"dynamic, modern and flexible" - the new London Olympic logo

[muriel_volestrangler]

Boy, I bet you just can't wait to see it, huh?

Brace yourself, Sheila, here it comes:

Olympics get new logo in motion

Sebastian Coe, chairman of London's Olympic organising committee, has unveiled a "multimedia" brand image and logo for the London 2012 Olympic games.

The branding, which replaces the multicoloured Thames river-shaped "ribbon" that threads its way through the current motif, is considered to be a key stage in the transformation of the London bid from the status of successful candidate to host city.

London 2012's new brand aims to help establish the games as a credible property among young people in the UK, who the Olympic movement is desperate to reach.

The organisation said that the new emblem aims to be "dynamic, modern and flexible" and "will work with new technology and across traditional and new media networks".

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/london2012/story/0,,2095061,00.html

You should be good and pumped by now, I hope.

I mean, this brand image is going to establish credibility with young people - it's got to be something pretty damn impressive.

It works with new technology - so it must be something really advanced, mustn't it?

But it also works with traditional media networks. How amazing is that?

Forgive me if I quote just a little more than DU normally allows - because this is just so exciting:

It is meant to embody four key "brand pillars" of access, participation, stimulation and inspiration.

"This is not just a marketing logo," said the culture minister, Tessa Jowell, "but a symbol that will become familiar, instantly recognisable and associated with our games in so many ways during the next five years."

Not just a marketing logo! It embodied stimulation, inspiration, access, and participation! Well, let me tell you, I've felt accessed, participatory, inspired, and, above all, stimulated, ever since I saw it. Especially in the pillar department. Uncontainably stimulated, in fact. I just can't hold it back any longer.

Here it is:









I know. You're all speechless, aren't you? You feel over-stimulated. It's because you've seen it on a new media network, isn't it? Maybe I should have chosen the blue, green or orange alternatives to show you.

Phew, I'm off to have a lie-down in a darkened room. Thank God we only get the Olympics every 60 years or so, or we might have to withstand the same stimulation again in our lifetimes.

Still, it makes you proud to think that's the image we'll show to the world for the next 5 years, to symbolise striving, excellence, friendship and competition, doesn't it?

[Nihil]

1. As one of my workmates pointed out ...

... "Wasn't it nice of them to put Australia in their logo to hold the
five rings instead of some version of the UK map?"

My daughter has a typical summer-term project (junior school - age 11)
which happens to be based around the 2012 Olympics ... part of the task
list is to design a logo ...

I think it's safe to say that she will not be inspired by the "official" one.

:shrug:

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Yeah, I thought of that

though my first thought was that it looked like something broken. Not exactly the associations they want, I'd imagine.

I'll bet that several people in your daughter's class, quite likely your daughter herself, will come up with something more 'inspiring' etc. Never mind, it's rumoured to have only cost £400,000:

Prime Minister Tony Blair said: 'When people see the new brand, we want them to be inspired to make a positive change in their life.'

International Olympic Committee President Jacque Rogge said: 'This is a truly innovative brand logo that graphically captures the essence of the London 2012 Olympic Games - namely to inspire young people around the world through sport and the Olympic values.'

The brand was designed by Wolff Ollins at a cost of £400,000.

Bob Neill, London Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley and the Conservative spokesman on the 2012 Olympic Games, said: "Lord Coe has described this logo as 'ambitious, interactive and youth-friendly', I would describe it as hideous.

Le mot juste, Bob. Mind you, if it's 'interactive', that presumably means I get the chance to change the thing. Where do I sign up, Seb?

"It has a movement to it and it will evolve and change," a London 2012 spokeswoman said.

http://www.stv.tv/content/sport/sportnews/display.html?id=opencms:/sport/sportnews/LONDON_2012_LOGO_UNVEILED_060407

Does that mean they're hedging their bets, and will get rid of the thing when everyone tells them how crap it is?

[T_i_B]

9. Reminds me of my own schooldays...

My daughter has a typical summer-term project (junior school - age 11)
which happens to be based around the 2012 Olympics ... part of the task
list is to design a logo ...

I had those sort of school projects when I was growing up as back then we had the 1991 World Student games up in Sheffield. The odd thing was we had those sort of lessons at school where we were told how good this stuff was and then back at home my decidedly RW parents were forever ranting about what a bad idea it was and how it was going to land the city in debt.

And sad to say my parents were right on that one, and that's why I've never supported London 2012. It's just an obvious waste of money. :-(

[non sociopath skin]

3. I cannot wait to see what Steve Bell makes of this abomination!

The Tories' "Pissing Elephant" logo was one of his most inspired moments.

Thank God we are an artistic nation, to misquote the great Dylan Thomas.

The Skin

[stormymonday]

4. Looks like the SS insignia drawn by someone on acid.

A bargain at £400,000.

[fedsron2us]

5. "This is the vision at the very heart of our brand." - Seb Coe

Says it all Seb. When it comes to Bullshit Bingo you are still a world beater

Actually I think this fractured logo indicating division and dissolution will come to be seen as a perfect insignia for contemporary Britain.

It was clearly designed by someone who hates London and the Olympics.

Quite why they had to pay £400,000 for this dated, condescending 'yoof' crap when they could have held a competition among young designers and got something genuinely original for a much smaller price is beyond me.

[moggie]

6. BTDT

Anyone who has worked in a company which has been expensively re-branded will have grumbled the same: "we should have had an in-house competition instead". But if you do that, it exposes the consultants as expensive snake-oil merchants: and when so much of our government is based on the output of such vacuous twats, that would be very bad.

Glad I'm not the only person who thought the logo looks broken.

[Kipling]

7. How do we get away with being so crap at everything?

I'm willing to bet that no other country on Earth could have come up with a worse logo than that. Illiterate Mongolian nomands will laugh out loud at our lack of sophistication. Belgians will mock our national vitality. Only in Britain do beaurocrats pretend to be Down with the Kids. I could draw them a better logo on the back of a bus ticket. The useless, useless, yuppie bastards.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. The sad thing is this is what politicians tell us Britain is good at

Design, "the thinking economy", 'services' like marketing and PR.

And because innovation is what is driving the dynamic sectors of the global economy, we - Britain - are well placed in the fastest growing high valued added manufacturing and services from IT and aerospace to pharmaceutical, and of course financial and business services, education and the creative industries, which account for a larger share of our economy than in any other G7 country.

So, all of these qualities - our stability, our openness, our reach, our innovation and our scientific and creative strength - make me convinced that of all countries, Britain is one of the best placed to step up to the next stage of globalisation - if we make the right long term decisions now.

Our Next Prime Minister

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. This blog's got it right: a rip-off of the "Its' a Kind of Magic" video from Queen

Do you have nothing better to do than whine about the London Olympics logo? Do you frequently comment on the fact that it looks like an 'effect' from a 1980s music video*? Do you find yourself sighing "I could do something a lot better for £400,000?", but actually, couldn't, because you're not part of a design and marketing company and have no idea how to go about bidding for a lucrative design contract?
Me too.
But signing this petition made me feel better. It even gave me enough respite from worrying about trivialities to let the utter, abstract horror of living in a world where all our actions are meaningless in the face of the gaping void of death and isolation flood my senses. After signing it, I found myself lying on the floor, quivering in time to my tears for at least fifteen minutes.
So, thanks for that, gopetition.com, you utter, irredeemable, bastards!

*specifically, "It's a kind of Magic", by Queen, where they're all tramps in an abandoned theatre and the magical cartoon swirlyness turns them into... well, not-tramps.

http://johnny-haiku.livejournal.com/99947.html

Watch the video (if you can bear it) here - http://www.london2012.com/about-newlook-video.html - and you'll see what he and I mean. That came out in 1986 - how cutting edge is something that harks back 21 years?

[Briar]

11. Epilepsy fears over 2012 footage

Epilepsy fears over 2012 footage

A segment of animated footage promoting the 2012 Olympic Games has been removed from the organisers' website after fears it could trigger epileptic fits.
Prof Graham Harding, who developed the test used to measure photo-sensitivity levels in TV material, said it should not be broadcast again.

Charity Epilepsy Action said it had received calls from people who had suffered fits after seeing it.

Organisers London 2012 said it will re-edit the film...



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6724245.stm

[non sociopath skin]

12. Dynamic, modern .... and dangerous???

Shall we open a book on when Seb and the gang finally bow to the inevitable and junk the abomination?

I've a tenner here says three months.

:argh:

The Skin

[T_i_B]

13. Well unsurprisingly, we already have the online petition!

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/change-the-london-2012-logo.html

Mind you, judging by the No 10 website there are very few things that don't get their own petition.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

14. Says a lot about Britain. Divided, and obsessed with binge drinking

[moggie]

18. But we do have Nectar Points - they're quite handy

Sorry, just having a Bill Bailey moment.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

15. I can't get it out of my head

I was reading the BBC comments on this logo and several posters suggested it was Lisa Simpson in a certain position.

I wish they'd change it ASAP, its the ugliest thing I've seen. The Beijing logo is beautiful and artistic while this is an eyesore that should be regulated to the dustbin.

Wanna bet that people will make their own merchandise in the hopes that others won't be wanting to buy the official merchandise?

[Nihil]

16. Thanks for that image ...

I haven't read the BBC comments but now you've said it ...
:blush:

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Oh, you evil lady

:evilgrin: I'd already seen that comment, but I thought I'd keep DU pristine of it. Oh well, too late - and it is the kind of comment that stays in your mind once you've heard it.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

20. Yup

Once I saw that comment I went back to look at that dreadful logo and now I can't look at it without thinking Lisa Simpson.

And I'm very sorry that I sullied DU with that image. Might I just go to my wee corner?

[moggie]

19. An unofficial logo?

We've got five years: it would be interesting to see whether an unofficial logo could gain traction in that time. I'd settle for one which doesn't cause migraines, seizures and Tourette episodes.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

21. I quite like the logos that people have submitted to the BBC website

Especially the one that has London and 2012 together (The 2 being the L, 0 being the o, and 12 looking like the n).

There's so many wonderful examples on the BBC website.


And it makes me so sad that we've got... ugh... that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. Competive flanning at the London Olympics?

The 'realistic construction finishing date' version:




I like the Tube Map one (after all, it's a design classic):

[non sociopath skin]

23. The tube one is cool!

The Skin

[moggie]

24. I can see it now

"The men's 400m is subject to severe delays owing to a signal failure at Farringdon".

[muriel_volestrangler]

25. We'd win gold in Mornington Crescent, though (n/t)

[moggie]

26. Not anytime soon

Mornington Crescent has been suggested for inclusion in the Olympics, but the IOC insist on the Dollis Hill Loop being eliminated, and the Stovold Estate will never agree to that.

[LeftishBrit]

27. How thrilling

Even if we lose all the events, we will win the REALLY IMPORTANT competition: the Tony Blair Management Quality Target Delivery prize for most exciting logo!