Wednesday, June 06, 2007

panic on the streets of london



i debated whether or not i should even bother posting about this. i'm sure you've all seen it by now, and i'm sure you've all formulated your own opinion. what can i say about this that hasn't already been said, thought, or written? it reminds me of saved by the bell. an animated sequence was pulled from the olympics website, on the grounds that it triggers epileptic seizures. i think they should just pull the whole thing. it triggers my gag reflex.


i still really love lance wyman's entry for the '68 games in mexico city, including all the pictograms. but, geez. talk about triggering epileptic seizures! his website is fun to poke around in, too. so is this.


is my mind in the gutter or is this sorta phallic looking? or does it look like the olympic rings are giving me the finger? eff you too, georges huel. i must say, however, i'm really digging on all the product that came out of those games. especially those bitchin' fold up sport glasses.

[look at more olympics logos here]

13 comments:

gray said...

catherine! sent this to me yesterday. i was blissfully unaware of what was happening around me and the great turmoil in the streets. don't they know how violent those brits get at football matches? watch out.

so i really have nothing to add. i think it sux, the only thing nice is the magenata which i am all about these days, but it doesn't say olympics to me at all. i guess that wolff-olins created it, at least that's the info i got from ray kampff (i'll post a link to his blog tonight where they discussed it). if only one positive thing comes out of this i like to think that eventually people will realize the awful work these branding agencies are churning out and they'll start to turn on them. the bad thing about that is that they could think that legit design firms are doing bad work too. but i am quite surprised at how negatively the average joe/joanna-who isn't supposed to care about design or know about it-is hating it and saying how bad it is.

oh it is TOTALLY sbtb. i bet zach made this on his tandy. mama probably picked the color. screech did nothing but try to be an attention whore. and i TOTALLY hate how the 2012 is trying to be all abstract and secretive.

gray said...

wyman's work was great but mainly because it fit and all of the pieces came together really well. i went to a workshop in the fall and he spoke and presented the system including all of the signage. it still looks hip 39 years later. that's quite impressive.

i really want to see the 2012 logo reduced down to fit on a commemorative ink pen. that thing isn't going to be legible any smaller than it is right now.

Captian Marzipan said...

Damn, I'd love to get my hands on some of those Cananananadian stamps!

I think they should keep the logo just for shits 'n giggles now that the world has had a good laugh.

Victor said...

It looks like a bunch of assorted tangram pieces, or possibly a great pattern for a pair of Zubaz.

powkang said...

holy crap! you're so right! i hope all the athletes are required to wear these during the opening ceremony parade of jocks, in colors matching the flags of their countries.

really, though, is it any surprise at all that a "zubaz" search on google images eventually leads to a picture of the cast of saved by the bell? apparently an article at askmen.com references both.

gray said...

seems the tally for this disaster, in addition to a few epileptic seizures, is about $800,000. nice profit margin there.

for anything more on this debacle you can head over to armin's site, speak up:

http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/003489.html

and you can take part in a fun poll that the today show is having:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19064308/

gray said...

here is an in-depth analysis by one of my classmates from vcu. he's an olympic logo fanatic.

http://profkampf.livejournal.com/

powkang said...

i like this.

cnn is holding a 2012 logo redesign contest. show us your chops, send in an entry. cnn reports that "...it resembles a 'monkey on the toilet' or a 'broken swastika.'" i'm not sure i see a monkey on the toilet. if you ask me, a monkey on the toilet is much cuter.

gray said...

this is my last linkie for the day because i've gots to catch up on the riches, but i think the logo that vsa did for the chicago bid was truly grand.

http://www.vsapartners.com/news.asp

then again i'm a big vsa fan so i'm probably slightly biased. after all that work it too had to be redesigned because you aren't allowed to use the torch as a symbol for the olympics. stupid politics. what a dumb rule. next up you won't be able to use the rings.

powkang said...

why aren't you supposed to use a torch as a symbol for the olympics?

powkang said...

apparently i'm not the only one who thought of saved by the bell upon first glance. someone made a sbtb/2012 mashup and posted it on youtube, but it was never meant to be, apparently.

gray said...

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Limited

: (

powkang said...

yes, that is why it was never meant to be. apparently, despite how ridiculous the logo may be, the olympic games committee has no sense of humor.