
That Olympics Logo - SteveTooth
http://thetooth.co.uk/entertainment/that-olympics-logo/
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points
This fails to mention the other point about that logo.

Once you have seen Lisa Simpson on her knees, to the right, satisfying a man
on the left, you cannot 'unsee' it.

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icefox
I was genuinely surprised that this wasn't once mentioned in the article
especially given the title.

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lsimpson
It's fairly well hidden, but it's there: "I received an email from a young
woman who pointed out that the logo is clearly a schematic diagram of
fellatio, with the Olympic rings being the curly hair of one party."

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terryjsmith
I can't speak for the others, but the Vancouver logo was representative of a
totem as a fair bit of the brand of the Vancouver Olympics was celebrating
various Canadian native communities.

I think the real upset is that the others are simple, but professional. IMO
this one looks more like a bunch of cut out pieces of construction paper or a
little more like grunge/graffiti. Maybe I'm missing a deeper meaning to the
logo, but I think that a lot of people are if there is one.

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kiujygtyujik
It was representing an inukshuk - native eskimo culture that is about as far
from Vancouver as Mexio is. Culturally it would have made as much sense to
have an easer island statue.

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pbhjpbhj
No matter where the inukshuk originates from this one,
[http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?q=1600+Beach+Ave%2c+Va...](http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?q=1600+Beach+Ave%2c+Vancouver%2c+British+Columbia%2c+Canada&mkt=en-
GB&FORM=BYFD) / <http://www.seethewestend.com/inukshuk/inukshuk.htm>, seems
pretty close to Vancouver to me.

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kiujygtyujik
Those were erected as tourist things by hotel chains.

There is Cleopatra's needle in the centre of London - but it wouldn't make
sense to have the pyramids and Sphinx as the symbol for London 2012.

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pbhjpbhj
>Those were erected as tourist things by hotel chains.

The second link says you are (at least partly) wrong.

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hugh3
I agree that the London Olympics logo is merely typically bad, rather than
unusually bad. So the question is: why are Olympic logos always so bad? I
suppose it's just a matter of having too many people involved.

What's really interesting is that the logo for the _bid_ is almost always much
better than the logo for the actual games; for instance all the logos of the
bidding cities for 2012:

[http://logoblink.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/olympic-
logo...](http://logoblink.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/olympic-logos.png)

are actually pretty good.

Another example: Sydney 2000. If you look up the logo of the bid, it's pretty
attractive, just the outline of the Sydney Opera House in the Olympic colours.
But by the time they created a logo for the actual games, they took that logo,
reversed it, and added some boomerangs (gotta get an Aboriginal influence in
there!) plus a picture of a running man (sorry, person) in order to get
something entirely too complicated and just plain ugly.

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ugh
I take exception to your assertion that Olympic logos are typically bad. The
Munich ’72 logo might evoke nothing more than a ‘meh’ if it’s all alone but
its applications were absolutely stunning [1]. The takeaway might be that it’s
best to design a solid logo that offends no one and put all the elaboration
and quirkiness [2] into the rest of the identity.

[1] Poster: <http://www.flickr.com/photos/insect54/2307407256/> – Tickets:
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/realnotreal/3509806052/>

[2] ‘Waldi’ is the weird but funny mascot of the 1972 Olympics:
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcosdopico/575561156/>

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auxbuss
The logo is pants, but have you seen the mascots? I'm not even going to find a
link they're so excruciatingly excremental.

Personally, I loved Vancouver's, but think Barcelona's a work of genius; joy
and athleticism in two brush strokes and a blob. Maravillosa.

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GFischer
I might have bad taste as well, but as someone totally ignorant of art:

Barcelona, Nagano, Sydney, Seoul and Vancouver's logos all look equally good
(and bland and generic, but that's ok) to me.

I agree that the Barcelona one is the best of the bunch.

The London one is missing the Olympic colours, and it looks awful to me.

