Day 37 Queen's Baton Bearers on the Steps of the GSA

Passing on the Baton – 1 year since the Glasgow Games

Day 37 Queen

Do you remember Summer 2014? Summer 2015 has been disappointingly dreich but the last few days of sunshine have reminded us here at 4c of the glory days of last year. Remember sitting under a hot sun by Strathclyde Loch watching triathletes in battle? Or singing ourselves hoarse as ‘Flower of Scotland’ shook the rafters of the Sir Chris Hoy velodrome? So many great memories. But ‘legacy’ means more than just memories and we were recently asked by Scottish Enterprise to reflect on the long-term impact that the Games has had on our business.

tom-workshop
Unsurprisingly, designing the Queens Baton has made introducing 4c Design an easy task when at home. The Games touched everyone in Scotland and the Glasgow 2014 Queens Baton is instantly remembered. Since the Games we have received a lot more unsolicited enquiries. While it is hard to prove cause and effect there is no doubt that designing the Baton has raised our profile, particularly for the successful delivery of iconic and inspiring consumer products. In our main field of industrial design engineering the Baton has acted as a conversation starter and has already opened up opportunities for us in new areas. Designing the Baton was quite a different challenge to most of our industrial engineering projects. These tend to be longer term, often lasting several years rather than the few months we had to design and deliver the Baton. It just proves the versatility we have here in the 4c team!

Gold Coast Australia

Interestingly, we were recently tipped off about the tender for the Queens Baton for the XXI Commonwealth Games to be held in Gold Coast Australia. Although we decided not to apply, we heard on the grapevine that the advice given to the design companies tendering was all about the Glasgow Baton, culminating with “Just do what they did!” So, rather fittingly, perhaps our real legacy from the 2014 Glasgow Games is the creative spirit and award-winning design ethos which we brought to our Baton and is now being passed on to design teams Down Under… that’s a legacy we can certainly be proud of.