The Rings Are Moving On
As you all know, the summer Olympics in Beijing are pretty much a memory. Granted, with all the controversy and foul air swirling around the Games, and some blatant examples of poor sportsmanship, they still came off pretty well.
From a visual guy's perspective - mine - I was really impressed with the branding of this year's Olympics and how the Beijing logo and associated imagery were tastefully placed all over the venue scenery. The Chinese got that right. What can happen at the next Olympics, say in Vancouver or London?
Although I didn't see the green logo for the Beijing Games,
I did see a lot of the cute-yet-somehow-scary happy, dancing characters at a lot of the outdoor events. What was up with them anyhow?
I did come across a rather telling, and what some would consider an 'un-PC', image of the Olympic rings, oppressive-Chinese style. I love visuals that cause me to think.
So, what're Vancouver, and even more interestingly, London, going to do with their respective Olympic logos and imagery? I'm sure Vancouver will do very tasteful and understated implementations of their Olympics brand.
London, on the other hand, will be interesting to watch and see how they apply their rather awkward logo to the various venues and public areas in an effective way.
Can the Brits do it? All I know is that they're having a lot of trouble in simply organizing their overall Games' strategy. It seems they're not too adept at working together to get things done. (I read this, I'm not judging anybody.)
We could always go for the "Redneck" Olympics.
It would be fun to work on the branding for those Games, complete with the hog-tossing events and Twinkie-eating contests. Those would be some fun Games. Where would they be held, though? I'm not even going to venture any guesses as to the locale, but I'd say somewhere in the Appalachians.
I guess, as designers, the thing to learn and take away from this year's Games as they wind down and go away is that, along with the nail-biting competition and exemplary demonstrations of the best athletes in the world, the image and class of the host city's branding accumen can also go for the Gold, or get none at all.
Let's watch...
hai
WHO CAN OUT-DO THE CHINESE?!?!?!!!
The graphics and
presentation were amazing!!!
It'll be interesting to see what happened
'behind the curtain' of pre-parations,
after the dust settles
and what Vancouver, BC and London, UK
do to get over the bar China raised so high!
BAMmGRAPHICS
Mark Jaquette
illustrationISM