ICM - Leeds Design Agency

Who is in charge of design as a whole for the London Olympics? It might just be me, but I think they’ve taken leave of thier senses. I just don’t understand some of the decisions that have been made. Having just got over the initial shock of the 2012 logo which I have to admit I wasn’t too keen on at first, along come Wenlock, Mandeville and the Orbit.

Lets start with Wenlock and Mandeville the mascots for 2012 Olympics – creatures supposedly fashioned from droplets of steel used to build the stadium. With a metallic finish, a single large eye made out of a camera lens, a London taxi light on their heads and the Olympic rings represented as friendship bracelets on their wrists they resemble… well nothing.

The names I can put up with as they have meaning. Wenlock, named after the Shropshire town of Much Wenlock that helped inspire Pierre de Coubertin to launch the modern Olympics, and Mandeville, inspired by the Buckinghamshire town of Stoke Mandeville, where the Paralympics were founded. Lord Coe, said the mascots were aimed squarely at children and designed with the digital age in mind. So ok, maybe I shouldn’t get too annoyed as they are not even aimed at people over four foot.

It just seems nowadays we can’t have anything “normal”. The official mascot for the World Cup in 66 for example was a lion called World Cup Willy, a straight forward no nonsense lion who wore a Union Flag shirt of red, white and blue. Maybe it’s just me getting old.

Then we come to the Orbit designed by Anish Kapoor who has done some very nice work around the world, but here in my opinion has created a monstrosity beyond all comprehension. What is it? Why does it look liKe a trumpet roller coaster? Why do they keep comparing it to the Eiffel Tower?

The Eiffel tower became a work of art in the eyes of the world against the protestations of the Parisian art world. The massive iron structure appears graceful and almost part of the natural environment. By comparison, Kapoor’s structure is a prime example of man demonstrating his mastery over nature. All it represents is, we could, so we did.

Whether you love it or hate it, the last word should go to Boris Johnson the Mayor of London, who said of the Orbit: “It would have boggled Gustave Eiffel”. Well no I’m having the last word Boris, it’s rubbi…

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Sticking with the World Cup theme of previous posts I thought I’d take a quick look at the logos that are attached to the event.

Although we are now only twenty-something days away from the opening of the tournament, the logo for this years’ event still isn’t that well-know. Here it is…

I personally feel that many of these ‘world-logos’ are starting to blend into one. Both the World Cup and the Olympics seem permanently stuck down the ‘primary colour, brush-stroke, arts-y with a bit of flair’ route.

A quick look back shows how we got here:

Germany 2006 – let’s all have a right good laugh about football.

Korea/Japan 2002 – A real ‘bit of everything in one place’ multi-colour thing.

Here’s a couple of my graphical favourites:

USA ’94 – Unashamedly patriotic from the home of ‘soccer’

Like USA, we’re going to use our nation’s colours whether you like it or not.

And finally, a look to the future, here’s the logo for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil:

More multi-coloured bland-ness? Has the host-nation’s spirit been removed in favour of a ‘lets not upset anyone’ correctnes…

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I’ve been doing quite a lot of motorway driving recently and there’s something that has me digging my fingernails into the steering wheel in frustration every time. Thought I’d share it to get encouragement that it’s not only me…

I’m not sure whether it’s the bad use (or misuse) of punctuation or the disregard for the brand but it makes me wince every time I see one of the illuminated motorway messages that read ‘Think don’t drive tired’ or ‘Think take a break’. Surely with all of those little lights someone could make an exclamation mark so it reads ‘Think! Don’t drive tired’ thus preserving the Think! Road Safety brand and making the sentence actually make sense?! It would make me a much happier motorway driver.

Whilst I’m on, I actually saw one the other day that read ‘Don’t hog the middle lane’. This upset the linguist in me as I’m sure it would cause confusion – is there not a better verb to use than ‘to hog’? Perhaps not, but I’m sure we could do something about that exclamation mark…

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