Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, City Dressing

5 MINUTES WITH CAMILA LIMA

The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games are nearly upon us, and we have had the privilege to catch up with the Design Team Lead in Birmingham, Camila Lima, who has been tasked with developing the Look and Feel of the Games.

In our recent catch up with Camila we got the opportunity to discuss the considerations that went into developing the Look and Feel of a major sporting event, the sports that she is most looking forward to watching at the Games, and her plans for after the project is completed.

Can you explain what your role is for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games?

I am the Design Team Lead, and together with three other designers – Felipe Tahara, Cristo Artiles and Nadeeka Rangana – we are responsible for developing, unfolding and implementing the Look of the Games. This has involved defining its strategy and creating over 2,000 artworks for dressing at all the competition venues.

What sport are you most looking forward to at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games?

I have to confess that my passion has always been Beach Volleyball! When I was at school in Rio, we used to go to the beach to play until late at night – we were not athletes, but we had loads of fun! So definitely, this is one of main sports I want to watch during the event. Of course, I do have other sports I can’t wait to watch at the Games too, like Athletics, Gymnastics, Diving, and Wheelchair Basketball 3×3.

What considerations do you need to make when designing the Look and Feel for a major sporting event?

All sports have their own specificities and rules in order to avoid any interference on the athlete’s performance, such as colour restrictions and requests on sports equipment. As part of the job, we needed to liaise with Broadcast and Media to know the main camera locations, the lighting for indoor venues and other unique requirements.

Accessibility is also of high importance to us, which led us on an extensive study on colours to pursue a high contrast between background and message displayed on our items.

Our role is to make the Look of the Games an eye-catching background for the sport, whilst at the same time ensuring all the brands we work with stand out and are bringing the event into life, these include: the Commonwealth Games Federation, the Birmingham 2022 Organising Committee, the International Federations and the event Sponsors.

How do you approach sustainability throughout the design process?

Approaching sustainability for us involves integration with the Look Managers – who are responsible for scoping the locations to be dressed and proposing the installation methods – and the Production team, who are responsible for evaluating the materials and deciding what finishings will be used.

Finding better uses for materials, deciding on the selection of substrates to be recycled or repurposed and even legacy proposals are all part of our internal discussions. Another approach we have is to plan ahead standard items, that we call KOP (kit of parts), which can be produced on a large scale and can be used across several venues.

What have you got lined up after the Games have finished?

A good and well deserved rest!

It has been an intensive 17 months of hard work, so I am really keen to go back to Brazil to meet my husband, my family, my cats and all my friends to celebrate this amazing journey! Even though they were far away physically, their support helped me a lot to pass through this challenge, and they are also part of all of our achievements! Then, I will definitely start to think about the next Look challenge.

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