Liberal Democrat 'Dragon' judges logos at Bow School

8.17.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 30th Jun 2009

Liberal Democrat Councillor, Azizur Rahman Khan and the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Councillor Ahmed Omer acted as judges, or dragons, in a 'Dragons Den' style mural competition.

This term, the boys of Yr. 8 have been working together and competing with each other in Citizenship and Art to design a 21st century logo for Tower Hamlets as part of a cross curricular school project with the guidance and support of London Citizens. The boys entered the den to pitch their ideas to five dragons. The dragons were the two councillors, Hayley Clark the school librarian, Ben Hammond from London Citizens and Moustafa Mohamed, a year 10 pupil.

The dragons gave the boys their eyes and ears in judging and discussing their work. They were originally going to choose 6 from the eleven pitches to be blown up and used as part of a public art exhibition on Parmiter Street in Bethnal Green that will be completed by Wednesday the 1st of July. However, they were so impressed with the boys presentations that they ended up taking all eleven designs, Ben Hammond, from London Citizens, said 'I don't care what it takes, I am so impressed that I will ensure that all of these logos are part of the exhibition!'.

During the project the boys were asked to consider the importance of a logo and how it could represent a greater concept by studying popular examples. They were then asked to design a new logo for the borough that incorporated three explicit elements of Tower Hamlets; its proud history, its celebration of diversity, its entrepreneurial spirit. From their logos the boys then wrote speeches to act as part of their pitch to the dragons. This became their design brief and aimed to allow the boys an opportunity to enhance their skills as successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens. The winning designs and speeches can be seen below and will form part of the exhibition on Parmiter Street.