Redesigning the carrot

Can you design the new carrot mascot? If so, you could win two tickets for the prestigious Carrot Dinner at Saddlers’ Hall this June.

To celebrate the centenary of the City University carrot mascot we want to introduce a new visual identity.  The mascot will be used in a number of ways, for example on the Students’ Union website, in brochures and on Carrot Award certificates.

We would like the new carrot mascot to represent the SU in the 21^st century. All you have to do is send us your ideas for how you think it should look. The winning design will then be selected and a design company commissioned to produce appropriate artwork, if necessary.

Please send your design to to sue.rees.1@city.ac.uk by Friday 1 March.

The Carrot – a brief history.

In the formative days of the Union, sports clubs travelled to and from the sports grounds at Palmers Green using a horse-drawn bus. Because of the frequent reluctance of the horse to cooperate, a carrot was often dangled in front of its nose. This became such a regular occurrence that the carrot found itself as mascot of the Union and was first called “His Most Noble Majesty, King Carrot”.

Various versions of the carrot have existed, from fibreglass to cloth. Alarms were set up to alert students in case of Mascot Raids by other London Student Unions – everybody would rush out of lectures to save the carrot from its foes! Consequently, the Union mascot during the 1970s was made out of four tonnes of concrete attached by steel bands to a pillar in the bar, called reverently by the name of King Carrot VI.

Since 1935 (and possibly earlier) Carrot Awards have been presented to “record and acknowledge the services rendered by students and other persons to the City University London Students’ Union”.  The awards have been made every year since, and recipients have included Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC from 2003 to 2012 and the Apollo 15 Astronauts, who visited City in 1971.