2012 Olympics logo debuts to whalesong

Olympics minister Tessa Jowell clearly spent too much time in the chill-out room absorbing whalesong from her iPod at the "star-studded" launch of the 2012 Olympics logo in London's Roundhouse earlier today, since she described the rather frightening graphic as both "an invitation and an inspiration" as VIPs battled to verbally …

[Robert G Ward]

map of France?

it is just me, or does this logo look like a map of France?

anyway, what was wrong with the old one?

[ian]

Blow job

Does anyone else see the logo as an abstract representation of a big haired woman (possibly Macy Gray) giving someone a blow job?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dance monkeys, dance.

My colleagues and I think it looks like a dancing monkey. Can anyone else see this?

[/\/\j17]

Let's Hope It's True...

..."the logo is 'modern and will be dynamic, evolving in the years between now and 2012'..."

Yup, lets hope it's true that it will keep evolving and by around 2010 it might have become something that doesn't look like a 5-year old's first attempt on their Etch-A-Sketch.

[Parmesan]

My immediate reaction

to the logo was, "Good God! How Hideous!" I guess that many will have a similar reaction. It looks like a picture of vomit, as rendered by Picasso.

[James]

What is it?

It looks like a bent old person with a walking stick....

What is it meant to be?

As a design it's fragmented, uncohesive and meaningless. How much did they pay for this?

[censored]

If you squint...

...it looks like a fat man with an afro (on the right) squatting to give 'hand relief' to a thinner man on the left.

[James]

Clothes, New and Emperor

Having looked at the pretenscious rubbish on the Wolff Olins site I'm more inclined to think of the Emperors new clothes with everyone falling over themselves to say how wonderful the Logo is. When it's a total mess.

Suggest El Reg gives a prize to the most original description of what it looks like.

I'll go for random bird poo .... (even if a bit more colourful).

[bambi]

WTF?

Is that honestly our Olymic logo? Yer not takin the piss or owt?

Jesus, no wonder they didn't want to give it to us in the 1st place.

[Andrew]

Title

Ill have some of whatever monkey boy is smoking.

[Yves Kurisaki]

Was this an analogy?

"..the logo is modern and will be dynamic, evolving in the years between now and 2012.."

Did she mean it will get ten times bigger just like the Olympic budget is doing or will it provide a select group of graphic designers with an oversized pay cheque just like the construction of the Olympic facilities will stuff the pocket of a select few construction firms?

Whatever she meant I'm sure it will somehow benefit numerous locals for years to come and maybe bring us a step closer to world peace and the end of poverty... empty oral waffle tends to do that, or so they say.. I love that Olympic spirit!!!

[Pete Sowerby]

Euro

It looks like a cobbling together of countries.

Top Left: Britain?

Bottom Left: Portugal?

Bottom Right: Italy?

Top Right: Germany?

Middle: Luxembourg?

[Baht At]

looks rather fascist to me

kind of appropriate considering the government we have.

[Anonymous Coward]

Evo .... ???

"evolving in the years between now and 2012"

It will certainly need to do that.

If somebody was to pass a rule that the cost of a logo design could not exceed fifty pounds, the so-called prof's might leave the design work to amateurs, who would most certainly do a better job.

[Ashley Stevens]

London takes it up the arse

Clearly this depicts London taking it up the arse from a man with the Olympic logo on his head. This probably refers to the fact that Londoners will be paying for the Olympics for a generation.

[Anonymous Coward]

I Second the Blow Job

Everyone here clearly sees a blow job happening in that picture.

What was wrong with the old logo? It's not as if these games are really going to be any different than past games. I guess there will be more fish and chips and curry and peas but that's about it.

[Nev]

Blue Peter

Blue Peter should've run a competition

and got some school kids to design one.

Would've looked better and cost way way less!!

[JakeyC]

Re: Blow job

From the BBC's '606' comments pages (http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A23431826):

"It looks like Lisa Simpson giving oral relief of a sexual kind to Bart".

It does, as well. It's like one of those magic eye things - cross your eyes and move it back and forth. Oh, and have a look at the logo while you're down there, love.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ashamedly ...

Yes, I see the blow job ...

[bob_blah]

Gobbie or Aussie?

Yup, I can see the blowjob.

The other option is that they are trying to attach themselves to the 2000 Sydney Olympics which, if you ask any Aussie they will quickly remind you, was 'the greatest Olympics ever'. The bit with the Olympic rings in it is a pretty close outline of Australia (sans Tasmania, which isn't really part of Australia anyway).

[Matt Underwood]

Don't worry!

Yes I too thought it was gobsmackingly awful when I saw it. Luckily there's a get out clause in more whale speak.

From the london2012 site, " the new emblem is modern and will be dynamic, evolving in the years between now and 2012."

Evolving eh? Ah. So they've got a chance to have another stab or two at it before we settle on the real one.

Matt.

[Tel]

It's a disgrace.

A total eyesore, the logo is an eye-curdling epileptic seizure-inspiring animated migraine.

To think my taxes are getting wasted on this.

It's a disgrace.

[Andy Black]

Lisa Simpson giving head

To quote Ken

"That message of welcome and diversity was one of the main reasons for London's success in winning the Games.

"We offer the world the same exciting message that in 2012 every athlete and every visitor will feel at home in our city."

Please come, come, come...

[Anonymous Coward]

Cubik

Now that you point it out, I am unable to get Macy Gray out of my mind. She is on the right, leaning to the left, and the man's thing is square.

I think the logo looks like something from an old 808 State record or something from the rave era, but that is probably because I am stuck in the rave era.

[Kevin Sedgley]

Jagged Whalesong

Lisa Simpson giving head to a krypton factor puzzle.

[Anonymous Coward]

ot very original

erm, that appears to be just the numbers "2012" drawn very badly with the word london in the 2 and olympic symbol in the 0.... could have come up with a better logo at age 6

[Anonymous Coward]

"modern and will be dynamic, evolving in the years between now and 2012"

i.e. even we think its crap, but we have 5 years to find a better one.

[Anonymous Coward]

Random shapes

Yep, blow job is the clearest I can see, otherwise totally meaningless, unless it is supposed to be an abstract English Rose, which will of course offend the Scots, Welsh, Irish and any other minority ethnic groups.

[paul]

RE: blow job

it hadn't occurred, but that image is now forever sullied.

thank you.

I shall of course take great pains to inform all and sundry of it remarkable likeness.

:D

[Anonymous Coward]

Re:Blow job

Looks more like anal sex to me

[Patrick Bateman]

I guess

they were told to "paint what comes from within", so they did their breakfast. Look, there's a little tomato... :D

[Martin Gregorie]

People's Olympics, people's participation?

If this mess (exploding London, big-hair bj or whatever) aka the Olympic symbol is to "evolve" during the run-up to the Olympics, I sincerely hope that its evolution will be in the shape of contributions from "the people" and will not turn out to be a perpetual cash cow for Wolff Olins.

....but I'm not holding my breath.

[Anonymous Coward]

I see a swastika. I can't be the only one

If you open an extra tab in your browser go to the wikipedia page for swastika about half way down, and then flip back and forth between El Reg's London Olympic logo and "The Flag of Kuna Yala" or the red one "in the Western world, since World War II ..." i see a similarity. (or a mirror image?)

I personally prefer to see the swastika as a global and positive symbol, and not the hateful icon than recent history has pushed upon us in "the west", so it doen't bother me too much. If you're doing the visual comparison on Wikipedia then read about this ancient classic symbol, "The term is derived from Sanskrit svasti, meaning well-being".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika (what Wikipedia says)

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Swastika (what El Reg thinks it says)

Of course, take everything on Wikipedia with a pinch of salt.

[Campbell]

Yet again

another piece of crap winds up earning the creator a tidy sum, All because the jerk who commisioned it and the assholes invited to the unveiling are afraid to speak their minds and tell it like it is.

This Wolff Olins mob should have been told "it's shite, do it again" but no lets make up some flowery speech so nobody get offended, hey maybe someone will like it.

Bah!!! I am offended by this eyesore and looking at it, it means absolutely fuck all to me.

Have we become so used to lies and political correctness we simply can't see what's right and true anymore?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sexual act...

I have also read on the BBC news website under the comments for this logo that someone else suggests it looks like some oral action going on! They say it looks like Lisa Simpson going down on Bart!

Think it's safe to say this logo is going to be a laughing stock on the whole world! It looks like something you'd expect to see in a primary school arts class. They'd done the same thing for about a £1 instead of 1 million pounds, which I suspect we paid for it!

Think I'll become a millionaire and create rubbish logos like him.....!

[Dogbyte]

Symbolic of...

The taxpayer being shafted perhaps? Once you have the Lisa Simpson image in your head it just won't go away.

[H2Nick]

Again, easy to spend other people's money

...like Westmister council last week re new street lights.

BTW - agree with the BJ observations !

I can only hope that the new logo is widely recognised as the BJ logo in future...

[Patch Tuesday]

it's one of them graffiti tags isn't it?

by ZOR.

[Simon Oxlade]

Bag of w**k

Without a doubt the single worst logo I think I have ever seen. It it desperately wanting to be 'hip' or 'street' or 'urban' becos dat's wat da kidz wan. Innit?

It's embarrassing. If this is what they've come up with (especially after the older one which was perfectly fine), I dread to think what's going to happen at the opening ceremony.

Shallow, infantile, out-of-date nonsense. Why can't our capital city warrant a capital "L" for heaven's sake.

Utter, utter toss.

[Steve]

Sweet jesus....

a/ Which complete idiot ever approved a proof of that and I take it we can now assume the organising committee is full of yes men/yes bints fearful of disagreeing with anything.

b/ How much did the artist take them for?

It's worse than one of Alsops' masterplans for renovating/turning into a theme park some old industrial town.

Even the Web 2.0 crowd could have done better - at least a nice 'Beta' logo would have meant they could have changed it

[Anonymous Coward]

Inspired!

I have to say I think it is inspired!

A logo so awful that a hasty redesign is necessary, gathering huge interest from the world media and publicity for the 2012 games!

Please let it be this and not a sign of things to come…

[anon]

Eye Of The Beholder...

1) Has any logo for anything ever been received well? I guess people just don't get logos...

2) Anyone who interprets this logo as depicting a sex act performed by a child - even a cartoon child - needs to get some therapy! Maybe El-Reg can pass your details on to the relevant authorities...

3) The 0 in the 2012 reminds me a bit of the old Newham Council logo in shape and colour - so not totally irrelevant since that's the borough where the games will be based.

[Dancing Skunk]

Arse, but...

Whilst it is patently arse, whichever colour you choose, if you squint I think the numbers represent the home countries, if somewhat loosely.

Barts torso: England

Lisa's head: Northern Ireland

Bart's legs: Scotland

Lisa's body and hand: Wales, with Ynes Mon (Anglesey) in the middle.

I claim my £400,000 fee thank you.

Skunk

[Neil]

Dancing?

If you tilt your head to the right it looks like a naked dancing man with his wee fella hanging out.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sign the petition anyone?

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/12539.html

[JakeyC]

...or 69...

Flip it vertically in Paint and you get some girl on Don King 69 action.

[Lloyd]

The petition

They've linked a petition to it but the traffic's now so high the site's falling over:

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/change-the-london-2012-logo.html

[Anonymous Coward]

What a load of rubbish...

It looks like Cyril Sneer from 'The Raccoons' being kneed in the balls...

Petition signed. They can't get rid of the 5 coloured rings!

[Brian Milner]

Brand? What brand?

It's rather scary they way they constantly refer to the affair as a 'brand'.

[h00nta]

Hoax?

Surely?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I see a swastika. I can't be the only one

You're not the only one: http://www.b3ta.com/board/7253787

[Anonymous Coward]

Give this guy a medal!

Check out pic 5 on the BBC's alternate logo ideas... before someone points out what they have up there.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6719747.stm

[Simon Painter]

Goatse Logo

My mate Huseyin spotted one of their user submitted alternatives (which now seems to have been pulled). Great trolling!

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/husey_x2/olympic.jpg

[Huseyin Huseyin]

BBC website

This one got pulled from the BBC website:

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/husey_x2/olympic.jpg

Shame. I rather liked it :)

[lisa simpson giving head to bart]

It made me puke

Go rate my puke of the logo here:

http://www.ratemyvomit.com/?action=ssp&pid=1511

Has anyone seen the videos/website yet? Check these to see where some of the £400k tax payer's money went:

www.london2012.com - designed by a visually impaired chimp

http://globalhyderabad.blogspot.com/2007/06/london-2012-amazing-energy-amazing-logo.html - they are only willing to show this on a site made for the under-6-year-olds

http://www.london2012.com/about-newlook-video2.htm - WTF?!

Give it the wooden spoon (vote top-right of page):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/olympics_2012/6718243.stm

When they start spending £million's printing this logo on to signs and stuff, please see that they are sent to your local vomitorium. German scat bints wouldn't be able to stomach that pile of festering wank.

Will be interesting to see all the photo-sensitive epileptics gibbering on the floor during the Olympic Games. Maybe they will award medals to the person who foams at the mouth the most?

Where can we place bets on the 2012 olympics being even more of a waste of life than the millenium dome?

[Gilbert Wham]

pain in the arse?

Bugger, you beat me to it:

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/06/04/london_2012_olympic_.html

[Anonymous Coward]

Thor?

It's quite clearly a person punching the ground with the Olympic rings on the side of their head... didn't the Greeks do something like that?

[Mister Normal]

Pink Man Takes a Dump

it looks like a pink fella squating to take a pooh, is this a colourful representation of how the london olympics intends to treat the people of Britain?

[Kelly Luck]

Oh, my...

Well, this is certainly...innovative. I agree with Patch Tuesday that it looks rather like a graffiti tag, though they do generally tend to be higher quality.

And how is this the 'heart of their vision'? Is their vision loud, and annoying? If this were a sound it would be a high-volume screech. This looks like the work of someone just out of design school, when they've got more youthful enthusiasm than experience and tend to overdo everything. Or perhaps this is their vision. Maybe this is going to be the Edgy Olympics.

Y'know, y'all can borrow Izzy (http://www.aldaver.com/Images/Os/masc1996.gif) if you like--we ain't usin' him.

[Charlie Clark]

And this is why Manchester still isn't getting a tram extension?

1) The one the government promised to help pay for for the commonwealth games back in 2002? Then reneged, promised the money again and then withdrew it yet again citing the Olympics. Paying for shit like this logo is obviously so much more important than functioning public transport. Sod pluribus e unum, how about omnibus in miles platting?

2) I'm a big fan of Wolff Olins' work in general and the sutff done for Orange in particular but I am getting pig sick of everything becoming a brand especially common cultural items like sport. And this logo is just another example of why the two don't mix. Last year Germany was awash in FIFA this and FIFA that (and what a crap logo Germany 2006 was) IOC is playing catch up. If they weren't all so busy sticking their noses in the trough then they would continue insisting on the primacy of the five coloured rings.

3) It is a crap design. Neither the Simpsons nor Keith Haring and certainly nothing of its own and garishly pink. Maybe this a reference to what we all look like when we go on holiday in sunny countries? Or maybe a reference to the pink pound? Whatever, I'm glad London is going to get the stick for this one!

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on guys!

It takes a lot of skill to produce a logo that looks as crap the right way up as it does upside down.

Remember, they laughed at Van Gogh and at Picasso. They also laughed at Edmund Crump who painted a picture called "Bogies from my left nostril", and no doubt in fifty years time, people will still be laughing at the 2012 logo, long after the proceeds have been pissed against the wall.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's probably just me...

...but it looks like a large headed Lias Simpson performing a sex act on Bart... maybe I'm just sick.

[Keith Turner]

A dog of a logo

It's a dog with one leg cocked up.

Peeing on the folks that paid.

D'you think they deliberately screwed this one up just to cop more of our luvvery dosh later on?

[Mac Zmail]

A numerical Blowjob

While it does look a little like Lisa Simpson imitating Paris Hilton, it is clearly the numbers "2012"

[Kev K]

Too many motorbikes

I see a suzuki "R" under a load of graffiti (I scrubbed the blow job image from my mind with bleach)

[marc]

London shafting the olympics?

If the logo hadn't been so tightly cropped, we would have seen the complete picture:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1056/529761236_fd5c6198f4_o.jpg

[Glenn Amspaugh]

Trying to be remembered?

At least with this logo, they're assured a place in graphic design 101 books, under what not to do.

An yeah, it's a BJ.

"Suck it, London." /SNL Jeopardy: Sean Connery <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrity_Jeopardy!_(Saturday_Night_Live)>

[heystoopid]

OMG!

OMG! just another re stylized swastika! , either that or a perverted big wanger!

But then again , since the committee is on track to waste another few billion pounds plus or so funded by the tax payers , little wonder they are using such an evil creation!

What a pity the '48 committee isn't around anymore, to advise them on how to save money though!

I can just picture London in 2012 with machine gun toting armed police on every street corner , shooting the odd tourist to keep order and another two Territorial Army Divisions(the entire Army on the Rhine has been transferred to Iraq morass by then) and the rest complete with tired battle weary Main Battle Tanks parked at all the stadium entrances, and every one of them wearing this obscene arm band , in the vain hope that "Osama whatever!" will put in an appearance !

The times they are a changing!

[Tom Maddox]

Here's another interpretation . . .

http://userpic.livejournal.com/62499041/409123

[Anonymous Coward]

bored

the whole thing is a croc and this logo sums it up well I think.

[John Imrie]

I think...

That they could have got banksy for half what they paid for this crap

[Nick Oakley]

Housewife in Curlers

Obviously it's Andy Capp's wife in a bout of reconciliation attempting to make amends by lifting up his beer belly....

My Goodness - if ever we needed proof of the damage that the internet has done to our collective psyche then this is it. By the way, I'm referring to what a lot of us can see in the logo, rather than what the original artist ( presumably ) intended.

[Adam T]

Darwin Prize

Nuff said.

[Anonymous Coward]

Contacts

I am sure that the nice people down at London 2012 would love to get some feedback about this shiny* new logo.

Try here: https://main.london2012.com/en/contactus.htm

*Feel free to replace the n with t.

[Alex]

Youre all a bunch of frustrated geeks.

Its not a sex act, its obviously a self portrait of the artist leaving from Heathrow with a big sack of olympic cash on one of those sit up and beg trolleys.

Waste of cash, they could probably have built a pool and a running track fro £400K.

Who cares its only taxpayers cash.

[Anonymous Coward]

Speaking of Darwin

"evolving in the years between now and 2012"

Well there it is. They've chosen evolution over intelligent design.

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a video of the best one here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W_gInR3gXs

(about 1 minute in for the impatient)

I'd have posted it on the BBC Goatse story, but there is no comments section :(

[Anonymous Coward]

Olympics...

Well, if there is going to be an Olympics in 2012. If there is even going to be an Olympic next year.

Anyone remember John Titor?

[Steve Drake]

What kind of vision is this?

I'm seeing pink elephants, but then perhaps I'm just hallucinating.

Are those choppers I hear?

[Brian Squibb]

Dome

Is 2012 the year they decide to pull down the dome?

[James Anderson]

Millenium Dome II

Just when you though it was safe to go back to the old country!

This looks like a re-run of the cocaine fuelled brown nose excercise in mutual self love between vain polititians and vainer media consultants that was the millenium dome.

Please, please sack the people responsable NOW before it gets any worse.

[Anonymous Coward]

And people actually pay for this - using hard currency?

ahhhh

it looks like 2012 in a square formation with a dot......

20

12

with the word London and the Olympic rings.

any ideas on the dot in the middle? or is that the signature of the monkey who created it?

[Andrew Torrance]

2012 logo

You know I cant decide . Sometimes its a big haired person giving a blow job , then its London taking it up the cadbury highway but the two '2's remind me so much of the Nazi SS symbol that I can't get it out of my head .

[Matthew]

definitely the Blow Job..

What more can i say? You must feel special to have something that took 5 minutes to knock up on ms paint to be the logo for the 2012 olympics..

[Luke]

Evolution.....

"modern and will be dynamic, evolving in the years between now and 2012"

It may well be evolving, because it sure as hell wasn't Intelligent Design.....

[Iain Croll]

Wolff Olins only do 4 colours

I’m surprised that there isn’t a gradient as well. WO did the Abbey rebrand (before they dumped it 6 months later) as 4 different colour ways with a gradient meaning you had 4 different store fronts. Brand recognition anyone? No I thought not! Then they recycled that same 4 colour palette for the AOL Europe rebrand using fonts that didn’t scale online (for an online business) and used guess what a 4 colour palette and now it would appear they have trotted out the same rebrand with 4 colour ways and some posh power points probably to show how they are to make it dynamic.

In fact then I think they trotted out some other colour gradient in the AOL style (although to be faie that could have been Dave – the company set up by ex WO staffers)

Money for old rope if you ask me!

[Robert Long]

Not the swastika

It's the S.S.'s "Thunderbolts" in reverse.

Fair enough, given the degree of surveillance London will be under by 2012.

[dreadful scathe]

love the marketing

gotta love the marketing. I picture Seb Coe picking a freshly laid dog turd and proclaiming "this embodies the spirit of the games". Yeah, Seb if you say it does...suuuuure! :)

[Ian Walker]

I knew i'd seen this before...

No, not 'tiswas', but the Andromeda strain, looks just ike the crystals under the microscope. That subtly changed and mutated too. Co-incidence, I don't think so!

[Kevin Hughes]

The scary thing about this logo is.....

This is the one that was successful! How many "bad" ones were passed over by the designer before he decided on this one :(

Kev

[Anonymous Coward]

Cut out the parts and rearrange them puzzle

I bet it's a stupid, cut out the parts and rearrange them into something (e.g. an L) puzzle.

No way would they approve something that fragmented without a gimmick behind it.

So try it, cut out the pieces, rearrange them and see what they make.

[Anonymous Coward]

You guys are just so 20th Century...

Once upon a time, logos were just brand names.

Static graphics applied to static products and static media.

Wake up from your coma.

Things have moved on.

Media is now much more dynamic and interactive.

The static representation of the logo shown doesn't do it any justice when compared to the full multi-media presentation of it.

It isn't just designed to look good embroidered onto corporate polo shirts.

Don't forget, it's 5 years before the London Olympics, just imagine how far media has moved in the last 5 years and project that forward...

[Andy]

It looks like..

..Bart Simpson getting a blow job, no seriously it does, bart being the little dude on the left and the character on the right bending down - oh come on use your imagination!

[Mark York]

Lisa Simpson?

Tasteful animated gif here.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v156/tithers/london-copy.gif

Courtesy of the master fiddler himself Tithers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Trumpet Bloke, blowing his own maybe

I believe the trumpet bloke was based on Priapus, the greek god of the stiffie!

http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Priapus.html

[AlfieGoodrich]

Money for old rope

I agree that maybe its flat representation on paper does nothing compared to it in its full, multi-media flow. But come on, even if something is designed for our modern online world and not just paper, polo shirts or the sides of a London bus, shouldnt it at least be a little more inspiring and creative than a multicoloured splodge?

400K for this seems to be nicely in line with Wolf Ollins' usual 're-invention' costs and at least, unlike the BT debacle where an old granny who did design back in the 1940s turned out to be the original designer of BT's trumpet man, at least the money hasn't been wasted on making something 'new' when it already existed.

Having seen people in senior positions at my county council swooning over a bunch of clip-art when deciding upon a new logo for something it is no surprise that we have ended up with this new Olympic logo. My company ended up designing the logo for almost no fee to save the council from wasting any more of our council tax. The public sector [and despite any commercial bent the Olympics is basically being steered by the public sector] in my experience is full of people with no taste, little idea of design, little idea of reality, no idea of how to wisely spend taxpayers money and is addicted to consultants. No surprise then that a bunch of jargon-talking 're-inventors' with swanky offices in New York and London managed to convince people that this pink pile of puke was 'modern, innovative, dynamic blah blah blah'

[Huw Jenkins]

I think it looks like

Paula Radcliffe having a wee, but then again what do i know? ;-)

[Bryn Fell]

WTF?

"It isn't just designed to look good embroidered onto corporate polo shirts."

But it isn't even designed to look good embroidered on a shirt. Multimedia, web 2.0, dynamically interactive, whalesong, blah, blah, blah, whatever, but something that could have been put on a shirt without people asking if it was supposed to be Macy Gray doing something obscene would have been a pretty good start...

[Steve Evans]

What a mess

I couldn't believe the logo (or the price) when I saw it on the TV this morning.

I thought the logo should reflect where the venue, and last time I looked London didn't resemble a pile of rubble, although I guess it might come the opening ceremony!

Why didn't they just have a competition for the design. Even just restricting it to the under 12s would have produced something better than this.

And to those that might defend (well there might be one somewhere) and say "You don't understand what the artist is trying to say", well that's true, I don't, which means he's pretty crap at expressing himself!

The whole Olympics thing seems nothing more than a gravy train for those with their tongues stuck in the right persons back passage.

I feel the urge to get some T-Shirts printed...

"I paid £400,000 and all I got was the lousy logo"

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep, the public really do hate it ...

There was much mirth an merriment in the office yesterday - once you've got the Lisa Simpson image into your head, nothing short of a lobotomy is going to shift it!! Interestingly, there's a new batch of user-submitted logos on the Beeb's website, although nothing (yet) on a par with the goatse inspired logo ;-)

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost forgot ...

"Don't forget, it's 5 years before the London Olympics, just imagine how far media has moved in the last 5 years and project that forward..."

I have ... and I predict that the logo will still look like complete crap in 5 years time.

Simon

[Anonymous Coward]

Bruce!

http://img473.imageshack.us/img473/9217/bruceybonuswr4.jpg

[Dominic Shaw-McIver]

Surely it's

A man reeling in pain after being hit in the testicles by a brick?

[Richard]

Broken?

[our brand] will define the venues we build and the Games we hold and act as a reminder of our promise to use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people around the world.

All these things, the venue, the games, our promise, and our spirit... they must all be broken if this logo defines them!

[Mark York]

& another NSFW tasteful one here following on with the LS theme.

http://img9.imagepile.net/img9/12224olympicgschpunken.gif

[Paul]

Argh! My eyes! My eyes!

Brings a whole new meaning to Bart's catchphrase "eat my shorts".

Or maybe the little square in the middle might represent a biometric ID card, being held up for inspection by a citizen (represented by the bit in the bottom left - the angle where the "card" meets it is his hand) toward the spiky round-ish thing in the top right (the all-seeing eye of the surveillance camera on every lamp-post). The squiggles in the top left and bottom right are the mind-control beams that are no doubt being worked on by the Ministry of Freedom as we speak (to be installed as an upgrade to the "Oi! You! Yes, you, laddie! Stand still!" PA systems now employed).

And on a lighter note, mention of the BT "pan-piper" guy reminds me of the time I was a placement student there. We discovered that some unknown person had found the graphic file used for our fax gateway's page header, and had made a subtle couple of pixels, erm, "enhancement", to the trumpeter bloke.

I still wonder how many faxes went out with that letterhead.

[John Foster]

Exploding ZORRO

The logo only partially remains. The -RO has already left the stadium. ZOR is left, in critical condition, about to collapse.

It's time for a London Olympic Logo Factorization Smiley:

ZOR=2x2x503

[John Foster]

Allah Akhbar!

Aren't you getting a new mosque next door to the Olympic Stadium? Put this *@*&# logo there, and go get another one.

[John Foster]

Long Dong Olympics

That's just for those of you who only see sexual poses in that logo.

[John Foster]

Why does it even need to say "london"?

It's all in lower case, which is a clue. That's going to be your new symbol for the underground roundabouts.

[John Foster]

What was it again I was supposed to see in there?

Oh yeah. Numbers.

2-0-0-0-0-0-0-1-2

What's that all about?

Olympic scoring for the logo competition?

They're just coming up now....wait for it.

We have the scores from our 9 judges.

There are zeroes from the Russian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Albanian, French and German judges.

Throw out the high and the low.....

0-0-0-0-0-1-2

3.0 out of a possible 70.0

[lisa simpson giving head to bart]

Now rated #1 for vomit

Yes, in little more than a day the 2012 Olympic logo has become the #1 rated vomit shot over on ratemyvomit.com:

http://www.ratemyvomit.com/?action=ssp&pid=1511

See top 10 in top left :) ithankyou!

[John Foster]

Olympics Brand

Not to be outdone, Tony Blair weighed in with: "We want London 2012 not just to be about elite sporting success. When people see the new brand, we want them to be inspired to make a positive change in their life. London 2012 will be a great sporting summer but will also allow Britain to showcase itself to the world."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That makes sense to me, living in Texas. Once the athletes-to-be pass the drug test, brand them with the logo. I want to see that logo on every head straining for the finish tape, every arm lifting weights, every leg in the gymnastics competition, and every butt playing beach volleyball or wrestling. Yeee-hawwww!

[Neil Roberts]

It looks like the word SHIT

SH

then

IT

Simply horrible.

[Tim Jerram]

Naff mid 80's Design

It looks like the bad record cover of an 80's trash pop group. So crap its unbelievable. My god, its an OMEN! The transport infrastructure's going to break! London wont cope! It'll be like a movie set for a badly designed 80's disaster movie - IN PINK!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Tiswas

They've just ripped off the 'Tiswas' logo.

[Tuomo]

The essence of the London 2012 Olympic Games

For sure they are going to end up with at least twice as innovative logo when the evolution is finished. Something like:

40

24

Truly an innovation and inspiration [for cheap design]. Taking the year and making a few modifications for 'iconic representation' is certainly a fine indicator of the dynamism and the skills of the artist.

(You may need get your tinfoil hat for this): Take the map of Britain. Can you identify Ireland and N.Ireland on the left and middle of the logo? good. On the right side England. Now for the fun part: The shape that most resembles Scotland is above Ireland, having been pushed off by the giant square of Olympic games. Conspiracy, no doubt. o.o

[Anonymous Coward]

Lisa Simpson

Unless the logo is changed I and many thousand others are going to snigger every time we see it (Lisa giving head to Bart) - which is good really because many thousand people didn't want the 2012 "Olympic Games" in the first place and had it imposed on them - so it's a great to see it's all finally going to sh1t very publicly. Of course the knob-cheeses that are in charge of this completely pointless, irrelevant and idiotic event will bluff and bluster their way through it, but in the meantime as someone has already pointed out, this trademarked official logo is never going to be adopted by people hoping to make merchandising money from this surely? J0k.

[John]

My 2c worth...

What a load of old socks! Its ugly and naff. Must be a hoax.

[Anonymous Coward]

seizures

looks like its caused seizures..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/6724245.stm

[saqib]

A second logo

There is a new campaign for a second Olympic Logo to be designed by the public and voted for by the public!

Im sure it will cost less then £400,000 and get a better result too! Hopefully it will be something the British people can be proud of!!

The website at http://www.ChangeTheLogo.co.uk

[daniel]

Re: A second logo

The Munich 72 logo looks crap too.... The palestinians must have though it looked like a bullseye...

That said, I think that the logo comittee should be given the choice to be put to death by stoning or being smeered in butter and roasted. A person should not be allowed to commit such a graphic upon the general public and live!