The London Olympic committee launched its new logo yesterday to gasps of derision.Londoners hate it:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/london_2012/article1884503.ece
5000 odd people have posted their hatred on two BBC sites:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=6494&&&edition=1&ttl=20070605013300
and ...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A23431826
13,000 people have signed an online petition so far:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/change-the-london-2012-logo.html
According to the Times, even Ken Livingston, the Mayor of London, hates it.
And people have been writing to the papers, phoning radio stations - you name it, people have complained about it!
But why?
It is simple. This waste of graphical space has just cost $400,000 pounds and wasted an entire year of our time.
Logos have a very fixed role in advertising terms.
- They must be instantly identifiable
- They must be easy to understand
- They must NOT rely on technology to make them exciting since the greatest use is always in the static form
- They must convey simple facts - in this case 3 facts: London, Olympics, 2012
- They must not try and convey deep meanings as this over complicates them, but help make the complicated bits more accessible and identifiable.
- And THEY MUST NOT MAKE PEOPLE WANT TO LAUGH AT YOUR ORGANISATION!
Finally, they really should not cost a fortune. Whether you are a company or a committee, you ALWAYS have more important things to spend money on.
Now I know that the £400,000 is apparently private money, but watch how much public money is spent on trying to make this waste of space exciting - all that extra cash in animating it every which way, thousands of pounds putting it everywhere, hoping the public will grow to love it.
And then there are the sponsors. When they buy into something like the Olympics, they get to use the logo. Except everyone thinks the logo is a joke. How will that make the sponsors feel?
One person on the BBC site commented that this will make Britain a Laughing Stock. Lord Seb Coe, who arrogantly is ignoring the public and defending the indefensible, should start listening, listening hard!
Meanwhile - go sign the petition, and if the downing street lot ever get their fingers out and authorize one of the many attempts for a petition on there, sign that too! Oh, and moan on the BBC site and everywhere else.
It would be nice if the government listened to it's paymasters for once!
