Comments on: The Future: Apparently It's Much More 80s Than You Anticipated

The Future: Apparently It's Much More 80s Than You Anticipated

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:15:20 -0800

The British Olympic Committee unveiled the logo and branding for London 2012 today, at a cost of £400,000 (USD796,000). Reaction has been swift - a petition to change the logo or go back to the old one has already reached 10,000 signatures.

By: thatwhichfalls

thatwhichfalls — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:20:34 -0800

It's been pointed out on several other sites that this logo looks like Lisa Simpson giving someone a blow-job. Once you see it this way you will never be able to see it as being anything else.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:21:06 -0800

Wow, that looks like something I could have made with Colorforms in the 70's. Yuck.

By: East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:22:04 -0800

NO LISA THAT'S NOT A SAX NOO

By: davehat

davehat — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:24:06 -0800

I reckon they forgot their pitch work on the way to the big meeting and put this together with crayons in the lobby 5 minutes before the big cheeses arrived. I like the idea that it will "evolve". Isn't that shorthand for "if everyone thinks its shit, we can always re-design it".

By: frobozz

frobozz — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:25:48 -0800

I was going for 'crumpled bits of paper' but it does indeed look like a broken swastika. Or, alternatively, like the design on my fifth-grade era Jams.

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:26:09 -0800

Wow, I just posted this same topic at the SAME SECOND that this one apppeared, or actually one second after because it was deleted fast. Anyway, yeah.... what a disaster in graphic design.

By: wfc123

wfc123 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:28:34 -0800

Surprising. You folks across the pond seem to always get stuff like this right.

By: liquidindian

liquidindian — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:28:45 -0800

I can only assume they've employed a futurologist who's told them that this will look excellent come 2012. It reminded me of the titles for Going Live.

By: yhbc

yhbc — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:29:51 -0800

First thing I thought when I saw it this morning was broken swastika, but thanks very much for the Lisa Simpson image.

By: chuckdarwin

chuckdarwin — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:29:58 -0800

The macaroni noodles I glued onto a paper plate at Vacation Bible School that looked better than that. Favourite quote: "It looks like something designed for young people by old people who don't understand young people... very 'dad at the disco'." Why didn't they just ask Banksy or Hirst to do it? *g*

By: mstefan

mstefan — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:29:59 -0800

Damn. I wish someone would pay me $796,000 to create a logo. As someone with absolutely no artistic talent whatsoever, I think the bar is sufficiently low that even I could make it over. Just give me 10 minutes with Microsoft Paint, and I'll be ready to demo.

By: Alex404

Alex404 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:32:44 -0800

To be honest, I think the Logo is fine. For whatever reason, the Olympics seems to occupy a completely unique design space. Every couple of years, we get treated to the latest attempt at the most international and yet inoffensive art that can be conceived. Sometimes it's actually kind of compelling. ... Although now that I see Lisa giving head, that images is burned into my mind. It's bloody uncanny.

By: sellout

sellout — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:32:59 -0800

As designed by Dudley Heinsbergen?

By: hydrophonic

hydrophonic — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:33:52 -0800

Nice that the video makes it look like some sort of invasion from outer space, overtaking the city and destroying divers in a powerful electric blast.

By: East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:36:42 -0800

b3ta weighs in. aforementioned one.

By: IronLizard

IronLizard — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:38:24 -0800

It's amazing, the huge sums some people will pay for utter crap. It's dismaying that I don't seem to know any of them.

By: Liquidwolf

Liquidwolf — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:38:59 -0800

It's bafflingly ugly, the colors, the concept, the lines.. And worse, there will be thousands of suckers walking around London in shell suits with that thing emblazened all over.

By: PercussivePaul

PercussivePaul — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:39:15 -0800

I finally got it! It's a stylized '2012'! Seriously, for several minutes all I saw was jagged blobs. I wondered if maybe it was based on a map of London or something.

By: anthill

anthill — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:39:19 -0800

Something Awful found something awful.

By: The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:40:24 -0800

That is one fugly logo - how in the world can they justify the cost for developing that?! uggh!

By: deanc

deanc — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:42:07 -0800

Every couple of years, we get treated to the latest attempt at the most international and yet inoffensive art that can be conceived. Sometimes it's actually kind of compelling. I dunno. I think if they tried to be merely inoffensive, it would come off better. Instead, there's the attempt at "inoffensive yet creative" which results in stuff like Athena and Phoivos. See, it's supposed "artistic" because the mascots look like the deformed drawings of a 6-year-old! If it were just a big "L" with the olympic circles or maybe a simplified London skyline, everyone would have been happy. It's the Olympics, here. It's an opportunity for cities to binge on a multi-billion dollar rebuilding project in order to market themselves. No reason to use this as an opportunity to get creative.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:48:12 -0800

"This is the vision at the very heart of our brand," said London 2012 organising committee chairman Seb Coe. This guy needs to be fired. Also, organising. LOLBRITONZ

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:50:02 -0800

I finally got it! It's a stylized '2012'! Wow. Much less apparent then the "lisa giving a blow job" or "drunk vomiting"

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:52:24 -0800

OH. MY. GOD. NO. The Lisa Simpson image is now burned into my head, btw. Yeah, thanks for that.

By: Drexen

Drexen — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:52:27 -0800

It's pink. Like pork!

By: deanc

deanc — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:56:16 -0800

I finally got it! It's a stylized '2012'! Also, the "0" is supposed to be a stylized outline of London's borders, I think. You'd think that the mark of a good work of art is to see the "text" really easily and then, as time goes on, see all of the subtleties/subtext. With this logo, it's the other way around-- you see all these bizarre features first, and only after a while do you realize that it's supposed to say "2012"

By: liquidindian

liquidindian — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:58:13 -0800

[Sebastian Coe] needs to be fired. This is what happens when you give someone a peerage and put them in charge of something because he can run the fastest. I hate Sebastian Coe.

By: nofi

nofi — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:58:14 -0800

I finally got it! It's a stylized '2012'! I wouldn't have seen that if it hadn't been pointed out to me (the same goes for Lisa Simpson. The style reminds me of The Designer's Republic. Personally, I don't mind it.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 12:58:37 -0800

From time to time, I used to bring along my designers' worst work to show to clients as a straw man. The client might want to see 3 concepts, and we'd come up with 2 that we really loved, so we'd bring something incredibly boring and/or inappropriate, sure that it would be rejected swiftly. You can't always predict clients' behavior though, and predictably, unpredictabilty raised its ugly head one day with a particularly demanding, bullying, tasteless, vulgar, well-paying client. We brought the straw man along, because the client insisted on seeing 3 ideas, and of course she picked it. Egad! I wonder if that's what happened here. I mean, I just can't believe that there are a lot of designers out there who think this is any good or makes any sense for the Olympic Games.

By: Mister_A

Mister_A — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:02:04 -0800

Boring as it is, at least it is clear what this is.

By: nofi

nofi — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:05:32 -0800

UPDATE: per this press release, it was designed by Wolff Olins.

By: redteam

redteam — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:07:27 -0800

I hear they're getting Patrick Nagel to do portraits of all the female athletes.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:07:33 -0800

I actually don't think the logo is all that bad. It's jarring when you first look at it, sure. But I think the idea is to be 'fun' and 'whimsical'. Look at the name of the Nintendo "Wii" People freaked out when they heard it, it was just so weird. And yet, everything worked out fine.

By: dilettante

dilettante — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:07:37 -0800

That's horrible. I never would have seen the 2012 if it hadn't been pointed out upthread. There are a couple of better ideas even in the BBC's link to readers' submissions. Maybe it's just a plot to get the public to come up with something ~~better~~ for free?

By: sergeant sandwich

sergeant sandwich — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:07:43 -0800

Vicky Pollard in a pink tracksuit getting down with the Elephant Man in a pink tracksuit i don't know about the other stuff (lisa simpson, wha?), but this is just a perfect description.

By: MikeMc

MikeMc — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:08:30 -0800

I finally got it! It's a stylized '2012'! If I hadn't read that I wouldn't have known what the hell it was. Horrible logo, just horrible.

By: vbfg

vbfg — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:08:36 -0800

PercussivePaul: Seriously, for several minutes all I saw was jagged blobs. I wondered if maybe it was based on a map of London or something. The top left-hand 2 looks a little like mainland Britain. The 0 looks a little like a map of Greater London.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:08:54 -0800

It's been pointed out on several other sites that this logo looks like Lisa Simpson giving someone a blow-job. Is that someone Eric Gill?

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:21:20 -0800

So it is 2012! How nice that they remembered to dot the 2.

By: snofoam

snofoam — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:26:09 -0800

this is for the special olympics, right?

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:30:46 -0800

Having done my share of crap-tacular logos, I can recognize a piece of committee-driven design a mile away. This thing utterly reeks of "suggestions" from any number of ensconced hottentots. After about the 12th pass of "suggestions" you give-up and just start slapping-together exactly what the client wants and just keep thinking about the final bill. That or the designers really take themselves far too seriously. Flip a coin.

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:32:02 -0800

Joey Michaels writes "How nice that they remembered to dot the 2." Yeah, what the hell is that dot doing there? I like how on the main brand page, directly under the new logo, there's a video still of a very dour woman's face. It's like she doesn't quite approve of the design choice....

By: Space Kitty

Space Kitty — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:33:12 -0800

I clicked over with a "oh, how bad could it possibly be?" It's worse. It's actively ugly, and until it was pointed out upthread, I had no idea whatsoever that it was supposed to be numbers. Now that's a design failure.

By: reklaw

reklaw — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:37:02 -0800

Make sure to watch the video if you didn't. The '80s colours fly everywhere. It's a logo for da yoof produced by people who went on a course entitled "Appealing to the Younger Market" sometime around the year of my birth.

By: deanc

deanc — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:40:42 -0800

It's a logo for da yoof produced by people who went on a course entitled "Appealing to the Younger Market" sometime around the year of my birth. Ah. I see. It's the Poochy of Olympics logos, then.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:45:59 -0800

I thought it looked a little.. Blown up.. Exploded, even. Like, you know.. KA - BOOM !!! Is this like Batman wearing a target on his chest?

By: phaedon

phaedon — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:52:56 -0800

It took me... *checks watch*... twenty minutes for me to realize that logo said "2012".

By: reklaw

reklaw — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:56:31 -0800

deanc: Yep, Poochy sums it up very well indeed. So sad. Can't be too long before the inevitable climbdown, though - I don't think Olympic HQ is big and powerful enough to take the kind of abuse this logo is getting. Surely?

By: Milkman Dan

Milkman Dan — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 13:59:05 -0800

As we stated earlier on our blog, it's like an inukshuk meets 1989.

By: chimaera

chimaera — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:02:28 -0800

I find it difficult to imagine how much uglier it could be if God Himself had put The Ugly upon it. The mind boggles. The first logo in this slideshow is far, far superior (though it needs a bit of work itself, it's not ugly).

By: iloveit

iloveit — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:03:44 -0800

Am I the only one that doesn't think it's that bad?

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:09:37 -0800

Definitely check out Wolf Olins site, it is very informative:

Brands started as a stamp on a product, and became a gadget designed to get people to buy, an emotional level. Now they're becoming something bigger and different. Brands are becoming platforms.

Isn't that special.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:10:10 -0800

Oopss, link.. Wolf Olins (it is up thread anyway).

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:10:55 -0800

We brought the straw man along, because the client insisted on seeing 3 ideas, and of course she picked it. Egad! Good, god, Mister_A, haven't you learned the most important rule in design? Never show the client anything you don't want to do. They will always pick it. I think they drummed that one into us during freshman design.

By: luriete

luriete — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:12:17 -0800

Let this be a lesson to managers that if you embrace design-by-committee, you are ultimately giving your customers a big "fuck you." That is, you care more about watering down your product and its identity to the point that very few people will find anything overtly offensive with it than actually delivering something that the majority of folks will really care for.

By: Flashman

Flashman — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:13:14 -0800

I'm quite partial to number 8 myself

By: bshort

bshort — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:17:09 -0800

Worst logo ever.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:25:00 -0800

It's hideous, but there's something of a vernacular of bad design for the Olympics. The logos, official characters, etc for the Olympics have generally been hideous for the last 20 years. And hideous in this same way, sort of cartoony and adverbland. I miss 1968.

By: Iosephus

Iosephus — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:28:40 -0800

Initial reaction: "Dude, it's the special effects from Forbidden Planet!". I'm afraid to reopen that browser tab and see Lisa Simpson porn now.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:30:07 -0800

Am I the only one that doesn't think it's that bad? posted by iloveit at 2:03 PM I really like it. It is certainly better than the older logo. This is Nude Descending a Staircase. You'll all come around...

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:39:42 -0800

> I'm quite partial to number 8 myself "LO_OO_ODOO"? I kind of like the winning logo. Although if they're going to crib from the 80s New Wave, I half wish there was more Neville Brody to it and less April Greiman.

By: phaedon

phaedon — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:40:03 -0800

I think this is the new, western european, "i'm so happy to be alive, here's a splash of neon colors, and lots of abstraction, so we aren't criticized for leaving anyone out!" surrealism.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:42:08 -0800

that is a horrible logo--it's so jagged and unfriendly. An Olympics for a fractured world?

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:42:38 -0800

posted by ardgedee Although if they're going to crib from the 80s New Wave, I half wish there was more Neville Brody to it and less April Greiman. April Greiman is the Members Only jacket of graphic design.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:43:30 -0800

I half wish there was more Neville Brody to it and less April Greiman. April Greiman would have been more layered/overlapped and screendotted. This doesn't even reach her level, but is more like a Split Enz logo from 81.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:44:42 -0800

1,6, & 7 from the bbc ones are pretty good.

By: pax digita

pax digita — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:50:37 -0800

Finally, an Olympics-oriented graphic I can dislike more intensely than Izzy.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 14:57:31 -0800

posted by amberglow that is a horrible logo--it's so jagged and unfriendly. An Olympics for a fractured world? Exactly. The jagged edges, the fractured shapes, the disjointed form, and the painfully clashing colors of the "2012" letterforms symbolize terrorism, war, and chaos, suggesting the strife of today will be--and has always been--an integral part of humanity throughout time. The dwarfed and monochromatic Olympic logo suggests the games are largely irrelevant to the chaos surrounding us and is a sad, poignant commentary on their role in today's world. The logo itself is an act of graphic terrorism--it is the death of art and beauty, it affects us all, and after experiencing it, we are forever changed.

By: edgeways

edgeways — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:00:01 -0800

Hell, why should the frecking Olympics be any different than many other brand logos? You've seen Lucent's logo right? Goddamned coffee mug stain. Sherwin Williams? Let me smother all living life on the planet with blood/paint, Volvo, big blatant penis, Mother Mcdonald's breasts... et bloody cetra oh, and bbbbllleeech

By: designbot

designbot — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:01:29 -0800

Good luck getting kabaddi recognized as an Olympic sport now, pal.

By: ob

ob — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:01:30 -0800

I actually think that this logo is a hoax and that they'll unveil the real one soon which'll seem amazing in comparison. OK, I don't really believe that, but it is a good marketing strategy...

By: ob

ob — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:04:59 -0800

What ever the new logo is, it should read: 'THE LONDON OLYMPICS. GET IN THE MOOD OR I'LL FUCKING GLASS YOU.'

By: designbot

designbot — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:07:17 -0800

[Marketing chief Chris Denny] said they were after something "that would capture the hearts and minds of everyone…" How could a plan with a pitch like that ever go awry?

By: ClanvidHorse

ClanvidHorse — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:16:56 -0800

I like it. Call me what you will.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:17:05 -0800

I cannot ever evaluate this logo fairly because I read the thread before clicking the link and now Lisa Simpson slobbin' knob is seared on my retinas. I'm glad garish jaggies are back, though. Maybe skinny ties will be next.

By: ClanvidHorse

ClanvidHorse — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:17:31 -0800

Although that Lisa Simpson image is burned in my poor brain.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:31:11 -0800

The Chicago one is so classy, if a bit safe.

By: you just lost the game

you just lost the game — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:35:25 -0800

To put it in baseball terms, the reason for this logo being as terrible as it is is: if you swing for the fences, you usually strike out.

By: tepidmonkey

tepidmonkey — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:54:09 -0800

Why is everybody in the BBC article ascribing mystical qualities to the logo? Tony Blair: "When people see the new brand, we want them to be inspired to make a positive change in their life." Seb Coe: It will "act as a reminder of our promise to use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people around the world." Jacques Rogge: It's an "indication of the dynamism, modernity and inclusiveness with which London 2012 will leave its Olympic mark." "Dynamic", "modern" and "inclusive" are also words that could describe MySpace. That and "ugly".

By: klausness

klausness — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 15:55:35 -0800

Oh my lord, once you see Lisa Simpson in there, you can't see the logo as anything else any more. ...and the goggles, as usual, they do nothing...

By: zany pita

zany pita — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:19:11 -0800

Lisa does London

By: sellout

sellout — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:19:34 -0800

The Chicago one is so classy, if a bit safe. I like it too -- it's a shame it'll probably have to be changed.

By: serazin

serazin — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:22:17 -0800

That is horrible. I clicked the link expecting something sort of bad, but as soon as I saw the logo, I realized how inappropriately high my expectations had been. I involuntarily grimaced and cocked my head to one side, perhaps in hopes that viewed from a different angle, the logo would appear somewhat less hideous. Who designed that? A macaque with access to a Commodore 64 Koala Pad drawing tablet?

By: aladfar

aladfar — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:23:53 -0800

I'm glad bonaldi linked to the Chicago logo. It's definitely a safe choice, but has great elegance and clear (if somewhat blunt) symbolism. This is truly horrible. In fact, it's so bad that it will be remembered and reproduced in design classes for hundreds of years. A perfect example of what not to do.

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:24:05 -0800

The original is a bore and would preform poorly at small sizes. The new one looks like it was made with a Tangram set. As for the cost, a lot goes into research, surveys, focus groups and building out the entire identity and usage. Landor charged $5 million for the FexEd identity system. There is more to the bill than just a logo. Aside from that, as a graphic designer I think it sucks eggs.

By: strangeleftydoublethink

strangeleftydoublethink — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:38:41 -0800

The word brand is only mentioned 14 times in that BBC article. The spokespersons for the London Olympic Committee should try to sneak it in every other word, or maybe devise new versions, such as "The brandly implications of this logo cannot be underbranded."

By: Vindaloo

Vindaloo — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:56:58 -0800

Fugly.

By: chihiro

chihiro — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:13:38 -0800

The video reminds me of a Trapper Keeper I had in 1988. And it made me feel that the 2012 Olympics will be somehow pointier than others? Mmm...pointy.

By: rob511

rob511 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:43:34 -0800

Blair's final revenge: Preschool Britannia.

By: samsara

samsara — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:00:06 -0800

This was a little easier to figure out.

By: rob511

rob511 — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:04:58 -0800

Also, let's not forget the Beijing 2008 emblem is not universally admired. (Reminds me of Goldie Hawn in "Death Becomes Her.")

By: jca

jca — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:11:33 -0800

[rant] To the chorus line of "I could do better" No, you can't. Unfortunately this is what happens when the design/advertising/creative process must go through the death gauntlet of committee(s), MBAs, internal politics, conflicting interests, egos, budgets, red tape, focus groups, "branding", demographics, and every other obstacle that gets thrown in the way. You've heard of "Design By Committee"? Think of "Design By Olympic Committee" having it's own place in advertising hell. (See ACOG -- Atlanta games.) Is the logo awful? (I certainly think so.) But I'm sure the design/review process to get there was much uglier -- and any of the "I could do better" ideas would have probably suffered a similar fate. And beyond that, god forbid they try something risky or "not safe", only to have it be used as a "see, that kind of gamble never works" smackdown for every account executive that uses this as catch-all example of why their logo must instead be "bigger with a swoosh". [/rant]

By: sammyo

sammyo — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:18:13 -0800

I would so love to have been way back in a corner of the room when someone struggled to explain the Lisa image to the Prime Minister!

By: naoko

naoko — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:20:03 -0800

Forgive me if someone posted this already but, is this (BBC airs some of the alternate logo entires) for real? Brilliant.

By: Haruspex

Haruspex — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:22:19 -0800

Sure, it's easy to carp. But, by god, almost no designer going — unless they're Sagmeisters or Schers — get to do anything exactly as they'd intended. Wolff Olins has accomplished good, even great, work before, but I can't imagine a more committee-adulterated process than the Olympic games. It must have been pluperfect hell, the full hell arriving immediately after launch. In my own recent experience, a client that my team's been working with on an identity system told us last week that a board member's design student daughter suggested something we'd already presented (and that had been resoundingly rejected) weeks before. After informing them of this fact, we were then, after a pursed-lipped pause, huffily chastised for not being more stalwart in our opinions. And as clients go, these are pretty good ones, okay? Nonetheless, it is a shame. The work that the Atlanta shop Iconologic did for the Torino Winter Games was damn good. So, depending on a vast number of inscrutable factors, it is possible. Just not very likely.

By: naoko

naoko — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:23:20 -0800

Entries, dammit. Not entires.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:52:59 -0800

I'm no graphic designer but ... holy crap that's awful.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:21:17 -0800

I have this fear that if I say anything about the logo, I'll get slimed.

By: ericbop

ericbop — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:24:24 -0800

seeing Lisa Simpson performing an untoward act in an olympic logo: terrible. realizing that it looks more like MAGGIE SIMPSON: Aristocratacular!

By: scheptech

scheptech — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:50:03 -0800

So I was cutting a new logo out of construction paper when I happened to look down at the detritus collecting by my feet and... there it was!

By: anthill

anthill — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:51:32 -0800

Yep naoko, it's for real... More at this link

By: calhound

calhound — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:08:29 -0800

$800,000 for a logo??? What the living fuck?

By: paulinsanjuan

paulinsanjuan — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 21:01:51 -0800

I like it. I think it might be on the money. In 2012 we might be coming back to this thread to laugh at ourselves. As for symbolism (aside from dear Lisa), it has elements of a fire or flame. Maybe its a fractured world come together for the Olympics. London has certainly gone through its share of turmoil. We're predicting Iraq may take decades to repair itself. It kind of speaks to the shit the world – led by U.S. – has put us in. But that summer, we'll come together and lay down our bitterness and "fight" in the most elegant form of human competition: sports. Who says solidarity has to be a smooth round object? It's a boxer out of the 12th round battered and bruised yet victorious with a big wankin' smile on 'is face.

By: jeffj

jeffj — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 22:57:35 -0800

Count me in the 'like' column as well. It's certainly got energy, and is original and memorable. BTW, I initially took it to be a stylized map of europe, with the "london" label in the correct spot. On further examination, it's also pretty suggestive of a world map.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 00:30:44 -0800

There are some clever things to be seen within this logo. I don't entirely dislike it. I saw the right side though as a skier, which isn't exactly London 2012! The video from the BBC is awesome. That first viewer-submission had me laugh so hard I choked. Kudos who ever pulled that one off :-))

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 00:33:10 -0800

Oh, a self correction: Kudos who ever pulled that one ~~off~~ open. I quite liked the video in the OP.

By: pandaharma

pandaharma — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 00:38:20 -0800

The evolution of Olympic logos... I'm especially fond of 1960, with Romulus, Remus, the wolf, and the interlocking metal rings. For anyone who was around and paying attention in 1976, did you think Montreal was flipping the bird to the world?

By: biffa

biffa — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 02:24:21 -0800

This is what happens when you give someone a peerage and put them in charge of something because he can run the fastest. He had to have something to do once he'd been rejected by the electorate.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 04:07:29 -0800

I like that 1920 Antwerp logo. But I was expecting a severed hand, spouting water.

By: Spatch

Spatch — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 05:38:41 -0800

I actually don't think the logo is all that bad. It's jarring when you first look at it, sure. But I think the idea is to be 'fun' and 'whimsical'. When Olympic logo design committees go all-out to be 'fun' and 'whimsical', we get things like Atlanta 1996's Izzy. Izzy was the "World's First Computer-Designed Mascot!" but for some strange reason didn't become quite a hit in spite of all the earnest marketing that went on in the name of mascot branding. Izzy sort of disappeared from sight halfway through the games, even. I guess things could be worse. Salzburg's failed bid for the 2010 Winter Olympic games included a peek at their proposed mascot, Sno-Mo, a snowball Mozart. He looks like something I once won from the squirt gun game at the carnival.

By: Spatch

Spatch — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 05:40:49 -0800

Ah, I see I was excited enough to include the same link twice. Here's the Izzy page I'd meant to link to along with the awn.com article. (Moral: Test your links on preview)

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 06:55:00 -0800

THE DESIGN STAGE

By: amberglow

amberglow — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 07:45:41 -0800

If they had made it so that the Olympic rings were overlaid on it and knit and bound the fractures together it might have worked better maybe.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 07:47:19 -0800

WaPo: Jeers and Loathing Over a New Logo

By: amberglow

amberglow — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 07:48:30 -0800

I actually had no idea that that fractured pieces were supposed to read 2 0 1 2.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 07:51:04 -0800

...message boards condemned it as a "broken swastika". .. they're right.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 08:01:16 -0800

The logo is fine. It's the Olympic Games itself that should be put to rest.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 09:04:08 -0800

posted by Haruspex But, by god, almost no designer going — unless they're Sagmeisters or Schers — get to do anything exactly as they'd intended. Gotta disagree with you there, mate. One of the most important parts of the design process is presenting good work that the client won't want to have diluted in committee. The other part of the design process is telling clients when their ideas are are bad.

By: coudal

coudal — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 09:43:42 -0800

Here's what we're thinking about this issue at Coudal Partners.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:23:56 -0800

Maybe it's a bizarro reverse-marketing thingy like when they tried to change coke or start putting lard in mars bars - generate so much publicity with an awful logo and then unviel the real one - anyway, it's got them loads of attention so they must be pleased.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:24:13 -0800

sorry that should read unvile lol

By: dreamsign

dreamsign — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:29:10 -0800

How would you rate the London 2012 logo? Gold 7.11% Silver 7.83% Bronze 14.97% Wooden spoon 70.09% 16580 Votes Cast Results are indicative and may not reflect public opinion I wouldn't count on that.

By: jca

jca — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:31:35 -0800

The other part of the design process is telling clients when their ideas are are bad. Hard to do when you are dealing with a laundry list of clients/executives that you don't actually see/talk to/engage/etc. Again, we're talking about working within a large corporate/committee/disjointed structure, not telling a single client their business card letterhead ideas aren't going to work.

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 10:44:37 -0800

I agree that it's hard, but that's why you always present work to the clients and executives yourself.

By: MiltonRandKalman

MiltonRandKalman — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:19:50 -0800

The other part of the design process is telling clients when their ideas are are bad. It's important for ad agencies to have a red flag list. When the flags are up, you fire your client, seriously. Some groups like AIGA have recommended firing at least one client a year just to keep the whiny, cheap bastards from distracting you from clients who actually understand the value of design and want to work with you. Advice to the agency that shat this out, next time you walk into a meeting with the client's Marketing VP and you notice a copy of Eye on the coffee table, fire him right there. Its hard to work with a client who needs to be educated but therein lies the challenge of the business. To tussle with a client who thinks they know more than you is unbearable. Somewhere along the line the client veer off the direction, if the agency should have protected it's reputation and walked away.

By: perilous

perilous — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:21:15 -0800

That logo is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen in my life. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. What the hell were they thinking? To paraphrase John Belushi: What a bowl of fuck! I particularly enjoyed reader submission numbers one and three; voted for number one, because what he did there with spelling "London" with 2012 as the first three letters delighted my nerdy, artistic soul and helped ease the pain of that...that abortion they've vomited forth from the bowels of the "official" design team.

By: edgeways

edgeways — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 11:54:50 -0800

"others would say that it represents the multicolored vomit sprayed across the capital's pavements at 3 a.m. on your average Sunday morning."

By: East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:07:26 -0800

BREAKING NEWS: They've replaced the video in my first link... for hilarious and deadly reasons.

By: liquidindian

liquidindian — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:52:16 -0800

Another possible alternative.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 08:47:49 -0800

seizures? ...yesterday evening, they were forced to pull the promotional video for the new brand from the official website after complaints from a completely unexpected quarter - Britain's epileptics. ...

By: Rich Smorgasbord

Rich Smorgasbord — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 23:22:41 -0800

I don't understand what the fuss is about. It looks like they actually tried to create something. Measured criticism is fine, but there's a lot of outright hatred for this. Maybe it's just a case of people wanting to crush something that sticks out.

By: vbfg

vbfg — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 23:50:09 -0800

Conformity of opinion amongst the national daily papers ensures there is outright hatred and fuss that won't die. It's somewhere between funny and scary watching things like this happen.

By: Rich Smorgasbord

Rich Smorgasbord — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 03:10:08 -0800

Scary. That's populism for you.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:40:32 -0800

Huh? "It fails the Harding FPA machine test which is the machine the television industry uses to test images." That's all fine and nice, but Harding is the quotee's own name, and Google doesn't know jack about no goddam "FPA machine test". Is this totally bogus? (Data: google ["CFA machine test"] renders mostly copies of this press release, "["CFA machine test" -2012] renders one single hit, a blog referring to this story.)

By: amberglow

amberglow — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 20:03:56 -0800

Daily Show just showed a little bit of the animation via CNN--it really is a sped-up version of MTV circa 1981--terrible.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:25:33 -0800

I like it. Especially the color scheme of the logo with the bike riders.

By: katillathehun

katillathehun — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 20:30:57 -0800

More like... LOLympics. *snort*

By: endermunkee

endermunkee — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 04:49:31 -0800

Does anyone else see a map? I sort of managed to find a North America and a South on the left, an Asia and an Africa on the right, and a wee diamond-shaped Europe. A map was the first thing I looked for, actually, after I got over how unappealing the logo is. Then again, I am sleep-deprived, so perhaps it really is only a stylized Lisa Simpson that I'm seeing.

By: kcds

kcds — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 07:00:44 -0800

Google doesn't know jack about no goddam "FPA machine test" The google-fu is weak with this one. Try http://www.hardingfpa.com.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 09:02:46 -0800

Does anyone else see a map? Wait-- it's a map AND the numbers 2 0 1 2 all at once? ugh!

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:28:06 -0800

Thanks kcds.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 12:33:18 -0800

Do you really prefer the old logo to the new one amberglow. Because the old logo looks like something I would have come up with in my 7th grade art class.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:14:44 -0800

I did really like the old one...it had the Underground-esque typeface, and the Thames running thru it (a la Eastenders), and was still simple and clean and immediately recognizable and readable. I think it was unexciting, but all corporate logos are bland--the Olympics logo is first and foremost a corporate logo and branding thing. It's meant to go at the bottom of ads and on products--it should be simple and clear foremost. Having to puzzle it out or think about it is not what logos do, or what they are for. They're not rebuses or puzzles.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:18:07 -0800

Also, the word "LONDON" isn't even really visible in the new one, and that's the main thing that's new and different about this 2012 Olympics--it's in London and not Paris or NY or Seoul or Beijing or SLC or Montreal, etc. Otherwise there's no need for any new logos for each one at all unless you make the place prominent.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:20:07 -0800

(i just would have put the 2 in front of the river thing in the old one, and probably used the exact Underground typeface)

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:21:04 -0800

look at the 2 of them side-by-side here

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:28:18 -0800

I guess you have to ask: What is it about 2012 that's new and different from all past Olympics? The answer is: It's in London. That should guide the design and branding. Also, the rainbow rings have been a standard Olympic logo feature for ages and ages, and are known to the whole world, and the new design dumps them altogether. If i was the IOC or whoever, i'd reject the new logo just because of that alone. It's like not using the Nike swoosh, or Apple's bitten apple.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 19:29:19 -0800

I'll have to respectfully disagree amberglow. I think the original logo is tres boring. But I will admit to having a soft spot for retro 80's fashion.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 07:21:11 -0800

different strokes, vronsky. I'd add tho, that this is a future event, and not a VH1 "I Love the 80s" special. In 2012, the 00s will probably be the hot retro decade. BagNewsNotes weighs in: ...I think a large part of the problem is that people are looking at it as a static element, whereas the intent of it is to actually float, fill and/or move. ... To which i'd say we're far more likely to see it static than moving--on all the products that pay for using it.