Jump to content

Art


DrDoom

Recommended Posts

With regards the logo, yes they could! I bet you on this forum alone there are probably 30+ people who if given the brief could come up with a design which would be far better received than the crap thing Wolff Olins did. Lets face it, it would be harder to do a worse job!

I was expecting a wide range of innovative and clever designs but from what I can see on that page all they've done is plonked that awful logo on lots of things. So actually, maybe thousands of people could 'do it'.

ferguson400_250x308.jpg

In terms of the logo design, it's completely subjective. You don't like it, that's fine but being able to scramble together a little logo vs an entire identity for the Olympic games isn't comparable so i feel we're going in circles on this one. You say 30+ people here could of made a better logo (i reckon i could certainly) but so what? Then what? How do they then role out everything across the entire spectrum of the games keeping the same theme and feel at all times remaining on brand? They couldn't. The magnitude to this task is vast. Just because they can do it, it doesn't make them great, it's just the point that i'm making is that not everyone could do it, not at all. You're never going to please an entire nation and whilst when the identity first came out i slated it, i thought about it for a few months and began to understand it. I wasn't instantly in love with it, but i've got a certain level of respect for it in terms of what they've created baring in mind the task in hand.

If you think it's soo terrible look up every Olympic identity (bar Otl Aicher’s 1972 identity as that's incredible and still the benchmark which i think is incredible and get’s it ‘just right’) and you begin to understand it. Whilst again it might not be to everyones taste for once it steps away from the given, expected norm and attempts to do something different. It'll certainly be memorable. I mean now, without searching, describe to me the details of the identity/logo for the last 3 or 4 games?

Again, i really can appreciate your point about not liking it. You are perfectly entitled to it, and on some levels i agree, but when you make comments like "all they've done is plonked that awful logo on lots of things" i just think you are stupid and ignorant, and there's no point in furthering this, as it's too ignorant a comment.

As a final note, those recent posters....they're not (graphic) design, so don't confuse art with design. For some reason the Olympic committee commissioned artists to produce design work (which i think was a big mistake) and i can assure you that graphics designers up and down the country are equally annoyed and frustrated with them as it doesn't do anything to aid the image of design in this country, as after all that's not what they are.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

when you make comments like "all they've done is plonked that awful logo on lots of things" i just think you are stupid and ignorant, and there's no point in furthering this, as it's too ignorant a comment.

In complete honesty I cannot see what you mean by creating an entire identity, rather than just a logo, and from the link you posted I seriously can't see what they've done apart from plonk the logo on things. On that page they've plonked it next to an Adidas logo, plonked it on the page of a magazine, plonked it next to a UPS logo, plonked it on a big screen while generally just changing the colours. To my untrained eye that is not an identity that's reusing a crap logo and plonking it in various places. I'm not trying to be ignorant, stupid or retarded but I look at that page and all I see is the same logo reused in different places. What am I missing?!!

And regards 'you can never please an entire nation' I've yet to meet someone who even remotely like the logo (identity?). It doesn't appear to be just me who thinks it's shockingly poor but the majority of the nation. Obviously design is subjective but if you need a qualification in brand identity to understand that what they've produced is 'good' then they've got it wrong and done a shit job from what I can tell.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well look in to what goes in to creating an entire identity then. Then you can slag it off until your hearts content, but i'd like to think i wouldn;t be so instantly dissmissive of something i didn't understand. I don't go around disregarding things i have no knowledge of. If my gut reaction is 'this is shit' i like ot delve a little further before writing it off, then i can make an informed decision.

Again i'm not saying that the identity work is fantastic, let alone good, but i do admire what's gone in to it, even if i'm not 100% convinced by it all. A lot of the work hans't made it's way out yet and wil;l be revealed as we get closer to the games.

Clearly you're an intelligent man, but it comes across as if you're purposefully trying to be close minded and dismissive because art and/or design isn't your thing. I don't want people to neccesserily like the work, i'm glad it raises debate and gets the country actually talking about design, but if it's thoughtless remarks based on a subtle glance then it gets tiresome. I never said you need a qualification to understand it, but even with some discussion you still insist it's just logos plonked on things. Despite what work we may be discussing if anyone dismissed a project as just that i'd feel the need to defend it and elaborate further. My main point that i keep trying to make is truthfully:

1. Not anyone can do it.

2. It's not just a logo.

If you are interested at all in any further info then these links might help:

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2009/october/london-2012-pictograms

http://www.michaelives.com/1203086/2012-OLYMPIC-FONT

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2007/june/london-2012-well-at-least-it-doesnt-have-big-ben-on-it

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/547054/

And to clarify with all this i'm still not saying it's good as such.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well look in to what goes in to creating an entire identity then. Then you can slag it off until your hearts content, but i'd like to think i wouldn;t be so instantly dissmissive of something i didn't understand. I don't go around disregarding things i have no knowledge of. If my gut reaction is 'this is shit' i like ot delve a little further before writing it off, then i can make an informed decision.

On that point, in my mind, something like the Olympic identity shouldn't require any knowledge of design or any understanding. There are millions of brands out there that create a positive impact immediately and these I feel absolutely no loathing for whatsoever. I completely respect that in most instances a lot of thought goes into an identity to make a successful visual impact and create a 'brand'. For the case of the Olympic logo (leaving aside the 'identity') it seems to me like these people at Wolff Olins were taking the piss. I can't believe that not one person in that studio/board room didn't say "but... it's a bit, well, shit isn't it?". The logo just doesn't seem to do anything it should and from the public reaction, back in 2007 or whatever, it would appear that the majority of the public feel the same.

but if it's thoughtless remarks based on a subtle glance then it gets tiresome. I never said you need a qualification to understand it, but even with some discussion you still insist it's just logos plonked on things. Despite what work we may be discussing if anyone dismissed a project as just that i'd feel the need to defend it and elaborate further.

Again, I thought a brand/logo ought to create an opinion and gets it's point across in a glance and at a glance, or after looking at it many times, that logo is still rubbish in my opinion. And regarding the plonking, you can't deny that on that Wolff Olins page they don't do anything other than show the same logo (in different colours) carefully placed on things. Having looked at the links you shared there I can see there is more to it, but that doesn't come across in that initial link.

I'll admit that I don't have the most positive perspective on 'design' in this context which I find (rightly or wrongly) too closely linked to 'modern art'. From the outside there seems to be too much bullshit involved and unjustified peer backslapping etc. I apologise if that's an ignorant and unfair generalisation but I can only tell it likes I sees it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think there's a lack of flexibility in the logo. Again just laymans opinion but I feel it doesn't really lend itself to distortion or easily displayed in 3D. With only a small amount of creasing or partially covering up of clothing logo's meant it was unrecognisable. Whilst at the MTB test event, the flags and bannering just looked like disjointed blocks of colour, not remotely memorable or eye-catching, which I think is a base requirement for an 'identity'. I'd like it to be something which people immediately and (for fear of retribution I won't say subliminaly') instinctively associate with the most prestigious sporting event to ever grace the UK.

Its been rolled out now so we have to accept it, I don't like it personally, I've seen more impressive 'identities' developed over the years by small brands and organisations. Obviously thats much easier on a small scale. The bureaucracy ruined it as uaual :P

I also don't like the fact its difficult for kids to copy in artwork and doodles, it loses some appeal purely for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm with Dave here, you shouldn't need a Masters degree in Graphic design to be able to understand and appreciate the 'identity'.

Granted with your career and knowledge you done some research into all the hard work that's gone into it but, to be a bit hipster here, you are the 1%.

99% off the people that will be looking at this logo/identity won't research the work behind putting the identity out there, they'll just see the logo dotted around, which is pretty poor, and make judgements based upon that. I think it's too easy for Graphic Designers to leap to it's defence, standing in awe of the big players, when it's only because you are knowledgable of the behind the scenes work that motivates you to do so. Graphic Designers do get picked on a lot by people saying there jobs are easy, which is unfair, but is does make you all quite defensive right from the offset.

It's the same in my career, Architecture's full of elitists and, so long as they've done a bit of leg work and shoulder brushing, any design is deemed a 'Statement'. I'd much rather design a public building that the public would enjoy over a building that makes a strong Architectural Statement and wins an award but the public can't make head nor tail of.

Just my to pence.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Isn't the point that the 'identity' and its roll out is the whole reason that the 99% get to judge the logo. It's because it's 'dotted around' and associated with pretty much everything over the next year that it's such a big deal that the logo itself is, well, appalling.

If that's the case, then this Wolff Olins outfit have only done half their job, no matter how good they've done the identity lark. Yes, the design of a logo is fairly subjective, but you've failed miserably if no-one in the city it represents is happy with it. Maybe its more to appeal to foreign markets (because we all know those damn foreigners have no taste (wait, nested brackets, surely if that were true everyone in London would like it too..............)).

Ah, I dunno, I just hope that the events are pulled off better than the build up has been!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just watched Exit Through the Gift Shop for the first time, loved it. Got really frustrated not knowing where I could remember the french dude from 'til the Campbells spray cans bit. Met him down a tunnel in London spraying them as stencils a few years a go! Pretty random haha.

Edited by Skoze
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just watched Exit Through the Gift Shop for the first time, loved it. Got really frustrated not knowing where I could remember the french dude from 'til the Campbells spray cans bit. Met him down a tunnel in London spraying them as stencils a few years a go! Pretty random haha.

(Y) Did you get chance to see some of the graffiti here in bpool?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you know it was a completly staged documentary? i know that made me sad to.

Staged or not, the majority of the footage is legit and there's some really cool stuff in there. I dig it :)

Does make me wonder about Thierry though. Was a properly sound guy when I met him, whoever he is.

In related news;

307746_2683855299761_1357710141_33112365_1930864710_n.jpg

I need to get back to doing my own art instead of wanking over other people's :P New brief from college is "public art", so a triumphant return to the game is on the cards if I can think of something clever enough.

Edited by Skoze
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yer I've heard stuff saying the actual Mr. Brainwash character doesn't really exist and it's something entirely created by Banksy and other artists, using Thierry as the front because he was an interesting guy and the documentary story (supposedly true) was a nice one. The whole idea of it was to show how easy it is to infiltrate the contemporary arts scene with money. Either way, some immense footage!

Sketching out a logo for a new clothing company. Kinda played out style but it's the vibe they want and the company's called WeTheOutlaws so it makes sense.

382115_10150559431348219_514898218_11632707_1981074356_n.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Staged or not, the majority of the footage is legit and there's some really cool stuff in there. I dig it :)

Does make me wonder about Thierry though. Was a properly sound guy when I met him, whoever he is.

In related news;

307746_2683855299761_1357710141_33112365_1930864710_n.jpg

I need to get back to doing my own art instead of wanking over other people's :P New brief from college is "public art", so a triumphant return to the game is on the cards if I can think of something clever enough.

First one will be worth a fair ammount in a few years !

Edited by Dave Anscombe
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thierry's cool, who/ whatever he is.

First one will be worth a fair ammount in a few years !

Yeah, not bad for 18 quid haha.

In art news, I got thrown out of sainsburys for putting this on their stella multipacks today;

post-16436-0-68474700-1322002641_thumb.j

Just a random jokey little thing to get the "public art" ball rolling at college. Going back in with some saying "serious addiction" (maybe, kinda tbc at the moment but wanna do something a little more serious) branded ones and an A1 piece to be wheat pasted outside a pub in town.

Edited by Skoze
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...