Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Emperor's New Clothes and Olympic Logos

Edgy symbol of digital age or artistic flop - London unveils Olympic logo

"To some it looked like a graffiti tag, to others like a mosaic of beer mats, but to the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics the pink, blue, green and orange emblem unveiled yesterday is the most significant milestone since winning the bid nearly two years ago. It is also the key to raising hundreds of millions of pounds. When London last staged the games in 1948, posters showed an iconic image of a discus thrower superimposed over Big Ben and the houses of parliament. The £400,000 logo for 2012 is designed for a different age, described by creators as dynamic, modern and flexible - suitable for use online and on mobile phones by a generation at ease with new media."

You've got to admit it's a mad world we're living in. A logo which looks like a spikey jam blob which costs £400k results in an online petition to scrap it within hours. Long gone is polite acceptance of things we're 'supposed' to like. The obedient head nodding in public, with real opinions expressed only amongst friends. It used to be that we lived in an Emperer's New Clothes world where even though deep down we thought something was crazy, societal politeness meant we'd probably go along with it. Only a child, a person not trained into subservience, would challenge the status quo; the crowd would believe what they were meant to believe. Now, everyone's the lone voice. No-one nods along. It's rubbish, we say it's rubbish. We broadcast it to our friends. Official press releases heralding things like this are meaningless. The official media reports on the informal media of blogs, online petitions, social networks.

Did Web 2.0 signal the end of public obedience? Or was it never really there anyway?

PS It is foul though, isn't it? :o)

10 comments:

  1. I think there was a similar furore when the Sydney 2000 scribbled logo was unveiled. I like the London 2012 one and all this hoo haa means everyone will at least recognise it. Its all a storm in a teacup ....

    ReplyDelete
  2. True enough... I think I'm just whinging about it because I feel like a muppet for not having spotted the 2012 bit of the logo and thinking it looked like a jam splodge. :o)

    How's you anyway?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sal - there is an interesting bit on James Cridland's blog which throws the logo into far cruder focus.

    ReplyDelete
  4. when i first saw it I thought YUK-HORRIBLE!! i also thought YUK-HORRIBLE!! the 2nd 3rd and 4th time i saw it. but now that everyone else is going YUK-HORRIBLE!! Im trying my best to like it.

    I'll let you know how i get on...

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey Nige - I saw the 'interesting' interpretation of the logo on that blog earlier. Tee hee!! I guess the pink version is the girl on the right at the start... and the green version of the logo is her at the end. ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  7. So John... not quite decided... right? < grin >

    ReplyDelete
  8. I removed my earlier comment because my attempt at humour just didn't read right ......

    I think Ken Livingstone had it about right when he said 'Its only a logo'...

    ReplyDelete
  9. I feel very grateful that I read this. It is very helpful and very informative and I really learned a lot from it. logos

    ReplyDelete
  10. You might comment on the order system of the blog. You should chat it's splendid. Your blog audit would swell up your visitors. I was very pleased to find this site.I wanted to thank you for this great read!! logos

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...