The item I posted Monday night regarding the ugly logo for the 2012 London Olympics…
Check it out here:
http://www.visualeditors.com/apple/2007/06/tell-me-thats-not-really-the-london-olympics-logo/
…reminds me of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics logo.
The Atlanta-based graphic design firm of Copeland Hirthler designed this spiffy logo for the Atlanta Organizing Committee in 1988. I always thought it was pretty cool:

After Atlanta was awarded the 1996 games, however, the Atlanta Organizing Committee took further business to the San Francisco-based firm of Walter Landor Associates, which came up with the logo used in the actual Olympics themselves:

Was this an improvement? At the time, I didn’t think so. However, now — eleven years later — yes, I think the second one is better.
I am glad I bought a few souvenir items with the first logo on it, however.
Read more about the history of the Atlanta Olympics logo here:
http://www.coa.gatech.edu/imagine/Atlanta96/documents/symbols/identity/identity.htm




Classes in video journalism
You’ll be proud of me. I’m running a story on the logo scandal on my sports front tomorrow. It’s actually pretty funny. I try my hand at being an Olympic judge of the amateur logos.
This morning on news hour with the BBC, they were talking about how some feel this logo was a huge waste of money… it was really funny.