Where's My Jetpack?: The Hurl Heard Round the World

Monday, June 04, 2007

The Hurl Heard Round the World

Here's what £400,000 and one year will get you. Being described by the London Olympic Committee as "ambitious, interactive and youth-friendly," this is the new logo for the 2012 Games. Quite a few people are hating this thing, designed by Wolf-Olins, whose creepy giant eye on their homepage suggests what sort of ambitious, youth-friendly people work there.

There's ambitious - and then there's shitty. And somewhere right now, the designer of this atrocity is really, really hurt and angry that the unwashed masses don't appreciate his/her "vision."

Calling on Bill Green to help out our English cousins and Make the Logo Better. Although I'm sure there are at least a million qualififed UK designers who would gladly sell the Olympic Committee a much better, much cheaper version.

Labels: 2012 logo, London 2012 Olympics, Sebastian Coe, Wolf-Olins

13 Comments:

I think that's the best use of that logo yet.

By Thinking In Vain, at June 4, 2007 at 3:45 PM
Ha, so lemmee see. I do a better one for free and he got paid how much for that one?

Yeah, that works.

;-p

By Anonymous, at June 4, 2007 at 9:22 PM
Yeah, but think of the, um, fame.

;)

By Thinking In Vain, at June 5, 2007 at 8:33 AM
I can't see why everyone's so down on it. It's pink, for heaven's sake! Pink is good!

By SchizoFishNChimps, at June 5, 2007 at 8:46 AM
I like the orange version better than the pink...

By Thinking In Vain, at June 5, 2007 at 9:30 AM
In a new article a spokesman said, "Our emblem needs to be modern, bold, flexible and as relevant today as in five years' time. We want our Games to be different. We are hosting them in a different era, in 2012." Do you think we'll all have our jetpacks by the new era?

By Anonymous, at June 5, 2007 at 4:59 PM
the truth is, the masses have no idea about design. One of the members of the design team responsible for this graduated from the graphic design course i'm on last year, and i think he did a great job. It's great to see an olympics brand that is a bit different for a change, a bit more daring and for once devoid of cheesy olympics cliches. Plus I love the fact that it makes the Daily Mail brigade angry. And by being controversial, we're all talking about it..so it's already a success.

By Anonymous, at June 6, 2007 at 12:17 PM
Anonymous:

Your logic is really quite twisted. Controversy = Success? Not really.

"Daring" and "different" do not a great design make.

Defending this with "the masses have no idea" is not going to work. The Olympics were meant for the masses, and the masses (not just Daily Mail readers) aren't liking this thing one bit.

Designers like yourself should stay out of branding and advertising and just be artists. You'll find it's a very frustrating career for people who want to make art. And you'll be quitting lots of jobs where only you understand the daring and different direction you were trying to take that no one else could appreciate.

By RFB, at June 6, 2007 at 12:29 PM
Oooh, touchy touchy Mr Jetpack Man.

Indeed, 'daring' and 'different' do not necessarily equate to good design. But I was merely suggesting that sometimes a step in a different direction can be a good thing. The public don't like the brand because it's not what they expected - 'what, no big ben / olympic ribbon thingy in the shape of the river thames / london eye? this thing is crap!' Some of the most iconic and celebrated pieces of design were met with widespread criticism when first unveiled. (akzidenz grotesk, the typeface that shaped helvetica, was considered 'ugly' and 'disgusting' when first released - now helvetica is used in brands worldwide). Perhaps sometimes it takes a designer to push a new idea, and the audience grow to appreciate it?
I'll admit that this isn't my favourite identity. I just think branding it 'shitty' without any real explanation isn't really helping anyone. Maybe it's an advertiser thing - I know a few and have been taught by a couple, and they all have an irritating tendency to hold their own opinion as fact.

I'll stick with being a designer, thanks.

By Anonymous, at June 8, 2007 at 7:25 AM
Yeah, Anonymous – the business is full of giant egos, and it appears that the size of yours will enable you to fit in quite well.

But this isn’t just one guy saying, “I think it’s shitty,” it’s pretty much the world. I’ll give you that a daring designer is indeed needed to sometimes push an idea and let it grow on the public, but the instant most people see this thing, it’s instant hatred. I wish I could explain it. Juvenile? Pink? Ugly? Erratic? Pandering?

I’ll take up your challenge and stop bitching about it for a week or two and see if it grows on me.

By RFB, at June 8, 2007 at 10:48 AM
This is the first time I've seen it, and I have to say I haven't experienced that level of visual pain in quite a while. Is that the point? To bother viewers with visual chaos? I can accomplish that just looking around my office.

By Anonymous, at June 8, 2007 at 1:37 PM
Great, i'll see you in a week or two :)
If you give my posts another scan i think you'll find i was simply explaining why I think the brand isn't as bad as the rest of the world would have you believe; I think it's a bit unfair to accuse me of having an over-inflated ego.

By Anonymous, at June 8, 2007 at 5:44 PM
Sorry, handbag - just retaliating to your insinuation that I hold my opinion as fact.

I'm not a designer. But I know what I like. When it comes to art & design, I think the old adage is true: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Nothing is universally loved or hated - and in the end, "good art" to me is decided by me. Same for you.

By RFB, at June 8, 2007 at 6:07 PM