Going logo
Who would have thought a logo would cause so much fuss? On the one hand, the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics would have hoped their recently-launched logo would cause a fuss — namely positive, whilst on the other they would have hoped it wouldn't cause the sort of fuss it has — namely negative.
What can be said with certainty is that the logo, in its static form, is not as good as it could have been; in its moving form it is, to these eyes, very good (notwithstanding the issues surrounding epileptic seizures). This is not to say, however, that the logo should have taken a more traditional form that incorporates the Olympic rings, some London landmark and perhaps some modern-ish swishes and / or line figures — that would simply be derivative (and is, indeed, exactly the sort of design readers of the BBC, thelondonpaper and other such trash, in a scarily predictable and terrible version of Have Your Say and other such user-generated rubbish, have come up with). My own suggestion would be to have used at least a colour contained within the Olympic rings as the initial one for the logo i.e. pink and taken it from there.
Two things from everybody's "going logo" follow. The first is that the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics should absolutely stick with this logo — it has been written already that there is never a second chance for a first impression, and that absolutely holds in this case.
The second is what the British public's reaction to this logo has to say about their attitude to the Olympics. There is a lot of carping from the sidelines about the 2012 Olympics, both from a money perspective and from one that questions the broader benefits which accrue to a host nation (arguments which are dismissed here). The launch of a less-than-perfect logo has unfortunately provided yet more opportunity for such carping to continue. I am fully supportive of London's hosting of the 2012 Olympics and will continue to make the case for the organisers over the coming months and years. My one request, however, is that the organisers, at the same time as developing what will be a very successful Olympic and Paralympic Games, also spend some time to address the lamentable national malaise that accompanies every such large-scale project in Britain and continually make the case for the London 2012 Olympics.
Filed in Sport