CRAP, A NEW OLYMPIC EVENT

If designing the worst logo for a public event ever, while wasting tons of money, was an Olympic event, this one would score gold for sure. I know this is sort of older news but I still can’t believe this is actually the official Olympic logo for 2012. Now the last thing I want to do is come off as a pretentious designer who scoffs at everyone else’s work. However, sometimes you just have to be honest and look at work for what it is. In this case, crap!

The 2012 Olympic logo has been designed for a while now and has been met with harsh (but deserving) criticism. This new logo is a representation of the number 2012, with the Olympic Rings embedded within the zero. One of the key goals in the logo was trying to appeal to “young people.” It seems to me they went past just young people all the way to appealing to kindergartners; which I’m sure was their target demographic because I know all little kids would rather watch the Olympics instead of Sponge Bob.

“Early public reaction to the logo, as measured by a poll on the BBC website, was largely negative: more than 80% of votes gave the logo the lowest possible rating. Several newspapers have run their own logo competitions, displaying alternative submissions from their readers…It was suggested that the logo resembles the cartoon character Lisa Simpson performing fellatio and others have complained that it looks like a distorted Swastika.”

A segment of animated footage released at the same time as the logo was reported to trigger seizures in a small number of people with photosensitive epilepsy. The charity Epilepsy Action received telephone calls from people who had had seizures after watching the sequence on TV. In response, a short segment was removed from the London 2012 website. Ken Livingstone, then London Mayor, said that the company who designed the film should not be paid for what he called a “catastrophic mistake.” – Wikipedia

What a Train Wreck the whole thing is. Possibly the saddest thing (aside from the seizure inducing commercials) is the cost of this project. Apparently it cost £400,000. That is roughly 592,000 U.S. dollars….. I think they should demand a refund!

Just for reference and comparison, I went and found many of the official logos of the past 60 years or so. Included is the London Olympics of 1948… dated but much better.