It’s a new brand day for UK Olympics: The London Olympic logo takes off
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/itrsquos-a-new-brand-day-for-uk-olympics-the-london-olympic-logo-takes-off-959147.html)The Independent
Monday, 13 October 2008

The ‘squashed swastika’ of London 2012 is being embraced by Britain’s youth, the organisers tell Ian Burrell. Design experts still aren’t so sure

It was a “solid gold stinker”, a “bizarre squashed swastika”, a “puerile mess”. The logo for London 2012 was greeted with all the enthusiasm of a fumbled baton on the last leg of the 100m relay final.

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When the £400,000 Wolff Olins-produced design was unveiled last summer at the Roundhouse in north London, Lord Coe, the chairman of the organising committee (Locog), predicted that the jagged badge would become “the heartbeat to the games”, and José Mourinho, Jamelia, Andy Murray and Dame Kelly Holmes all did their best to look convinced. The backlash in the press and, especially, online was uniformly negative. Even now the furore is remembered by Locog officials as “Logogate”.

Yet 16 months on, as he sits in his 23rd floor Canary Wharf office with an eagle’s-eye aspect of a similarly-maligned London icon (the old Millennium Dome), Chris Townsend, the committee’s commercial director, remains adamant the launch was a triumph. “Because of the success of the launch and the discussion through the internet we achieved within 18 weeks the level of recognition we were anticipating within 18 months,” he says.

You mean all publicity is good publicity? “Yes. We achieved overall brand recognition across the UK of 85 per cent within three months and worldwide we believe the figure is significantly over 50 per cent.”

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Originally presented in one of four plain “core” colours, the 2012 logo is becoming increasingly visible across the capital on the sides of taxis, on the sleeves of sportswear and on letterheads. The seven “Tier One” sponsors of the games have each adapted the much-criticised outline (“the brand” as Townsend calls it) to include their corporate colours.

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The space in the middle of the outline has been filled with the colours of the Union Flag for a new version released on 24 August to mark the transition of the Olympics from China to the United Kingdom. Numerous such “in-fills” will emerge in the next four years, featuring photographs, graphics and animation.

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Townsend cites as evidence for the popularity of the logo among young people the demand for 2012 clothing produced by the games’s sportswear licencee, Adidas, one of seven “Tier One” commercial partners. “Adidas have got a large flagship store in Oxford Street and they’ve got our initial merchandise range there for sale,” he points out. “The range covers 5 per cent of the floor space and accounts for about 20 per cent of the turnover of the store.”

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Adidas and Lloyds TSB have used animation in their television advertising campaigns to make the 2012 logo come to life. The other Tier One partners – BP, BT, British Airways, EDF and Nortel – have all built their own variations.

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Townsend says we can’t fail but to become familiar with this logo because of the financial commitment the partners have made, spending up to £40m each and more than £400m between them. “You would not have achieved that level of sponsorship without those partners endorsing the brand and the strategy and understanding how they can use it to get the return on investment they are looking for.”

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A possible ten “Tier Two” partners, including the accountancy giant Deloitte, will be signed up to less extensive rights to use the logo.

Townsend, a former marketing director of BSkyB, believes he already detects a change in public opinion on the controversial design. “The response to this Union Jack infill has been phenomenal,” he trills. “When you hold this image up against previous summer games Olympic brands you see how revolutionary and leading edge this is, which is what we wanted and in truth what the International Olympic Committee were looking for.”

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He says the reason the 2012 logo wasn’t presented with a more imaginative infill at the launch was a concern over the need to fully protect the international copyright to the outline. “One of the most critical elements was to design an emblem that we could protect. We needed to ensure the mark would be instantly recognisable as our mark and that it was a mark we could register and protect around the world. This mark has a significant job to do – it’s got to generate revenue through sponsorship and has to generate revenue through merchandise.”

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This is why the committee didn’t go for something more obvious, such as an outline of Tower Bridge, which could have presented considerable rights problems. The logo does not end with the outline. There is also a jagged and unique 2012 typeface, which already appears alongside the BA version, and a 2012 grid pattern made from “shards” created by projecting the angles of the original outline.

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This pattern will be used, like a vast piece of chequered material, to “brand dress” the Olympic sites and London landmarks as well. Townsend says Locog did try to explain that there was more to this logo than the original design but the world wasn’t listening.

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That, he claims, is a typical response to something people haven’t seen before. “We’ve been told by organising committees of previous Olympic Games, including Sydney and Athens, that this is what typically happens in the life of a games. It happened with Vancouver where they had significant negative feedback and a very conservative mark compared to ours,” he says. “It happens all the time in the world of re-brands. BP had similar issues when they re-branded. It just seems par for the course.”

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He says the concept of an evolving 2012 logo in multiple forms mirrors similar fluid strategies by such famous brands as Google and MTV. “The role of the brand has changed. Thirty or 40 years ago a mark would be fixed for a long time. In this day and age? a brand has to adapt for many environments.”

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In the distance the sun glints on the Dome, now re-branded with considerable success as the O2. Whether the London 2012 logo can also re-emerge as a winner remains to be seen. Experts in the design community spoken to by The Independent last week were not prepared to withdraw their earlier criticisms. But Townsend is convinced that time will yet prove them wrong. “By 2012 we believe the majority of people will have accepted it as an iconic mark,” he says, “and one that I hope they will love.”

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The logo: What they say

Stephen Bayley, Cultural commentator

June 2007
“A puerile mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal. There are 5,000 talented designers who could have done the job for £10,000.”

October 2008
“Good design is always capable of development, but each evolution of the atrocious Olympic logo exposes its fundamental weaknesses as a communications device. Expensive, badly conceived and completely unloved by everyone except those who made it and their credulous paymasters, it does one thing perfectly. This is to be a scary diagram of second-rate mess, patronising rubbish and confusion to come. Like the Millennium Dome it so closely resembles, 2012 and its ham-fisted logo already look like a mad woman’s breakfast."

Martyn Perks, Design consultant, cScape

June 2007
“The bizarre squashed swastika that is the London 2012 Olympics logo perfectly captures the authorities’ confusion about what the Games are for.”

October 2008
“The 2012 Olympic logo has failed to capture our imaginations no matter how many colours they print it in, including putting the Union Jack inside it. Its socially inclusive ‘yoof’ aesthetic only reflects a flagging sense of Britishness than a truly Olympian, universal spirit. Redraw it now – or it will become a worldwide joke.”

Adrian Shaughnessy, Author, ‘How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul’

June 2007
“The London 2012 logo is a solid gold stinker. A self-conscious gesture of forced trendiness that failed every test you can apply.”

October 2008
“I no longer want to lob a brick at it when I see it, and as with so many aspects of modern life, I’ve become acclimatised to it. I’d even go as far as to say that when it’s used in isolation it can be a pretty effective piece of graphic communication. But it will always be a missed opportunity.”

About time a thread on this was created.

I hated the logo when it came out, still do now although I have gotten used to it on my trips to London. Chris Townsend is probably right on recognition, cheaply clamouring for media attention at the expense of self respect... but then why does the London 2012 logo have to be the Amy Winehouse of Olympic logos?

I'm sure they couldve achieved the same amount of recognition with a popular, attractive logo, without having one widely considered to be ugly?

It saddens me that all it takes is a Union Jack to be pulled through the outline and suddenly everyone has a change of heart and loves it. It's a total step back and completely cheapens the entire brand in terms of 'everyone's 2012' and what the brand stood for. Whichever agency LOCOG gave that work to shouldn't be allowed anywhere near branding the Park in 2012.

I have to disagree, I felt very on the wall about this logo when it was revealed, and I felt the same untill I saw it all over London on the Mall, and I think the Logo works and looks Amazing with the Union flag inside. This is the London Olympic games after all and we should be flying our flag with Pride, This is our showcase to the world.

Indeed, whilst it has grown on me, i still don't like the logo with it's 'vivid' colours. It just looks cheap and, to me, screams of a committee sitting around a table deciding what the "yoof" likes and then using MSPaint to represent it.

However, when it's been taken on-board by various Olympic sponsors, and used with a toned down, more stylish palette of colours it looks decent. And the version with the Union flag is the best of the lot. There is nothing wrong with showing something overtly British and i think the Union flag is probably the best representative of this.

But, and i don't mean to sound flippant, whenever i see the logo i can never quite get away from the fact it looks like Lisa Simpson doing something naughty.

This is the London Olympic games after all and we should be flying our flag with Pride, This is our showcase to the world.

But whether you believe that or not, it goes completely against the brand make-up and the tagline of 'everyone's 2012', that of a call to the world that everyone regardless of nation is welcome at these Games.

I can appreciate if this logo is not to be used again as it was designed specifically for the handover ceremony, but it seems the genie is out of the bottle and I fear pressure will be put on LOCOG to use it again, which totally shows any lack of commitment to the brand designed back in 2007. Personally I wouldn't have minded a more abstract use of the Union Jack colours in the logo, without it obviously being a flag draped through the outline. Possible some kind of gradient between the red and blue, nodding to the flag, but not explicitly depicting it.

I do think a lot of people around the world were put off having the Union Jacked logo on the back of the bus at the handover ceremony in Beijing, believing this to be a British Games for the British only. It did smack incredibly of imperialism and not the call to youth it was hoping to. The Paralympic Handover bus was much better and what the Olympic Handover bus should have looked like, conveying the 2012 message much clearer.

I was a bit disapointed when I first saw it but quickly came around to like it. But far more important is it's ability to be shaped and moved into all different forms of media. It is proving extremely adaptable and yet maintains it's basic form and what is very important is that it enables the brand to be continually renewed. This is critical in a world where fashions change within months.

I have no problem with the Union Jack version, but I see your point DarJoLe. I think it's about time London got a flag. I expect there is some pageantry / heraldry version somewhere, but that's not what I mean. That said I should shut up as Boris is in charge and no doubt we'd end up with some mishmash of crowns, regal brittania surrounded by her subjects, drapes and golden embelishments - yuk.

does anyone else see lisa simpson giving a BJ?

^^ Yes, we have all heard and seen that about a year ago, it stopped being funny just under a year ago.


It looks far better with the union jack inside it, but i think they deliberatly made it uglier than it could have been.

Bad news is often remembered more than good news.

It looks far better with the union jack inside it

Is this simply because it is featuring the Union Jack, or is it because that someone changes the shape of the logo into something more pleasing on the eye?

Personally I think it completely loses its simplicity with the flag inside it (and I'm not saying that because I'm against using national symbols in it but because of the way the flag is placed inside the outline).

Well the logo was designed to have different colours and images inside it and the Union Jack has every right to be on it. If it can work with the Union Jack then it can work with all the flags of the world, come 2012 they may actually use all the flags of the participating countries. That way it will still be 'everyone's 2012', but meanwhile it is being used to gather British support for the 2012 games, there is no harm in that. I think it is a brilliant logo and it is very versatile instead of being a regular pretty logo that remains the same and is soon forgotten. :cheers:

Thats a very good point Medo, and if they were to use that idea and encorporate each individual flag to each country that would be a brilliant use of logo and stick to the mantra of 'everyones games'.

As somebody who's worked in design/graphics/production, I can honestly say it's one of the worst logos I've ever seen.

does anyone else see lisa simpson giving a BJ?

Yes. I instantly and automatically think of that, every time I see it. I can't help it - it's just what my brain sees from the silhouette, and it's hard to "un-program" the association in my mind. Perhaps if they dropped that central square, this wouldn't happen, but in any case the logo would still be shite. It needs a total redesign in my opinion. In fact I don't see what was wrong with the original logo. Why couldn't they have used that, would have saved £400K too.

In fact I don't see what was wrong with the original logo. Why couldn't they have used that, would have saved £400K too.

Because it doesn't represent anything to do with what the London Games is about.

Because it doesn't represent anything to do with what the London Games is about.

What bollocks, it was a perfectly good logo with the ribbon in the shape of the Thames. This new logo is just a load of jagged shapes/colours that look as though they were randomly generated by a computer.

What bollocks, it was a perfectly good logo with the ribbon in the shape of the Thames.

But that's not a brand, is it? There are no brand values or direction attached to that logo. The 2012 Games logo is only a small part of thousands of drawn up items which can be used to promote and identify with the London Games, as I showed in the first posting; these range from merchandise to dressing the venues during the Games. All contribute to the 'message' the organisers want to get across, that of a youthful, energetic Games that is open to participation and inclusion.

The original, far-worse ribbon logo offered few opportunities for branding and had a boring black font as its basis. Besides, the IOC insist bid logos are scrapped; so there was never a chance of it becoming official so let's leave that one aside shall we as there's no point in going over old ground.

RE: the new logo, I actually prefer the pink/orange/green/blue versions to the corperate versions; especially that horrible orange to green gradient EDF have. The outline with no infill doesn't do it for me either (e.g. BT's version).

The Union Flag idea works well and was nice for the handover but I hope it doesn't become the de facto version of the logo.

Aside from the logo, the branding itself has, I feel, yet to come into its own and only when we start seeing branded products, the mascots, the dressings of the venues etc. will this really happen. In general I like the branding and the font though it seems to have been plastered all over things with little care; some of the leaflets produced by London 2012 make me think that they have no branding guidelines and the website really does the brand no justice whatsoever. It could look really modern and slick by taking the angles of the logo and using it within the site design but it looks bloggy and boxy and the whole brand suffers as a result.

A good brand and a good logo that, at the moment, is used poorly as often as it's used well. I hope that changes over the coming years.

Aside from the logo, the branding itself has, I feel, yet to come into its own and only when we start seeing branded products, the mascots, the dressings of the venues etc. will this really happen. In general I like the branding and the font though it seems to have been plastered all over things with little care; some of the leaflets produced by London 2012 make me think that they have no branding guidelines and the website really does the brand no justice whatsoever. It could look really modern and slick by taking the angles of the logo and using it within the site design but it looks bloggy and boxy and the whole brand suffers as a result.

I'm so glad someone has said this because I feel exactly the same way but whever you try and discuss this it always comes back to the usual 'looks shit' brigade.

There was an interesting article with the guy who worked on the team at Wolf Ollins in Creative Review earlier this year (I'll dig it out later) who, it seems, through gritted teeth, admitted LOCOG are not using the branding tools the way they feel it should be used. I tend to agree with him, we have this fantastic logo which obviously should be highly animated at every possible opportunity, yet I think in the history of it I have seen it move twice, once in the slight jittering it does with the EDF branding, and secondly in a rubbish flash rollover it does on the 2012 website. This wasn't how it was supposed to be, it was a shaky uncomfortable 'buzzing' movement. The biggest branding faux pas I saw was at the handover ceremony - the first chance for LOCOG to show the logo to the world, and it pops up at the start of the that London video in the Union Jack version, static, and just looking like some poor Powerpoint slide. I mean seriously! Not once throughout that performance did the logo or branding come alive.

There's some really interesting things going on with all the elements that make up the brand behind the logo. The original video that I've linked above with the jittering colours, fantastic. LOCOG need to go back to that really. The blame really is the agencies being comissioned by LOCOG to produce the material. Wolf Ollins designed the brand toolkit and LOCOG then give this to specific creative agencies to work with it to produce marketing material, etc, and I think this is the problem because it is such a specific brand that speaks in a certain way, that has got a lot of bad press and I think many designers are simply not understanding what it is capable of. In effect, this is a brand that shouldn't be moulded into something 'good' or 'well designed', because it was never the intention for this to be something like that, it was intended to be edgy, scrappy, graffiti-esque, urban, a bit rough around the edges and very much an over the top brand that spoke colour, festival, vibrancy.

Putting the branding on a corporate construction update pamphlet simply isn't how it should be being used.

I'm fairly confident this logo will be a success. I loved it because it was so not expected and fresh. Now I'm pleased to see it is appropriated by people and business.

Far far more interesting, vibrant, young and funny than these stupid graphic efforts made for the previous games. They all looked pompous and expected.

I agree. I hope people start to use it in the way Darjole points out though. Lots of potential but again in this country the media trying to be popular just dont get art and design and just spread negativity rather than let people connect with the art and mould it naturally.

But that's not a brand, is it? There are no brand values or direction attached to that [the London 2012 bid] logo.

'Brand value' can be abstracted from any doodle or drawing to convey some bullshit postmodern theory/idealisation. It's all about interpretation. How else does a sausage in a bun get classed as art?

The current logo could just as easily be used to represent "urban decay, social degeneration, identikit high street materialism" as much as it represents "youth, festival and vibrancy".

There is nothing academic or intellectual about abstract drawings representing some point of view - it's what the Brits call 'blagging'. So the current logo has no more brand 'value' to it than the original bid logo.

A better-looking logo could have been designed with all the 'brand value' of the current one.

Two caveats:
I do think however, that it was improved by transposing the logo on top of the Union Jack
The logo has been successful in marketing and selling the games. It is recognisable for sure (to the credit of LOCOG and the designers). But then to me, Amy Winehouse and Britney Spears also do a pretty good job of propagating their respective 'brand awareness'

Anyway, enough with the negativity on my part. I think the marketing team behind the London games have created a few real pieces of art.... such as the Bid video which really summed up London warts n all. If everything could be to that standard... I still think the Games will be pretty good at fostering a party atmosphere and I look forward to visiting :cheers:

I agree with this quote:

“I no longer want to lob a brick at it when I see it, and as with so many aspects of modern life, I’ve become acclimatised to it. I’d even go as far as to say that when it’s used in isolation it can be a pretty effective piece of graphic communication. But it will always be a missed opportunity.”

Is this simply because it is featuring the Union Jack, or is it because that someone changes the shape of the logo into something more pleasing on the eye?

Personally I think it completely loses its simplicity with the flag inside it (and I'm not saying that because I'm against using national symbols in it but because of the way the flag is placed inside the outline).

I'm not being nationalistic when i say it looks better with the union jack, I just think that the colours and shapes of the union jack compliment the shape of the logo far better than the hideous fluorescent pinks and oranges they were using.

After keeping quiet about my hatred for this logo for a while, I thought I'd give my opinion...

I've gone from absolutely despising to logo to loving it. A more ordinary or 'classy' logo would have looked good and been to everyone's taste to start with, but come the games it would have been boring and dull like almost every logo that has come before it. Instead we have something completely original, revolutionary and unique to London, a bit like the games themselves will be.

Bring on 2012 :cheers:

(I also think it looks better with the Union Jack than the luminous colours, but the colours seem to fit the feel of the games more now)

^^^

Same here. Im surprising myself by saying I actually quite like it now.

First I thought it was messy and too young, too 80s retro and that it was going to look even more outdated come 2012.

Now I think its great. Edgy and inclusive and dynamic with lots of room to work on print and in animations for official purposes and for sponsors. Very distinctive shape and typography that gives it freedom in colours and animation to be formal and proud when it needs to be and modern and hip when thats appropriate. Quite advanced design thinking obviously inspired by brands like MTV and Google rather than Ford and Vodafone. Very suitable for London and a far cry from the pompous predecessors.

Interesting for see how the sponsors have embraced it very quickly and it will be interesting to see how its application evolves over the next few years.

Design will always be a matter of taste but if you consider the point of design to give a statement and an identity you must say that they have done a pretty good job here.

I have to say ever since i saw someone make it look like lisa simpson doing a B*ow j*b I cannot look at the logo in the same way anymore. ;0)
But seriously I do find the logo looks worse when associated with the dredful font they are using which looks really ' trying' . I think if the graphic gets more sophisticated it could, pehaps look half decent.

A new sponsor, a new treatment.

http://www.cadbury.com/media/PublishingImages/Cadbury_olympic_flag.jpg

the flag went up at the bottom of my road, all very exciting, we love living in chocolate land x

I've been to Cadbury world and Cadbury-town. Very strange place. You almost expect oompa lumpas to be manning the shops.

would cadbury be allowed to make gold chocolate medals?, they would sell nicely.

Cadburys world - gah never again.

i think that's the best logo since Barcelona 92, great work of graphic design!

It remains a f***ing shit logo. All I ever see is Lisa Simpson giving head. It looks tolerable stenciled over the Union Jack backdrop but that's all because of the Union Jack and has f*** all to do with the tragic disaster of PR and graphic design that is the logo. I mean at the font FFS! What were they thinking?? :dunno:

Its a marmite logo. Not the marmite logo... but a marmite logo.

I can see why people hate it (like I did) any why they love it (like I do)

Overall I'd say its a success if only for the reason that Its got everyone talking about it, which IMO is good PR in itself

^ It's not a "success" if everyone's talking about how awful it is!!

Well it must be absolutely terrible if London has chosen a logo that prevents it from attracting sponsors. Except it hasn't.

I don't hate it as much as I used to, and may even come to like it - however with this, and the handover ceremony, I worry that the olympics is in the hands of a bunch of Nathan Barleys. I do worry about the opening ceremony.

One word to describe it....Shite!

Silly organizer's like Sebastian Coe, trying to get the 20/12 thing across, ruins it tbh. 2000 & x sounds a lot more exciting, like Beijing 2008, Athens 2004, Sydney 2004. Its the proper way of saying the year, not 20/x. Anyway

I think the logo could be a million times better and it is a huge waste of money. Its ugly, vile colours, and tbh, nothing in it to represent London at all.

One word to describe it....Shite!

Silly organizer's like Sebastian Coe, trying to get the 20/12 thing across, ruins it tbh. 2000 & x sounds a lot more exciting, like Beijing 2008, Athens 2004, Sydney 2004. Its the proper way of saying the year, not 20/x. Anyway

I think the logo could be a million times better and it is a huge waste of money. Its ugly, vile colours, and tbh, nothing in it to represent London at all.


:nuts:

nothing in it to represent London at all.

If you read the article instead of passing immediate judgement it explains why they didn't chose a London icon.

20/12 is the correct way of saying the date. It's only the noughtie decade that we say 2000 and whatever. We never said nineteen thousand and ninety-nine, did we.

Well it must be absolutely terrible if London has chosen a logo that prevents it from attracting sponsors. Except it hasn't.The sponsors probably cringe almost as much as I do when associating themselves with such a shite logo. They associate themselves with the London Olympics despite the logo and certainly not because of it. The Olympics would probably have won more sponsorship had the logo been less of an embarassment.

The logo has done a good job of attracting sponsors and media attention, nobody is disputing that. But then again, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Amy Winehouse are also pretty good at being on the front cover of magazines almost every week and whoring themselves out to the media. Logo recognition does not equal logo quality or reputability.

I recognise Langur's point that sponsors are probably in it because it's the London Olympics (and all the commercial fruits that brings) and not the logo. They probably could have got away with a turd on a stick as the logo and gotten as much commercial investment.

i think we have to wait before we can judge, i do a marketing degree and the logo is very flexible from a marketing point of view, it can be applied to loads of different areas

I bought my 2012 pins yesterday from the sports shop in Canary Wharf. On the pack it says there will be a total of 2012 seperate designs to collect. Is this correct? Sounds crazy! I don't think I will manage to get them all.

The pack is £25, the Union Jack 2012 logo £6.50 and the four brand coloured logos and Paralympic logo are £5 each.

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:lol:

What a constructive post that was :ohno:

Pointing out somebodies unconstuctiveness is hardly constructive in itself is it?

Pointing out somebody's comment pointing out somebody else's unconstructive response to somebody else's post isn't either.

:lol:

(my head hurts)

I can't remember any previous logo's so i'm not sure what people are looking for in their ideal design. Personally I like it and feel that a lot of the complaints remind me of the kinda thing you might read in the Evening Standard or Daily Mail -not that i'd ever read such ignorant & sensationalist tabloid rags.

I must admit I can't ever look at the logo without seeing that blowjob version. Sick and twisted mind? Yes.

What a constructive post that was :ohno:

?
Nothing unconstructive or constructive in the fact that it is funny to see how Darjole shows his involvment. I myself may collect a few of these ;)

2,012 different designs!
should raise some money over the years, what does surprise me is the xxx numerals hasn't been used anywhere.
these badges are already doing the rounds on ebay, 5 for 30 quid! lol
the union jack ones are getting a lot of interest so i suggest you buy as many as you can and sell for double price :lol:

anyone know how to make them? :nuts:

as a unique and diverse city, london should have none other than a unique and diverse logo - which this is! i started loving it as soon as i realised they would be using colours other than the garish original ones

East Enders come up with their own 2012 Olympic logo
(http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/news/story.aspx?brand=ELAOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsela&itemid=WeED24%20Dec%202008%2014%3A58%3A48%3A910)24 December 2008

THIS is the new Olympics logo just created for Tower Hamlets, one of the five East London ‘host’ boroughs for the 2012 Games.

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/london24/assets/images/dynamicFeed/BROOKM99724122008.P02.jpg

The local authority commissioned the design because of restrictions using the international symbol featuring five rings which is strictly controlled for commercial reasons.

Town Hall bosses went ahead with their own version, as the other ‘host’ boroughs have done, for the preparations now under way across East London.

The Tower Hamlets version received the ‘stamp of approval’ from the London Organising Committee and the Olympic Authority, to be used from 2009 to identify its association with the 2012 Games being staged on its doorstep at Stratford in neighbouring Newham borough.

The Tower Hamlets version is also tied up in legalities as a ‘registered trade mark’ like the international version to be used under license by outside bodies including commercial concerns.

The design project including advertising it to check there were no similar logos and to register it as a trade mark is costing £10,000, but is expected to ‘earn its keep’ in sponsorships.

The 2012 logo has actually really grown on me. I don't like it in the psychedelic colours but in plain blue, green and black/white it looks contemporary and modern.

brand>

http://i40.tinypic.com/55mmc6.jpg

found this online with the new routemaster bus
with 2012logo on it!:)

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=725&storycode=3130978&c=2&encCode=00000000018c6be0

Fugly - and not because of the logo which I like.

:lol: That's the stupidest bloody thing I've ever seen. Looks like something out of 'In the Night Garden'

Ridiculous

WTF is that :lol:

A bus with Down's Syndrome?

I really like the covers to these leaflets the ODA hand out. Much more engaging than what could of potentially been quite dry corporate design. Dogstar Agency did these ones. Good stuff.

http://www.dogstardesign.co.uk/uploads/images/casestudies/locog1.jpg

http://www.dogstardesign.co.uk/uploads/images/casestudies/locog2.jpg

http://www.dogstardesign.co.uk/uploads/images/casestudies/locog3.jpg

BREAKING NEWS, my mate is on the committee chairing the branding...

Ive heard the new mascots will be:

1. A teddy bear in a Beefeater costume

2. A friendly eel with a jelly

3. A robin with an umbrella

The robin alludes to UK as a whole (national bird), the Beefeater bear is for London, and the jellied eel is for East London.

































...

ok , I might be lying.

The Evening Standard would love em!

Fuckit. I think we should just go for Amy Winehouse.

East Enders come up with their own 2012 Olympic logo
(http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/news/story.aspx?brand=ELAOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsela&itemid=WeED24%20Dec%202008%2014%3A58%3A48%3A910)24 December 2008

THIS is the new Olympics logo just created for Tower Hamlets, one of the five East London ‘host’ boroughs for the 2012 Games.

http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/london24/assets/images/dynamicFeed/BROOKM99724122008.P02.jpg

The local authority commissioned the design because of restrictions using the international symbol featuring five rings which is strictly controlled for commercial reasons.

Town Hall bosses went ahead with their own version, as the other ‘host’ boroughs have done, for the preparations now under way across East London.

The Tower Hamlets version received the ‘stamp of approval’ from the London Organising Committee and the Olympic Authority, to be used from 2009 to identify its association with the 2012 Games being staged on its doorstep at Stratford in neighbouring Newham borough.

The Tower Hamlets version is also tied up in legalities as a ‘registered trade mark’ like the international version to be used under license by outside bodies including commercial concerns.

The design project including advertising it to check there were no similar logos and to register it as a trade mark is costing £10,000, but is expected to ‘earn its keep’ in sponsorships.


Weird . Where's the crackpipe ?

We have a national bird ? I had no idea !

I have tried hard to like the logo but I just can't.It seems to only work with the Union Jack design.

I think they're bullying us into accepting it.Waiting for time to pass so we become indoctrinated.The same attitude the BBC had with El Dorado lol ! It's good but they're too stupid to know it yet.Then they eventually got the message and pulled it.People are unable to resign or say I was wrong these days.

Tracey Emin syndrome.This is my unmade bed and it is art . No Trace,it's yer unmade bed luv .

We don't like it.The world doesn't like.International media have laughed at it and still they persist.

At the end of the day the logo is highly recognisable, more than any olympic logo. Theres no bullying, they made a logo and arent going to change it are they? There are certain parts of it i dont like, but its still highly recognisable. It works.

I'm starting to like the logo a lot more, though was never really against it. I think it would be better removing the word London from the 2, to me that would make it look more like the window its meant to be. Also, I don't think the design has really been fully incorprated in the web site or literature produced, it still seems to be stuck various images as an after thought.

^^ Exactly. The logo's fine, the use of it has been poor (especially on the website). Hopefully things will start looking a bit more professional as we lead up to the games.

I think it would be better removing the word London from the 2, to me that would make it look more like the window its meant to be.

I agree with this. The outline is distinct enough that the London is not needed.

Also, I don't think the design has really been fully incorprated in the web site or literature produced, it still seems to be stuck various images as an after thought.

It's true, and I think this is a bit of a failing of LOCOG employing various agencies to produce their work, and not bringing it all in-house under one department who can have a 'love-in' with the brand. It's a shame Wolf Ollins can't produce all their literature, they obviously knew how this thing worked.

One of the 2012 branded 'adi-zones' in Mile End park in Newham.

http://www.tgogc.com/media/images/adizone-large.jpg

the Tower Hamlets logo is great IMO!

I'm not being nationalistic when i say it looks better with the union jack, I just think that the colours and shapes of the union jack compliment the shape of the logo far better than the hideous fluorescent pinks and oranges they were using.


There's nothing wrong with being nationalistic unless there is ill intent or ignorance.

I agree with you.I despise the logo yet inexplicably it works very well with the Union Jack,but I'm assuming we won't be seeing much of that version in the future because people will think we're nazis right ?

There is a misconception here that the logo is innovative and fresh.It is not.We've all seen and heard the arguments,including the Tiswas reference.

What Townsend is effectively saying :

1.It's easy to get 'awareness ' if something so important ( or unimportant ) is so bad.Controversy is the easiest and laziest thing to court.

2. It's a process of indoctrination in that after you've been looking at it for 5 years you'll love it.

I'm assuming we won't be seeing much of that version in the future because people will think we're nazis right ?


No you won't be seeing much of that version because it was designed for the Beijing handover ceremony only.

McCann Worldgroup has been appointed as its Official Marketing Services
The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) today confirmed that McCann Worldgroup has been appointed as its Official Marketing Services Provider, in a Tier Three deal.

Led by McCann London, the agency will work closely with the Marketing team at LOCOG to create the overall look and feel of the Games.

McCann Worldgroup are London 2012’s eighth Tier Three Provider and the 18th domestic commercial partner overall. This is the first time that marketing services has become a sponsorship category for an Organising Committee.

The range of the contract includes advertising (including TV, press, radio, outdoor, online, and mobile), direct marketing and digital marketing.

London 2012 Chair Sebastian Coe said: 'This is an extremely significant appointment as the agency will have a huge role in how the Games are not only perceived in 2012, but also how they’ll be remembered in years to come. We’re reaching the stage in our life-cycle where it’s all about delivering – McCann Worldgroup will help us with this and we welcome them to the team.'

Looking good.

Just found these proposals for Transport for London posters..
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_w8YEXN-hwvM/SgqxceztkYI/AAAAAAAAAYA/TscERBLtqfE/s400/sailing.pnghttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/_w8YEXN-hwvM/SgqwZmmBxII/AAAAAAAAAXY/YW9dvkPi27c/s400/cycling.pnghttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/_w8YEXN-hwvM/SgqwlppAIwI/AAAAAAAAAXg/9ZLwdBNnH6s/s400/diving.pnghttp://3.bp.blogspot.com/_w8YEXN-hwvM/SgqxbwBreqI/AAAAAAAAAX4/hacszMQQLLc/s400/fencing.png
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_w8YEXN-hwvM/SgqxPNF0vjI/AAAAAAAAAXw/pnqU7rznXaE/s400/tennis.png
:drool: they'd look so good around town.

I thinks there ok? interesting.....!!

Very constructivist! Reminds me of Maholy Nagy's photographs and posters. He worked for the Underground for a bit - nice to see the modern designs reflecting this heritage. :)

I quite like the fencing one, but there's nothing particularly original here. All looks a bit dated to me.

Interesting ideas, but not too original- needs more work.

I like them :)

This video is sooo London 2012, I almost expected to see the logo appear when the screen shatters near the end. This is sort of how I expected the logo to be used when it was unveiled. Innovative!

NQdC7h609k8&

I’ve always been quite partial to the brand’s original launch video:

EbKLMf8IUt8

It’s so energetic and spirited. I especially like all the animation before the logo takes shape towards the end.

Design and the London Olympics: a winning combination?
(http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/april/design-and-the-london-olympics-a-winning-combination)Creative Review
Mark Sinclair, 23 April 2009

Will designers remember London's Olympics as fondly as they do those of Mexico, Munich and LA? Not without an improved tendering process and a creative director...

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2009/04/2012.jpg

Of the 29 modern Olympic Games to have been staged since 1896, only a handful have resonated as pieces of classic design. Mexico 68, Munich 72, and LA 84 are perhaps the most celebrated in terms of their visual communi cations, each one the result of a determined creative vision. London 2012 offers the opportunity to add a fourth to this illustrious canon but there are major doubts about its ability to do so.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2009/04/mexico68pictos.jpg
Mexico 68 pictograms

London’s Wolff Olins-designed logo has already proved divisive, there are rumours of public votes determining the choice of mascot and, more recently, designers have voiced complaints that the way they apply for Olympic tenders, through the CompeteFor website, is faceless, bureaucratic and ultimately flawed.

So what’s gone wrong? Are designers right to bemoan the lengthy form-filling and Pre-Qualification Questionnaires of contem porary public sector projects? Is the CompeteFor site actually serving to distance designers from even applying for Olympics work? Perhaps, more import antly, we should ask what needs to be done to ensure that London’s 2012 legacy reflects the best of today’s British design.

First, some background. The London 2012 Games are being delivered by two key organis*ations: the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the body responsible for developing and building the venues and infrastructure of the Games, and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG), the group responsible for prepar ing and staging the Games.
Supplying these organ isations clearly presents a massive under taking and so, in January last year, the London Development Agency (LDA – the mayor’s agency responsible for driving the capital’s sustainable growth) set up the online tendering website CompeteFor, to act “like a dating agency matching buyers throughout the 2012 supply chain with potential suppliers”.
After registering on the site, all suppliers – including designers – fill in an extensive range of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions in five sections which ask for details of studios’ insurance, health and safety policies, ownership and employee diversity, and – though not compulsory – details on company demographics, including sexual orient ation and race.

Each supplier is required to describe in a maximum of 255 characters the “core capability of your organisation” – ie what they do – and, within 600 characters, provide some marketing text for the organisation, alongside three jpegs of work. All this information goes towards creating a Business Profile (which will then be matched with potential business opportunities) and, ultimately, a shortlist of potential suppliers, based on a percentage score.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2009/04/mexico1968.jpg
Mexico 68 poster

As cold as that process sounds, it’s easy to see how bringing the complex business of splicing suppliers and clients together might be made easier online. London 2012 estimate that as many as 75,000 different contracts will be available, with CompeteFor tasked particularly with ensuring that Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are able to apply for a large proportion of the tenders, which is no bad thing.

(Indeed, in August last year Director magazine reported that 18,000 businesses had registered on CompeteFor and, of those, 78 per cent were smes with less than 50 staff, while 98 per cent had less than 200 staff).
At the present time, however, the sheer range of jobs advertised on CompeteFor is overwhelming. There are contracts to provide all elements of the Olympics from, for example, security fencing, plumbing and fire-fighting equipment, to supplying photocopiers, the gold, silver and bronze medals, and even fresh sausages. Design, it would seem, fits in somewhere alongside the electrical equipment and the foodstuffs – and those with experience of applying for creative work via the website have reported discernibly mixed reactions.

Kate Wooding, of digital branding agency Tictoc, recognises the importance of the pqqs that go hand-in-hand with public sector work, but thinks that it’s the procurement departments themselves, rather than the smes they seek to attract, who are often underprepared.

“We’ve noticed a real push from the companies who are involved providing services around the tendering processes to make smes aware of public sector opportunities,” she says. “I think this partly comes from their own commercial interests – making their services valuable to a larger number of companies – but also from government, who want to make public sector opportunities ‘open to all’.

“The consequences of opening the process up haven’t really been thought through, and the implications for the poor public sector procure ment departments who now have to find a way to deal with huge shortlists and reading through hundreds of PQQs hasn’t been appreciated. We’re involved in a number of tender processes that have been delayed at the PQQ shortlisting stage because they’ve received far more submissions than they expected – and having received them, they have to treat them fairly and equally.

"In the specific case of CompeteFor, it’s great that commercial opportu nities around the Olympics are being made ‘easier’ for smes to compete for. But it’s been made so easy that the process isn’t a useful one, and the companies involved aren’t given an opportunity to demon*strate their credentials, which makes a mockery of the process,” she argues.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2009/04/310_olympic1984.jpg
LA 84 logo

According to an ODA spokesperson, the whole point of CompeteFor is to be “fair, open and trans parent about how we procure our direct contracts and this helps create a level and competitive playing field for contracts within our supply chains. This simple and easy-to-use system is about creating unprecedented access to new business opportu nities, relationships and company development.”

Perhaps more worrying is the experience of Paolo Amoroso, creative director at Zoo Media, who applied to design a corporate website via Compete For. “I received a pretty standard rejection email,” he explains. “It stated that our score was 100 per cent, that the average score was 100 per cent but we didn’t get through. When I asked for feedback, I was told ‘the supplier had so many agencies with 100 per cent, they simply chose the first ten alpha betically to take into the next round’. We start with a ‘Z’ so had no chance.

"To be fair to the lady I spoke to, she was apologetic and explained that the client made the decision to pick alphabetically, not Compete For, as there were so many 100 per cent entries. I’m guessing I wasn’t the only one who had received 100 per cent and not gone through.

“The problem is that the three tiny images are no reflection on what a particular agency is capable of doing,” Amoroso continues. “Anybody can pull together three jpegs that look reasonably good, and if the client has no design knowledge, it puts them in a difficult position. The option to upload a pdf presentation with the bid questions would make it easier for everyone concerned.”

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2009/04/310_la_400.jpg
LA 84 signage

While PQQs can certainly be a protracted and lengthy process, one UK creative who is in the pitching stage for a key aspect of the Olympics visual communications sees the CompeteFor site as an unavoidable necessity.
“People have been moaning about it but it’s there to prove that you’re legitimate,” he says. “With things like the health and safety questions I admitted I didn’t have some things. I can see why it has to be like this, there are so many people to be answerable to, there’s a lot of politics involved, so they can’t afford not to tick all the boxes.

"But I wrote a piece about myself for the website, under the assumption that some one would read it. I got the sense that someone had read it and that I hadn’t been selected by an autom*aton. I think the reason is because I’m a marketable force – I’m not a faceless corporation.” So, even though he would have failed to score 100 per cent, he made it through thanks to a subjective decision.

The facelessness of the PQQ culture worries designer Quentin Newark, particularly in relation to the London Olympics, though it’s illustrative of a wider cultural shift in the way that public sector projects are awarded. “These procurement systems apply to very large organisations, to ones that aren’t like design studios,” he says. “What then happens is that the paperwork matters more than the relationships you establish. It’s removing everything that matters in a design project – the relationship with a client and the ability to form a team. It’s removing the humanity.”

According to the London2012.com website, the ODA has a list of six ‘priority themes’, one of which is ‘design and accessibility’. But instead of any sense of a holistic design approach to the Games, it’s merely a few paragraphs on building the permanent venues and – in a nice bit of Dome-distancing – a claim that “we will not leave ‘white elephants’”.

It’s perhaps symptomatic of a wider concern that London 2012 has – that if anything goes wrong, if the public or the media don’t like the results, then the people on the organising committees can’t be blamed. The shadow of the Dome, it seems, looms large over 2012.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2009/04/domelogo.gif
Millennium Experience logo

Newark concurs. “What matters is this manage ment protectionism, protecting the civil servants,” he adds. “They have to be accountable for the decisions they make, use systems and protocols that lead you to the point of decision. They have an audit trail so someone can look at the decisions they’ve made. A computer system comes up with the brief, it shows the matrix of permissable fees and then the design work comes out at the end.

"It’s a bureaucratic way of seeing the world and not a good way to get design work which, like good dancing or good writing, is a human activity that involves intuition, personality and interaction.” This is a major concern for many UK creatives.

But has it reached the point where some of them are actually being put off applying for Olympics-related work because of the systems in place? “Well the usual online tender procedures and PQQ processes are essentially an administrative night mare,” says johnsonbanks' Michael Johnson.

“We’ve been asked to tender by two organisations in the last few years, the BBC and the COI, and have failed with both applications – you never really find out why. With the COI, we still didn’t get on the list despite the fact that three of us worked for about a week on preparing the paperwork. Extraordinary – and an extraordinary waste of time.”

For Johnson, the fact that many designers will have to take on the task of applying the London 2012 logo to a multitude of projects may prove off-putting too. “I think the truth is that whilst the new logo was a brave move, a way in which it can be applied well hasn’t really been seen yet,” he says.

“I suspect that the furore over the mark itself may well have dissuaded many ‘name’ groups from applying, simply because no-one will really be sure if they can make the scheme work, people may be nervous that the flak may turn on them. As it happens, I was asked to be on the judging commit tee for it as a design representative, like I was for the bid logo. I said ‘Well I’m flattered but couldn’t I be considered for the logo itself?’. They said ‘that’s a good idea’ but never rang back.”

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2009/04/ue.jpg

Matt Pyke of Universal Everything worked on pushing the London 2012 logo into the digital world, for a pitch presentation (image shown above) that aimed to show how the Wolff Olins brand would eventually come alive (part of which, notoriously, was accused of inducing epileptic fits when screened on TV). Pyke says that, after collaborating with Wolff Olins on some logo designs, Universal Everything was recommended to an events company by the consult ancy, which then commissioned it to make a live action film.

Pyke’s “nice and simple” route to creating work for the Olympics was decidedly hands-on from the beginning, so would he be tempted to apply for more work via CompeteFor? “The form-filling would put me off but if it leads to being on the roster as an official supplier of the Olympics then that’s fantastic,” he says. “We’ve considered going through it ourselves [but] the risk is that the pitching process puts off those people who are busy.
"Based on the amount of work involved and the slim chance you’ll get through, we’re better off putting our creative energy elsewhere, into commercial or personal projects, rather than putting a lot of time into this. We might get trodden on by 200 other studios.” (Bear in mind that Pyke and his studio manager Philip Ward are the only permanent members of Universal Everything).

So the establishment of professional relationships between a designer and client shouldn’t be under estimated? “Whenever we do projects, the ones where you feel much more enthusiastic are if some one has approached you directly,” Pyke continues. “That’s hard with the Olympics, of course, but I agree that it’s a bizarre way to do things, sifting through 2,000 entries. It’s not the best way to get the cream of the crop to reflect the UK.

"The Olympics is always about the absolute best, the best athletes so, culturally, it should be that every piece of design should represent the pinnacle of British design as well, so that it reflects Britain as a creative hub.”

While LOCOG seems well-stocked with figures from a client or sponsorship background, such as head of brand and marketing, Amanda Jennings (former head of sponsorship and partnerships at O2 and the only name CR could get from the ODA press office), what appears to be missing is someone to take charge of the creative direction of the Olympics, a figurehead who can represent designers’ concerns and drive the design of the Olympics forward. Someone who knows enough about design to say “this is better than that”.

“I’m pitching to marketing and merchandising people,” says the UK creative that CR spoke to, off the record. “Of course, they have to be there, but what I don’t understand is that we’re the only creative people there; we have no ally. If there was a figurehead, in the way that Peter Saville works with Manchester as the city’s creative director, even if it was a ceremonial position, there would be someone who could bring it all together.”

Johnson agrees that appointing a “graphics overseer or creative director to kick it all into shape” is probably the best way to fix the situation, even though such a dictatorial approach runs counter to a ‘buy-in’ obsessed bureaucratic culture that seems to lack the confidence to trust in the decisions of one person.

“We need a Michael Wolff,” suggests Newark, “someone with a track record of engage ment with studios, who can produce a team of designers that can tackle the Olympics and ensure there’s some overall coherence. The design world needs someone to argue on its behalf.”

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2009/04/2513577241_e576af87dc.jpg
Poster for Munich 72

It may be that the creative direction role is taken on by the advertising agency that wins a marketing services pitch called in January this year. It has been reported that the winning agency’s brief will be to devise the overall “creative identity and look” of the Games. LOCOG is apparently looking for an integrated advertising and marketing services agency for this task – the implementation of the graphic identity could then be sub-contracted by them.

This pitch has also proved highly contro versial as locog is reportedly asking for the winning agency to do what may amount to £10 million worth of work for free in exchange for becoming a ‘Tier 3’ sponsor. Some leading agencies are believed to have refused to pitch as a result.

Whoever is in charge, time is running out but, as was the case in at least two of the successful Olympics schemes of the past, it may be that, in true creative style, everything comes together at the last minute.

“There’s still time,” says Johnson. “Two of the best ever schemes were done incred ibly quickly – the entire Mexico 68 scheme was done in two years, as was the brilliant Sussman/ Prejza day-glo pop art stuff for LA in 84.

Conversely, the one all graphic designers love, Munich 72, was started five years in advance by Otl Aicher. Now, you could argue that we got our ‘mark’ five years in advance. What we don’t have yet is a scheme, or a clear way forward.” Perhaps, as Johnson suggests, London 2012 could do with looking to the past in order to secure its future.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2009/04/2837928162_28c6e91bff_o.jpg
Munich 72 pictograms, from the Otl Aicher Flickr pool

Professor Ian McLaren worked with Otl Aicher in the last two years of his Munich 72 campaign, as part of a team of 40 who produced all of the Olympics’ visual communications. McLaren cites Willy Daume, the Munich equivalent of Seb Coe, as having a close relationship with Aicher but also a clear vision of what he wanted the Games to project.

“The whole management structure of 2012 seems lacking in vision, and is unwieldy,” says McLaren. “If there is a vision it is not being expressed in the design policy. It certainly needs someone, with a strong team, to ensure priorities and consistency. The policy of outsourcing now adays involves public purchasing procedures that are better suited to large civil engineering projects. Most design groups will struggle with the proce dural hurdles.

"Certainly I know of innovative groups being so put off that they do not bother. So the procedures are not necessarily attracting the best. I suspect that the process is also more costly than employing a good – ie effective – in-house team.

“In German there is a very telling expression, ‘ein gute Mann’, which translates rather feebly as ‘a good man’ but means much more in German busi ness culture. It signifies deep respect. I can well believe that Aicher had that sort of reputation before the Olympics, and certainly did after.”

London, he suggests, needs a similarly ‘good man’ or, presum ably, woman. Will anyone step up to the task?

Design and the London Olympics: a winning combination?
(http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/april/design-and-the-london-olympics-a-winning-combination)Creative Review
Mark Sinclair, 23 April 2009

Will designers remember London's Olympics as fondly as they do those of Mexico, Munich and LA? Not without an improved tendering process and a creative director...

Unfortunately this was a problem for some venues too.

The New Ugly
(http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2007/august/the-new-ugly)Creative Review
Posted by Patrick Burgoyne, 30 August 2007

Stretched type, day-glo colours and a flagrant disregard for the rules: are we witnessing a knee-jerk reaction to the slick sameness of so much design or a genuine cultural shift?

In the early 90s, the mother of all rows blew up between, on the one hand, the traditionalist school of American designers led by Massimo Vignelli and, in defiant opposition, the avant garde of Emigre and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. The catalyst was an essay in Eye magazine by Steven Heller entitled Cult of the Ugly, in which the world’s most prolific design writer took Cranbrook and its students to task over, as he saw it, their gratuitously ugly output. Well now, it seems, ugly is back.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2007/08/2012.jpg

Exhibit A: Wolff Olins’ 2012 Olympics logo. When finally wheeled out to confront an ever-more-hostile national press, Wolff Olins creative director Patrick Cox claimed that “Its design is intentionally raw, it doesn’t… ask to be liked very much. It was meant to provoke a response, like the little thorn in the chair that gets you to breathe in, sit up and take notice.”

In addition, Wolff Olins’ chairman Brian Boylan claimed success for having “created something original in a world where it is increasingly difficult to make something different”. In other words, when we are surrounded by logos created to a slick, if mediocre, aesthetic standard, the only way to stand out is deliberately to reject those standards.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2007/08/supercover1.jpg

Which brings us to Exhibit B: the magazine that seemingly influenced Wolff Olins’ thinking – style magazine and New Rave progenitor, Super Super. Launched early last year, its art direction has been likened to “a clown being sick”. Its wilfully distorted typography, day glo colours and total rejection of the holy tenets of magazine design are enough to give more mature art directors a fit of the vapours. It’s MySpace made flesh, with all the clashing cacophony that concept brings to mind.

And yet, according to its creative director, Steve Slocombe, what underlines the magazine is “harmony”. “There is nothing in Super Super that is empty or frivolous,” he insists, “everything is there for a reason.”

When it comes to style magazines, Slocombe has form, having previously been editor of Sleazenation.. His last issue there (May 2003 which, incidentally, got him the sack) introduced the freeform approach that Super Super has taken to such troubling extremes. But, he says, it was a period working for photographer Wolfgang Tillmans that most influenced his approach. A fine art graduate from St Martins, Slocombe’s role included helping Tillmans install his shows – a process that was, in itself, an artistic exercise. “We’d get a plan of the space and we’d turn up with work in all kinds of different sizes and respond to the space, arranging the work accordingly: it was an organic process about what work would sit best in certain situations,” he explains.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2007/08/superspread2.jpg

This, then, is the approach that he brings to designing Super Super. There is no predefined grid: Slocombe starts with the images (which may or may not be in focus) and arranges them so as to maximise the space, just as he and Tillmans would on the gallery wall. There are some rules: copy is set in blocks either 90mm or 40mm wide, at 10 point on 12 point leading or eight on 10, using either Helvetica or Times. But word and image rarely line up: “Things feel a lot more human if they are a fraction out,” Slocombe claims, “it’s about a sense of harmony and rhythm.” It’s what sets Super Super apart: “Magazines had become very machine-like, very impersonal. Super Super is very human. It speaks to the reader very directly, removes the barriers. The values of the magazine are to be fun, to be positive, to say ‘have a go, you can do this’.”

While other magazines may seek to manipulate pace by contrasting full-bleed images with more detailed spreads, Super Super tries to cram in as much as possible onto every available inch of space. The reason, according to Slocombe, is that its readers (typically aged between 14 and 24) are part of the “ADD Generation”. Their alarmingly short attention spans mean that they cannot be guaranteed to look at more than one spread in any particular issue, he claims, so each one has to embody all the values of the magazine. And, he says, they have a completely different idea about colour. If you are 30-plus, white may embody sophistication and expense, but to the Super Super “reader” it is colour that does this – bright colours and lots of them.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2007/08/super1.jpg

The magazine is not, Slocombe insists, anti-design. “That whole argument that you have to be either a follower of David Carson or of the Swiss School is not the debate we have now – I’ll take the best of both and anything else that’s around. The old way of things was movement followed by anti-movement, now the culture swallows the past and moves on instead of defining itself against what has gone before,” he argues. “I’m not against what may have gone before, I just think this is more appropriate for here and now. At the core of the Swiss ideal is efficient communication – well, this is the most appropriate way to communicate to our audience.”

The charitable view would be that Slocombe’s lack of formal design training has left him unencumbered by the profession’s history and therefore more able to seek out new forms of expression: the uncharitable view would be that Super Super is simply a mess, created for young kids who will move on to more sophisticated tastes as they mature. And yet the magazine’s core concerns – of seeking to inject some quirky humanity into a slickly homogenised magazine market, of being true to a vision deemed appropriate to the readership – are shared by a designer with a far more “establishment” pedigree. Which brings us to Exhibit C: Mike Meiré's recent redesign of German cultural magazine 032c.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2007/08/032c_01.jpg

Meiré is renowned in magazine circles for his art direction of Brand Eins, a German business magazine that mixed beautiful photography with classic typography and lots of white space. That was in 1999: since then, Meiré says he’s been waiting for an alternative approach to emerge, but to no avail. “There are so many magazines out there which pretend to be cool, sophisticated or even culturally relevant. They all look the same,” he says. “I became a bit tired of all these look-a-like magazines,” which, through Brand Eins, he helped create. “They’re all made very professionally but I was looking for something more charismatic. I wanted to search for an interesting look that was beyond the mainstream.”

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2007/08/032c_05.jpg

The result is a magazine that, wrote designer Jeremy Leslie on his blog MagCulture, “uses typography and layouts that are hard to describe as anything but ugly. The pages feel thrown together. When I expressed my confusion about the redesign to the magazine’s founder/editor Joerg Koch,” continued Leslie, “I received a surprising reply. ‘Thanks for your message which made me incredibly happy! This is exactly what we wanted to achieve, this sort of engagement with a magazine where you question yourself if it makes sense, if it is really brilliant or simply daft.’”
Meiré readily admits that “Yes, I did deliberately set out to break rules with this and yes, it is a provocation – but in the first place to myself! If every magazine or every building or every brand or everybody tries to look appealing by using the same idea of being modern, it becomes interesting to go in the opposite direction, because life has different kinds of beauty to present. If people feel confused by it, it is because we are all so used to this kind of efficient, streamlined, correctness.”

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2007/08/032c_08.jpg

In his original essay, Heller slammed those using ugliness as a knee-jerk reaction to the status quo. “Ugliness as its own virtue diminishes all design,” he said. All three projects cited here could be accused of such a crime. However, Heller also argued that ugliness “is not a problem when it is a result of form following function”. Though none of Wolff Olins, Slocombe or Meiré may feel comfortable with describing their work as ugly, they all lay claim to their pursuit of the latter.

“Making a magazine is about finding the right look for its content, its attitude,” Meiré argues. “To me it’s the only way to create a unique identity. [In doing so] maybe you don’t please the [mainstream] anymore – but you become who you are, authentic in your own way.”

This, it would seem, is the crux of the matter. If all three of these projects, and other contemporary works in the same vein, are merely an attempt to zig while the world zags, to be different for difference’s sake, then they need not detain us for long. If, however, they are the honest result of form following function and thereby represent the visual expression of a genuine cultural shift, then that becomes something altogether more interesting.

Take colour, for instance. Both the Olympics logo and Super Super propose a new relationship between colour and quality. That bright no longer necessarily equals trashy. That a younger generation is inverting the chromatic scale as it relates to notions of quality and class. Super Super claims to address the impact of changing patterns of media consumption on design. This, it says, is what happens when your “readers” are not readers at all but mere “scanners” of content who are as likely to start at page 46 as page one. And all three claim to be fired by a desire to involve their audiences rather than simply presenting themselves to them. Inevitably this would seem to require a move away from the slick and the forbidding, toward, as Slocombe describes it, something more “human”.

There is more than empty styling at work here. Something like Super Super can easily be dimissed as just a few kids messing about, but, as a recent piece on New Rave in The Sunday Times Style magazine noted, that’s pretty much how all trends start. All three projects are well-intentioned attempts to respond to and engage with a shifting cultural landscape. If this is the future, it may not be a pretty sight.

Big question! What form will the olympic logo take at the opening ceremony?
bet it want be pink! or blue! images of modern UK inside the logo??

Big question! What form will the olympic logo take at the opening ceremony?
bet it want be pink! or blue! images of modern UK inside the logo??
Well, it's not bound to make an appearance. I can't recall seeing the last two Olympic logos appear during their respective ceremonies.

If it does appear, it'd be nice if they use it to its full potential instead of being a static image.

Best Olympic posters and branding imo:

http://desaingrafisindonesia.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/tokyo1964.jpg

http://blog.iso50.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/tokyo64-runners.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vblJzVmOP1g/SdIyZH5wZPI/AAAAAAAACOw/IAoTMRcT4Bw/s400/olympics_tokyo64_01.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2782861451_74ba973263.jpg

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2008/05/opmexico.jpg http://img.ffffound.com/static-data/assets/6/b9b7ea49cec8854e2d94b1b78ae8777a4a61bf40_m.jpg

http://www.monoscope.com/quickimagepost/2007/10/noisydecentgraphics.typepad.com_design_images_2007_09_27_img_7124.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3094/2509156516_7e3d08dab8.jpg

http://blog.iso50.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/026.jpg

Though I do like our logo, some interesting alternatives:

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43010000/jpg/_43010067_richard_416.jpg http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43009000/jpg/_43009997_simon_hamblett_220.jpg

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43010000/jpg/_43010203_richard_bamsey_220jpg.jpg http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43009000/jpg/_43009975_sam_boulton_416.jpg

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43010000/jpg/_43010245_glenn_holland_2202.jpg http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43010000/jpg/_43010139_richard_lobacz_416.jpg

http://www.gibs.at/cms/images/stories/news/06_07/london_olympics_wren.jpg


also do like the NYC one:

http://logoblink.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/olympic-logos.png

The Mexico one is my favourite, I have a huge framed poster of it at work. It's the closest one to London 2012 in terms of what it was trying to achieve of creating a brand, etc. Very revolutionary for its time.

The Munich and Seoul ones (posted below) are just as abstract as London 2012, yet a lot of people still have this strange notion that an Olympics logo should have some kind of design element as to where the games are being held.

Though I do like our logo, some interesting alternatives

Yes, interestingly awful. Overrun with cliches and a couple that simply wouldn't be allowed by the IOC.

It goes to show unlike what people believe, not everyone can be a designer.

Munich 1972

http://www.mapsofworld.com/olympic-trivia/images/olympic-emblem/munich1972.gif

http://colouroflife.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/17-munich-1972.jpg http://farm1.static.flickr.com/242/457225079_d41976d001.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3167/2837928162_28c6e91bff_o.jpg http://www.virginmedia.com/images/waldi-400x300.jpg


Seoul 1988

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/23/84923-004-8B1A8189.jpg http://www.goodlogo.com/images/logos/seoul_1988_logo_2955.gif http://www.chinadaily.net/paralympics/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20080829/0013729c03370a21e82820.jpg

http://olympic-museum.de/pictograms/picto1988_1.jpg http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hyp5lU0J-VE/Sgn4bAhNUAI/AAAAAAAABog/cVzS05duXfU/s320/6.jpg

http://www.swatchandbeyond.com/published/publicdata/SHOPDATA/attachments/SC/products_pictures/Swatch%20Watch%20Seoul%201988_thm.JPG

The Munich and Seoul ones (posted below) are just as abstract as London 2012, yet a lot of people still have this strange notion that an Olympics logo should have some kind of design element as to where the games are being held.
The Olympic Games are as much a showcase of the host as they are of the Olympic Movement. Ever since Olympic design began to move towards today's high level of usage and integration (I'd say that would be Los Angeles 1984, where the whole visual "Image and Identity" of the event was prevalent in venue dressage, marketing, etc.) the stating point of any Olympic Games brand has been the host's culture, etc. Whether it is Atlanta 1996 alluding to its "city of trees" nickname with its wide usage of the color green, Torino 2006 taking inspiration from the Italian piazza and the vibrant passion of that country, or Salt Lake 2002 reflecting the contrast of desert and snowy mountains in the Utah landscape with its usage of oranges against blues, where a Games are held have been at the core of any Olympic host's "look."

Here's a great set of videos outlining the creation of the last 4 Olympic brands: http://www.iconologic.com/client/olympics/

By the way, Munich's is arguable, but Seoul's logo definitely points to were the those Games were held. From the IOC's website:

"The Seoul emblem features a samtaeguk pattern. A samtaeguk is a traditional Korean pattern and visual image which represents Korea. This pattern is widely used as decoration on fans, gates of Korean-style homes, artefacts, and folk crafts. The Olympic emblem features patterns in two forms, centripetal and centrifugal; the centripetal motion represented the people of the world coming together in Korea, thus symbolising worldwide harmony, while the centrifugal motion represented a march onward in search of man’s lasting happiness and prosperity."

^very interesting vid, thanks

The Mexico logo was the best!

I don't remember the LA one that well, Seul's logo although lame is more memorable and berlin will be remembered for not having a swastika!

The London 2012 official logo is a joke, children do better logos as has been demonstrated on this forum time and time again! Unfortunately unless it evolves it will disappear into history. Personally, I am hoping they will bring back the iconic bid logo which was so much better on so many levels!

p.s. great logos, spiff fairy

OperateOnMe...you clearly need an operation on your brain!!!



(See what I did there? :D )

Unfortunately unless it evolves it will disappear into history.
If they use this logo like it's intended to, that's not going to happen.

Most of the logos that followed the corporate, limiting, "image over host city and year, over Olympic rings" formula of the last 20 plus years will probably disappear.

London 2012 has completely rejected that formula in favor of something that is inheritably more adaptable and versatile. Something more commercial than corporate.

Mexico 68 is brilliant isn't it, very clever whoever thought of it. London 2012 is a definite step backwards IMO.

^^What will determine the sucess of the 2012 logo will come down to the way in which it is used in posters, merchandise and tv, where it becomes the focus of complex graphic displays, rather than how it is used at the moment as a subscript to other information. Since this hasn't been necessary as the logo has merely been used to identify documents or sponsors or a feww bits and pieces or merchandies, it impossible to judge if it is a success. If you read the article about the mexico 68 graphics and the munich and LA games, they all refer to how the logo was integrated during the games into the overall graphic concept. As singular logos they are all pretty meaningless, but once they were integrated into a larger concept they became quite beautiful. I believe that once the games time comes around and we have large and exciting banners with the 2012 logo strewn across the city and all of the merchandise branded with the logo and TV segments where the logo moves and come to life dynamically, it will look really fantastic. So, it might look silly now, but wait until it gets put to use as it was intended and i think we will all be pleasantly surprised.

It would be good in the meantime though for the 2012 website to make better use of the logo and really get that thing moving around the screen and getting images and menus to mimic that electric movement. the chicago2016 website would be a good example of merging moving videos into the webite.

That's if it's used properly. We've only seen glimses of how good it can look if used properly so far (and it can look very, very good) and I'm nervous that since the launch there's been little that's bettered some of Wolf Ollins' own examples.

The makings of a brand leader
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/12/wolff-olins-olympics-2012-logo)David Teather
The Observer
Sunday 12 July 2009

Wolff Olins's top man tells David Teather that 'tasteful' is bland - and that the 2012 logo will work.

Wolff Olins is no stranger to controversy. The brand consultancy was behind the extreme makeover of British Telecom in the early 1990s, shortening the name to BT and introducing the prancing piper that blew its own last post six years ago, a process that cost millions and caused fury as workers were losing their jobs.

It also came up with the much-derided brand name Diageo when Guinness merged with Grand Metropolitan. But even so, the agency was unprepared for the furore last year over its logo for the 2012 Olympics in London: a brightly coloured piece of graffiti designed to capture the energy of the city.

I read out some of the worst attacks to the agency's chief executive, Karl Heiselman: "a broken swastika"; "an example of the sort of design you get when politicos and business people try to be hip"; and my own personal favourite, "alcopop-induced vomit". Some 49,000 people were reported to have signed a petition demanding that the design be torn up.

Heiselman laughs. Was he taken aback by the strength of feeling? "Yeah, but we were hoping it would be challenging," he says. "When I first saw it I thought, 'wow, this is great work', and I still do."

I read back a quote from an agency executive at the time, who said that it had been a deliberate decision to go against prevailing "good taste". Heiselman agrees. "Good taste is really narrow in design, really narrow ... In many ways, to do acceptably good taste is really pretty easy and really bland. If you want to go unnoticed, that is a pretty good way to do it." History, he adds, will judge whether the London logo worked or not.

Heiselman, 44, who had been running the New York office for Wolff Olins, was appointed global chief executive last year, the first time someone from outside London has held the top job.

Dressed in a loose shirt, a suit jacket, jeans and pointy boots, he appears like a better-looking Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. He grew up on a farm north of Syracuse in New York state and lived in Williamsburg in Brooklyn, before moving to east London four months ago.

Heiselman's background is in product design, including stints at Apple and Swatch. He worked at Apple in the dark days before the return of founder Steve Jobs and when the British designer Jonathan Ive was still an undiscovered star in the industrial design department. "It was a bit of a weird time, they were trying to find their way," he recalls. "The big lesson I learned was they were trying to be somebody they weren't and Jobs came back and said very clearly, 'we are going to go back to who we really are'."

Not surprisingly for a product designer and branding expert, Heiselman showers praise on his former employer. "Where Apple really has it together is that it's a flawless experience, everything from the store to the hardware to the software, it has really done an amazing job at creating that experience."

But aren't the stores a bit intimidating? "Well, they have performed beyond belief." He considers. "[Apple] is intimidating, in that maybe it feels a little too cool for its own good. I think it might be in danger of becoming too cool, maybe not too cool, but too slick. Even with this guy," he says, waving his iPhone. "It is like you are kitted out with the Apple gear - you think, my God, I really bought into this thing a little bit too much."

Among his other favourite brands is Muji, the Japanese home and clothing retailer famous for its unbranded goods: "I like its singlemindedness. Everything fits together because everything is beautifully designed. And it is a generous brand. You can take the labels off it, so when that soap dispenser goes into your house it is yours, not Muji's."

Heiselman says his agency stresses the "experience" of a brand, rather than simply tinkering round the edges with design or marketing. "My bank, HSBC, drives me nuts lately, because you see really good advertising but it doesn't connect with the call centre experience, and that's what really matters. We have put way too much emphasis on advertising and communications in the past and not enough on the actual experience."

Advertising, he says, has become even more hollow because of the way people now use the internet. "I Googled 'best razor', found out which one got the most stars in reviews, bought that one, and noticed that the one I had currently only has two stars. And it clicked for me; this is the way people are going to shop. For brands to rely on advertising and marketing is a huge mistake because people find you out, which is why we put emphasis on product and service innovation."

Wolff Olins is responsible for some of the most memorable brands of recent decades, including First Direct, Goldfish and Orange, which started a trend for dissonant names. "Now so many brands are named after ordinary things. I have been wanting to name a company a sentence to get away from all those short snappy names." He thinks for a moment. "There is Comme des Garçons, I suppose." Or Pret a Manger? "But I want to create a reeeaaallly long name."

http://www.universaleverything.com/283

Cut out the offending scene from that diver I notice!

Shame nothing I've seen so far in the two years since lives up to how good the brand looked in that video.

This video is sooo London 2012, I almost expected to see the logo appear when the screen shatters near the end. This is sort of how I expected the logo to be used when it was unveiled. Innovative!

NQdC7h609k8&Yup, that video is almost as hideous and unappealing as our logo. What an aesthetic disaster...

Don't diss La Roux!!

I think the branding for the able bodied Olympics is excellent. I was pretty shocked at first and couldn't make my mind up but it has realy grown on me. The paralympic one just looks messy....very much looks like an after thought. The branding will certainly be remembered which I guess is the point. The first olympics I remember watching was Barcelons 92 and have watched each one since and cannot remember any of their branding and i'm struggling even to remember Beijing.

Did any other host cities have such furore when they announced their branding or was it just London and the typical British media trying to knock it down?

I think Sydney's was derided at first, the ozzie papers said it looked like a kellogs chicken or something. These things tend to evolve though. The logo has lived very much in isolation so far. When it's built into a more coherent context and the colours and branding of 2012 are refined, I'm sure it'll make a lot more sense.

I'd also like to see what the pros do with it; companies like Adidas who'll be making 2012 gear will surely get to grips with it.

MQ-B3C7RQH8

_PIQPqudkYc

Both those clips were realy good, in particular the second. The logo looks great im simple black and white. Do you think the doubters in the media/public would have been more accepting of the logo if it was black and white? Don't get me wrong I think the neon colours are great but maybe the shock of them was too much for some people

http://www.universaleverything.com/283

was this one that raised the epilipsy concerns?

Yes, but the offending snippet has been removed.

was this one that raised the epilipsy concerns?

It was only the scene when the diver goes into the pool and the flashing went a bit overboard. They've taken that scene out now.

You can see that bit on on post #84 on page 5 of this thread.

It just hit me last night.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/images/uploads/2007/06/london2012_sg_03.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/50/Bomberg%2C_The_Mud_Bath.jpg

Put 'vorticism' in wikipedia if you don't know what I'm on about.

Personally I wouldn't have minded a more abstract use of the Union Jack colours in the logo, without it obviously being a flag draped through the outline. Possible some kind of gradient between the red and blue, nodding to the flag, but not explicitly depicting it.

I do think a lot of people around the world were put off having the Union Jacked logo on the back of the bus at the handover ceremony in Beijing, believing this to be a British Games for the British only. It did smack incredibly of imperialism and not the call to youth it was hoping to. The Paralympic Handover bus was much better and what the Olympic Handover bus should have looked like, conveying the 2012 message much clearer.

What does it matter if it is a British Games? Alot of young people round the world are fans of Britain, London and our culture. It's nonsence that we should not sell that to the world.

What does it matter if it is a British Games? Alot of young people round the world are fans of Britain, London and our culture. It's nonsence that we should not sell that to the world.

Because it completely betrays the idea that these are 'Everyone's Games' as the message behind them.

It doesn't matter now as that variation of the logo won't be used again.

How do you know?

Well, they said it was designed purely for the handover. Like a one off, limited edition for that event only.

Hello ....
BEAUTIFUL es Brasil y Río de Janeiro ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TCoqZNesnM

Don't diss La Roux!!

GAY !

Originally Posted by Bowater
What does it matter if it is a British Games? Alot of young people round the world are fans of Britain, London and our culture. It's nonsence that we should not sell that to the world.


I agree but it's also nonsense when someone can't spell nonsense.

London 2012 launches Get Set network as new education logo infill is unveiled (http://www.london2012.com/news/archive/2009-09/london-2012-launches-get-set-network-as-new-education-logo-infill-is-unveile.php)
15 September 2009
london2012.com


The new London 2012 education logo infill features coloured pencils
The London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) has unveiled the winning design for an infill of the London 2012 Olympic logo to be used exclusively use by UK schools and colleges.

http://www.london2012.com/photos/education/education-logo.jpg

The new education logo infill was designed by Reiss Evans (18) from Dover, a graphic design student at Canterbury College. Reiss saw off competition from more than 150 young designers across the UK, aged between 16 and 21 years-old.

His winning infill creates a logo which will be awarded to schools and colleges across the UK which join the Get Set network - part of the official London 2012 education programme - by demonstrating a commitment to the Olympic and Paralympic Values.

Reiss said: 'I wanted to create a design for everyone and one that was relevant to every school or college joining the Get Set network. I chose a pencil design because students use pencils from a young age at primary schools through to their work at college.

'The pencils are symbolic of the creativity in the UK’s schools and the range of colours used represents the global nature of the 2012 Games. The colours ensure the logo is eye-catching and they tie in with those used in London 2012’s own brand work.'

The new education logo was revealed at Nightingale Primary School in Woolwich, London: the first school to be awarded the logo for joining the Get Set network and have its participation in the London 2012’s education programme formally recognised.

Reiss was joined at the launch by Jonathan Edwards, Olympic Triple Jump gold medalist and LOCOG Board Member and Tessa Jowell, Olympics Minister and Councillor Chris Roberts, Leader of Greenwich Council.

With more than 11,000 schools and colleges across the UK already registered as using the Get Set resources - or taking part in the initiatives promoted through the eight key themes of Get Set, London 2012 is helping to spark young people’s imagination and enthusiasm for learning in many ways.

I like it, good work Reiss.

A slightly bigger version and an article in the Times.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00614/Summs_1_360_614567g.jpg

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6836257.ece

Yeah
I really like it, it works very well, good to see some young talent being used in the process too.

London 2012 show the way with Olympic pictograms
(http://www.london2012.com/news/media-releases/2009-10/london-2012-show-the-way-with-olympic-pictograms.php)16 October 2009
london2012.com

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) today unveiled the London 2012 Olympic pictograms, the visual representations of each Olympic sport which will be used in the run up to and during the Olympic Games in 2012. The 38 pictograms represent the sports and disciplines at the Games and will be used for signage, on tickets and on the field of play at Games-time, becoming an important ‘wayfinder’ tool for spectators.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2571/4016752060_7485e7ea2a_b.jpg

The London 2012 pictograms were developed in consultation with each International Sporting Federation and have been designed to be vibrant and accurate depictions of each sporting discipline. They will come in two different formats – a silhouette version for standard use and a dynamic version inspired by the connectivity of the London Underground map, which will be used on merchandise, posters, sign posts and wayfinding materials.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2677/4016752248_55d1d55617_o.jpg

London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe commented, “The pictograms will be a vital wayfinder for spectators at Games-time and will become recognisable come 2012, but by unveiling them now we have a fantastic opportunity to use them as a tool for people to find out more about the Olympic sports. Over the next three years, each sport has a golden opportunity to tell its story and educate the British public about what it is on offer at London 2012. I hope the pictograms will be the gateway to achieve this and we will work with all of the governing bodies to ensure that knowledge of all the Olympic sports increases between now and 2012.”

Olympics Minister, Tessa Jowell said, “These pictograms will be a simple way of helping people navigate London during the Games and a reference point for fans of the Olympic sports in the run up to and throughout the Games in 2012. They will, I’m sure, become an enduring image of London 2012.”

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson commented, "These are bold and dynamic images, which capture the energy and colour of the Games. Each sport is illustrated with graphic simplicity and the way it incorporates the iconic London Underground visual identity is genius. The designs will add to the pleasure of everyone attending, as well as helping them navigate the city whilst the Games are on."

British Olympic Association Chairman Lord Moynihan said, “In 2012 Olympic sports and athletes will have a unique opportunity to showcase themselves to the UK and the world and the pictograms will help do that. They look fantastic and I am confident that they will become a key visual icon of the London 2012 Olympic Games.”

IOC Coordination Commission Chairman Denis Oswald said, “The pictograms of an Olympic Games are a unique link between the host city and the sports involved. The London 2012 pictograms are a strong and dynamic representation of the 2012 sports and are instantly recognisable as part of London’s look. This is particularly true of the dynamic version, which draws its inspiration from the London underground map, forever linking these Games to this great city. The Olympic summer sports are delighted by these designs and I hope that they will not just help people to find their way to the events but will also encourage young people to try out different Olympic sports as we head towards 2012.”

Olympic Games pictograms were first used at the 1948 Games in London and have become a regular feature of the Olympic movement since the Tokyo Games in 1964. The pictograms will be featured on limited edition adidas t-shirts on sale from October 24 2009 to celebrate 1000 days to go until the Olympic Games. There will be a full set of Paralympic pictograms which will be launched later this year.

The London 2012 Olympic pictograms represent each of the sports and disciplines of the Olympic Games.

There are two formats for each pictogram - a silhouette and a 'dynamic' version.

The silhouette pictograms
http://www.london2012.com/photos/brand/all-functional-pictograms.gif

The 'dynamic' pictograms
http://www.london2012.com/photos/brand/all-dynamic-pictograms.gif

The dynamic format of the pictograms bring the representations to life. They will be used on merchandise, posters and sign-posts. They were inspired by the London Underground map.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3514/4015996883_eb0c347a99_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2795/4015996921_5712eefe19_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2676/4015996971_1ee997df93_o.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3511/4016759828_bffc32694d_o.jpg

http://www.london2012.com/photos/brand/track-cycling-dynamic-pictogram.gif

How they will be used during the Games.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1716/picture3nr.png

THE BRAND IS FINALLY COMING TOGETHER!!! :cheers:

I love this image, particularly the volleyball signage and archery poster. The logo makes perfect sense in this context and this is what I've been saying all along - whilst I've always liked the logo, London 2012's branding and treatment of it up to now has been so poor. Get the branding right and the logo looks right, get the branding wrong and the logo looks wrong.

This undoubtedly gets the branding right. More like this please!

good to see Mr Brownlee finally getting the publicity he deserves being ranked alongside some awesome athletes for the launch. with regard to the pictograms...love em

These look really good, they have a great identity and really bring the corporate identity together, however I can't say I like the graphics on the floor by the Aqua Centre!

I love these, work very well and I actually love the floor next to the aquatic centre. Not sure if fits with the whole parkland greenery theme of the Olympic park?

But on that shot I like it.

I love these, work very well and I actually love the floor next to the aquatic centre. Not sure if fits with the whole parkland greenery theme of the Olympic park?

But on that shot I like it.

if they could make those lines on the paving out of strips of embedded LEDs that could animate the lines, it could be really amazing

I doubt that'll happen. I'm sure it's for illustrative purposes only and was drawn up by the branding agency to promote the pictograms rather than by London 2012 or the ODA.

the triathlon one looks a bit dodge.....

But, really like these. Very nice looking and generally extremely clear. I don't quite understand the purpose of the 'dynamic' ones.

They're a decorative "mesh" for backgrounds and branding. See the banner with the volleyball signage and cyclist above.

6oujidOytHA

^ That cracked me up - i was wondering how long it would take to appear on here :)

6oujidOytHA

:lol::lol:

" Sense of urgency " .

2012 Olympics ad boss: I wouldn't pick that logo

The controversy over the Olympic logo has been reignited after the advertising agency chosen to promote the Games distanced itself from the design.

Two years after the jigsaw-like logo was unveiled to worldwide criticism, the head of the US-owned McCann Worldgroup agency said he would "probably not" have chosen it as a symbol of the 2012 Games.

Brett Gosper, president of McCann Worldgroup in Europe, gave the logo - described by critics as a "puerile mess", a swastika and a collection of beer mats - a lukewarm response.

The £400,000 design, by London agency Wolff Olins, caused more controversy when promotional films triggered epileptic attacks among viewers. Mr Gosper said: "We saw the fallout of the logo. [Wolff Olins] would have quite liked the debate, but I don't think they thought it would go that far."

Mr Gosper refused to give his personal view on the design but, asked if he would have come up with such a logo, he said: "Probably not."

He added: "It is famous or infamous. I don't think it's a bad thing."

Nick Sykes, who heads the London Olympic account for McCann, said: "My daughter absolutely loves it. That's the truest answer."

The agency, which in April bid about £10 million for the right to market the Games, must incorporate the logo in all its promotional material.

London 2012 officials expressed unhappiness at the comments of their advertising agency, adding: "This is surprising."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23770684-2012-olympics-advert-boss-i-wouldnt-pick-that-logo.do

The biggest mistake LOCOG made was gagging Wolff Olins from explaining the thinking behind the logo when it was unveiled. If they were allowed when the 'controversy' blew up I doubt there would have been so much fuss now.

Having read from various sources the thinking behind the brand it makes perfect sense, and I don't think Mr Gosper is in any way rubbishing it, he's just honest in saying that his company probably wouldn't have come up with anything from that end of the design spectrum. Doesn't make the brand any more wrong than the one they could have come up with if they had pitched for it.

Fantastic, I love the newly released graphics. The pictograms in their various forms look superb, especially the dynamic ones and I love the fact they have been inspired by the tube map, can clearly see that.

I found this hunting around a web designer's website. I believe it's the homepage of the LOCOG Intranet.

http://www.richdean.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/london2012.jpg

Sochi play it safe. Yeah, I can see the symmetry in the letters, but it pales into the possibilities of London's brand.

http://blogs.thisismoney.co.uk/.a/6a00d8341c565553ef0120a6f626a7970b-500wi

http://www.sostav.ru/articles/rus/2009/01.12/news/images/so3.jpg

http://www.sostav.ru/articles/rus/2009/01.12/news/images/so5.jpg

Very dull.

I think DarJoLe, it has to be understood as something quite different from London's in its intention.

London's logo is not intended to brand London, but to brand London 2012. Therein lies the difference.

This logo, I think, is going to define Sochi in the long term and aims to sell a relativly unknown city (unlike London) to the world. It's a brand for a city, not just for an event, and as such has been designed with longevity and instant accessability in mind. I think after the Games the 2014 and Olympic rings will be dropped and the resort of Sochi will have its own brand which will, because of the Olympics, be recognised the world over. A good idea and a sound strategy for a city which, unlike London, most won't have heard of.

In short, London's logo will always be associated with London 2012. Sochi's I think, will come to define Sochi itself.

------

And I have to say, I like it.

It's a very well produced piece of word art. The elements of reflection between the o's, the 2 and the c and the s, and the h and i's are quite snowflake-esque in their multiple planes of symmetry. And it is clean and crisp and I would say quite wintery.

I think this could, or at least has the potential to be the best winter logo since Salt Lake if it's used wisely.

I'm not sure about the .ru and I think it'd look better without it. But understood as part of a long-term branding excersise for an upcoming region rather than branding for a one off event, this inclusion is forgivable.

Overall, pretty good. A lot better than Vancouver's, imho.

I'm still not convinced. It's fair to say they are doing two different jobs and therefore comparisons are always going to be unfair. But what other elements are there to Sochi's apart from the fading blue triangles? True, it's only just been launched and time will tell, but London always had that sense of going somewhere with a massive range of backgrounds and colours that will dress the venues and the look of the Games. Sochi maybe is sticking it too safe and end up looking too bland if everything has those traingles on it. Time will tell.

I agree there is no sense of a larger cultural vision, it is very very safe. Had might as well be a design for a new ski pant in Primark.

http://www.london2012.com/images/olympic-park/1000-days-to-paralympic-games-velodrome-pictogram.jpg

http://www.london2012.com/news/2009/12/counting-down-1-000-days-to-go-to-the-paralympic-games.php
Counting down 1,000 days to go to the Paralympic Games
03 Dec 2009

Today marks 1,000 days to go to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

http://www.london2012.com/images/sports/paralympic-track-cycling.gif

Each Paralympic sport and discipline has a 'dynamic' pictogram - as above - and a silhouette version of the pictogram.
To mark the milestone, the pictograms representing each Paralympic sport and discipline have been released. They will help with wayfinding in 2012 and will also be used as a tool to help educate people leading up to and during the Games.

It's not too late for potential competitors to start training. A nationwide talent recruitment drive has also been launched today by UK Sport, the English Institute of Sport and the British Paralympic Association. They're looking for people with an impairment who think they might have what it takes to compete in 2012 with an online registration available.

Sebastian Coe, Chair of the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG), said: 'In 1,000 days’ time we will be welcoming the Paralympic Games home and we will deliver a spectacular showcase for Paralympic sport.

'This is a golden opportunity to raise awareness of Paralympic sport, challenge stereotypes about disability and secure a legacy which will have every disabled child getting greater access to sport.

'As the clock counts down to 2012, there is still time to get involved in the Paralympic Games, and still time to become part of the British team.'



http://www.london2012.com/games/paralympic/index.php

There are 20 sports in the Paralympic programme for London 2012, breaking down into disciplines and events.


Boccia

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/boccia.jpg


Football 5-a-side

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/football-5-a-side.jpg

Football 7-a-side

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/football-7-a-side.jpg

Goalball

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/goalball.jpg

Paralympic Archery

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-archery.jpg

Paralympic Athletics

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-athletics.jpg

Paralympic Cycling - Road

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-cycling-road.jpg

Paralympic Cycling - Track

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-cycling-track.jpg

Paralympic Equestrian

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-equestrian.jpg

Paralympic Judo

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-judo.jpg

Paralympic Rowing

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-rowing.jpg

Paralympic Sailing

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-sailing.jpg

Paralympic Shooting

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-shooting.jpg

Paralympic Swimming

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-swimming.jpg

Paralympic Table Tennis

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/paralympic-table-tennis.jpg

Powerlifting

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/powerlifting.jpg

Volleyball - Sitting

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/volleyball-sitting.jpg

Wheelchair Basketball

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/wheelchair-basketball.jpg

Wheelchair Fencing

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/wheelchair-fencing.jpg

Wheelchair Rugby

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/wheelchair-rugby.jpg

Wheelchair Tennis

http://www.london2012.com/images/presentation/paralympic-sport-logos/wheelchair-tennis.jpg

Ooh-er...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3064/3249613989_9e62e4a9b3_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2732/4253721293_e3420277ce_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/4253720953_d60bd7bfd6_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2709/4253780953_2a3662d9e7_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4012/4254485728_3a1147147c_b.jpg

And now out in the shops...

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61SceRCNTmL._SS500_.jpg

Intriguing...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2738/4385715864_5b2ea41176_o.jpg

wot iz zat?

I dunno what it is but i Like it!!!! the colours go very nicely together

Do you think that the 2012 medals will basically be the 2012 logo in gold, silver and bronze?

such a versatile logo, i love it. as a creative centre of the world i am glad that London is breaking from the norm and producing something so different. and fitting to see MoS incorporating a similar style into their packaging

^^ i agree. I just hope for branding of the games and banners etc they actually use the word LONDON as it isn't so obvious in the logo. also watching Vancouver 2010, they have hardly used their logo and on most hoardings its just the words 'Vancouver 2010'.

I'll repost this here, as it's seem the more appropriate thread for it:

Interestingly, and perhaps a good thing for those who don't like the logo, the Vancouver logo was hardly in evidence in their Games, and Beijing's logo even less so during their Games. THE most important graphical element is the so-called "Look of the Games" - the banners surrounding the venues, the signage, the decorations in the venues, which are in shot all of the time. To see what I mean this (really good) website gives a very good overview of past Games' Looks:

http://www.theolympicdesign.com/deu/olympic-look/

London's "Look" is currently being designed by Futurebrand and will be rolled out over the next year or so. It will, of course, incorporate the logo, but that will be a minor element for the most part, springing up only occassionally if past Games are to go by.

I think it would be a real shame not to big up the logo. It's one of the best Olympic emblems ever made in my view, it just needs to be used properly.
It's so good it can stand on it's own, even without the rings or 'london' inside and still be instantly recognisable, just like the Apple logo. It's very clever, so use it as was intended.

I'm getting used to it now, and I can see it being used to good effect commercially. But because it doesn't particularly represent anything other than the numbers '2012,' which is still hard to see at first glance, I think people tuning in on the day the Olympics start will dismiss it.

SqNvbT-KstE

Glasgow launched there brand/logo for Commonwealth games.:D


Welcome to Glasgow

uDmiXY_H-2k

Glasgow launched there brand/logo for Commonwealth games.:D


Welcome to Glasgow



It pains me to say, but I'm left a little underwhelmed by the new Glasgow logo, looks very similar to something I designed for our Young Enterprise company in school, which literally took 5 minutes to make! Not that's it simplicity is bad, after all it will be easy to reproduce, but compared to the old bid logo, it looks like something done on paint! At least the old logo said 'Scotland' the tartan design, although the idea is unoriginal, was cleverly done, it didn't look tacky. I wonder if the outpouring of hate, fuelled by the media over the London logo influenced the decision not to go for something more original or edgier (although I dislike that word!!), it's not bad, it's just playing safe. I hope Glasgow wont be too hung up about being after London, let's face it London's budget is huge compared! If they try to emulate Manchester on scale and ideas they will have done a good job in my eyes. Let's see what India has to show :)

I think the Glasgow logo is Ok but a bit bland but agree with you that the bid one was better. Its funny though - we're all used to the London logo now but when you take a step back and re-analyse it - its still shit.

speak for yourself :)

Love this video. Echoes of the 2012 branding in there too.

e82VE8UtW8A

HI, FOLKS!

ESTAS SON MIS VERSIONES DEL LOGO DE LONDRES.

LONDON 2012 + MEXICO 68 =

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/3339/mexicolondres.png

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/9036/londonmexico.png

DO YOU LIKE IT?

VISITEN:
DISEÑO | El Legado de México 68

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=784576

HISTORIA | Olimpiadas de Mexico 1968

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=56540747

http://eduardoterrazas.com.mx/sitioEspanol/images/nucleocinco04.jpg
http://eduardoterrazas.com.mx/sitioEspanol/images/nucleocinco05.jpg

TIENEN LA TIPOGRAFIA DE LONDRES 2012, QUE TIPO DE FONT ES...


http://eduardoterrazas.com.mx/sitioEspanol/images/nucleocinco11.jpg

http://eduardoterrazas.com.mx/sitioEspanol/images/nucleocinco14.jpg

http://eduardoterrazas.com.mx/sitioEspanol/images/nucleocinco17.jpg

http://eduardoterrazas.com.mx/sitioEspanol/images/trienale01.jpg
http://eduardoterrazas.com.mx/sitioEspanol/images/trienale02.jpg
http://eduardoterrazas.com.mx/sitioEspanol/images/trienale03.jpg
http://eduardoterrazas.com.mx/sitioEspanol/images/trienale04.jpg

The Mexico 68 logo and branding was and still is amazing, London would do well to emulate them, which I believe to an extent they are, they are using the logo and elements of the logo in their ideas for decorating the games. By using an abstract and recognisable design, even using one corner of it, or using straight lines of day glo colours will in 2012 mean London, they wont even have to use the logo! Similar to Mexico 68, in those last two pics, even though the logo isn't shown you know it's Mexico 68, the black and white lines say that for you. I cannot think of a better situation London could be in with their logo, they have got it and the games branding spot on. Lets hope in years to come people will see the London 2012 logo in the same light as the iconic Mexico 68 logo.

Edit: Just found this a few pages back, and shows exactly what I mean, althought the logo is not prominent, you know they are to do with London 2012
How they will be used during the Games.

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/1716/picture3nr.png

Anyone seen the logo animated? Nope thought not. All that original fizz seems to have gone flat.

Love the look, its pretty gentle like this, illuminating the Thames with the brand colour...

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/3853/hfg.jpg[/URL]

I was in London for the first time ever two weeks ago, and when I was in Covent Gardens, the first thing that sprang to mind was the fact the Glasgow Commonwealth logo was as near as made no difference, the same as the Covent garden logo.

Hmm... not sure this meets LOCOG's brand usage criteria (http://www.london2012.com/about-us/our-brand/using-the-brand.php). :nuts:

no49bus
Zionist influence in the setting up of the 2012 olympics in London. Here we have the Zionists at work once again, hiding things in full view. This is how they work.
6MHlfXMWvFM

Love the look, its pretty gentle like this, illuminating the Thames with the brand colour...

http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/3853/hfg.jpg[/URL]

is this what they are planning then? looks great.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5287/5227284080_9b44bf33b9_b.jpg

Rio launched their logo last night:

http://www.rio2016.com.br/sites/all/themes/rio2016_v1/_img/logo-home.jpg

Anything more of the brand?

I like the symbol but don't really like the font

A few more bits:

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u76/hiroamorim/lookr16-4.png

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u76/hiroamorim/lookr16.png

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u76/hiroamorim/lookr16-2.png

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u76/hiroamorim/lookr16-6.png

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u76/hiroamorim/lookr16-5.png

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u76/hiroamorim/lookr16-7.png

Doesn't seem very ambitious does it. Seems like a step backwards to the conservative brands of old

I'm not excited by it, but I rather like it.

More conservative than London's or Sochi's but I wouldn't call it unambitious (Beijing's and Vancouver's were unambitious - a single abstract figure - yawn, haven't seen those before!).

Big discussion on it over on Gamesbids and my thoughts on p17:

http://www.gamesbids.com/forums/topic/18729-rio-2016-logo-launch-live-discussion/

if you have noticed the Olympic rings are underneath again - shown on official website.
London incorporated them into design - could be a step back?

but I like logo and website http://www.rio2016.com.br/en/home

It took a while to see the three people in the logo, but that as an aside the brand is unadventurous for such a cosmopolitan city. Maybe it will evolve but once again London has shown it has a unique feel that is two steps ahead of everything else (if they use it correctly, which sadly they are currently not).

It reminds me quite a lot of the Athens 2004 brand. A bit flowy and flowery, earthed colours. I agree with some of the comments above; they've gone back to the old Olympic playbook of an abstract figure.

I'm more and more confident that London's brand will go down with the likes of of Mexico and Munich as a design classic. As DarJoLe says, I only wish they started to use its potential a bit more. The design is ambitious but the use hasn't been so far. 2011 is a key year if this potential is to be fulfilled - it really needs to be full steam ahead by the 1 year to go mark - and hopefully plastered all over the city (like it should be already!!)

The website has been the biggest let down with the 2012 brand so far (compare this to Rio 2016, who have launched their new website, including a dedicated mobile version, today).

London's logo is meant for the digital age, but the website looks and feels like something from the late 90s.

The big posters on the Tube advertising tickets, by contrast, are great, and really show the brand off - they prove the brand isn't bad when it's used correctly. More like this please!

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1413/5170195462_24d34d14b8_z.jpg

I quite like the Rio logo, if only because it uses the third dimension, unlike so many other logos. This gives it a lot more potential for marketing. You can use the logo in a statue rather restricting it to a 2D plane.

That said, my favourite Olympic logo is still Athens, becuase it wasn't trying to be a standard Olympic logo.

Saw this comment online about rio logo made me smile:)

•looks like two jock straps stuck together. — Beach House

I like Rio's, it's much better than London's.

Mind you, pretty much every Olympic logo there has ever been is better than London's.

Depends what you look for in a logo I guess.

our logo has slowly got better in my eyes, im used to it now and actually quite like it :P i especially like the union jack theme an i think alot more people would like it if they used that recolour a bit more often. it would look quite good on the website and even better if it was displayed on flags and hung along the mall!

That said, my favourite Olympic logo is still Athens, because it wasn't trying to be a standard Olympic logo.

Athens logo tried to be original and simple at the same time. Just a circle made by a white line, which symbolizes an olive tree crown and the globe. Very elegant and effective but so simple on its lines, that could be designed even by a little child and easy to remember.

m_IV1Dxmwto

Love the part from 2:03 to 3:30, where the athens logo meets various landmarks, even a London red bus!!

As for London log, when i saw it first, i found it horrible. Now it has grown on me a lot, but still I think London could have done a better job on this issue, as Rio did.

A walkabout around the Park -


http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y68/El_Greco/OlympicParkHackneyWalk4.jpg



Is it me? or do I see influence with 2012 logo ( especially gold part ) on wall taken by El_Greco

Letter Style??

I've always liked the logo. I actually think it's nice and does a good job. The actual name of the games goes together with the image, rather than them being separate things as has been the case in all the Olympics I can remember in my lifetime (i.e. starting with Sydney, watching hockey before going to school).

Somewhere I've seen a green logo used. It would be nice if they used the green more often and possibly on the site. It's not a colour which I recall being dominant at many games, latest I can remember with a green logo was Atlanta '96. Just a thought

Lloyds are the official banking group for 2012 - I'm sure they have used an all green 2012 logo in their adverts, although they are using a white one with a green outline just now.

well its been on my debit card for 2 years!

Rio launched their logo last night:

http://www.rio2016.com.br/sites/all/themes/rio2016_v1/_img/logo-home.jpgPuts ours to shame, doesn't it....

yeah if you want to live in the world of an insipid tourist brochure

Puts ours to shame, doesn't it....

not really

Puts ours to shame, doesn't it....

No

Our logo is a bold symbolism of modern UK life.... so no, our logo will suit our games!!

I think ours is one recognised all over the world. If I'm being honest, I never really came across the Beijing logo and if I was to have seen it before the games, I would vaguely have guessed it was for the olympics!

Puts ours to shame, doesn't it....

Rio's logo suits their Games and the concept they put to the IOC, ours suits ours. The main problem I have with Rio's is it reminds me of a couple of CWGs logos. In terms of design it's quite beautiful though.

For a truly bad logo, see the Innsruck 2012 Youth Olympic Games logo. London's, whatever you think of it aesthetically, has had a brand designed around it and is at the very least slick and professional. If you haven't seen Innsruck's logo you'll be stunned at just how ametuer it is.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/Innsbruck_Youth_Olympics_2012.jpg

It reminds me of a UN conference logo. It may be simple and stylish and would suit a corporate event, but it doesn't tell me much about Innsbruck, and I've been there! The only thing is the Golden roof, but who knows about that?

Nobody. But the same goes for London. It says nothing for the city or for the event. Its says just 2012.

London's says everything about the style of the event, but nothing about the city in a literal sense. But then again it's not trying to.

London's says everything about the style of the event

Could you explain it??I don't get it why the style of London 2012 looks like an 80's graffiti.

London's says everything about the style of the event, but nothing about the city in a literal sense. But then again it's not trying to.

Exactly. It's not like anyone in the world hasn't heard of or doesn't know what London is. The purpose of the emblem is to say much more than 'London is hosting the 2012 Games'. In fact it's not even meant to say that, more 'these are the Games of 2012. Which so happen to be in the city of London.'

The rio logo incidentally is successful precisely because their Games are the opposite of London's aims. Rio's games definitely were about celebrating the beauty and natural landscape of the city, and that is reflected in their brand. London has different aims and approached their branding in an experimental manner to convey more of a message than simply just another Olymics in another city.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTNZ1iUPcwI/AAAAAAAAAU0/vRUgjkIDSig/s800/rio-2016-unoriginal.png

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTNZ1iUPcwI/AAAAAAAAAU0/vRUgjkIDSig/s800/rio-2016-unoriginal.png

I think that's a little unfair - it's possible to draw historical parallels with almost any logo. There are only so many ways you can create a simple abstract logo.

The London 2012 logo as a window to the city:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTQopepkZpI/AAAAAAAAAWU/TagQx1mQnhY/Big-Ben.png http://lh4.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTN74z2JW6I/AAAAAAAAAVU/2tSBQ68QiYk/london-eye.png http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTN9PbYWFdI/AAAAAAAAAVc/lHWlTME_-EU/3640383.png http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTN-zo_BekI/AAAAAAAAAVk/3FtGLJ7ESSw/template.png http://lh4.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTOLmsGq8LI/AAAAAAAAAV4/b6MlpsGEryg/city-hall.png

Did you make those picture windows yoursels? They are pretty smart, they would make good London scenes postcards!!

Did you make those picture windows yoursels? They are pretty smart, they would make good London scenes postcards!!

Yes, I made them with images that I found on Google.
A few more:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTQok7ePvtI/AAAAAAAAAWM/8msJwVfiDm0/London-eye-%281%29.png http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTQok4kTLRI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/nMeWvZQP8vU/piccadilly-circus.png http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTQokgvMl4I/AAAAAAAAAWI/l8p2-qry9n8/london_beautiful-waters.png http://lh5.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTOHPcagt8I/AAAAAAAAAVs/AijMzPujbfI/BuckinghamPalace001.png http://lh6.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTQoks1XCqI/AAAAAAAAAWE/ZfKM3mbZr5k/England_London_PhoneBooth.png

Those are fantastic! Why isn't London 2012 doing this?

Because you'd be bored of it by the time of the Games.

Because you'd be bored of it by the time of the Games.

I don't think so. I think they are really good!

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTRv_ldyGPI/AAAAAAAAAWc/IQuJsB65SPU/big-ben-s.png http://lh4.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTRv_t-drhI/AAAAAAAAAWg/777JsOD9RmE/ddfhfg.png http://lh6.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTRv_yRKLII/AAAAAAAAAWk/gDQeRAYYHVE/dfsdf.png http://lh5.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTRv_xXxh2I/AAAAAAAAAWo/xqQnrAmIKwA/IMG_0091-Buckingham-Palace-statue.png http://lh4.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTSAB5rUNXI/AAAAAAAAAW8/J2Dnz2qnXSc/rg-s.png http://lh6.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTRv_0WCyeI/AAAAAAAAAWs/_jlcuUByEzM/twtwrtwt.png
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTSACIYO6oI/AAAAAAAAAXE/sxoxa7FPnQk/pc-m.png

A shame you can't trademark it, really! :lol:

The Shard would be a prime candidate for that vertical style....

Definitely better with the drop-shadow, though.

Wow, those logos look incredible, now only if the London 2012 marketing ppl could get something like that advertised across the country then im sure many ppl would change their mind about the logo. These forms along with the union jack theme really show off the versatility of the logo and puts alot of other logos to shame really. :)

VirDilido, your images are amaaazing, breathe-taking, really, are soooo good. Congrats

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTRv_ldyGPI/AAAAAAAAAWc/IQuJsB65SPU/big-ben-s.png http://lh4.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTRv_t-drhI/AAAAAAAAAWg/777JsOD9RmE/ddfhfg.png http://lh6.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTRv_yRKLII/AAAAAAAAAWk/gDQeRAYYHVE/dfsdf.png http://lh5.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTRv_xXxh2I/AAAAAAAAAWo/xqQnrAmIKwA/IMG_0091-Buckingham-Palace-statue.png http://lh4.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTSAB5rUNXI/AAAAAAAAAW8/J2Dnz2qnXSc/rg-s.png http://lh6.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTRv_0WCyeI/AAAAAAAAAWs/_jlcuUByEzM/twtwrtwt.png
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTSACIYO6oI/AAAAAAAAAXE/sxoxa7FPnQk/pc-m.png

i cant see the image..

Those are fantastic! Why isn't London 2012 doing this?

Really? I've seen quite a few different variations of the logo advertised around town.

The London 2012 logo has to be one of the most versatile logos out there.

I like the logo when it's in the normal square shape, I like the logo when it's flat as in the Picadilly circus panarama above, but the "012" of the verticle one looks like a guy enjoying himself...... :P

The London 2012 logo as a window to the city:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTQopepkZpI/AAAAAAAAAWU/TagQx1mQnhY/Big-Ben.png http://lh4.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTN74z2JW6I/AAAAAAAAAVU/2tSBQ68QiYk/london-eye.png http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTN9PbYWFdI/AAAAAAAAAVc/lHWlTME_-EU/3640383.png http://lh3.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTN-zo_BekI/AAAAAAAAAVk/3FtGLJ7ESSw/template.png http://lh4.ggpht.com/_TAUGOfL0jkE/TTOLmsGq8LI/AAAAAAAAAV4/b6MlpsGEryg/city-hall.png

These will make brilliant avatars as well.

I wasn't a massive fan of the logo when it was first released, but it is growing on me now and I am starting to see the though behind it- its so flexible and can almost completely change without loosing its meaning, unlike the Beijing or Athens logos

I had a go too!!
I pasted a blank 2012 logo over the top of images on MS Paint, then removed unecessary parts. It's rough but that's the price of no Adobe PS...

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/3408/towerbridge2012.png

more to follow...

Well I made this the week the logo launched when everyone was complaining it had nothing to do with London.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1436/540333592_c9cef345c8_o.jpg

But it's interesting people talking about the flexibility of this logo whilst it maintains its distinction and recognition with the viewer in whatever guise it takes- even when it's not the actual logo shape it can still be recognised.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2059/2264060288_57a2a6f2ec_o.jpg

It's certainly something London 2012 should push more, and I expect we'll see some quite interesting large scale animations of it over the city later this year.

City of Melbourne's new branding.

Jaggy, hard lined, image infills, shattering, looks better animated, nothing geographically to do with the city? Reminds me of something.

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/pieces_of_melbourne.php

svNpa1NFsB4

^^
http://saintbarry.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/polska.jpeg?w=502&h=321

This one is the opposite of everything you wrote.

You have a very good taste. :sly:

City of Melbourne's new branding.

Jaggy, hard lined, image infills, shattering, looks better animated, nothing geographically to do with the city? Reminds me of something.

http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/pieces_of_melbourne.php

svNpa1NFsB4

Good find!

This is EXACTLY the sort of thing the 2012 logo promised which we've seen very little of so far. The similarities are very obvious between the logos (and at 17 seconds you even have very similar brand elements to London's as well!). The differences in application, though, are worlds apart.

I'm not that bothered by the photo infills, but I'd really like to see more of the Melbourne treatment on the London branding and logo. Please LOCOG?!

It's sad when the best we can do for our abysmal Olympic logo is to use it as a stencil for photos of the city. It's because the logo itself is so foul. Rio's pisses on ours, as did Beijing's.

http://www.london2012.com/images/logos/rio-logo-news-story.gif

http://www.tein2.net/upload/img_400/Beijing_Olympic_logo.jpg

http://www.mapsofworld.com/olympic-trivia/images/olympic-emblem/athens2004.gif

http://www.versacreations.net/images/Logo/Logo%20SydneyOlympics2000.gif

No one else produced an embarassing logo. Everyone else managed to get this rather simple task right. We tried too hard and failed miserably. We should have kept it simple like everyone else. It still hurts to see how badly we fucked up.

I much prefer ours to both Sydney and Beijing, both of which are variations on a concept already done to death. Athens' was superb and Rio's is also very nice - but I wouldn't say either piss on ours.

Vancouver 2010 and Innsbruck 2012, the latter especially, are the worst Olympic logos of recent times in my opinion.

It's all very subjective anyway. The biggest problem with London's logo isn't the logo but the lazy and uncreative application of it by all involved. The Melboune video shows what we could be doing with it, but LOCOG simply aren't bothering. It's a real shame.

Rios logo is god-awful, cheap and tacky looking with possibly the most disgusting typeface I have ever seen.
Londons looks like a masterpiece of taste and creativity in comparison - and still has the potential to get better and better the closer we get to the games. Why would they be giving everything away when theres still over 17 months to go...
The last great olympic logo was Barcelona 92. Unfortunately every logo since (apart from Londons) has followed the same, now tired and dated format.

I think you two are delusional. The Rio typeface is lovely. The miserable failure is London's. The colours are hideous. The design is hideous. The font is hideous. It's just not good enough.

London's: Intelligent, but ugly. Appropriate for people who prefer content rather than superficial beauty.

Rio's: Pretty, but dumb. Appropriate for people who prefer superficial beauty rather than content.

Choose yours™

Rios logo is god-awful, cheap and tacky looking with possibly the most disgusting typeface I have ever seen.
Londons looks like a masterpiece of taste and creativity in comparison - and still has the potential to get better and better the closer we get to the games. Why would they be giving everything away when theres still over 17 months to go...
The last great olympic logo was Barcelona 92. Unfortunately every logo since (apart from Londons) has followed the same, now tired and dated format.

Apart from Athens, which was an inspired design, IMO. Rio's isn't awful, but it's very "what you'd expect". The main problem with logos like Rio, Beijing, Vancouver and Sydney is that they look like they're trying to convey something, with a stylised person or persons with arms aloft amid some internationally recognised element of local culture (actually, Rio doesn't incorporate that), and in the process convey nothing in particular.
London's logo isn't trying to convey something from the content, but rather by the design - that London is a jarring place which can cause epilepsy but is ultimately good to pick up a trick - (sorry, joking!) - that London is a dynamic, forward looking place, not a place that wants to trade on its cliches.

edit: About your last comment: I don't see what is so special about Barcelona's logo. It is of the same anthropomorphic, simple brush-stroke character made of primary colours that everyone else seems to do.
I think logos that avoid this cliche tend to be better: Delhi, Athens, Seoul, LA (although the latter I always thought more suited to a US courier service).

Athens and London's were designed by the same people, so who's to blame if one is considered wonderful and other not?

I think you two are delusional. The Rio typeface is lovely. The miserable failure is London's. The colours are hideous. The design is hideous. The font is hideous. It's just not good enough.

Bollocks. It is an insipid logo which says nothing about Rio whatsoever. The London 2012 logo has really grown on me. They shouldn't have launched it in those garish colours.

Wolff Olins aren't one of the branding experts for a reason. They worked on Orange and the BT rebrand for example.

I actually now really like the 2012 logo - it is dynamic, original, daring and different. Just like London. Rio's is a regression to the norm - a bit dull.

Rio's brand is very much about their Games, a celebration of the city, the coming together of South America to celebrate the first Games on their soil, and their emblem is designed to represent this, with the idea of the Sugar Loaf and the connected people. For them it's what they want out of the Games.

London is using the Games for different reasons, and therefore requires a different type of brand. To compare the two (and even past Olympic logos) is missing the point, for each Games is different and the only constant is the Olympic rings. All the reasons as to why the London brand is the way it is has been explained. To bring it down to basics such a describing it as 'ugly' completely misses the general point of what it is it was meant to do and what it is trying to achieve. If I'm brutally honest, if people aren't 'getting' the logo, if people are still trying to 'work it out', if people are still arguing about it even up to and after the Games, then well, it's very much done its job it was intended to do. In other words, it's the London 2012 Olympics - something that's going to rub a lot of people up the wrong way for being very different to other previous Games and what it's ultimate goal is.

None of the previous Olympic logos would have worked for London, and neither would Rio's. I'd love to have a proper conversation about what it is that people find ugly or hideous in the London brand, and why they find that. For me, there's nothing I see in that brand that isn't elsewhere around in our brand saturated world, the colour, the typeface, the styling, all have been replicated since branding became popular and seem to pass under the radar, no-one seems to inherently shut off and bring the argument down to crass basics but this brand seems to have done that.

The fact it's got under people's skin, well, that's nine tenths of what it was supposed to do. Only London could have done this. And only at a global event such as this could London achieve it.

Athens and London's were designed by the same people, so who's to blame if one is considered wonderful and other not?

Ours could have been Rios and Rios could have been London's just with a 2014 variation.... and they'd love Rios and hate London's. People would moan it's 'too wimpy' or something.

Also I think the London 2012 font is very cool.

Come on Ed, that's not really fair. People are entitled to their opinions (even if they are wrong ;)).

Rio's isn't awful, but it's very "what you'd expect".
Agreed, "god-awful" was far too over the top of me to describe the entire branding. The three figures pictogram is actually pretty in its own way - It's just very very boring and conservative to my eyes. However I really do detest that font...

London's logo isn't trying to convey something from the content, but rather by the design - that London is a jarring place which can cause epilepsy but is ultimately good to pick up a trick - (sorry, joking!) - that London is a dynamic, forward looking place, not a place that wants to trade on its cliches.
London is all of the above :-)

edit: About your last comment: I don't see what is so special about Barcelona's logo. It is of the same anthropomorphic, simple brush-stroke character made of primary colours that everyone else seems to do.
I think logos that avoid this cliche tend to be better: Delhi, Athens, Seoul, LA (although the latter I always thought more suited to a US courier service).
My point on Barcelona is that it was the first to do the "same anthropomorphic, simple brush-stroke character made of primary colours..." and it did it extremely well, with elegance and a nod to Miro. It also achieved a great balance between the scale of the logo, the text and the rings. Sydney, Beijing, and Vancouver have attempted similar and missed the mark.

ALL the logos since LA '84 have followed the exact same basic formula, vague (sometimes great but often rubbish) graphic symbol above name and year (in sometimes great most often rubbish typeface) above olympic rings. Some have been horrific, think back to Albertville or Atlanta, A few have been excellent or good within the framework, namely Barcelona, Salt Lake City and Athens. The rest have just been plain dull. I think its brilliant that London has finally broken the mould and taken a totally different approach. It may seem ugly to some but at least its interesting. Im really disapponted that Rio have baulked at carrying forward the challenge and reverted to the same old thing we've been seeing since 1984.

The 2012 Paralympics logo (http://blogs.arts.ac.uk/ual2012/2009/11/25/the-2012-paralympic-logo/)

Philip Cooper, CSM MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environments alumnus, was offered to design the Paralympic carnation of the London 2012 logo after showing his I Love Sheds portfolio to Patrick Cox at Wolff Olins.

http://www.ilovesheds.com/files/gimgs/36_paralympic.jpg

A conversation with Philip Cooper.

How did you get to work on the Paralympic logo?
Things always happen by a bit of luck and being in the right place at the right time. While being on my MA I was lucky enough to get a part-time job within a branding agency who were born out of a company called Wolff Olins. Because of the links this company had, I ended up working with Wolff Olins.

The way I was introduced to the Olympic project was… I showed my portfolio to Patrick Cox who is the Creative Director there and he really liked my approach, the way I tackle the projects and he felt that it would be good for me to work within the creative team on the Olympic logo itself, and this led to the creating the shapes that were put within the Paralympic logo.

How did you translate the Paralympic values into the logo?
The way that I personally translated it was this idea, this very simple idea, because you know you don’t want that to be an essay, for me it is how it would kind of fail as a piece of design… I think that once people understand the idea then it is straightforward.

The idea that I had is just this idea of breaking through, symbolic of people being able to break through their difficulties and participate in the Paralympics. So I literally translated it so that the Olympic logo has these over elements breaking through the mark and creating something that is distinctive and very much individual for the Paralympics.

What was work like?
It’s a huge project! When people look at it they just see the logo. It was for us to see how this language would translate itself into an infinite amount of ways and how it could be used on stadiums, on business cards, and making sure that we create very clear guides for people to be able to use this brand name, like they are given these assets to work with.

Reality of us working on the project was incredibly long hours, sometimes starting at 8 in the morning staying up to 2 in the morning, especially during the weeks leading up to the launch. And it was you know six of us in a very small room, locked away from the rest of the company, tinted windows… It was hard work.

You started designing from quite a young age…
It all started at the age of 14. I started to decorate my garden shed after going to Versailles. My parents didn’t trust me enough to express myself in the house so they gave me the garden shed. and this leaded me to be in this world of interiors… One day I was in school and someone from a TV programme came and asked “does anyone have any unusual hobbies?”. So I filled in a form saying I had decorated my shed in a neo-classical style. and this led me on this TV show, publications in the press, GMTV and all sorts of things.

My portfolio is called ilovesheds.com . It is all about the shed, this kind of creative space where one has the freedom to express themselves as much as they like and create inventions. And I think maybe that full process is the way I kind of approach my work. It’s all about this metaphorical space to approach things in a different way.

What sort of advice would you give to UAL students?
I think it is very important to have a strong idea behind a project. it is also very important to meet as many people as possible and be very willing to pick yourself out there and put yourself on the line, and you need just the audacity to ask, because quite a lot of the time people don’t come to you, you have to go to them, and really have the determination to meet these people and… you know… try to show them something that they like so they actually use you.

Well I now know what cake I want for my birthday!

Well I now know what cake I want for my birthday!

Does Paralympic cake have a bell in it so you can hear where it is?

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5251/5435820137_51f05aa6ab_b.jpg

This is quite interesting.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51344000/jpg/_51344217_bb236817@bluepeter.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12518165

If the 2012 emblem had of been designed by a 10 year old, would it really have worked across all media and in all guises needed?

This is quite interesting.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51344000/jpg/_51344217_bb236817@bluepeter.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12518165

If the 2012 emblem had of been designed by a 10 year old, would it really have worked across all media and in all guises needed?

I have to say that I'm so glad that London 2012 got professionals to design the logo now seeing the Jubilee logo, as a republican I'm quite pleased with the crappy Jubilee logo! :lol: To be fair to the child, for a child design it's good and I'm pleased for her, but as a world class logo, no sorry. I think it's appropriate for a children's charity, youth Olympics, reverse of coins and maybe even for the Jubilee, after all the silver and golden jubilee logos were more standard, a turn perhaps for a child design.

Will they get pros in to give it a tidy and a polish or is this the final emblem?

It's already had a polish!

It's already had a polish!

I know I've said my piece, and don't wish to offend the girl any more but... L O L!!

"It's really brave to use the diamonds like that"

Hmm yes isn't it.