Judge's son slams 'embarrassing' Super City logo - designs alternative

A Super City logo judge's artist son says even his dad was disappointed with the competition's designs and has launched his own alternative logo.

A public design competition to find a logo for the new Auckland Super City revealed its winning design last Friday.

Otis Frizzell, son of competition judge Dick Frizzell, said today that the competition was "a joke" and its designs like "girl scout badges", embarrassing when lined up next to those of the world's great cities.

He has put together his own logo with collaborator Mike Weston, designed while the competition was still running but not entered because of "ridiculous" copyright terms.

"It's not his fault," said Frizzell of the man who came up with the winning design.

"I can't stress that enough: it's not about [him] ... but the process of the Super City.

The Auckland Transition Agency claimed copyrights to all entries - even those that lost - meaning no professional designer with business sense would enter, he said.

Frizzell said he had seen some of the submissions come in with his dad, who was not impressed.

"People were jotting stuff down on paper napkins - single lines with crayons and ballpoint pens", he said.

"The first round of designs he didn't rate very highly."

None of the designs could stand up to cities like Melbourne, Berlin, Beijing or Sydney, he said.

"[Instead] you get a 70-year-old man at home designing a logo like girl scout badges. It's nice. It's all very 70s. But lined up with the great cities of the world it's embarrassing."

Frizzell has made prints of his logo to stick on walls around the city.

"I refuse to be dictated to on this ... It's just an example of taking some of the power back."

What the city needed was something "slick, modern and funky" and reactions to his design so far had been great, he said.

Frizzell said the competition should have been the public voting on 20 designs put together by leading designers.