Following the blog post I wrote about the new 2012 Olympics identity, I was invited to write a short piece for the Birmingham Post which was published today. Here’s it is:
The new identity for the London 2012 Olympics was launched this week and it would be generous to describe the public’s reaction to it as ‘lukewarm’. Throughout the UK there have been public outcries and high profile criticism. In his inimitably subtle style, Ken Livingston being quoted “I wouldn’t pay them a penny” sums up the majority opinion on what many are saying is the worst piece of high-profile sport branding since Edd the Duck was brought in as the face of the 1994 Commonwealth Games.
Designed by the world-famous agency Wolff Olins for a project of this magnitude you wouldn’t be blamed for expecting something of outstanding quality, cutting edge graphic artistry, amazing sound design, visual impact, attention to detail, engaging imagery, inspiring energy or unparalleled quality.
So I guess we were all bound to be disappointed what with all the pressure behind the new brand (remind me why the old one needed replacing?).
The first contact I had with the new identity was an email entitled “I want to leave the country” that I was forwarded by a designer I work with, who in turn had been forwarded a link to the London 2012 website. On it here was a too-long, epileptic-seizure-inducing video that made hysterical viewing until it was removed on Thursday.
In case you didn’t catch it, imagine this: an aging raver wearing a Global Hypercolor t-shirt has just dug out his old ZX spectrum from his attic. He leans forward, slips in the cassette and hits play. Just as Manic Miner begins to load he accidentally touches a dodgy connection, electrocuting himself in a blast of high-voltage noise. The following eight minutes of footage is an edit of what he sees and hears whilst recovering and walking around London for the next five years.
Or at least that’s what I guess it must have be about.
Half way through my first viewing of the video I started laughing and ended up nearly crying, and I wasn’t alone. Fifty thousand people and counting have gone out of their way to express their dislike for the logo in an online petition in what has become a huge embarrassment to the organisers.
But is it really that bad? Wolff Olins issued a very lucid justification of their design decisions. For many years the Olympic Games have been represented by the same multi-ringed symbol with only slight variation from year to year. The argument is that the UK is now a World centre of creativity and design and if there were one place in the World that could bring the Olympic brand into the 21st century it would be here and now.
I congratulate them on having the strength of will to push for a completely new brand, one that uses multiple platforms, has motion, dynamism and new technology used throughout, but from the initial response to it it’s going to be some time until we see if the identity meets any of these aims.
What’s for sure is that the launch of the identity must be one of the most successful viral marketing campaigns I’ve seen in a long time. Many design agencies would love for the public to get this engaged with a new logo launch. Did they do this on purpose so that when they revert back to the much-loved original that the public suddenly remembers how much we loved it?
Only time will tell.