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Time for a rethink on the 2012 logo?

Posted in Media, Marketing, Design, Oliver Milman, Latest reporters' blogs September 12th, 2007 by Oliver Milman

Ofcom’s decision to rap the BBC over the knuckles for showing a clip of the animated London 2012 Olympic logo (apparently as it could cause epileptic fits) puts the whole furore around the fluorescent blob into some sort of perspective.

The now standard media method of attack – hunting in a pack, ripping the logo to shreds in near-hysterical fervour and then moving innocently on -  and the subsequent silence on the issue makes it feel like the much-derided launch was donkey’s years ago.

In fact, it only took place in June. While organisers of the Games will have cringed at the epilepsy complaints raising the ugly issue again, it’s fair to say that the branding is plodding along, slowly but surely.

As promised, different colours and styles of the logo have been released, giving it a dynamic edge. Due to its ubiquity (and the sensible decision not to ditch it in the face of protests), it now doesn’t look so startlingly out of place on 2012 promotional material.

This relatively short period of time has allowed for some quiet revisionist thinking. It now doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to see the logo as fun, sprightly and vibrant, rather than sloppy, garish and ludicrous. With five years until the Games, the public may even grow to grudgingly admire the design by the time East London is filled with pole vaulting Poles.

The question is, will the critics be ultimately silenced by overwhelming public acceptance? Or will we all, along with the epileptics amongst us, never warm to the logo?