(DESIGN FOCUS)
(OLYMPIC SUMMER GAMES) (LONDON 2012)
(DESIGN CHALLENGE)
(INSPIRE THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD BEHIND SPORT)
(KNOWN FOR CONTROVERSIAL LOGO DESIGN, ENERGETIC BRANDING)
(AND DYNAMIC PICTOGRAMS)
(DESIGN FOCUS)
The Olympics is the greatest show on Earth,
and so that's why you, as a designer,
raise your game and give it everything you've got.
The look of the Games
is really how an Olympics presents itself
in every single touch point from the tickets,
to the medal ribbons worn around the athletes' necks,
to the dressing of the stadia,
to the dressing of London and the wider country.
It unites the athletes around a common theme
and a common look and feel.
It's got to be epic.
It's got to be something that's so recognisable
and so distinctive around the globe
that people know they're looking at an Olympic Games.
We decided on day one
what type of Games we wanted,
what was our vision,
what does that look like,
and the logo is obviously at the heart of that.
I remember the chairman of Wolff Olins said,
"We need to create a brand like never before."
And I think we did.
We actually needed to inspire a new generation,
and to inspire the youth of the world.
So we had this idea
of this big 2012 mark,
which was four characters that were sort of jostling together
and the outline around it twisted a little bit
so it didn't feel like it could sit still
on a piece of paper.
The design almost became like a chameleon
that could adapt and evolve,
but always be the same, but always different.
So we knew it was an emblem that
could attract a new generation,
and inspire the youth of the world
to get out there, be active, get into sport.
So, the day came and Sebastian Coe launched the emblem.
The identity really did come to life.
And the feedback that we were getting in the room
was, "Wow, this is cool, this is really exciting."
By the next morning,
it was on every front page.
Suddenly, there was a lot
of people making comments on the internet
about how awful the logo was.
And of course, they've got no context.
They haven't had the story.
They don't see it in situ for the Games.
We had the press outside our house for four days.
They were at my chairman's house,
they were at my executive creative director's house.
We were all being doorstepped.
I mean, we only designed a logo,
but obviously we designed something much more than that.
We designed something, it actually showed people
were quite passionate about it.
You spent six months working really very hard,
and it was a bitter pill to swallow,
but at the same time,
you thought, "We've done what we thought was best,
"well, let them have their point of view."
Time will tell whether this was the right thing for London.
(WELCOME TO THE OLYMPIC VILLAGE)
Pretty much everyone else who was involved
in some form of design or how it was going to look
could all take a little bit of this identity,
embed that brand into the fabric of the Olympic Park.
When we received the logo,
we realised there were various components of it
that actually might be useful to us.
And one of the things we found
was that there was this amazing burst of energy,
this series of gridlines that exploded out of the mark.
This was the formation of our core idea.
A dynamic, energetic, look and feel for the Games,
so every touch point comes out
of extrapolating that grid system.
One of the things that we also received
in developing the look of the Games was the pictograms.
These athletes are just the pinnacle
of physical endeavour,
so we should be creating art that feels like it's moving.
It should feel as dynamic as the athletes are.
So, part of the identity was a very, very cool typeface
that was drawn specifically for these Games.
And so what we did, is chopped it up.
We collect all those shards up
and then you get a sportsman who's doing
the kind of quintessential pose of that sport,
whether it's Lebron doing the basketball,
Beckham doing the football,
and overlay those shards onto that figure,
which then makes your pictogram.
Everything was designed with very close consultation
with each of those expert bodies.
I remember having incredible conversations
with the boxing guys about how the gloves should work
and the cyclists, the angle of the helmet
as they are kind of getting that final burst of energy,
and then the equestrian society had
a very, very particular point of view,
so how you depict a horse has to be accurate,
but also in the spirit of the animal
and how you're going to be jumping with that thing.
So, you hand over all the assets
and then the advertising guys get involved
or the people that actually put it
into the stadia get involved
and you don't have any control over that.
You hand it over.
There was a good year and a bit between
the finish and then kind of seeing the stuff.
And you just can't describe
the feeling of seeing something that is your baby,
your work that you've created so carefully
on the side of a stadium.