Comments on: Alternative London 2012 logo designs

By: chooby

chooby — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:07:56 +0000

my initial reactions were very much the same as many above –
Garish, jagged, childish, ugly, etc, – so I thought I would give it time to grow on me…

But that hasnt happened.

And no matter how reflective of current trends / future trends / recycling / social attitudes / etc etc and no matter how memorable you may think this design is – (either through PR controversy or sheer retina-burning visuals) – I believe we are all saying one thing:

Its never going to stand up as a design classic.
Is it.

By: chooby

chooby — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:18:59 +0000

I think:
A. Its disgusting choice of colour clashes horribly with the traditional tones used in the 5 rings.
B. It neither reflects the sophistication of a World recognised international competition, nor does it induce any desire to travel to London to spend money (or other olympic sites for that matter)
C And if watching it on TV is gonna give me an epileptic fit, I think the damage to both health of the nation and the reputation of Olins is clearly done.

Take a step back Wally and have another go before its all too late to save yourself from the downward spiral you are clearly entering!

Why not? – Let Olins’ have first stab at redressing the brief and limiting the damage before we put them down totally? If I had come under such fire, I would offer to go back to my layout pad and start again – capping the fees at areasonable level, preferably comensurate with the level of final design solution required! – I think that Olins would do well to mitigate this design folly and regain their respect.

PS. I also disliked the AZKO Bruce style / BT ‘piper’ logo when it was rolled out too, but we get used to it, dont we! And we cant deny that Wally has acquired a folio of outstanding and recognisable marks under his belt either.

With such experience then, maybe they should have stuck to a tone more in line with that of the classic P&O look? Something making more of the original and only recognisable and constant design element from the last 100 yrs of Olympics – the 1920’s circles BRAND mark. ??

By: Adaptiv Media

Adaptiv Media — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:42:44 +0000

Great work. You definately chose the pick of the bunch. Agree with Stuey. I think it’s almost certain we will have forgotten what all the fuss was about with the design of the logo. I just read Wolff Olins own case study. I can see what they are trying to achieve with the logo and when presented in different forms throughout the five years I think we may even be saying it was the best olympic logo of recent times…

By: David Airey :: Graphic Designer

David Airey :: Graphic Designer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:43:29 +0000

Hi Samah,

The ideas above aren’t actually mine, but taken off the BBC website, submitted by viewers.

Interesting that you and Lexie are both working on projects with the Olympic logo. It’d be great if you showed the results online for me / us to see.

By: Lexie

Lexie — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:23:59 +0000

Im an AS level student taking graphics and i am looking to produce a directional sign based on the london Olympics, when i fist saw the logo it looked like my nephew could have drawn it – and he is 5. But when i took a closer look, i think it was designed to appeal to a very wide age range, children for example would never look at something an adult looks at, but an adult will look at what has caught the childs eye, so therefore it is attracting all ages.

By: Samah

Samah — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:20:45 +0000

hi,
im studying graphics at the moment and our project is to re-design the olympic logo for london 2012 like you have done and the designs are very i good. i agree with what matt has said- design no. 2 is very good but i would also take the slogan-”we’ve got the olympics in us” because it sort of ruins the the design i think..but your ideas are very good.

By: Stuey

Stuey — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 08:47:04 +0000

I’ve been a designer for 21 years and a member of The Chartered Society of Designers for 14, so you could say that I have an eye for such things. I, like the majority of people it seems was also shocked, disgusted and embarrassed when the 2012 logo was launched.

Now, having lived with it for a few weeks, it has started to grow on me, apart from the hot pink, which will always be vile, I’d go as far as to say I almost like it.

There are elements of the logo which are tacky, the way the word London and the Olympic rings are treated, but if the design evolves I’m happy to watch its progress.

Seb Coe is right about London deserving more than just another corporate looking logo (see the Olympic bid version). In 5 years time we may all be wondering what the fuss was all about.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 18:46:00 +0000

I think that the ‘official’ logo is not at all appropriate of what London, Britain or the Olympic Games are about. In my oppinion the 2nd replacement logo shown on this page is much better, though i would take out the slogan ‘we’ve got the olympics in us’, which really does not work!

By: Vivienne Quek

Vivienne Quek — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 06:45:03 +0000

Organising an event like Olympics involved the entire country and not just the government and the organising committee. No wonder the British citizens were unhappy. Out of curisity, I check out Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. Well, nationalism is evident in the graphic execution.

The current design will probably remain it would be a PR disaster as pointed out by Aaron

By: David Airey :: Creative Design ::

David Airey :: Creative Design :: — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 07:53:41 +0000

Stephen,

Thanks for your comments. You make valid points about having a re-design. It’s such a botch job in my eyes, and the seizure inducing promo video was the icing on the cake.

My friend Lee makes a great point about all the newspapers saying we should let school children design the logo and the money could go to schools. Children can’t design! It’s ridiculous.

John,

The money that was spent is absolutely not for just the logo. It’s most likely used for brand placement, guidelines, website development, promotional material etc etc.

Thanks very much for everyone’s thoughts on this.