06 June 2007

When logos go bad


The logo for the 2012 London Olympics appears to be set to win a medal for unpopularity. It has been compared to a "toileting monkey" and a" broken swastika". One person has even remarked that " it looks like some sort of comical sex act between The Simpsons."

The nearest thing to a kind remark about it came from Mayor Ken Livingstone, who remarked that it was " not the end of the world". Bookmaker William Hill is now offering odds of 5/1 that the logo would be scrapped by the end of the year. But yet it is not likely to win gold medal for the worst conceived logo of all time. That accolade must go to the Instituto de Estudos Orientais at the University of Santa Catalina in Brazil. It came up with a simple design of a pagoda outlined against a red setting sun. The logo was intended to make the Institute seem an inviting, happy and peaceful place............... I’m not sure if it is an apocryphal story but it is amusing!

13 comments:

Roland Dodds said...

Wow, that is ugly....and pricey....

Stacie said...

That post started off with the ugly and moved to the funny.

jams o donnell said...

Ugly indeed. I think the logo is grotesque

Anonymous said...

I can't believe how tacky the London Olympic logo is. It's also rather old fashioned - it looks like it could have been designed in the mid 1980s.

As for the other logo... well, bugger me!

jams o donnell said...

That's true.. it looks like bad grafitti Roger.. The less said about the institute logo, the better!

Alison said...

The Olympics logo is just so bad, but I love the second, it's hilarious!

jams o donnell said...

Add London 2012 and the olympic rings and we have the new Logo!

Steve Bates said...

Is it true that the very colorful promo videos caused seizures in some people?

The logo is ugly, but my main objection is the magenta-on-yellow astigmatism-provoking color scheme. Ouch!

(Aside: what kind of sex act should The Simpsons engage in, if not comical?)

jams o donnell said...

That is the story Steve. I ahven't actually seen the animated logo and I don't think I want to!

As for the SImpsons and sex, the episode where Marge and Homer start doing it in dangerous places raised the bar! Can sex between Simpsons be anything other than comical? THat is a good point but one I won't dwell on!

elasticwaistbandlady said...

The creator of that last one has some sort of anal fetish going on that has obviously clouded his artistic vision.

jams o donnell said...

Could be EWBl.. that or he was having a big laugh at the Institute's expense!

Steve Bates said...

"... that or he was having a big laugh at the Institute's expense! - jams

No one would ever do that, would they? :)

Once, on the last day of a job, I was instructed to change the splash screen of the application we'd been working on. Previously we'd called it simply "Risk"; I was told to change the visible name to "Cardiovascular Risk Assessment Program" ... I kept my mouth shut (it wasn't easy) and did exactly as I was told.

jams o donnell said...

I'm sure you did but I bet you were laughing like a drain inside, Steve!