Olympics logo, continued…
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
June 5th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
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.
June 6th, 2007 at 8:54 am
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.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I liked both Atlanta logos, however, I’m sure they looked for a design change when they realized they had 5 anarchy signs arranged in a circle. Obviously, the new logo is more
appropriate. I also agree that the much-maligned logo for the 2012 games is ugly. In fact, I think that’s putting it politely. I have seen an alternate color scheme, where there are slightly differing shades and colors used throughout it, predominantly yellows, that make it slightly more palatable. I do not know if this was an official alternate logo but I hope they would use it if they don’t start the whole thing from scratch. There are some seriously outstanding alternatives on the internet, which are mixed in with the malignings of course.