{"id":1009,"date":"2012-01-15T18:11:56","date_gmt":"2012-01-15T18:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/?p=1009"},"modified":"2020-07-24T21:09:13","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T21:09:13","slug":"london-olympics-2012-a-branding-success-or-total-eyesore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/london-olympics-2012-a-branding-success-or-total-eyesore\/","title":{"rendered":"London Olympics 2012: A Branding Success Or Total Eyesore?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upon it\u2019s launch in June 2007, the Olympics 2012 logo was blowing up the blogosphere.\u00a0 However, after a recent trip to London where the design has become a part of the city backdrop, I thought it appropriate to address this controversial design and its application 5 years on.<\/p>\n

I always spend a good part of the holiday season in England and Wales navigating through the santa-clad, garland-strewn, over-lit streets. This year, however, there was a slightly different vibe.\u00a0 Stealing the show from the customary tinsel and its counterparts was a new brand\u2026.the London 2012 Olympics brand.<\/p>\n

The identity, which was created by Wolff Olins, was launched to much criticism by the media, design experts and the community at large.\u00a0 Wolff Olins describes the identity as \u201cunconventionally bold, deliberately spirited and unexpectedly dissonant, echoing London\u2019s qualities of a modern, edgy city.\u201d\u00a0 And that it is.
\nIt\u2019s vibrancy can\u2019t be missed.\u00a0 The question here is does it aptly depict the vibe of London itself, and is this a successful branding exercise?<\/p>\n

The logo itself is controversial and certainly won\u2019t appeal to everyone, but it reflects the time period and conveys some of the energy, movement, diversity, associated with the Olympics and the way it brings the world together.\u00a0 If you look at design trends over the past 5 years since this was unveiled,\u00a0 you\u2019ll notice this is at the forefront.\u00a0 We see this angular, geometric, bright visual vocabulary that has become prolific in the last few years, which makes it slightly trend driven, but nevertheless, relevant.<\/p>\n

What is remarkable about this logo is it\u2019s breakaway from conventional Olympic designs.<\/strong>\u00a0 Few Olympic Games identities have been truly iconic, and this is certainly one of them.\u00a0 When you look back over the past 50+ years<\/a>, since early Olympic logos were just city seals, there are a few that stand out as \u201cground-breaking\u201d and in line with the aesthetics of the time. Squaw Valley in 1960 introduces a much more abstract approach. Mexico in 1968 is one of the best Olympic logos ever, in our opinion. And the supporting graphics and design from that event are gorgeous and inspiring. Munich in 1972 is visually stunning and clearly referencing the op art movement from that time.<\/p>\n

\"1960w_emblem_bjpg21\"<\/p>\n

\"1968s_emblem_bjpg31\"<\/p>\n

\"1972s_emblem_bjpg21\"<\/p>\n

And 2012 breaks the mold in the same fashion.\u00a0 As a branding exercise, it is certainly successful.\u00a0 Everyone has been talking about it, whether they like it or not.\u00a0 The highly recognizable shapes and vibrant color palette are memorable, the typeface is completely unique and ownable and its usage is scalable which is exemplified by sponsors\u2019 cobranded collateral.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"partner-logos1\"<\/p>\n

The unexpected and vibrant design is excellent for brand recall and association with the games.\u00a0 \u00a0This is a great example or something being sufficiently branded and successful without being an expected representation.<\/p>\n

\"london2012-main51\"<\/p>\n

Does this appropriately depict London?\u00a0 In our opinion, yes and no.\u00a0 London is known the world-over for its second-to-none design and branding concepts, and that is reflected here.\u00a0 British creatives are some of the best in world. But it\u2019s the idea of the \u201cdissonance\u201d that we are in love with!<\/strong>\u00a0 A city that is generally perceived as drab (it rains all the time!) and somewhat steeped in tradition would be rocked by a self-portrait such as this one.\u00a0 But that is what makes it great.\u00a0 In our opinion the identity takes these jarring shapes and fits them cohesively together with an unmistakable \u201clook at me attitude.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a perfect representation of the games because of its allusion to the comingling of different nations, cultures, attitudes, on this momentous world stage.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bold logo with a big job to do.\u00a0 And though it may not be \u201cbeautiful,\u201d it is an unmistakable branding success story in our eyes.<\/p>\n

Big props to Wolff Olins, but I\u2019m pretty sure they know they\u2019re great ; )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upon it\u2019s launch in June 2007, the Olympics 2012 logo was blowing up the blogosphere.\u00a0 However, after a recent trip to London where the design has become a part of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-branding","category-miscellaneous"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/olympics46011.jpg",460,500,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/olympics46011-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/olympics46011-276x300.jpg",276,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/olympics46011.jpg",460,500,false],"large":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/olympics46011.jpg",460,500,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/olympics46011.jpg",460,500,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/olympics46011.jpg",460,500,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":401,"uagb_excerpt":"Upon it\u2019s launch in June 2007, the Olympics 2012 logo was blowing up the blogosphere.\u00a0 However, after a recent trip to London where the design has become a part of...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1016,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009\/revisions\/1016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}