The Times reports that organizers of the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games have listened to the outcry over their recently released logo and have revamped it to carry images of competing athletes.
Following a month of protests, the newspaper reports designers have devised a less controversial version. One image, featuring a child taking part in martial arts, is already being used on the side of an Olympics bus touring Britain to promote the Games.
Although the logo will be shown in 3-D in films and on the Internet, the newspaper says it is believed that London 2012 officials failed to take into account that most people would see it only as a flat image in newspapers and magazines.
According to the Times, organizers deny that this is a “climb down and claim”, but an attempt to “populate” an evolving brand. They will also continue to produce fluorescent pink and Day-Glo orange versions, will retain the shape – which some compare it to a broken swastika, – and insist they will not change it to make the Olympic rings more visible.
A London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) spokesman said sponsors will be allowed to choose their own colours and images to fill the “2012” outline, with Lloyds TSB, official banking partner of the Games, choosing its corporate colours green and blue.
A London 2012 spokesman said, “what we always intended to do – and we are doing it sooner now than we thought – is taking the marquee and infilling it with pictures, with photographs, images of sport and children. It’s not a U-turn…it’s moving the brand forward and evolving the brand in a way that we always said we would do”.
Lord Coe, chairman of LOCOG, is to update the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with London’s progress in Guatemala this week, where the IOC is meeting to select a host city for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
