the following week given over to practice time for the players and promotion of the event, which began a five-year stint at London’s O2 Arena in 2009.

The changes were approved at a board meeting in London on Saturday, with two weeks removed from the calendar courtesy of condensing Paris and London as well as the reallocation of three smaller tournaments to earlier in the year.

ATP executive chairman and president Adam Helfant defended the changes saying it was the only way a longer break could be brought in.

“We’re very happy with the result,” said Helfant. “The length of the off-season is arguably the biggest issue confronting the sport of tennis, and it was the responsibility of the ATP to find a way to address the problem.

“As you can imagine, there were quite a few options that were on the table. And the board weighed up all the different considerations and ultimately decided that the calendar as you see before you reflects our best options for achieving our goal, which was to create a more meaningful off-season.”

World number one Rafael Nadal has been a particular critic of the gruelling nature of the tennis season but it remains to be seen whether the players believe this represents the best option.

There will be concern the changes will negatively impact on the World Tour Finals, but Helfant insisted that will not be the case.

He continued: “We promote this tournament all year long. In fact, when you leave the arena on Sunday after the finals, we will be promoting next year’s finals.

“The success of this event does not depend on a couple of promotional activities that have traditionally taken place in the week before our last Masters 1000s and the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.”

Source: Sky Sports

San Francisco moved closer to becoming the host city for the 34th America’s Cup, after city officials made a deal with the Golden Gate Yacht Club, which says Spain is out as a rival.

San Francisco officials completed a deal with Golden Gate Yacht Club, backers of America’s Cup defender BMW Oracle Racing, that could lead to the 2013 Cup being staged with Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop.

Tom Ehman, a spokesman for the Golden Gate Yacht Club, said Valencia, the Spanish port that hosted the 2007 and 2010 America’s Cups, is no longer a candidate for the main regatta but could still host a preliminary regatta.

That would leave Italy as the lone rival to San Francisco and unless the Italian offer equals or beats what San Francisco offers, Ehman said he expects the America’s Cup to be hosted in California in 2013 pending city approval.

A host city agreement was submitted Tuesday to San Francisco’s board of supervisors, which must approve it before any deal could be finalized.

The board voted 9-2 last month to approve a term offer and six supervisors are co-sponsors of the agreement, which pledges civic help in raising 270 million dollars to help cover costs of staging the event.

Source: AFP

Canada has become the most respected country brand in the world. It bumped the US from the top spot as it leveraged the 2010 Winter Games to extend the global reach of its tourism brand.

The ranking comes from the Country Brand Index by FutureBrand, unhealthy a New York-based global brand consultancy. Michele McKenzie, sale president and CEO of the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC), will be present at the formal awards ceremony on Nov. 11 in London, England, at the 31^st annual World Travel Market (WTM), one of the world’s largest travel, trade and media showcases.

As Ms. McKenzie sums up, “Several years ago, CTC set out to refresh Canada’s tourism brand in anticipation of being on the world stage in 2010. We believed that—with the right strategy—a legacy of the Games could be more interest in Canada as a travel destination, and ultimately more visitors.”

The CTC and our partners seized the once-in-a-generation opportunity provided by the Games to showcase Canada’s tourism brand internationally. We placed stunning video shot from coast to coast to coast directly into the hands of broadcasters from all the countries in which the CTC markets. Initial results of the CTC’s marketing campaigns conducted before, during and after the Games indicate that the number of trips booked has increased over 2009 as a result of the awareness created of Canada as a top-ranked travel destination.

The CTC’s Olympic strategy, which runs to the end of 2012, was funded by a $26 million federal investment.

impotent helvetica,sans-serif;”>The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has terminated the World Series Boxing (WSB) franchise rights of the Delhi team and named Incheon in South Korea as a replacement on Thursday. The Delhi franchise faced an uncertain future after the main sponsor Videocon pulled out in September.

Its cash cow and star, Beijing Olympics bronze medalist Vijender Singh, had earlier this week distanced himself from the WSB. Vijender made it clear he didn’t want to turn professional, an inevitable career move once a boxer signed up for the WSB.

The Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) has been searching for a sponsor since Videocon pulled out but failed to find a new one by the end of last week by which time the deadline set by AIBA expired.

Teams including Mexico, Milan and Moscow had not only announced their squads but also named the home stadiums, while Delhi had only named the boxers, who ultimately were reluctant to sign on the dotted line. It is learnt that Vijender and Dinesh were not ready to sign on the contracts as it would have meant a conflict of interest with their promoters Percept Sports.

Betfair, ed a British sportsbetting exchange and online casino operator, ed has rejected a preliminary takeover approach from private equity firm CVC Capital Partners Limited reportedly worth £911.7 million.

According to a report from The Telegraph newspaper, try CVC Capital Partners has investments in a wide range of concerns including a majority stake in Formula One and formulated its bid in partnership with former Betfair director Richard Koch, who still holds a 6.5 percent stake in the London-based operator, and Antony Ball, a non-executive director for investment group Brait.

In a brief statement, Betfair declared that it rejected the deal because it ‘fundamentally undervalues the company and its attractive prospects and is highly conditional’.

Betfair stated that it is confident in its ‘strategy and growth prospects’ for the future as it enters ‘an exciting phase of delivering the new focused strategy announced in December’.

“We have a unique business with a market position, profitability, cashflow and prospects that this proposal fails to recognise,” said Gerald Corbett, Chairman for Betfair.

“Our new management team are implementing the strategy announced in December and it is this that will realise value for shareholders. We will provide an update to the market on May 7 to set out the good progress we are making in the implementation of our strategy including cost efficiencies and our recent trading performance.”

The EHF Executive Committee has approved the awarding of the 2013 European Masters Championships to the Italian Handball Federation and the local organiser SSV Brixen (Bressasone).

Teams in five different age categories are eligible to participate in the tournament. These are 35+, viagra 100mg 45+ and 50+ categories for men and 33+ and 43+ categories for women.

Teams will be invited in January 2013.

Teams will have more than two months to register. The registration deadline is scheduled for April 1, viagra 2013.

The 9th edition of the European Masters Handball Championships will then take place from 14 to 16 June 2013.

Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal has become the country’s best-paid non-cricketing sportsperson having agreed a three-year contact worth a reported $7.4m (£4.6m) with Rhiti Sports, highlighting the sport’s growth in the country.

Nehwal, who won a bronze medal in this year’s Olympic Games, has signed a contract with Rhiti Sports, which also manages cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

“With Rhiti’s background and credibility, they know how to balance things and that is a big plus point,” Nehwal said.

“We’re very thrilled with the base amount and it’s an honour since she’s the first non-cricket athlete they’ve taken on,” Nehwal’s father Harvir Singh said.

Arun Pandey, chairman and managing director of Rhiti Sports, said: “We are proud to be associated with someone who is not only a youth icon for women in the country but has also done a lot for badminton as a sport. She has placed India on the world map for badminton and changed the outlook of people in India towards the sport.”

Nehwal had been contracted to the Deccan Chronicle group, whose cash-strapped Indian Premier League team Deccan Chargers was recently terminated because it failed to pay players’ fees.