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London 2012 Mascot Design Contest


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But my point is you're much more likely to get a professional design if you go to the pros. You're not certain to get a more professional design (we'll agree to disagree re: the logo as you obviously don't think we've got one), but more likely than if the public are sending in their ideas.

And as I said, you can't expect professionals to send in designs on the basis of pride and a small winners' fee alone.

The only way I could see a public competition really working for the design is if the winner then allows a professional design firm to alter their design to make it more slick, fit the branding etc. etc. after it's been chosen. i.e. the public comes up with the idea, the pros polish it up.

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But my point is you're much more likely to get a professional design if you go to the pros. You're not certain to get a more professional design (we'll agree to disagree re: the logo as you obviously don't think we've got one), but more likely than if the public are sending in their ideas.

And as I said, you can't expect professionals to send in designs on the basis of pride and a small winners' fee alone.

The only way I could see a public competition really working for the design is if the winner then allows a professional design firm to alter their design to make it more slick, fit the branding etc. etc. after it's been chosen. i.e. the public comes up with the idea, the pros polish it up.

Probably will. I also think it's the luck of the draw. VANOC pretty much limited their design competitions to those 'with experience.' They asked for your track record in your submission info. And obviously the quality of your submission would reflect that. However, they did get a dud with Ilanaaq; and pleasant surprises with Muk-Muk and company.

The US org committess in the past, unfortunately, I guess just in terms of sheer logistics, have seen fit NOT to open their design needs to public competition. Thus LA's "Star in Motion," Sam the Eagle, Atlanta's "100 years Torch," the inimitable Izzy, Salt Lake, etc., were all from handpicked design houses. Except for Izzy, which was ACOG Chairman Billy Payne's personal choice, all the other design elements of the last 3 Olympics held in the US have been quite professional. With the size of the U.S., it would at least get a good 2,000 entries for anything like a logo or the mascot. So just sorting thru that thing and where do you store such a large #, etc., etc., preclude such competitions.

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I am still not so sure that the entire London 2012 look and brand presented now is what we will see come 2012. Remember, Athens 2004 used, for some time, a kind of *look* that echoed the olive wreath logo. They used what was esentially a magnified version of the logo in alot of their publications, on their website, on their e cards and wallpapers on their website, and as the backdrop to their press conferences.

This of course changed a few years later to the panorama which we saw in 2004.

Perhaps this will be the same for London.

But, I think the difference here is that what London is using so far, is way more varied and thought out (colors, shapes, fonts, and in more types of usage) than Athens' use of their logo. They have an entire brand in place. Athens, it doesn’t seem like they did.

I do think it is safe to say that we'll be seeing new designs by 2012, but not a whole new graphical style to the brand.

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Using an emblem just blown up showing sections for background wallpaper is lazy design and has been done to death. London 2012 has a nice array of graphic elements that will makes the brand look varied but still sits together as a co-hesive scheme. I like the brand, I like the logo, but I still think that they need to show some better execusions, I dont see why the logo isnt animated on the website, its calling out for some movement. I still love this and want to see this kind of thing on the web.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=589cr_zESh8

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Using an emblem just blown up showing sections for background wallpaper is lazy design and has been done to death. London 2012 has a nice array of graphic elements that will makes the brand look varied but still sits together as a co-hesive scheme. I like the brand, I like the logo, but I still think that they need to show some better execusions, I dont see why the logo isnt animated on the website, its calling out for some movement. I still love this and want to see this kind of thing on the web.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=589cr_zESh8

You talk about coherent branding then say you like that complete mess.

2562157506_61f544593c.jpg

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Public competitions have also produced a lot of **** that has become very popular for all of 2 minutes. This isn't the pop music industry, with the aim of making a quick buck and doing runner. It's got to stand the test of time...

I don't think the british public are capable of that, sadly.

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Public competitions have also produced a lot of **** that has become very popular for all of 2 minutes. This isn't the pop music industry, with the aim of making a quick buck and doing runner. It's got to stand the test of time...

I don't think the british public are capable of that, sadly.

It's got nothing to do with what the British public are capable of really. Design is a profession just like construction or IT or telecommunications. A layperson wouldn't be able to come up with a professional design, capable of many applications etc, in the same way they wouldn't be able to come up with architectural drawings for the stadium. Suggesting otherwise does the whole design industry a disservice and sends out the message that we're willing to pay for everything except proper design; which we think any-old-person can do just as well as those who've been trained for years.

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Public competitions have also produced a lot of **** that has become very popular for all of 2 minutes. This isn't the pop music industry, with the aim of making a quick buck and doing runner. It's got to stand the test of time...

I don't think the british public are capable of that, sadly.

but hey the British Public will sadly pay the bills for many generations on the Games. I think you open it up with a 50000 pound grand prize and hire a jury of artists for lets say 50000 pounds for a week and you would spend 25 percent of what was spent on the cause of this mascot contest the worst logo in the history of the Games. I bet the Quality and the positive public response would much better then the logo. I would even bet that the creator of that mascot would then be asked to design a real logo to replace the disaster London has now. Avant Guard stuff is for a Cheap night club or France LOL. I don't even thing France would think of using that logo.

I have seen many a logo from my experience as a graphics provider by so called professionals that they had to have a half hour seminar to explain the logo.

If you have to explain it then it misses the entire point . When it gets to a hidden meaning that you have to explain it misses the point. A logo can be recognized just for grating on ones senses or being universally laughed at as a moronic waste of 400000 pounds.

The Question to me is WHO would what to wear a t shirt with that choice of colors and design? Pepto Bismal (a pink medicine) and PEE on a mind test puzzle.

Ironically of the two Games festivals held in the UK in the 2010's Glasgow 2014 is far superior because no one has to explain it . A stylized modern version of a scottish tartan with a dynamic flare. Fits Glasgow and Scotland certainly. The Colors give a dymanic flare but it is not a pattern that overwhelms you with Scotland only. Cutting edge and modern enough with elements that relate to the city and country the Commonwealth games is going to in 2014. Glasgow 2014 has enough of a cliche factor but not too much to be easily said to be done before.

The london 2012 logo well what does that say in one sentence ? Nursery School Creation ? We are going to the country that created the Telatubbies.

Who knows a Mascot contest could actually have a lower cost then 50000 pounds How about a VIP all access pass to the Games? I think if there was real support in the UK then that gesture would turn out huge entries and great results. Some of the icon logos in history have come from people who has absolutely not formal training in graphic design Two of those Logos are actually Olympic worldwide partners in Coca Cola and Mcdonalds. Created by an accountant and a sign maker respectively . Michelin's Bib was created by a office staffer either an accountant or a draftman as I recall.

No the British Public at large could come up with much better after all a single mom in the UK has become a billionaire from her creative talents that stuck a chord with popular culture . JK Rowling. with 70 million people in the British Isles there is probably some ordinary person to do a better job then that the Logo at present is.

jim jones

jim jones

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You talk about coherent branding then say you like that complete mess.

2562157506_61f544593c.jpg

Its not a complete mess for a start, thats my opinion. You also say proffessional designers hate it. Im a designer & I dont. What has amazed me this year considering how many people allegedly hate it, just how many times that brand has been used as something of merit both by us as designers and by our clients as something that they wish to achieve when re-branding.

Having said all that its just my opinion, this is a thread about the mascot so I wont go on about it anymore.

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I thought 3 lions, called, higher, faster & stronger.

I will be suprised if it isnt something English, something Welsh, Scottish & something to represent Northern Ireland though that gives you 4 mascots and a lot more merchandise opportunities. It does make me laugh though. The mascot for the Glasgow Commonwealth games will be something very Scottish & Scottish alone. But if London doesn't pick something that links all the nations I think there will be a load of complaints.

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I don't think the mascot will be "British". London 2012, with its brand, has declared that these Games won't be the host nation's in the way that they have always been, in the way that China will host, for example. The slogan "Everyone's 2012" speaks to that.

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I think it'll be British in style but not overtly British. You can tell the difference between a cartoon drawn in America, or one drawn in Japan, or one drawn in Britain without having to have national symbols adorning them.

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Its not a complete mess for a start, thats my opinion. You also say proffessional designers hate it. Im a designer & I dont. What has amazed me this year considering how many people allegedly hate it, just how many times that brand has been used as something of merit both by us as designers and by our clients as something that they wish to achieve when re-branding.

Having said all that its just my opinion, this is a thread about the mascot so I wont go on about it anymore.

so davey in your pro opinion how does one possibly tie a mascot to that Thing they call a logo? To me it is very much impossible unless you rip off sponge bob Square Pants

in the shape of the design of one of the elements dimensionalized and had arms legs and a face added. I cannot understand why anyone would want to possibly go in that direction rebranding their company . Too me it spells chaos or something not to be taken seriously . There is really nothing redeeming about that logo from and artistic or practical communication level that translates to confidence in the olympic brand. Adn the excuse it is trying to appeal to youth is bogus. things that are x factor or youth culture do not look like that in any shape or forum .

I don't know it is quite a problem to link a mascot to that image and type of clear path. They might make these games the recycling games well see if Star Trek would lease them the Horta from the Devil in the Dark episodes from the 1960s . 200px-STDevilDark.jpg

Jim jones

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It's got nothing to do with what the British public are capable of really. Design is a profession just like construction or IT or telecommunications. A layperson wouldn't be able to come up with a professional design, capable of many applications etc, in the same way they wouldn't be able to come up with architectural drawings for the stadium. Suggesting otherwise does the whole design industry a disservice and sends out the message that we're willing to pay for everything except proper design; which we think any-old-person can do just as well as those who've been trained for years.

The funny thing with Design as a profession is that there are many iconic logos that had so called amatuers create them . Mcdonalds a Global Partner of the Games was as simple as Ray Kroc going into a sign shop and a signmaker taking two st louis arcs combining them to make and M. The sign maker said yellow and red a combo that stands out.

Michelin Bib by far the most recognized Mascot Logo came from an accountant who thought of the idea of making a human character out of Tires Michelin then the company had an artist create the final original Bib. Coca Cola another global partner of the games was again the idea of a staffer in the company.

Logos should be recognized but not in a negative grating way . might as well have a Jackson Polick piece of art .

jim jones

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I problem that competitions - especially those voted on by the public - create are in trademarking. They'd have to trademark all the designs before they went to the public and only one would be used in the end. That's time and money not well spent. So seek out bids, hire a winner, and then get them to design the mascot along a consultative process.

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I don't think the mascot will be "British". London 2012, with its brand, has declared that these Games won't be the host nation's in the way that they have always been, in the way that China will host, for example. The slogan "Everyone's 2012" speaks to that.

Fortunately, the bill will be all British.

:lol:

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Hi, I'm back.

I think all the children are going to pick something. Last year, I suggested a badger last year but I'll let the people throughout the UK to decide. I'm hoping that we will have 4 mascots for each one for England, Scotland, Wales, and Nothern Ireland.

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