The Olympics, not about the sports tho'

Quite astonished how many people, even brits, hate the Olympics logo. Well I get that the logo at first glance sure is eyebrow-rising. The design is far from the traditionals, which usually goes like this:

top: The artist's design. Supposed to symbolize something about the host country

middle: The host country name and the year the games held.

bottom: The Olympic rings.

 

some classic examples. These are my faves.

But folks at Kino design decided to just mend everything together to this... what a brit said: something looked like torn papers. 

You have this crazy typography, not that sleek cool-looking typo designers like to use for brands. But this nearly abstract, bold, THING IN PINK:

The designers said, it resembles youth, energy, and interactivity............

So I shifted my eyes and think... it does!

Heck the traditions. We live in 2012, baby!

Many people whines of how much it doesn't resembles london. We want ol' Big Ben and them big ferrish wheel and whatnot. Okay, I'm not familiar with London. But from a foreigner viewpoint it resembles some of the things I heard about great britain and its people. That creative, rebel, tongue-in-cheek attitude. Besides, without any London icons all over the logo, it transcends cultures and nationality. It's also flexible and easy to modify so big sponsorship fortune right there. Rather than symbolizing things already physically symbolize themselves (what?) the logo manifest the very spirit of London and Londoneers.

GB is an old folk, been there, done that, overseen so much. Nothing more to surprise us, especially after the grandiose and exotic Beijing 2008 Olympic, how could poor old GB beat that? people wonder.

Then came their logo. The controversy in PINK. and then Danny Boyle making the holy ceremony of Olympic opening more like a journey to Madhatter's head. Where Mary Poppins fly while a big creepy baby is surrounded by nurses and hospital beds singing and dancing. Not to mention Her Majesty jumps out of a helicopter escorted with agent 007 himself.

Is it good? Is it proper for the event?

No one can tell. But it did made people laugh and astonished, it was interesting, different, engaging. Beijing was majestic, an unbelievable show of mass discipline and accuracy. So instead of failingly try to compete with that, London offer us something we cannot compare with any other Olympics, something very different and enjoyable, where you can actually laugh.

I think as a whole the 2012 Olympics is the very fresh start point for the ancient tradition to survive this century.

Applause for the brits.

Btw, newspaper in UK even went as far as held their own contest to find alternative logos. I don't know whether the people were joking or what because the alternatives are so horrible lol. But I did found one that I love, even a bit more than the current logo:

Young, energetic, and interactive indeed