London 2012 Olympics Branding
The new London 2012 Olympics branding has just been unveiled and I have to say it's a bit of a let-down. Nay, an awfully big let-down.
I don't really need to say what I think about that logo - I'm sure you can imagine.
However, the logo is not the worst of it - the accompanying brand film just looks like a bad 80's music video;
As a colleague of mine observed;
I was waiting for MC Hammer to pop up somewhere.
Is this serious? A prepubescent teen could have knocked this together in iMovie.
Apparently, a year was spent on consultation and development of this brand and no doubt hundreds of thousands of pounds were squandered on it.
It is, quite frankly, appalling. Are we really to believe that given the design talent this country possesses, this is the best we could come up with?
I'm pretty embarrassed to be honest.
Comments are closed for this journal entry.
Kitsimons...
...is the online home of Simon Kitson, a web designer with a healthy enthusiasm for standards-compliant, accessible design and a penchant for blogging about nothing in particular.
Notes
- Nice Nike Football ad from Madonna's better half.
- Top marks for the realigned BBC News website, bringing it more in line with the lovely new, jQuery driven, BBC homepage.
Beautiful full-screen image browsing served up by the snazzy PicLens plug-in. Impressive, though practicality is debatable.- Yahoo shifts to search the
semantic web
. Potentially huge, and very welcome news for usstandards nuts
. 
The Coke Zero Game. Latest masterpiece from the infuriatingly talented North Kingdom.
It's sites like the Red Bull Flight Lab that remind you what Flash is for. Brilliant application and an awful lot of fun.- Rejoice! The new Indiana Jones trailer has finally made an appearance. Can't wait.
- Help the Email Standards Project get Google's attention in the hope they will finally improve Gmail's awful rendering of HTML email.
- Awesome panoramic view of the Airbus A380 cockpit interior. This is the super-future.
- Excellent article from accessibility supremo Roger Johansson on how inappropriate, or overuse, of HTML features meant to aid accessibility can actually have the opposite effect.
franky
4 June, 2007
Sigh. I don’t know what that creative team was on, but I strongly suggest them to reconsider their usage of it or to opt for an overdose.
Who came up with the logo colour? Have I missed the memo that London worldwide known is as the pink town?
Rik
4 June, 2007
It looks like a Topman advert, looks like the ad agency have been taking far too many drugs and listening to ““nu rave”“. It’ll look out of date by 2012, never mind in 50 years time.
Luke
4 June, 2007
As you know simon, I’m no designer, but that is despicable. I’m not sure I could have even used that many colours in my own design! To me it doesn’t portray London very well at all.
kitsimons
5 June, 2007
Apparently, the brand is intended to “inspire young people”. Unfortunately, I’m sure “young people” will see straight through it – a poor attempt at appealing to “young people”, put together by a committee of “old people”.
Luke/Franky – spot on. It doesn’t portray London, or the UK for that matter, at all.
Rik – I agree it’ll age very poorly, although I’d say it looks out of date now, let alone when the Olympics come around…
Steve Tucker
5 June, 2007
It’s embarrassing for us Brits. We get this once in a half-century chance to host the Olympic games and this is how we brand it. F**king shocking. I’m not complaining at the people who designed it; I’m complaining about the knobs who approved it. Must have been off their face.
Luke
5 June, 2007
Perhaps a look at the alternatives
BBC News Article
Number 12 is particularly amusing!
Simon
5 June, 2007
Yesterday I hated it. Having looked at it again, I’ve changed my mind. Granted, the supporting ephemera (the MC Hammer stuff) is questionable, and looks so 80s it hurts – but no one knows how it’ll look in context in 2012. It had to look different, which it does – and that’s important. The fact that it’s on this (and I’m guessing many other thousands of blogs out there), means it’s already done its job as regards raising publicity. Plus, hate it or (least likely, reading the posts!) love it, it’s already synonymous with the 2012 London Olympics – and it’s only a day old.
The bottom line is that I don’t think Wolff Ollins get things like this wrong – and we’re all judging it 4 or 5 years prematurely.
Tim
7 June, 2007
If you look closely it looks like someone giving head (female on the right) – awesome. And there’s me thinking these highly paid branding consultants have just thrown together some shapes…
Simon the Barman
12 June, 2007
I’ve just heard from my Mum that they’ve had to pull the video as it’s been causing epileptic seizures. Naturally, I followed it up and lo and behold… The BBC had reported it alright.
Millions wasted, people hurt and they have to scrap half of it. Idiots! If I had a kid sister, she could have done better.
P.S. Mr. Kitson’s link above no longer shows the original overly offensive vid.
Dave
15 June, 2007
Well, I thought it was rather hip and groovy, man.
And what’s all this about old designers? There’s ageism laws now. I might sue (if sue doesn’t mind). Nothing wrong with a bit of grey. I think it makes me look rather distinguished…