Jun 08 2007
London Olympic 2012 Log Causing Fits – Literally
What happens when you let the marketing department run wild? You get the London 2012 Olympic logo!
Within two days of the bright, geometric design’s unveiling this week, there were 48,000 signatures on a petition to dump the logo immediately. A motion floating in Parliament called it a “childish, ridiculous and pathetic attempt to appear trendy.” And London Mayor Ken Livingstone piled on by midweek, pronouncing the new symbol a “catastrophic mistake.”
Then there was the video designed to showcase the new logo, which did make a splash, all right. It featured an animated image of a diver whose entry into the water sent out ripples of sparkling, flashing lights. The image triggered epileptic seizures in at least 23 people across Britain who watched the video on television.
Ouch! It comes in many colors, but this was the coolest there. I mean really, it is causing epileptic seizures! Who in their right mind would put something like this out there without doing a little research, market testing, and at least provide helmets for those viewing it!
The clip’s removal follows comments by Professor Graham Harding, an expert in clinical neuro-physiology who developed a test used to measure photo-sensitivity levels in animated TV material.
“The logo should not be shown on TV at all at the moment,” Harding told the BBC. “It fails Harding FPA machine test which is the machine the television industry uses to test images.”
He said the footage did not comply with regulatory guidelines.
Wow. One class of children has taken on the task of designing a better logo:
Now, children at Sprites Primary School, in the Chantry area, jumped at the chance to create what a top design firm appears to have failed at.
The year five students had just hours to produce bright logos combining the word London, the Olympic rings, and the year 2012.
And the whole class pronounced the official version “rubbish†with some pupils adding that it was confusing, like graffiti and failed to capture the Olympic spirit.
Ten-year-old Erin Allen, of Hawthorn Drive, said: “It’s horrid. It doesn’t link to anything athletic or sporty. The games are supposed to be inspiring children into sport but it isn’t inspiring at all.
Out of the mouths of babes…Well, the London 2012 web site is proud of their logo. They are encouraging people to use their logo creatively and upload the results:
Download the design templates, do something creative with them and upload the results to our online gallery. Please note London 2012 reserves the right not to display all designs submitted. We are enjoying seeing your emblem ideas, but we will only publish designs that make creative use of the templates.
“We will only publish designs that make creative use of the templates.” Am I the only one who is terrified by that statement!
Several alternative designs have been submitted to the Telegraph.co.uk web site, but here are two of my favorites:
Submitted by Charles Pope in Beijing
Submitted by Frank Donovan
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
