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The Look of the games


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Aesthetically simple. IMO, the Look is a very important part of creating the Games atmosphere, getting people excited and distinguishing each edition of the Olympics. Can't say I'm super excited about what I see above, but it's not offensive. Based on the graphics we've been seeing for the last few years, I was afraid it was going to be a lot worse.

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I'm wondering if anyone has a copy of the official London 2012 font? It's called "2012 Headline," and I've been looking for a download of it for a while. I know we have a few users that are graphic geniuses, so I thought someone might be able to help me out. I don't know if it would make a difference, but I'm on a Mac. Many thanks!! :)

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I'm wondering if anyone has a copy of the official London 2012 font? It's called "2012 Headline," and I've been looking for a download of it for a while. I know we have a few users that are graphic geniuses, so I thought someone might be able to help me out. I don't know if it would make a difference, but I'm on a Mac. Many thanks!! :)

Not sure about "2012 Headline", but I found this font on DaFont at the bottom of this page;

My link

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I can't imagine why LOCOG would have an issue with it. Fonts are for public consumption; it's not like they own it or anything.

Athens 2004 used at least a semi-public font for its "corporate ID", namely the Myriad Roman font by Adobe:

myriad%20typeface.jpg

In the past, it was included for free if you bought software like Adobe Illustrator.

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Sorry Seth, the font, like a lot of bespoke corporate fonts isn't public property. LOCOG do own it. From LOCOG's brand protection booklet...

All of the above marks and words are protected either as registered trade marks, registered designs and/or by

common law. Once they have been designed, other official marks of London 2012 will be registered as trade marks

and/or as registered designs including Games’ mascots and pictograms (depicting each sport). The bespoke London

2012 font, known as '2012 Headline', is also legally protected (see example below).

In all honesty I'm probably violating their copyright in using the logo as my avatar here! :lol:


Nice mockups there Dan and welcome to the forum. Did you copy these designs from the Sonic and Mario trailers by any chance, from somewhere else, or are you more in the know than we are? Whatever the case, welcome aboard.

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Sorry Seth, the font, like a lot of bespoke corporate fonts isn't public property. LOCOG do own it. From LOCOG's brand protection booklet...

All of the above marks and words are protected either as registered trade marks, registered designs and/or by

common law. Once they have been designed, other official marks of London 2012 will be registered as trade marks

and/or as registered designs including Games’ mascots and pictograms (depicting each sport). The bespoke London

2012 font, known as '2012 Headline', is also legally protected (see example below).

In all honesty I'm probably violating their copyright in using the logo as my avatar here! :lol:


Actually, that statement is pretty misleading; it's really just there to look more imposing than it is. While LOCOG could easily sue someone for using the font, the actual case law in Europe and the US always sides on the side that a font is an artistic element and therefor open to public consumption. It would be akin to trying to copyright the colour red (which has been tried several times). The only way LOCOG would have a case is if I, or anyone else, actually took the exact font from a LOCOG computer. Even recreating the entire exactly as they have it would be perfectly legal. Copyright law has been a little hobby of mine since law school.

As for the other Games, most of the other OCOGs have used easily accessible fonts. Salk Lake, Athens, and Beijing fonts are all free to the public, and Vancouver used a custom weight of the font NeoSans, which is pretty readily available.

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Athens 2004 used at least a semi-public font for its "corporate ID", namely the Myriad Roman font by Adobe:

myriad%20typeface.jpg

In the past, it was included for free if you bought software like Adobe Illustrator.

Actually, all of ATHOC's publications/logos used Gill Sans Hellenic

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Actually, all of ATHOC's publications/logos used Gill Sans Hellenic

Really? I thought that I read somewhere back then in 2004 that it's the Myriad font. But at least those two fonts are extremely similar. I remember that I tested the Myriad Roman on my PC back then by writing "ATHENS 2004" with it and didn't notice a difference to the real logotype.

You mentioned that the fonts of Salt Lake and Beijing are free to the public, too. Where? And what are their names?

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Really? I thought that I read somewhere back then in 2004 that it's the Myriad font. But at least those two fonts are extremely similar. I remember that I tested the Myriad Roman on my PC back then by writing "ATHENS 2004" with it and didn't notice a difference to the real logotype.

You mentioned that the fonts of Salt Lake and Beijing are free to the public, too. Where? And what are their names?

According to the 2004 final report, they used Gill Sans, but really, the two are almost indistinguishable.

Munich used Univers.

Barcelona used a custom font called Catalana, if I remember correctly.

Salt Lake used a version of Frutiger for the logo and sometimes Futura for headings, with Garamond as the body text.

Torino used Neuropol for its logo.

The Beijing logo was a custom job, and I'm not sure there is an entire font for it. I've seen some similar looking ones on the many font download sites, though. I'm forgetting the name of their body font, but it's a twist on the Optima family. For Beijing NBC used the font Newtext, with a custom "J" to fit around the logo.

Vancouver used NeoSans, and London are using 2012 Headline.

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Hello folks. I have made the images bellow to show how the veneus interior decorations should look...

london2012.jpg

Not horrible, but not good. The graphic is very basic. The color palette really doesn't excite me at all. The spiky, angular shapes arent especially appealing, but because of the logo and the font they didn't have much choice. It looks thrown together without much effort. Vancouver wasn't my favorite look either, but it was obvious they put a lot of thought into their aesthetic. Not so here.

Incidentally, there are a number of London 2012 fonts available for free download. I have "London Olympics 2012."

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Its still not official until we see the official look. Personally Im glad its something different from the curves and wavy lines seen time and time again. It sets London apart. Vancouvers look was stunning. It looked fab on posters and banners, at venues though it was way too busy, it was just a messy blur where action was happening. If people dont like the logo and the angles, they are really gonna dislike the whole look of these games. It is spiky and energetic and different. The colour themes for venues is a master stroke in my opinion.

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Vancouver was gorgeous in print - not so good in venues and tv.

I'm totally in favor of experimenting and working towards something new. Saying farewell to wavy lines (Torino, Beijing, Vancouver) is fine by me.

Although London's look is different, I don't find it either creative or aesthetically pleasing. The logo, font and graphics look like jagged shards and suggest to me the idea of "broken Olympics". For me, the emotions evoked by there aesthetic choices are anxiety and hostility. I do like the idea of color-themed venues, however.

I'm really surprised by LOCOG. I was expecting one of the most beautiful Olympics ever. The UK certainly has the potential to deliver that. In my opinion these choices fall very far short.

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Sorry about the typo. I hate switching "there" and "their". Embarrassing.

I think the thing that surprises me most about London's look (assuming this is basically it) is that it looks like somebody whipped it up in about an hour. The composition of the shards isn't even very good. I just find the whole thing perplexing. It strikes me as something a not particularly talented teenager would come up with while doodling in class.

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Well, today's discussion emerged from Athensfan quoting what are, unless I'm given any reason to believe otherwise, mock-ups by an enthusiast rather than anything official. Let's not forget that.

Onto some other points....

Vancouver's look was superb for me, even in the venues - which is saying something considering how dour and un-athletic their logo was in my opinion. If London's look is as effective as Vancouver's it will have done good job, though in some ways we're comparing apples with oranges as Vancouver was a Winter Games with different requirements.

What I've seen so far from London (officially, I'm not counting Dan's unofficial and contextless mock-ups, great though they are) is more interesting than Beijing's colours put through the the wash look, and far more interesting than Sydney's all-blue scheme. The benchmark for me, in terms of Summer Games Looks is Athens, and what I've seen from London so far doesn't match what the Greeks did yet. Theirs was summery, fun, used the logo and its styling really effectively, and actually, like London's developing look (because I don't think we've seen anything final yet), quite angular in parts.

http://www.theolympicdesign.com/deu/olympic-look/my-experiences-in.../athens-2004/

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I have to say, I absolutely adored Athens' look. Totally agree, Rob. Stunning colors. Nice variety of graphics. Distinctly Greek, but not agressively so. It made for such warm, joyful environments.

I intensely disliked Atlanta's quilt look. Sydney was just ok- a bit dull. I liked Torino's color palette a lot. Beijing was just ok. I wish there had been more variety and more interesting colors. Everywhere you looked there were identical swirls in crayola red, green, blue, yellow.

I hope London's look is still evolving as you suggest. Maybe I'll be surprised by the finished product.

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