The Sunday Telegraph reports that designers of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games logo said they intended the release of the new logo as only part of an “evolving branding package”, and the logo was supposed to be a “blank canvas” that will be filled with diverse images, photographs and sponsorship messages over the next five years.
According to the newspaper many of the images used to “infill” the shapes will be created by the public who will be encouraged to enter competitions to be held every six months and the winner selected by online votes.
Also, during the Games each sporting venue will have a logo with a separate theme while other versions will be displayed on London streets.
Official sponsors who have permission use the logo to market products and services, will be able to choose their own “infills”. The only constants will be the 2012 shape, the Olympic rings, and the word “London”.
Lloyds TSB, the first official London 2012 sponsor, produced advertisements in the newspaper last week featuring the 2012 logo in its blue and green corporate colours.
The Sunday Telegraph reports that sources close to the organizers denied that the adverse public reaction to the logo had forced either a rapid redesign or a decision to speed up the release of further details. They said the later stages of the logo plans could not be revealed last week because of fears that non-sponsors would copy the “infill” design.
Meanwhile, The Times reports London 2012 organizers hired the design firm without seeing any of its designs. The selection committee, chaired by Lord Sebastian Coe, made its decision after a 13-week competition but failed to ask any of the contenders to show them their proposed image.
Branding industry insiders said this weekend that the tactic of hiring consultants “blind” was considered unusual and risky on a contract as valuable as the Olympic branding.
Chris Townsend, commercial director of LOCOG, said it would have cost too much for the contenders to produce rough designs. He said Wolff Olins, the company that designed the logo, could only be expected to produce a design once it had spent months absorbing the Games’ detailed brief.
