London's New 2012 Olympics Logo: Threat or Menace?

London unveiled the official logo for the 2012 Olympics yesterday, and the race is now on to figure out what, exactly, they were thinking -- or smoking -- when making their selection. Created for 400,000 pounds (US$796,000) by the branding agency Wolff Olins, the graffiti-style design is an abstracted version of the numbers 2012, and it was intended to draw the attention of younger folk.  According to the official brand statement:

The new 2012 emblem will use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people. It is an invitation to take part and be involved [...]

The new emblem is dynamic, modern and flexible. It will work with new technology and across traditional and new media networks.

It will become London 2012’s visual icon, instantly recognisable amongst all age groups, all around the world. It will establish the character and identity of the London 2012 Games and what the Games will symbolise nationally and internationally.

Right then.

So far, the far the critics have been withering.

• London's Design Museum founder Stephen Bayley says the logo is "a puerile mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal."
• A wag named "farmboy" thinks it resembles a broken-up Nazi swastika.
• "There were lots of good things about the 80s. Style was not one of them. And yet, this identity screams 1985 at me like a dodgy set of legwarmers," says Design in the fishbowl
• "Absolutely awful  -- what performance enhancing drugs were the organisers on when they chose this as the logo for the games?" asked Pete East London in a comment on a BBC article.
• And most memorably of all, one caller to London's Radio4 brilliantly noted that the new logo reminded them of  "Lisa Simpson fellating a stranger." (Others have carried this unseemly imagery to its NSFW logical conclusion.)
  

In animated form, the new 2012 logo is a double-threat. Epilepsy Action, a British organizaiton, says several people suffered seizures after watching a variation of the jagged shapes that depicted a diver plunging into a pool. The BBC reports that a Mr. Christopher Filmer called a London radio station to complain that he suffered a seizure while watching the animated logo on television. "The logo came up on TV and I was thinking about the 2012 Games and then I was out," he said.

"We are taking it very seriously and are looking into it as a matter of urgency," says a London 2012 spokesperson.

Comments

[Peter]

So I guess this blog has a theory on the logo.

http://www.sportable.com/2007/06/06/olympic-logo-or-giant-math-conspiracy/

Not sure how likely their argument is, but who knows?

[John of gCaptain.com]

"Threat or Menace?" How about just really really ugly!?!

[Jon Haeber]

Seeing that logo made me want to regurgitate my coffee.

Come to think of it... that logo LOOKS like regurgitated coffee.