2012 London Olympic Games Logo

Posted by David Whitley Jun 7, 2007

A storm has erupted in Britain this week after the logo for the 2012 London Olympics was unveiled. The general consensus is that the bright pink and yellow monstrosity already looks dated and hideous – so heaven knows what it will look like in five years’ time.

This is one of those no win situations unfortunately. The designers have gone for something bold, distinctive and different. If they’d played safe, they would have been criticised for not capturing London’s young, vibrant, multicultural spirit. As it is, they’ve created a logo so incredibly awful that it has managed to unite a whole nation – against it.

Video screenings with the logo on have been triggering epileptic fits, while the print version looks for all the world to be a bad piece of 1980s graffiti.

The thing that has riled most, though, is the cost. £400,000 (US$800,000) was spent on designing, and market researching what must go down as one of the greatest publicity bungles of all time.

Even London Mayor Ken Livingstone, chief cheerleader of anything to do with the British capital city, has conceded that it’s not worth the money.

I’d not normally weigh into this sort of row. After all a logo doesn’t matter all that much, and this is one of those issues that people love to complain about even if it’s perfectly alright.

But sometimes things go beyond bad, and this is one of them. On the plus side, the logo – which includes the Olympic rings – has an unintentionally comic other way of looking at it.

Look closely, and you’ll possibly be able to make out Lisa Simpson, head bowed towards a very happy-looking young man. Dated, hideous AND dirty – that’s some achievement.