The 2012 Olympics Logo is Unveiled
June 6, 2007 by Susan Gunelius
Filed under Marketing
Seth Godin posted two great articles on his blog about the new 2012 Olympics logo. For those of you who don’t understand the logo, it’s a psychedelic 2, 0, 1 and 2 with the host city’s name and the Olympic logo. It’s hard to see at first, but like an optical illusion, once someone tells you what it is, it all makes sense. But was it worth the $800,000 they paid for it? 
My answer, which matches Seth’s, is no way. That’s an absurd amount of money to pay for a logo. There are companies out there making ridiculous amounts of money on logo creation, and I think that’s plain robbery. A logo is just a tool to represent a brand. It’s not the brand nor is it the promise that goes along with that brand.
While marketers want their company’s logo to help communicate that promise by appropriately representing their brand, the logo is a by-product of the brand and the marketing strategies used to develop and promote that brand. Of course, the ultimate goal is for a logo to drive recognition of a brand promise, but until the company behind the brand makes the brand mean something, the logo is meaningless. In this case, until the 2012 Olympic Committee makes these Olympics mean something, the logo won’t be much more than a symbol and will probably be forgotten shortly after the closing ceremonies of the games. Bottom-line, I think that $800,000 could have been used more effectively.
What do you think? How much is too much to pay for logo design?
Related b5media articles:
Social Media on London Olympics Logo
as a designer i would be very interested to know what people think of this…I tend to take the view that Seth is basically right, the logo only takes on the meaning that the company gives it…but i also think that a good logo can give you a sort of framework to build on as you build your brand. The nike logo is a great example. If it was s square it would not be nearly as effective at carrying the image that nike tries to attribute to it. Building the frame work is the skill that a designer gets paid for. I tend to think that $1000-$2000 is a fair price for most any logo work.
It’s great to hear a designer’s perspective. Thank you, Ben!
I suspect that the bill was for the creation of dozens of designs that were then all subjected to focus groups etc. It will also cover the detailed specifications for how the brand can be used in a bunch of different applications. I know a little about how these things work over here in the UK – and I suspect an inordinate amount of consultancy work will have been done to test the logo with various customer groups.
Way too much $ paid imo. Plus to be honest I don’t even think it’s that great a logo. I like abstract stuff to a point but I like realty based logos and images much better. Also, I hope it comes in other colors, because pink. Ugh. Although, my computer’s been known to mislead me on colors before so maybe it’s really a nice orange or blue. I’ll never know.
Hi all,
I am a designer to and this is absolutely way too much! Besides that the logo is not what I expect from an Olympic Logo. Therefore, I have started a competition regarding this logo on htttp://www.rebrandingtheworld.com/design-competitions.
Lets Change the World!
Best Regards,
Max
I will say again that the money did not primarily buy a logo. My guess would be that the graphical design element would be relatively little. Perhaps 10-25% of the budget. The rest would be in developing branding guidelines, testing consumer reactions etc etc. For the mega bucks world of global corporate capitalism I suspect this budget is nothing unusual.
Mike does make a good point, in order to know what they paid for the logo we would have to see a break down of the costs. And i should qualify my previous 1000-2000 dollar statement. I would consider that to be a fair price for a logo coming from a small or freelance design studio for a small business. The bigger the project gets (and the more committees, designers, time, study, etc. involved) the price would increase
the logo design is surprising in a sense that it is no way recognizable as a representation of a major sporting event like the olympics except for the rings. but hey, that’s the point. it’s not the usual. and i salute the designer of this brave idea. it’s hard to veer away from the norm but the designer did just that.
hi his zahra from pakistan
im student of bsc..i want to make a logo n label 4 my project.. plzz give me some suggestions reply me on my email id