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Wednesday, June 6, 2007

The pinnacle of sport...the pinnacle of design?

(Revised 7/6/7) Welcome to the branding of the London Olympic Games...just 5 short years away. It seems that perhaps the games organisers know something about the future of design that the rest of the world hasn't grasped just yet. Based on their insights though, Armageddon is just around the corner.


The jagged logo for the London 2012 Olympics has attracted a barrage of criticism, with thousands signing an online petition calling for it to be scrapped.

As if that wasn't bad enough, animated footage of the logo was removed from the London 2012 Olympic Web site amid claims that it could trigger epileptic seizures. The logo cost £400,000 (AU$947,824.01) and took a year to develop.

The London 2012 Web site says: "The new emblem is dynamic, modern and flexible.

"It will work with new technology and across traditional and new media networks."

Critics have said it resembles a "monkey on the toilet" or a "broken swastika."

My mum used to tell me that if I didn't have anything positive to say then I shouldn't say anything, so here's 3 positive things: 1) blue is a pleasant colour, 2) there are no spelling errors, 3) the olympic symbol is a timeless piece of design (a quality seemingly lost in this piece of turgid design - oops, there I go again).

Over 11,000 people have signed a petition to have this logo banned so far. Perhaps you'd like to join them...



There are moments when, in contrast, Comic Sans seems to have some merit.

On reflection, it's been a bit of a downhill slide since 1968...














7 comments:

garrick field said...

i almost had the monkey on the toilet illusion, but lost it. its kind of like the magic eye where you have to hold your head right to see it.

Mikey B said...

What have I said about Arial????

You need to use it and nobody will get seizures. Sure, it won't look "hip" but since when are the Olympics or the UK cool???

Anonymous said...

For starters, if the Queen isn't the epitome of chic, hip and cool, then you can call me a Kiwi.

Then there's Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Cliff Richard...should I go on?

ToNyAKAsErG said...

where's the monkey? does he have tourrets?

Simon Elliott said...

Yeah, I haven't seen it yet either Serge. Mind you, many struggle to see 2012 as well...

Clare said...

Jesse, did you know that Cliff Richard is the #1 choice of British public bars when choosing music to get rid of patrons at closing time?

Interesting piece of information, that.

As an aside, it's Barry Manilow in Australia. No surprises there.

ToNyAKAsErG said...

mind u.. i do like it.. its got spunk.. i like the spunk.. spunk is good.. some ppl say i have spunk.. or maybe i'm a punk.. eitherway.. i like it.. and yes the 2012 is easy to see.. i like it cos when u move it up and down it 'moves' is got flow and flow is good.. its fluid.. vibrant.. its so 21st century!