When I first learned about the Halo Effect from our first lecture, I wasn’t very surprised to know the extent of our mindless human nature to blindly imitate. Consumers will go out of their way to attain any symbol or attribute that can lead to a specific lifestyle. Schemes that would interpolate The Halo Effect onto their marketing and branding plans would usually associate their products with “influencers”. In turn, these influencers would encapsulate this specific lifestyle and drag consumers to think that if only they were to attain this product, they can be just like them. This can easily be transformed into a very toxic and endless loop of transfixion. Due to that fact, the marketing field has turned The Halo Effect into a weapon against their targeted audiences to heighten and strengthen the value of a product.
A product that reminded me of this phenomenon is EXPO 2020. With an expectation to invite over 25 million visitors, they thrived to be associated with all these influencers that would grab consumers from all over the Emirates to experience this worldwide event just like they did. Other than hosting all international singers and celebrities to hold free concerts, they also invited celebrities and famous people to visit their pavilions like Lionel Messi and Bill Gates. 
The logo was inspired by an antique golden ring in the sand discovered at the Saroug Al Hadeed, Al Marmoom. The ring was discovered in this archaeological site back in 2002 and the ring dated back to the Iron Age.
Sheikh Mohammed described the message of the golden ring, “The Expo 2020 logo represents our message to the world that our civilisation has deep roots. We were and will always be a pot that gathers civilisations and a centre for innovation. Over 4,000 years ago, the people who lived in this land had a deep creative spirit and today the people of this country are building the nation’s future for centuries to come. Dubai is the city of gold, but the minds and hands of our citizens are more precious than gold.” (New Expo)
I found this quote to be interesting since the city of Dubai always had this reputation (or halo effect) of being the city of gold. In my opinion, I found that it was smart for EXPO 2020 to play into that role or pre-perceived persona. It is like Dubai City is owning up to that image and unsurprisingly succeeding in it. The ring also has come to symbolise connectivity, resilience and heritage, which is what EXPO 2020 is really all about, especially as Dubai doesn’t look like it is pausing on developing or innovating more anytime soon.
The logo was also designed through a competition in 2015, which of course helped a lot in terms of brand awareness where they had over 19,000 people submitting entries. This added to EXPO’s Halo Effect by adding creative power, competitiveness, and the concept of having and creating a vision to the entire event. They also took the chance to bring awareness and interactivity to EXPO 2020 before it was even ever a thing! And that’s why I think Dubai EXPO’s marketing team did its job and why their logo is a great logo!
Now, what if I were to do my own golden halo for my personal logo? We were to do this exercise in one of our classes and this was the thought-process:
First off, I wouldn’t go ahead a choose gold to be a colour in my colour scheme, I would go with something more simple and similar to my artistic work.
Above is one of my paintings that I have my colour scheme driven by.
My work encapsulates the message of having imaginary elements in most of my artworks, so I am going to have to add some of that same element to my brand name.
This is the final result, having that imaginary element be an illusionist play with my Arabic first and last name and my first and middle name is English.
Works Cited:
Benjamin, Sharon. “Expo 2020’s Logo Was Inspired from a Ring in the Sands of Dubai’s Saruq Al Hadid.” Expo2020-Experience-the-Uae – Gulf News, Gulf News, 28 Sept. 2021, gulfnews.com/expo-2020/experience-the-uae/expo-2020s-logo-was-inspired-from-a-ring-in-the-sands-of-dubais-saruq-al-hadid-1.1620133847240.
“New Expo 2020 Logo Unveiled.” The First Group, www.thefirstgroup.com/en/news/new-expo-2020-logo-unveiled/.
“The Expo 2020 Logo: Not Just a Symbol, It’s a Part of History!” A Blog about Homes, Trends, Tips & Life in the UAE | MyBayut, www.bayut.com/mybayut/story-behind-expo-2020-logo/.
Thank you for this very insightful and interesting post, Roudha. I find it fascinating that strong logos always have strong stories behind their design. As you mentioned, The Expo 2020 Marketing team was brilliant in coming up with this idea and designing a logo that’s not only a symbol representing a ring, but a part of the history of the UAE as a whole, and Dubai in specific. I also want to say that I am amazed by how talented you are ! The painting looks amazing as well as your name logo. I loved how you incorporated the illusion effect in it, which in my opinion made the English and Arabic elements work very well together.