London Olympics Blog

The Guardian's London 2012 Olympic Mascot Competition

2008-11-14T04:41:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-11-02T05:05:00.000-08:00

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?

Wraparound Video Screen Proposed For London Stadium

2008-08-28T20:03:00.001-07:00

The Guardian recently reported that the London Olympic stadium could be wrapped in a kilometre-long video screen.

This move seems to be an attempt to rival the defining visual image presented by Beijing’s Olympic Precinct. In light of the iconic Bird’s Nest Stadium and Watercube, London is now trying to define “the look” of the London Olympics.

The Guardian reports that:

The stadium's architect, Rod Sheard, is advocating a kilometre-long screen that would establish the London games as the first digital Olympics. Everything from images of main events to Olympic-inspired art could be projected on to the screen and Olympic officials confirmed the idea was to be developed in the coming year.

Sheard has considerable expertise, having designed the Sydney Olympic stadium and Wembley stadium. He also said:

"The London Olympic stadium will be the beginning of digital technology. We see the stadium as the ultimate communication device."

It seems that the screen would be wrapped around the scaffolding supporting the seating. Originally this ‘wrap’ was to supposed to have static images of the Olympics, but they are now considering the kilometre long digital video screen.

I’m less than convinced about this idea. It has potential, but this move smacks of desperation and the need to try to match Beijing. There have already been several statements from various involved parties stating that there will be no increase in budget and there is no doubt that a kilometre-long screen would considerably blow out the budget.

I think London would be better off forgetting Beijing and trying to do their own thing, in their own way, within the budget available to them.

Boris Johnson confident that Beijing won't beat London

2008-08-28T19:28:00.001-07:00

The Guardian recently reported that the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said that Beijing won't beat London. Boris made his comments during his recent trip to Beijing to take possession of the Olympic flag, on behalf of London, at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

Boris said:

"We have been dazzled, we have been impressed, we have been blown away by these Beijing games, but we have not been intimidated. I am convinced we can do just as well in 2012

There have been many questions within the media about whether London can match the spectacular Opening and Closing Ceremonies staged by the Chinese and the superb facilities present in Beijing, particularly in light of the huge budget spent by the Chinese Government.

The Guardian reports that:

The London 2012 budget is just over half the £20bn that Beijing has spent, but Johnson insisted that the capital would not see a "mean, penny-pinching austerity show".

Boris also said that the tremendous success of the British team at the Beijing Olympics had converted the skeptics and fostered a state of excitement about the Olypmics in London.

Introducing The London Olympics Blog

2008-08-25T19:07:00.001-07:00

As the highly successful Bejing Olympic Games close, all eyes turn to London, where the 2012 Olympic Games will be held.

Photo by rich115 - License

It's still 4 years away, but it seems like a good time to launch a blog that will follow the build up all the way from the close of the last Olympics all the way through to the Closing Ceremony in 2012.

What are my qualifications? Simply put: I love the Olympics, I've lived in the UK and I'm a blogger. That's it! I'm not a part of the London Olympic organisation. I no longer live in the UK. But I'm going to follow events and write about them, because I'm passionate about the London Olympics.

Will I go to the London Olympics in 2012? I'd love to, but it's probably unlikely. My track record isn't good. I'm Australian and had tickets to a football semi final during the Sydney Olympics, but I missed it because I moved to the US a couple of weeks beforehand. I lived just outside of Beijing for two years, but moved back to Australia 3 months before the Beijing Olympics. So in all likelihood, I probably won't make London 2012 - although you never know, I could be third time lucky!

So, will the London Olympics be able to match the success of the Beijing Olympics? Well it's a hard act to follow, but they'll give it a good go. I expect they'll try for something with a different feel rather than trying to compete with Beijing directly.

I'm looking forward to seeing how things pan out over the next 4 years.