Olympic Heights

It's hip, it's retro--and it comes at the bargain basement price of £400,000 ($790,000) in taxpayer cash. It's the London 2012 Olympic logo, unveiled last week. In among the abstract pink archipelago of shapes you might spot the year "2012." No? As Olympics organizing committee head Lord Coe explained to the BBC:

It won't be to everybody's taste immediately but it's a brand that we genuinely believe can be a hard working brand which builds on pretty much everything we said in Singapore about reaching out and engaging young people, which is where our challenge is over the next five years.

Comments

jp | June 15, 2007, 2:42pm | #

it's a brand that we genuinely believe can be a hard working brand

Well, some firm must have had a mighty powerful brand to be able to get $790,000 for a piece of crap that any graphic-design undergrad would gladly have created for free.

Dan T. Preemptor | June 15, 2007, 2:47pm | #

You libertarians shouldn't have a problem with the logo since the Olympics is a private organization. Right?

ed | June 15, 2007, 2:48pm | #

Oh. I thought it said "ZOIZ".

Jay Tee | June 15, 2007, 2:50pm | #

Hah! Privately run, but flushed with public cash, graft, corruption and government subsidies. It's really OK to loathe the Olympics and all the crooked shennanigans they entail.

Not to mention that this logo is complete ASS. Looks like a bad design from the 80s. Completely embarrassing that they ripped off a budget for that much lucre.

B.P. | June 15, 2007, 2:50pm | #

I believe someone referenced Poochie the other day...

Dan T. Responder Preemptor | June 15, 2007, 2:51pm | #

Yes, but Dan T. Preemptor, the London Olympics receives massive subsidies from the British government.

sage | June 15, 2007, 2:51pm | #

What is that thing, a Polish puzzle?

lunchstealer | June 15, 2007, 2:51pm | #

I thought it was Kanji for "who's dick to you have to suck to get a good Olympics logo?"

Warren | June 15, 2007, 2:52pm | #

2012 will mark the return of ZOR!
All mortals shall tremble and quake before mighty ZOR.

Col DuBois | June 15, 2007, 2:52pm | #

To me it looks like a guy with a big nose and a ponytail waving with his right hand and 'batin with the left.

stephen the goldberger | June 15, 2007, 2:52pm | #

Pacman should sue for copyright infringment

Another Dan T. Responder Preemptor | June 15, 2007, 2:53pm | #

You know, Dan T. Preemptor, just because its a private organization doesn't mean we can't comment on how stupid the logo is.

Rhywun | June 15, 2007, 2:53pm | #

lunchstealer,

No, we'll find that out in 2012.

jasno | June 15, 2007, 2:53pm | #

Don't remember where I read it, but someone suggested it looks like Lisa Simpson giving head... Now every time I see it that's all I can think of.

Doc | June 15, 2007, 2:55pm | #

Like we should be so smug after Izzy, the mascot for the Atlanta games:

http://www.izzypins.com/history.php

I still remember the stunned silence that met the announement following the graphic that showed a cartoon blob. It just screamed:

We have no effin' ideas.

Dan T. | June 15, 2007, 2:56pm | #

Wow, I don't even have to post on a thread to post on a thread.

The Wine Commonsewer | June 15, 2007, 2:57pm | #

Why is public art so got dam ghastly?

Dan T. Preemptor | June 15, 2007, 2:59pm | #

There couldn't even be logos if the government didn't protect trademarks.

Rhywun | June 15, 2007, 2:59pm | #

it looks like Lisa Simpson giving head

OMG - it does!

What's that "thing" in the center supposed to represent? (I mean, according to the artist...)

Dan T. Preemptor | June 15, 2007, 3:00pm | #

It's Friday. Take a break!

Rhywun | June 15, 2007, 3:00pm | #

Why is public art so got dam ghastly?

Because in attempting to please everybody, it pleases nobody.

Pro Libertate | June 15, 2007, 3:03pm | #

I'd buy that for £500,000.

Episiarch | June 15, 2007, 3:04pm | #

How is it that no one, of all the people that must have been working for that 400 large, called bullshit on this? Is it possible that they are actually that talentless, stupid, and tasteless?

crimethink | June 15, 2007, 3:06pm | #

A collection of UK blog reactions to the logo.

Jeff T, age: 21 | June 15, 2007, 3:08pm | #

I've never seen anybody say what I'm about to say.

I actually really like the logo. It's new wave, electro-clash and it fucking rules.

Rhywun | June 15, 2007, 3:10pm | #

I said:

No, we'll find that out in 2012.

Nuts. I meant "2008". Ruined an already bad joke. Sigh.

Old Guy | June 15, 2007, 3:11pm | #

My first thought on seeing this was SNL's lampoon of the unveiling of NBC's "Stylized N" logo in 1976. It's pro'bly out there on video but the LAN police block me from accessing that from work. Anyone else remember it?

jb | June 15, 2007, 3:13pm | #

It does look like Lisa Simpson giving head.

Sigh...

Taktix® | June 15, 2007, 3:14pm | #

Why doesn't the Olympic committee use classical designs to, you know, hearken back to the Olympics?

anonymous | June 15, 2007, 3:15pm | #

the animated version:

http://img9.imagepile.net/img9/12224olympicgschpunken.gif

jimmydageek | June 15, 2007, 3:18pm | #

Anybody have the name of the company that designed the logo?? I would like to try for a freelance job w/ them :)

jimmydageek | June 15, 2007, 3:18pm | #

That was great, anon...:)

crimethink | June 15, 2007, 3:21pm | #

jdg,

Wolff Olins is the company.

Tacos mmm... | June 15, 2007, 3:24pm | #

Don't remember where I read it, but someone suggested it looks like Lisa Simpson giving head...

Oh my god, you're right.

ed | June 15, 2007, 3:28pm | #

a guy with a big nose and a ponytail waving with his right hand and 'batin with the left

No, that's the official motto of the 2012 Olympics.

jp | June 15, 2007, 3:29pm | #

How is it that no one, of all the people that must have been working for that 400 large, called bullshit on this?

Now, why would they go and do a thing like that?

Tom Brandt | June 15, 2007, 3:36pm | #

An animated version of the logo had to be pulled from the official website because it caused seizures in some people with epilepsy, according to The Sun newspaper.

NoStar | June 15, 2007, 3:38pm | #

Reading top to bottom left to right, it says ZION. I'll be cheering the Isrealis on to the Gold.

jimmydageek | June 15, 2007, 3:50pm | #

Well, one thing's for sure...it does garner a lot of attention...

Aresen | June 15, 2007, 3:58pm | #

Jeff T, age: 21 | June 15, 2007, 3:08pm | #

I've never seen anybody say what I'm about to say.

I actually really like the logo. It's new wave, electro-clash and it fucking rules.

You're right. I've never heard anyone say that.

Just what drugs are you using?

TWC

I think public art is bad because the artist does not feel an obligation to please his customer and, for the most part, public servants don't have the balls to tell the artist its crap.

Happy Jack | June 15, 2007, 4:00pm | #

For some reason, I'm reminded of the Waffen SS.

Must be a hangover from that flag salutin' thread.

Bart | June 15, 2007, 4:07pm | #

Lisa giving head...
I'll be in the bathroom if anyone needs me.

MadBiker | June 15, 2007, 4:12pm | #

it kind of makes me yearn for a pair of parachute pants, some fingerless lace gloves and day-glo hoop earrings...

History's Bunk | June 15, 2007, 4:26pm | #

Cut 'em some slack, guys.

What little of Europe isn't a mass grave with an anti-smoking poster stuck on it looks like an Information Society video set.

They don't have a lot to work with.
A-Ha Macht Frei!

Gahan | June 15, 2007, 4:33pm | #

And what's with those ridiculous-looking rings? . . .Oh, right.

peachy | June 15, 2007, 4:37pm | #

And the really sad thing is that the logo used by the bid committee was actually quite nice - understated yet distinctive... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:London-2012-logo.svg)

Gahan | June 15, 2007, 4:43pm | #

You know what would really be hip and cutting-edge is if they started spelling "Olympics" with an "x." And then maybe they could put a big "BEEEEAAAAATCH!" right after "London."

db | June 15, 2007, 4:53pm | #

It'd be more appropriate if the London Olympic logo read "2112."

By then they'll have taken care of everything...

Cesar | June 15, 2007, 4:55pm | #

One paper in Britain said the logo looks like Maggie Simpson giving oral sex.

What a godawful design.

Milhouse | June 15, 2007, 4:59pm | #

I think it's GREAT!

Rhywun | June 15, 2007, 5:01pm | #

I think the animated version might be the funniest thing I've ever seen. Well, this week anyway.

TrickyVic | June 15, 2007, 5:08pm | #

"""2012 will mark the return of ZOR!
All mortals shall tremble and quake before mighty ZOR.""""

LOL, Warren you beat me to it!

Shelby | June 15, 2007, 6:41pm | #

reaching out and engaging young people, which is where our challenge is over the next five years

So, they had to inflict this hideous logo on the world because of the children???

jh | June 15, 2007, 7:03pm | #

I think they intentionally made it look like one of the Simpson chicks giving head -- they were sitting around, toking and laughing at ripping off those jackasses for so much money, and then someone said, "Let's literally send those d-bags the message, 'suck this, beeeatch!"

This plot would make a great episode of South Park, no?

Ron Hardin | June 15, 2007, 9:05pm | #

What's really odd about it isn't that it's ugly, but that it can't be recognized as to its genre of logo or trademark at all.

There's a law of genre, whereby a work announces what it is by means that fall outside its genre (eg. a Western announces it's a Western using means that are not themselves part of Westerns), but this doesn't announce anything.

Perhaps that the cleaners haven't been there yet, is all.

Cesar | June 15, 2007, 10:31pm | #

"This plot would make a great episode of South Park, no?"

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Max | June 16, 2007, 9:24am | #

I am one of those youths he speaks of and I don't find it appealing. It is to trying in being stylish and it represents, well, nothing at all?

If this is the symbolism they want to connect with the Olympics in London, then I will anticipate an olympics devoid of any meaning or art... what a no-brainer...

heads or tails | June 16, 2007, 11:37am | #

The logo immediately looked like a woman on the left with big tits and a man on the right with a hard on trying to get together, standing or laying, depending on how you turn your head. But maybe it just reveals a dirty mind.

The Olympics is nationalistic ego bull crap that I want no part of, and it is too hard to bet on.

Isaac Bartram | June 16, 2007, 1:31pm | #

Of course to the eternal shame of some of my friends and colleagues London beat Tampa/Orlando to get these games. I still think we won.

Actually I'm glad Tampa/Orlando was eliminated in the early rounds. Otherwise i would have had to become publicly involved in a campaign to stop them. I had our bumper sticker all picked out.

JUST SAY N[Olympic rings here].

dhex | June 16, 2007, 4:44pm | #

dudes, i've looked at this thing for hours and i still don't see the blowjob thing.

y'all a buncha pervs.

Trey | June 16, 2007, 6:33pm | #

I am surprised that no one has mentioned "Springy", the Springfield mascot.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/mupelo/springy.gif

Alan | June 16, 2007, 8:29pm | #

Erm... to me it looks like the real logo, following a major 'quake...

...or a whack with a twenty-pound sledge...

...or something. Just kind of -- fractured, somehow.

Neu Mejican | June 16, 2007, 10:07pm | #

dhex

http://img9.imagepile.net/img9/12224olympicgschpunken.gif

for a visual aid...

The link is posted up above, but you might have missed it.

dhex | June 17, 2007, 9:56pm | #

yeah i still don't see it. looking a bit too deeply into the abyss, methinks.

Stevo Darkly | June 17, 2007, 11:51pm | #

I can see it, dhex. But then I'm probably more used to looking really, really hard for a blowjob.

Andrew Ian Dodge | June 18, 2007, 7:45am | #

Well you look at that thing for long and you know what they spent all the money on...lots and lots of drugs to come up with it.

It accurate depicts the vomit most Londoners want to produce when they see it and realise how much of their tax money is going on the Olympics.

voccan | June 18, 2007, 10:52pm | #

You can buy 2008 Olympic mascot here(55EUR
htt://www.voccan.com