What does the London 2012 Olympic logo prove?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the new London 2012 Olympics logo. However, there is something seriously wrong with the logo-driven branding industry at large. This new logo clearly proves that as we approach 2012, global society will not respond to conventional logos or graphics, but only to these kinds of insignificant, dysfunctional and obscure design works which will eventually become branding norms throughout the world. This clearly proves the lingering demise of the logo-branding industry.

There is an increased numbness of today's global consumers to overly-burdened, noisy advertising. This twisted and created hype, that is often labelled as logo-driven branding exercises, would eventually shut off the minds of future customers.

The release of the London logo, half a decade prior to the 2012 games, has realistically captured the essence and portrayed the future demonstrating the miniscule value of the logo.

Powerful symbols

Let's face it, first of all in this hyper-accelerated society, the logos are almost dead. Fifty years ago, customers remembered the logos of IBM or Chevrolet, which presented uniquely mind grabbing graphical ideas by compressing their images into extremely sharp messages emulating simple vibes via powerful symbols. Not today, pick up your top 10 companies and try to remember their logos and ask yourself if they really have an impact.

With one million new logos a month being invented by the computer savvy, small business armies of ever growing nations like India and China, only the very naïve and the ad industry continues to dream in Technicolor, convinced that customers are memorising the identical circles and lines in twisted colours now called fly-by-night and changed-by-the-day logos. This overly zealous creativity needs to be harnessed as the cut and paste culture and the latest libraries of million logos available for free have shifted the goal posts. This is one of the main reasons where advertising consistently and tragically fails over real marketing of real concepts.

Luckily, the Olympics is the modern world's icon extraordinaire and having personally marketed the 1976 Summer Olympic of Montreal, I have witnessed the power of its name and what awesome global presence it carries.

The London 2012 Games are not at all at the mercy of this new logo, as the ever-unique, powerful and recognisable image of the Five Rings will provide longevity to its ever growing brand. In reality you need graphic overload and out of control logo treatments when your brand name identity has no value. What are the logos of Microsoft, Sony or Panasonic? What graphical techniques do they employ? Most smart corporations prefer powerful word marks, as their powerful, recognisable names stand alone in the rough marketplace and are not at the mercy of overblown graphics going through repeated treatments that are commonly labelled as brand positioning.

Clearly, there are two schools of thought: logo-driven and name identity-driven.

Denial

The principal belief of major global logo-branding agencies that any name can become a super brand is based entirely on bottomless budgets, and if for any reason if it doesn't work, so what? Is this the reason why agencies are so often changed? Denials about the ultimate power of a global 5 Star Standard of Naming will continue to hurt the global ad industry. The other school of thought prophesies the new name-economy, in which name brands, as mature identities, skate on e-commerce from one region to another, amidst a highly mobile society that bears a strong understanding of the potential power behind the successful branding of a powerful name.

As we approach the future, big logo-branding is dying fast while we enter into a cyber-geared culture and a new name-driven economy.

The writer is an expert in corporate image and global cyber-branding. He is also a syndicated columnist and author of Naming for Power.

from www.gulfnews.com


Read also: Change The London 2012 Logo, New London 2012 Brand (video)

Controversial 2012 Olympic logo 'will stay'

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell insisted today that the controversial new 2012 logo will stay, as inspectors began a three-day examination of London's plans for the Olympic Games.

Ms Jowell admitted the graffiti-style logo had caused a "storm" after it was unveiled last week but said it was "adaptable" and could be used in a "variety of different contexts".

"The logo will be the logo for the Olympic Games," she told BBC Breakfast.

"One thing you can say for this logo is that it has got people talking. It has got people talking about the Olympics, it has got people talking about what they like and what they don't like."

Her remarks were made as the 16-strong International Olympic Committee co-ordination commission was due to be updated on the progress of London's plans since the last official visit in April last year.

Asked whether the logo was worth its £400,000 fee, Ms Jowell said: "I think it was, yes."


She added: "Call me unusual, but I think it's terrific."

Ms Jowell insisted that planning and development for the Olympics was "on time".

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, she said the Olympic Delivery Authority would announce this week that tunnelling under the site is complete.

This would allow overhead cables to be taken down and the next stage of the development to get under way.

Read also: Change The London 2012 Logo
New London 2012 Brand (video)

Change The London 2012 Logo

There's an online petition to have the logo changed. 20,000 signatures so far

BBC aired some alternative designs, sent in by viewers.

New London 2012 Brand (video)

New London 2012 Brand


The video clip is a combination of effects. A diver plunges into a pool is part of the campaign to promote the jagged Olympic logo. A graffiti-like number 2012, blown up, is also included in the logo, and ranges in colors that include hot pink and electric blue.

The concerns were directed at a four-second piece of animation that flashes the logo, and began when the logo was launched on Monday and recorded by broadcasters. A London 2012 spokeswoman, who was not named, emphasized that it wasn't the actual logo itself, but the animation that caused the concern.

"This concerns a short piece of animation which we used as part of the logo launch event and not the actual logo. It was a diver diving into a pool which had multi-color ripple effects," the spokeswoman said, according to Reuters.

Many had different reactions to the emblem. Critics called the logo "hideous." At the same time, organizers said it was modern yet powerful.

Professor Graham Harding is an expert in clinical neuro-physiology who has developed a test that is used to measure photo-sensitivity levels in animated TV material. His comments were the cause of the clips removal.

"The logo should not be shown on TV at all at the moment," Harding was reported as saying, according to Reuters. "It fails Harding FPA machine test which is the machine the television industry uses to test images."

He also said that regulatory guidelines were not followed with showing the footage.

Charity Epilepsy Action has said that people have been reporting having seizures while watching the clip, and the BBC reported on their website that a listener called in to say that his girlfriend and himself had suffered seizures while watching it.

originally reported by Reuters, "London 2012 logo footage withdrawn amid epilepsy fears"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070606/sp_nm/britain_olympics_logo_dc



Everyone's London 2012



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

But we have BBC News London 2012 (4th June 2007)

London 2012's new brand and vision were launched by Sebastian Coe and London 2012 ambassadors.
Here is the essence of this fabulous symbol

Montage of British Olympic clips used to promote the winning bid for London 2012.
http://www.eyepi.co.uk/masters/archiv...