London’s 2012 Olympics logo was unveiled yesterday, to almost universal derision. If you look at it you can see why.
It’s hideous enough as it is, without knowing that this logo cost £400,000 to produce (which many have labelled a flagrant ‘backhander’), and is supposed to appeal to young people. The young people of 1986, presumably. Compare to the original London 2012 logo, which I grew quite fond of.
Let’s have a look at how the other cities competing for the 2012 games fared with their logos.
How did we get it so wrong?!
The campaign to get rid of the new London 2012 logo is well underway, less than 24 hours after the unveiling, an online petition has gained nearly 10,000 signatures. I urge the 2012 Olympic committee to ask for their money back – all £400K of it – and seek out the designers of the following logos. These are how you do an Olympic logo properly.
Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any thoughts on the new London 2012 logo, or any other the suggestions I made above. I would be especially interested to hear from you if you like the new London 2012 logo, though I don’t anticipate many responses…
Latest News: According to the BBC, an animated version has been banned from British television because it may cause epileptic seizures.
Links
Online petition to change the London 2012 logo
Wolff-Olins – The “design” firm who brought you the London 2012 logo / atrocity
I like the London 2012 logo; I think when you compare it to the previous Olympic logos it really stands out! It just looks so dynamic too.
Im sorry but the vancouver one is ridiculous, we arent inuits.
it isnt reflectave of ANYTHING in vancouver.
It also pisses me off that we are stuck with it, no matter what the public outcry was, (an there was lots of it) , they wont change it.
Um, anything in Vancouver? You do know that Aboriginal people live in British Columbia; while, I do necessarily like the logo it was quite well done and had at least something to do with the host city. And it didn’t cost an arm and leg. There are inuksuks all over Vancouver.
And there was a small “outcry” about it; but, that was soon passed as soon as people got use to it.
Salt Lake City 2002 is a stunning design. I love everything about it.
I saw this today on the front page of the times, my first reaction was “what is that jumble of random pink polygons” and then the title of the article informed me that this abhoration was the logo for my country’s olypics .. WTF// its apauling. All teh other logos on this page are far more suited to being the olypic logo thatn that… even the social bookmarking ones!… I am appauled… and ashamed.. To be honest a child of 2 could create a more imresive logo taht has more character thatn that in paint. im sure they would capture the spirit of the country better than that.. even if they have only known it two years.. because it takes £40k of skill to make a logo WORSE tahtn that!! Im going to stop now.. its just stupid.
How much merchandise will be left over after the games? You know someone is going to say”Hey, they sold 1,000,000 tennis shirts in 2004, so let’s sell 1,500,000″
I definitely don’t want a single item with this crappy logo on it.
I like the London logo because I think it’s about time Ninjas got their own Olympics.
Oh, those aren’t throwing stars?
When bloated non-profit organizations and governments spend money (they don’t earn) on anything, it is often wasted; this is especially true when it comes to branding of any kind. On top of that, the wasting of said funds is rarely apologized for — regardless of public outcry. The part of this ongoing story that I find so disappointing is that the Olympic Committees over the years have always proved [to me] to be the rare example of tasteful extravagance, the branding they do and the corporate partners they bring on have always been done with a great deal of tact and poise—from my perspective. However, this time they seem to have deliberately missed the mark, and to the tune of the greatest branding expense of which I’ve ever heard. Any design student from any art/design program, anywhere in the world, could have pumped out 30+ branding comps that could have captured the intent of this branding project with more grace, elegance, and visual eloquence, and done it merely for school credit. Many students have probably already done such a thing as part of their curriculum. I’m deeply sorry that London (perhaps my favorite major city) is getting the sh*t end of the stick on this one.
The IOC has already demanded that Chicago change its logo, since the restrictive design rules prohibit employing a torch, along with many other signature Olympic elements. NYC’s shows the Statue of Liberty, finding a nice loophole to the “no torch” rule.
I think the London logo is utter tripe. Why did they pay 400k for something that any 4 year old could do. I live in the UK and think its a shame that London is hosting the Olympics as our government will screw things up by sciming as much cash off it as they can. The project will be in so much debt that the ticket price will be £5000 just so they can break even. Local businesses will stiff everyone coming to the city to watch the events.
Anacriosd, please tell me you don’t like in Vancouver, since you don’t really seem to know much about it.
James… obviously needs to be smacked repeatedly for having poor taste…this logo blows….I could wipe my butt and come up with something more creative and more appropriate. Appeals to young people….did they even actually ask any young people about it?
Personally Moscow and NYC are pretty good – Sydney is EXCELLENT my favorite the rest to me personally are pretty lame actually. The new London Logo is also rather ick what else can I say. By far the best on this page is the Sydney one. Chicago’s looks downright boring. Salt Lake City is “ok” but not inspiring. its just ok (but not lame)
All I’m tryin’ to say is the Calgary logo is timeless
The salt lake city one is pretty cool, I hadn’t seen that before.
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I think the London logo is the funniest thing to happen to branding in a long time.
Best always,
Peter
Calgary logo is great !
so is NYC’s
and the london logo? well i think the designer tried to draw 2012 out of a bunch of polygons. But no matter if thaths what britons choose then they should defend it not be ashamed of it. Rest of the world can get use to it in a month or so
Please.
All of those logos (except Calgary’s – in my opinion, which is a clever play on the rings and can be viewed in a number of ways) are dead boring and hardly better at capturing some elusive Olympic Spirit than a corporate logo like the golden arches. They all just play on stereotypes, especially Paris, NYC, Vancouver. And that previous London logo? Awful. Dull. I would never look twice at that.
The Olympics aren’t about the host city, they’re about sport and excellence and breaking ground, and I think that the new London logo, while not worth 400K pounds, is a dynamic look forward and if it’s supposed to appeal to youth, then so be it. Let’s hear what the youth have to say about it.
Branding is garbage. On with the games.
I’m so tired of everyone going after the designers – you think they had the final say in this?
bullsh*t.
how many rounds of revisions, where whatever committee took the boards presented back to their respective offices, and got every dick and mary’s opinion, and emaile dup the firm the next day syaing well we had this idea – can we incorporate this – and this – and this – and systematically destroyed the original presentation, until it ended up a jumpled mess of everything this committee-and their friends office mates and family-suggested.
this is result of design by committee, not the designers.
and to suggest that because of this committeee approving a logo that the public doesn’t like, to take money back – money EARNED by putting up with this design by committee bullshit, the amount of thought and revisions that went into the initial concepts and beyond – that’s ridiculous too.
they did the work, and they should be paid for it. Blame some committee in London for this “atrocity” – no the poor designers that had to work on it.
I agree and think that some of the candidate logos are much better….
I have created a site that anyone can submit their own logo’s to, and we can all vote for the best one… I have started with some simple efforts of my own, but please can everyone submit their own logo’s so we can show the government that there is an alternative..
http://2012logos.co.uk/index.php
oh, and can people please digg my story:
http://digg.com/design/2012_Olypmics_Logo_Collection_Vote_and_Submit_Your_Ideas
seriously, the logo is utter crap.
i can agree with the factor of client/committee design… but my problem is most clients who start the horrible cycle of “client designing” base their assumptions on what a design should look like from the intial proofs they are given.
so there was some designer who thought this (or something of it’s likeness) was the new hot sh*t and went balls-to-the-wall when submitting this proof. a few angular revisions and 400k later… we have a disgusting logo for the world games.
You should add the Nagano logo to your list of well designed logos as well.
I laughed my a*se off when I first saw the 2012 logo, but a few days later I’m thinking people will get used to it. As for the committee stuff, I read it was also 8 months of focus groups.
I don’t know about the claims that all the other logos are “better”: most are just using standard corporate fonts and slick graphics just like the advertising we are used to elsewhere – what’s so original about that?
The ones I think really represent their nation in any way are Vancouver and Sydney … but I wonder if it’s a bit hypocritical using indigenous imagery givne the appalling treatment meted out to the original inhabitants when both colonies were colonised?
Where is the nationalism? It looks like it could be for any country, nothing british about it. You could replace “London” with Kenya or another counrty and it wouldn’t matter. Read: http://www.jimmyco.com/index.php?codename=London2012
Just a note to congratulate the design team and the Olympic committee on the logo they have adopted.
I am 50 going 60 but have been associated with business and brand creation for over 20 years.
To me the logo has hit the button. It is fresh, dynamic and can be used in all sorts of situations.
I know of very few logos that could achieve all those things.
As people get used to it I am sure it will be remembered for many years to come.
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The Brits did not like the emblem, most probably because there is nothing related to British history and culture to make them proud of. Nationalism is evident in the graphical execution of Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 emblems.
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I do not like the new logo for London 2012. It is cold and has no meaning. The logo itself is broken up – which in my mind does not symbolise unification. It has no meaning and no character.
I really thought that the London 2012 candidate brand was stylish and modern. Plus brought a bit of class to the brand. It was warm, appealing and vibrant. I don’t know which design agency came up with the new brand for 2012 – they must have no idea about branding!
The Torino one is fab. Manages to look great and resemble a winter slope and incorporate the rings and make me smile all at the same time. Osaka is cute. Surprise surprise but you missed out the Beijing logo for this year. I really like it. it’s not really that great unless you know that the running/ dancing man is a stylised version of the chinese character “capital” as in captial city, which features in the word Beijing and is synonymous with the place. Anyways, I like that one too.
2012 on the other hand. God damn. I mean really.
i think that it is the worst logo ever created! i am 13 and it is rubish and looks as thought a 4 year old made it! i could do better than that one
i think that the logo is a bit rubish. my mum didn’t even realise it was supposed to say 2012 until i told her. i recenlty read an article in creative review, and i am beginning to warm to the logo, though i still despise it.