Sydney New Year’s Eve (NYE) will continue to not have official themes & instead pursue a new visual identity for at least the next 3 editions from NYE2025 inclusive.
The City of Sydney is undertaking a 2-stage process to determine the successful visual identity.
The 1st stage is an expression of interest (EOI), which is open to any creative agency/consultancy.
The 2nd stage will see the City Of Sydney select the best EOIs, no lower than the top 3, who will also be paid a fee of AUD$3000 (excluding Goods & Services Tax (GST)) by the City Of Sydney to improve on their EOIs & deliver their final full creative concept proposals along with requested financial quotes to them in a presentation.
The City of Sydney is requesting the creative concept proposal:
- provide a clear, consistent image/idea of Sydney NYE that is original & instantly recognisable
- acts as a graphic unifier for the event over time, providing consistency across the event from year to year
- clearly positions Sydney as a cultural & creative city
- showcases & promotes both Sydney & the City of Sydney
- excites & engages all stakeholders – audiences, businesses, sponsors & partners – to participate in Sydney NYE &
- leverages the event’s unique & attributable strengths creatively, avoiding predictability.
The new visual identity should align with the event’s philosophy, which is that the event “is a bold, colourful & exciting celebration that marks the end of 1 year & the beginning of another, filled with hope & opportunity”.
It will provide a consistent visual “narrative” across decorations & marketing including online content, physical signage & communications.
For interested parties, it should be pointed out that Sydney & the City Of Sydney are 2 different things, though both are combined. ‘Sydney’ refers to the significant urban area of the Sydney basin, from the Pacific Ocean in the east to Katoomba in the west & Campbelltown and the Royal National Park in the south to the Hawkesbury River in the north. The ‘City Of Sydney’ refers to the local government area immediately south of the Sydney Harbour Bridge down to the industrial area of Beaconsfield as well east to Moore Park and west to the University Of Sydney.
Renumeration Dispute
The EOI was to initially close on Friday the 26th of July 2024 but just over a week after the EOI opened on the 1st of July, the City Of Sydney announced they will “pause” the EOI after complaints from designers regarding renumeration of the successful applicant.
The City Of Sydney was originally going to sign a AUD$70,000 (excluding GST) contract with the successful applicant to design the visual identity. That amount was likely for just the 1st of the 3 editions. The previous contract was valued at an average $73,333.3 per edition with $120,000 paid for the 1st edition when most of the work over 3 years was done. After consulting with the Australian Graphic Design Association, when the EOI reopened on Tuesday the 12th of November, it was announced the successful applicant would now sign a AUD$100,000 (excluding GST) contract to design the visual identity. It is likely this amount is still for the 1st edition only. However, it is notably AUD$20,000 less in value still from NYE2019.
The EOI will now close on Friday the 13th of December 2024. The best EOIs will be notified on Friday the 10th of January 2025 with Stage 2 presentations being held the next month on Wednesday the 5th of February.
Visual identities were introduced from NYE2019, replacing the iconic themes that occurred since the turn of the Millennium. Since NYE2019, the visual identity from Garbett Design has been the official visual identity of Sydney NYE.
Visual Identity: City Of Sydney/Garbett Design
Garbett Design’s contract with the City Of Sydney was extended by a year due to the New South Wales Government managing the NYE2020 edition due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The contract expired after NYE2022 but the City Of Sydney kept using their visual identity for another 2 editions likely due to the Big Creative Ideas initiative heavily influencing the potential future of the event.
The Big Creative Ideas initiative begun in September last year and finished in January this year & was held to find new creative ideas, especially environmentally sustainable ones, for the City Of Sydney’s events including Sydney NYE. The news of the continuation of visual identities for Sydney NYE leads us to the conclusion that the idea of returning to official themes has not been taken up by the City Of Sydney. Sydney Spectaculars has been allocating unofficial themes to those editions from NYE2019 inclusive except NYE2021 when an official theme did come back for that edition only.
The successful designer for the Sydney NYE2025-2027 visual identity will sign the contract on Friday the 28th of February 2025 & the new visual identity will be unveiled no earlier than Friday the 16th of May later that year.
For more information & to submit an EOI, visit city.sydney/nye-eoi.
Sydney New Year’s Eve is objectively the best fireworks display in the world, illuminating our Harbour with stunning pyrotechnics to herald in the new year.
With half a billion people watching, this is an opportunity for a designer to have their work displayed on an international stage & I encourage everyone with an exciting creative concept to apply.
We’re looking for branding that will connect with audiences of all ages & backgrounds, locally, nationally & internationally with a message of inclusion, celebration & safety.
Clover Moore AO, City Of Sydney Lord Mayor
OPINION: It is ironic that the visual identity criteria again asks to avoid predictability whilst also providing consistency. This was also the case in the NYE2019 EOI. The continuation of visual identities instead of themes will see Sydney NYE still be rather predictable as has been the case since NYE2019 with a focus on a bigger and larger Midnight Fireworks with a new unique soundtrack each year. Calling Country will still be the most creative segment of the event with it having the same creative level as the iconic NYE1999-NYE2018 themed editions of the event.
Sydney Spectaculars 
You must be logged in to post a comment.