What is THAT? and other stories on the London 2012 logo

In the Olympic spirit, today I’m going to discuss the London 2012 logo, which in my previous post I labeled as a “monstrosity that makes no sense”. I was not exaggerating here – let’s take a look:

Just kidding, that was one created by someone drunk and/or high on acid – here’s is the real thing:

Oh wait, that is the actual logo.

So what’s the big deal about this logo, that is to represent the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London? Besides the fact that it is… insane? It cost £400,000. I know you are scratching your head trying to do a conversion into Canadian or American dollars right now, but let me do it for you: it’s a jillion.

Designed by international branding company Wolff Olins, the London 2012 logo created a huge controversy and uproar in London. I’ll vouch for this since I was living in London at the time of its reveal, back in the summer of 2007.

An animated version of the logo caused epileptic seizures so it had to be pulled. People compared it to Lisa Simpson performing oral sex on an animal. A petition was started to try and revert it to the bidding logo (which is this one). All in all, response was no good.

The attempt to attract a younger generation, represent London’s Euro skinny jeaned electro goodness and be different didn’t successfully appeal to me in anyway (although it did prompt me to write a post 2.5 years later). I can’t wait to see what the mascots are going to look like.

The Olympic (logo) games – rearrange the logo pieces to create something even cooler
BBC – Alternate Olympic logos from readers and views