Olympic design - does it make the cut?
So here’s the logo designed for the summer games this year. It’s entitled “Dancing Beijing” and features a stylized calligraphic character meaning Capital, referencing the host city. It seems to do a few things as a logo - it resembles a running man but it does maintain the feel of calligraphy and uses the traditional red color of China and the typeface is what you’d expect…but then again, should it be what I expect? Maybe, maybe not. Good logo by all accounts I think.
Sports pictograms were created too. They use the same style as the logo and are named “the beauty of seal characters” with strokes of seal characters as their basic form. According to the official website, the Pictograms are said to integrate pictographic charm of inscriptions on bones and bronze objects in ancient China with simplified embodiment of modern graphics, making them recognizable, memorable and easy to use. Whew… that’s deep!
Now take a look at the mascots. The mascots were designed to coordinate with the five Olympic Rings. Fuwa as they are called, express the playful qualities of five children who form an intimate circle of friends, and represent China’s most popular animals — the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow — and the Olympic Flame. Each of Fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name — a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow. So when you put the names together– Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni — they say “Welcome to Beijing.” Nice symbolism, but a little Pokeman’ish to me.
Personally, I think Canada is doing a better job at it for 2010. Their mascots above are very warm, very likable.
I can’t even imagine what they were thinking for London in 2012. Different color treatments and oddball shapes - is it a logo or a puzzle? And what’s up with the the background graphic on the website?
