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Update: London Logo Floors People

Update: Seemed that London Olympics logo was a bit too good at jumping off the page. A movie clip based on the logo has had to be pulled after eight people suffered epileptic fits while watching it. News report.

London's New Olympic Face

A new logo was unveiled for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games today. Most people seeem to think it looks just horrible. Let's compare it with those that have gone before. London 1908 didn't have a logo, but the last London Games did:

More recent logos have sought to maintain that bold yet simple link with the host city. The running man Chinese script character in Beijing's logo is a typical example:

  Clearly a new departure, then. But resistance to change is not the only apparent source of dismay at the new design.

It's really not hard to see why many dislike London's new logo. The graphical link to London itself is not clear. It works much better in dynamic form than standing still. The logo does away with the tradition of incorporating the colors of the Olympic rings, too, and so might be said to dilute the Olympic brand itself. It's also too easy to knock the launch, with an lack of opportunities for easy interaction: there's  nothing to download and play with. Nothing to share. No screensaver for my mobile phone. Just a bunch of brand protection small print. Even London 2012's online press release had no logo link.

So the logo itself is resolutely, perhaps defiantly modern. To this extent it is reminiscent of the atonal, dissonant screeching and clanging that passes for that wonderful contradiction,   modern classical music. That's useful: the modern Olympic Games have not been modern for a really long time. As an ethereal and temporary event, the Olympic Games seem to have a more tangible past than future. But modernisation will only work if it directly helps youth reconnect with traditional sport, while making adults more active. That's the goal. To meet it, London's real challenge with the Olympic brand is not updating classical but recreating pop.