The Guardian's London 2012 Olympic Mascot Competition

Following on from previous post, on the call by London 2012 organisers for designers to who want to design the London 2012 mascot, the Guardian newspaper asked readers to send them their designs. The Guardian has now published some of the mascot designs sent in by their readers.

Let's say, they're not all up to professional standards, but they're quite entertaining! Get on over to their site to have a look. As the Guardian site states that images are public domain, I’ll post a couple of them here that stood out for me:


Trafalgar the Pidgeon, by Danny Ihns

For some reason, this one clicks with me! It's probably not that he's supposed to appeal to the youth audience with his skateboard helmet and headphones - I think it's because he reminds me somehow of Eddie the Eagle, who's an Olympic Hero if there ever was one!


Dodgee - the Olympic Hoodie, by Aaron Robinson

What can I say! This is a classic! And probably my favourite...

Anyway, thanks to all the people who sent in their London 2012 mascots, particularly to Danny and Aaron. Thanks guys! When the official mascot is chosen by the London 2012 organisers, I'll be coming back to these ones to see if the official mascot's as good!

Who Wants to Design The London 2012 Mascots?

The Guardian are running a story about London 2012 putting a call out for a design agency to create the mascots for the 2012 Olypmpic Games in London:

London 2012 has put out a brief to find a creative agency for the important task of creating mascots to represent the capital's Olympic Games, including issuing guidance that it must "reflect the best of British".

Pressure on the Olympic Mascot Designers

Whoever takes up the challenge will be under a lot of scrutiny, especially since the criticism of the 2012 Olympic Logo. It has to envoke both the spirit of the Olympics and a sense of Britishness. Whatever they create will be everywhere in the lead up to the 2012 London Games, on signs, pens, tshirts, coffee mugs, tv commercials, etc.

Placing additional pressure on the creators is Chris Townsend, the London 2012 commercial director, who's saying that the revenue raised via the mascot is a crucial part of the plan to raise the £2bn needed for the games.

But no pressure guys...

History of Olympic Mascots

Some history of the mascots from previous Olympics is also presented in the article:

The Beijing Olympics used a series of five mascots called Fuwa, while the Athens games in 2004 used a brother and sister called Athena and Phevos, named after two Greek gods.

In 2000 the Australians used Ollie the kookaburra, Syd the platypus and Millie the echidna; a strange creature called Izzy represented Atlanta in 1996; while Barcelona used Cobi the Catalan sheepdog in 1992.

1988's Olympic games in Seoul featured Hodori the tiger; the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics Sam the eagle; and the Russian games in Moscow in 1980 used Misha the bear.

I hope they come up with something creative for London 2012, not just a British Bulldog!

What Do You Think?

Do you think that the mascot for the London 2012 Olympic Games will be great, or not so great?

If you were a design agency, would you apply to create the logo and go for the glory, or is there just too much pressure for it to be worth the risk?