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Charlie Beckett

June 4th, 2007

Beyond the brand: 2012

3 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Charlie Beckett

June 4th, 2007

Beyond the brand: 2012

3 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

At first sight, the new Olympic logo, launched today, looks ugly to me. But I think it may be a typically bit of bold thinking by the organisers. My initial reaction was ‘what is it and what on earth is it trying to say?’ 2012 logo

It seems to bear little relation to what the organisers described as a dynamic image that will attract a young online generation. It doesn’t seem to symbolise much about London or the Games declared aspirations. It looks childish rather than youthful and the ‘london’ writing looks like an after-thought on Paintbox.

But this is more than a logo and is a deliberate contrast to the Candidate city branding. I think what they have here is something that will sing and dance in a digital age. It’s not supposed to be a static, all-embracing image. It will move and develop as the Games story rolls out up to 2012. I predict much mockery in the media which likes to have jolly mascot style logos like World Cup Willy. But this is a lot more interesting – and if you ignore the dreadful brand-speak at today’s launch and just relax and enjoy the graphics, you start to see how it might just turn in to a classic for the age of social networking and viral videos.

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Charlie Beckett

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