The new Olympic logo for London 2012. Univerally hated (almost) and public healthrisk. The more I look at it, the more I loath it.

Quite how they spend £400,000 coming up with it, I frankly have no idea. Then to create a video that has caused epileptic fits? No wonder Ken Livingstone has been quoted as saying:

"I wouldn't pay him a penny for having made such a catastrophic mistake....Who would go into a firm like that again and ask them to do that work. This is a pretty basic thing."

I've been trying to think of what the logo reminds me of. And the closest I can think of is some Communist Soviet-Bloc event designed to imitate the olympics. It's the sort of thing you'd expect to see spray painted on the East German side of the Berlin wall, not trying to promote a world class sporting event. The BBC has got a series of reader-submitted logos too, which are well worth a look. I was all in favour of the Olympics coming to London. But I can't help but feel I'll be jetting off shortly before the games start to avoid being embarrassed. Even Fake Steve talks of how (Fake) Jonny Ive is embarrassed to be British. Talk of the universal thumbs down.

As Nathan points out: Chicago 2016. That's how to to an Olympic logo.

See also "London, How do I Hate Thee? Let me Count the Ways 1,2... 2012" and David Chartier's labelling of the damn thing as "the graphic design equivalent of Barf on Road Kill Stew™"

Tags: Olympics, London