Creativity is subjective at best but we think we’ll have overwhelming support when we say the newly released London 2012 Olympic logo sucks. On the other hand, creativity is subjective at best but also we think we’ll have overwhelming support when we say the newly released 2012 Olympic logo is brilliantly infused with modernity of motion and the mastery of motivation. You choose. We can’t.
Viewing the logo, designed by Wolff Ollins, initially caused an immediate WTF? Letting the logo sink in while viewing the illustrative brand video behind the logo causes an entirely different reaction. The support for the brand direction could have easily gone down the ill but well traveled road of Olympic fist pumping, rather it quite eloquently examines what motivates humans to achieve. Interestingly, it wasn’t for quite some time, we realized the logo’s imagery visually represents the numeric date 2012.
Viewing a video of the logo fully animated and making its way around the streets of London oddly conjures notions of The Six Million Dollar Man or The Bionic Woman, which, interestingly, is making a return to TV this fall. It’s sort of like 28 Months/Years/Decades Later (you know those sequels are coming), the zombies have been eradicated from London and life has return to its modern self in a way that is light years apart from current day. Yes, the logo is that different from anything we’ve seen in the past.
So one wonders, does it suck because it’s so different or is it brilliant because it’s so different? Subjectivity, my friends. A key trait of the business we’ve all chosen for ourselves and duly supported by one Scamp blog commenter who wrote, “It really looks like someone giving head.”
Or, perhaps, the creators were riffing off the Arlington Pediatric Center’s unfortunate choice of logo.
