London 2012 Revisited

Now that the Olympics are firmly behinds us, and the Paralympics just moments away, it is worth looking back at one of London 2012’s biggest, and earliest controversies, the logo and its surrounding brand.

After a reported $800,000 investment, Wolff Olnis’ design was unveiled in 2007, and the public responded with almost unanimous derision. Media outlets across the globe reported variously on the scorn:

The striking similarity to cartoon fellatio:

And the possibility of adverse medical side-effects:

However, all this was written a full five years before the identity would be brought to life across wide range of media in the run up to, and during the Games. We should remember that time can be a wonderful healer. What at first seemed confusing, difficult, abhorrent even, could, with the passage of time, unfold and become clearer. Like a delicious fruit or fine wine, certain designs need time to mature and ripen.

For any Londoner the 2012 Olympic brand became impossible to miss. From tickets to shops to Olympic venues to City roads, to remote boroughs, the identity was everywhere to be found. The purpose, according to locog, was to create a brand environment that ‘extends across every aspect of the Games, from spectator arrival into Heathrow all the way through to the colours and designs of the seats in the venues.’ In this respect, the brand application can’t be faulted. You could hardly step a foot anywhere in London without seeing the jagged lines of that controversial font, the garish hues of that divisive colour scheme, or the hard edges of that logo; there was no mistaking which elements of signage around the city belonged to the Olympics.

The question remains, has it grown on us? Last month the Guardian asked a few experts in the business what their current thoughts were on the eve of the games. Again, opinions were mixed at best, with most conceding that they had grown accustomed to it. But I would like to highlight Dave Annetts’ (Creative Director, Design Bridge) view, as it best articulates my own: “it was always my strong belief that it would grow on people – like an arranged marriage. By September, we'll all love it!”. He goes on to say “It was designed to be used in many different ways and in 2012 we'll really start to see this. A good example of an identity being far more than "the logo".”

Sure the logo was childish, inelegant, and brash but that what made it so perfect for the Games, the Olympics are, after all, exactly that- games. Games should be playful and juvenile, not austere and reverential. I don’t think anyone could have anticipated how much the nation got swept up with an undying, child-like enthusiasm for the events.  Hadley Freeman wrote a witty article on just how different Britain became during the Games, ‘Welcome to Britain 2.0, everyone. It seems like an awfully nice place.’ Gone was the disappointment. Gone was the antipathy. The country was joyous, proud of itself, and excelling at sport like never before! With all this happiness in the air, the 2012 identity captured the atmosphere perfectly. Bright neon colours! A font that looks like it was designed by a hand quivering with excitement! A logo so shameless it has to be happy! It is decidedly non-corporate. Many other Olympic logos are so safe that they have an air of corporate design about them, and with cynics all too quick to ridicule the corporate underbelly of the Olympic Games, it’s no bad thing to have a logo that’s appears a bit zany.

For a world at war, and in dire economic straits, the Olympic fever that swept the nation reminded us of what the Games can achieve for morale. They provided pure escapism. Day in and day out we could watch the beautiful youth of today carve out exemptions from physical laws and make a certain type of genius as carnally discernible as it can ever be. The branding did not reflect the finesse and elegance of world-class athletes in motion, nor was it supposed to. The Olympic identity was there to appeal to the spectator, and it  matched that aggressive fervour and passion perfectly.