London 2012 and logos for the web · Jun 5, 16:02

The new London 2012 logo was revealed to the public on Monday, to much scorn and general wailing. It’s bold, pink and apparently “street”. Whatever that really means.

London 2012 - new logo

I have to say, against the general flow, my first impressions were reasonably positive. I like the jagged lines and bright colours. For me, it seems to work best in “violent pink”, which seems to fit the punk 70s styling they’ve got going on. I’m not quite sure what that says about me!

On the surface it seems a bold move to ignore the current fashion for minimalistic design, though as everyone’s saying changing fashions are just the thing that will date an Olympic logo that has another five years to run. Obviously the fact it has its own very distinctive style and colour scheme is bound to run into troubles within five years.

However, as someone working with the web my main gripe is with the typeface. Particularly the size.

Branding agencies often put logos together without a lot of consideration for what may work on the web. The main culprit I see is a large icon or graphic alongside far smaller text, often in an “interesting” typeface. On big posters and on TVs this works fine, but on the web where a logo may be a mere 200 pixels high and the typeface around 10pt or less in size this can be a serious problem.

All I can assume is “new media” is far down on the list, but these days I think corporate identity really should be put through its paces on the web.

Simple guidelines like rendering the logo at 100, 150 and 200 pixels high would be a start. Also, where type starts to get smaller than 12pt in size examples of how it should be used with an non anti-aliased font (i.e. no smooth edges).

To paraphrase the official press release they say the logo represents a “dynamic brand that works across traditional and new media networks.”

So far I’ve not seen a decent representation of the new logo on the official London 2012 site. And certainly not one where I can read the name of the proud hosting city.

Who ever said that size doesn’t matter?

— Simon R Jones


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