# What the heck does the London 2012 Olympics logo mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 7, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153 "2008-08-07T13:05:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/1 "2008-08-07T13:05:05Z")
In reading a story about the Olympics in Beijing, which God willing will end soon, I noticed a bit about the London Olympics. And the official logo for it: [http://www.london2012.com/about/our-brand/index.php](http://www.london2012.com/about/our-brand/index.php) What the hell is that? What is it supposed to represent? ---
**Author:** ![Svejk\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@Svejk\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Svejk_1)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/2 "2008-08-07T13:07:29Z")
I think the thing in the middle is part of the stylized two. The article says it’s a ‘modern take on the olympic colors’ - I say it’s a blind person’s take. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/3 "2008-08-07T13:12:33Z")
You missed all the Lisa Simpson blow-job brouhaha then? (once you see it, you can’t not see it) I actually like the logo, despite Lisa. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/4 "2008-08-07T13:14:11Z")
Apparently, it’s > [@](#): > > an iconic brand that sums up what London 2012 is all about - an inclusive, welcoming and diverse Games that involves the whole country > **[BBC SPORT | Other Sport... | Olympics 2012 | London unveils logo of 2012 Games](http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/olympics_2012/6718243.stm)** > > The logo for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics is unveiled in a star-studded ceremony in London. Me? I think it’s a piece of crap that if you look closely, looks like something slightly obscene, and you will never see it in any other way again. I can’t believe £400,000 was spent on this utterly idiotic garbage. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/5 "2008-08-07T13:17:05Z")
It’s “2012”, in a suitably “cool” abstract style (note the small “l” in London—this means it’s cool). There was a large public outcry over this design, when it was unveiled. To be frank, it looks like a piece of shit, and is a national embarrassment. The “0” and the second “2” look like they’re fucking the other two numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/6 "2008-08-07T13:30:56Z")
It looks like it came straight out of the year 1985. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/7 "2008-08-07T13:34:23Z")
I thought it was continents…until I realized Australia was sitting in the middle. Unless that was suppose to be the UK which means the Aussies get shafted. Then I realized it was someone trying too hard to be cool. ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/8 "2008-08-07T13:39:07Z")
It just proves that England has its share of idiots in government too. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/9 "2008-08-07T14:35:22Z")
[QUOTE=Usram] You missed all the Lisa Simpson blow-job brouhaha then? (once you see it, you can’t not see it) [/QUOTE] Gee thanks for that. Well at least in 2013 I won’t have to look at it anymore, unlike the FedEx trucks and their damn arrows all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/10 "2008-08-07T14:43:15Z")
Wasn’t the very first logo they unveiled more than a little reminiscent of “goatse”? Or was that entirely a prank? It seems highly unlikely to me that an actual professional Olympic committee would accidentally release two different subliminally sexualized logos within the same 2 year period. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/11 "2008-08-07T14:49:15Z")
The goatse one was a joke. The logo they used before winning the bid was more your typical, conservative Olympic logo. A striped ribbon in the shape of the Thames, winding through the words LONDON 2012. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:London-2012-logo.svg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:London-2012-logo.svg) ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/12 "2008-08-07T14:50:08Z")
The goatse thing was actually just something from some TV show, showing what people had drawn for their idea of a good olympic logo. It was still on TV though. [http://sportswrap.berecruited.com/2007/06/06/london-goatse-olympics-logo/](http://sportswrap.berecruited.com/2007/06/06/london-goatse-olympics-logo/) But okay, when they came out with this, I believe it was 2005 when we were smack dab in the middle of the resurgence of 80’s style. I feel like this is waning more than waxing at the moment really, although it is certainly still a force. At any rate, don’t choose something that’s really hip for your olympic logo because the time the olympics roll around it’s already 7 years later. Whatever you choose has to look good in 7 years, and I don’t think I’d pick that London Logo as being, at best, part of a passing fad in design. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/13 "2008-08-07T14:56:32Z")
[QUOTE=Thin Ice] It just proves that England has its share of idiots in government too. [/QUOTE] I believe the London Olympic Organising Committee is a private organisation, not a government one and is mostly privately funded. The Olympic Delivery Authority, which builds the venues is a public organisation funded by public funds. The LOOC is the one that vomited up the logo, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/14 "2008-08-07T14:58:23Z")
[QUOTE=Joey P] Gee thanks for that. Well at least in 2013 I won’t have to look at it anymore, unlike the FedEx trucks and their damn arrows all over the place. [/QUOTE] It’s such a bad logo I noticed Lisa Simpson fellating away before I realized that the big chunky blocks are actually supposed to be the number “2012.” Yikes. Pretty awful. ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/15 "2008-08-07T14:58:50Z")
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe] The goatse thing was actually just something from some TV show, showing what people had drawn for their idea of a good olympic logo. It was still on TV though. [http://sportswrap.berecruited.com/2007/06/06/london-goatse-olympics-logo/](http://sportswrap.berecruited.com/2007/06/06/london-goatse-olympics-logo/) But okay, when they came out with this, I believe it was 2005 when we were smack dab in the middle of the resurgence of 80’s style. [/QUOTE] The logo was unveiled in June 2007. The goatse logo was featured on the BBC London News as part of the coverage, viewers were invited to design their own logo. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/16 "2008-08-07T15:05:22Z")
[QUOTE=Labrador Deceiver] It looks like it came straight out of the year 1985. [/QUOTE] It may be bad, but it looks nothing like the style of the mid 80s. Here’s the logo the summer games of 84: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:84summerolympicslogo.png](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:84summerolympicslogo.png) And the winter games of 84: > **[File:1984 Winter Olympics logo.svg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1984_Winter_Olympics_logo.svg)** > > Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. > You cannot overwrite this file. The following 2 pages use this file: > The following other wikis use this file: Ed ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/17 "2008-08-07T15:06:42Z")
[QUOTE=Szlater] I believe the London Olympic Organising Committee is a private organisation, not a government one and is mostly privately funded. The Olympic Delivery Authority, which builds the venues is a public organisation funded by public funds. The LOOC is the one that vomited up the logo, IIRC. [/QUOTE] Yes, normally the organizing committee is separate from the government, though it may or may not be privately funded. Peter Ueberroth became famous as the head of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee in 1984. That was not a governmental position. Ed ---
**Author:** ![Thin\_Ice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Thin\_Ice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thin_Ice)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/18 "2008-08-07T15:15:27Z")
[QUOTE=Szlater] I believe the London Olympic Organising Committee is a private organisation, not a government one and is mostly privately funded. The Olympic Delivery Authority, which builds the venues is a public organisation funded by public funds. The LOOC is the one that vomited up the logo, IIRC. [/QUOTE] I wasn’t sure about that, but I was too lazy to check before I posted. Maybe someday I’ll learn. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/19 "2008-08-07T15:17:04Z")
[QUOTE=suranyi] It may be bad, but it looks nothing like the style of the mid 80s. Here’s the logo the summer games of 84: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:84summerolympicslogo.png](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:84summerolympicslogo.png) And the winter games of 84: > **[File:1984 Winter Olympics logo.svg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1984_Winter_Olympics_logo.svg)** > > Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. > You cannot overwrite this file. The following 2 pages use this file: > The following other wikis use this file: Ed [/QUOTE] I actually like the first one. The second is meh. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153/20 "2008-08-07T15:25:16Z")
Wow. That’s _bad_. I particularly like this paragraph: > [@](#): > > Our emblem is simple, distinct, bold and buzzing with energy. Its form is inclusive yet consistent and has incredible flexibility to encourage access and participation. It can communicate with anyone from commercial organisations to kids playing sport. Yes, I’m feeling very encouraged to access and participate by that logo! :rolleyes: Someone should put that on an ‘overdone buzzwords of the year’ list. I kind of liked [this one](http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43007000/jpg/_43007505_james_wren203.jpg), though the slogan would have to go. But it’s slightly reminiscent of a Tube map, which I like. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-heck-does-the-london-2012-olympics-logo-mean/459153.md?page=2)