London 2012 logo launched

So it begins.

We're going to be seeing a heck of a lot of the new London 2012 Olympics logo that has just been launched.

It's been designed by branding behemoths Wolff Olins, with a design brief that called for an emblem that "represented the four key 'brand pillars' of access, participation, stimulation and inspriation, culminating in the brand vision of Everyone's Games."

It's going to be popping up all over the place, in four colours: pink, blue, green and orange. And we use that word pop intentionally – the logo has a very 80s pop feel to it, which is oh-so-hip right now, or was a few weeks ago – who can keep up? So it runs the risk of feeling a little off by 2012, although with the constant and ever-decreasing recycling of cultural trends we might well be in another 80s revival by then.

It immediately made us think of Smash Hits magazine, and also the cover of Queen's A kind of Magic, with perhaps a hint of ZZ Top too?

And now that we come to think of it, there's a bit of Matisse's The Snail in there too.

It's quite a departure from the softer, hand drawn logos that have been created for recent Olympics, including 2008's Beijing Olympics – which mimics the Chinese character "wen" meaning humanity, or culture. This site has a full selection for the completists amongst you.

We're expecting avalanches of vitriol and disgust to cascade across the design blogs on this one, as tends to happen with any big logo launch. The Guardian sports blog is already getting busy.

But what do you think? Chuck us a comment just below.

Comments

[Luke Tonge]

GASH! is my first reaction.. i really dont like the colour palate and i think the combination of different '2' characters is quite confusing.. 'access, participation, stimulation and inspriation' dont really jump out at me either, except perhaps stimulation when the series is seen together. I suppose one advantage of producing such a stylised '80's' logo is that it wont fall out of fashion in a way other styles might..? hmm..
Looking forward to seeing if there's any moving-image applications of it on tv etc..
I much prefer the type on the New York City 2012 Bid Logo.

[Nik]

It's perfect... for the 1978 Olympics. Except then, of course, the date would be wrong.

Not currently liking.

[Richard]

I love it!

[patrick]

!HGRA

[Richard]

Not really.

Actually, I can see a short chunky man doing "I'm a little tea-pot..."

Part of me wants to like it, at least it's not one of those trying-to-please-everyone-bland/twee-designs we see so often for city branding. Unfortunately, it appears they've gone to the other extreme. I wonder, though, if as it evolves our knee-jerk reactions will be proved wrong?

[Charlie]

Jesus wept. That is horrific! It looks like a kids TV logo, geez.
If you notice most countries that host the games sneak a little bit of country identity into the logo. What part of that represents England? I'm gutted that I'm gonna have to see that for the next 5 years. What a waste.

[Alistair Hall]

Our main problem with it, having mulled it over for a bit, is that it doesn't visually refer to London, to the UK, or to sport. Take out the word London and replace it with any other city, and the logo makes just as much (or little) sense.

Knowing that the people behind it are very talented designers, who haven't just stumbled into design, we get the feeling there must be a very strong rationale behind the logo. And, as with all design jobs, the client is equally responsible for the finished piece, as they're the folks who get to say 'yay' or 'nay' during the design process.

So, we'll wait to see if Wolff Olins or the British Olympics gang say anything more about why the design is fit for purpose.

[Kate]

I kind of get the feeling they've gone over the top with trying to target younger people...it's almost like they thought "hmm, now what do the youth of today like?" and came up with graffiti as being edgy and universally appealing to all young people. I get the idea but they've kind of missed the mark in the process.

[Gareth Procter]

I have mixed emotions about this logo.

On one hand it's brave, bold and challenging and on the other it's brash, loud and awkward.

I can't help thinking that it simply could have been better though and with the huge amount of creative freedom Wollf Olins have obviously been granted feel that is a bit of an opportunity missed for our industry to shine, instead it seems that sadly once again designers are the subject of negative media debate.

[Lyns]

looks like lisa simpson doing something rude

[Amy]

I think that a lot of people need to take a step back and think about why they are getting so angry about a logo

After all that's all this is.

It’s unique and interesting. Maybe it could have been better but maybe haters of the logo need to do a google search on previous Olympic logos to see the tat that has preceded our logo.

maybe this will allow you to appreciate that it could have been a whole lot worse

im 16 and i could of come up with something better than that.

its crap, has nothing to do with london, and come on. . .. there are some amazing designers out there . ..WHY come up with something like this?!