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?
1 comment:
hello ,
i was just wondering where to send the olympic mascot ideas so to say so that they could be "out for grabs" if they are liked.
Thank you !,
Anonymous
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