Tuesday 9 March 2010

Commonwealth Games 2014 - The Logo




This is it. All £95,000 of it so Scotland had better like it.

Now let me explain what it means - other than the 2014 Commonwealth Games which will be held in Glasgow.

It is based around 4 numbers associated with the games - the 20th time they have been held, the 17 sports represented, the 11 days of the competition and one host city.

The second ring is precisely 17/20ths of the size of the full outer circle and the third ring is 11/20ths of the size. At the heart of the logo is the letter G standing for host city, although I'm sure you already know that.

John Scott, chief executive of Glasgow 2014 Ltd., praised the new design's 'fun and flexibility'.

I suppose we have had a bargain. The logo for the 2012 Olympics in London is said to have cost £400,000.


26 comments:

Demetrius said...

The Olympic logo was quickly associated in the military blogs with a close personal encounter of a particular kind if you see in that way. As for the Glasgow one I can think of something very rude immediately. All that money and how do they do it? Any sane art student could have put together something better and would have been glad of a couple of hundred.

Surreptitious Evil said...

I forget which logo it was that you turned through 90 degrees and ... Still, it's nothing like Lisa ...

Uncle Marvo said...

GOT would've done it for a fiver.

JRB said...

The logo, on initial viewing, neither offends nor stimulates the imagination.
It’s just; O.K .

BUT

Definitely NOT £95,000 worth of OK!

Glasgow can proudly boast one of this country’s, and Europe's, foremost university-level institutions for creative education in the Glasgow School of Art.
A commission placed with the GSA would not have come anywhere near to £95,000.

Alan W said...

It's not exactly vibrant or athletic is it?

In fact, why does it remind me of Big Brother & 1984?

subrosa said...

Demetrius, I think John (JRB) and yourself have hit the nail on the head. With one of the best art colleges in the world right on their doorstep why didn't they approach them.

Yes I know the pedantics will say art isn't graphic design, but all good graphic designers have studied art prior to branching to design. Maybe of course that's not how it works nowadays and hence we get something like this.

subrosa said...

Was that the Olympics Evil? Who's Lisa?

subrosa said...

Marvo, how can you say that. Gotty isn't a cheap master of art you know! £20 at least.

subrosa said...

Entirely agree John. Anyway there are far too many so called graphic designers around these days and for some reason they get business. This is one of them.

subrosa said...

Oh Alan, you cynic you. Or perhaps you're not. I thought it reflected a 'nothingness' really. A new smiley would have been more fun.

RantinRab said...

Umm, Rosa...

Lisa Simpson. Have a look at the olympic logo. You're a woman of the world....

subrosa said...

Rab, I'm being thick here - ah! got it. Sometimes it does take patience Rab. :(

Anonymous said...

Oh my gawd, I was ripped off! My blog logo cost me what I thought was a cool £1,000,000

subrosa said...

Lorenzo, good to see you. Erm, don't feel insulted if I say you wus robbed. :)

Surreptitious Evil said...

Simpson, ostensibly performing what Bill Clinton maintains is not a sex act, possibly on Bart, in the London 2012 logo.

Joe Public said...

I preferred the Goatse-inspired image broadcast by the BBC 6 o'clock news before they realised it's provenance.

Joe Public said...

A good Logo shouldn't need an explanation!

subrosa said...

Sorry Evil, I was a bit slow there. Got it now.

subrosa said...

True Joe. I don't understand the two xx's though, they weren't explained.

Mrs Rigby said...

Is the XX 20th Commonwealth Games?

As for the rest of the logo, it looks a bit like one of those ball mazes - but made easier for the kiddies.

subrosa said...

Of course it is Mrs Rigby. I was trying to look for the hidden message as in the rest of it. Silly me.

collin said...

Nice post....I liked it and enjoyed a lot.

Take The 2010 Commonwealth Games Quiz and find out how much are you aware about the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Enjoy the test and Have Fun!!

subrosa said...

Thank you Collin. I failed on the second question.

Crinkly & Ragged Arsed Philosophers said...

I would have thought incorporating a bucket, barrow, envelop's and banknotes would have been apposite.

If, for no other reason than these seem to be the underlying reason and value for everything nowadays.

subrosa said...

RA, it seems the company designed a similar one a few years ago:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Row-over-39identical39-logo-for.6137459.jp

LC said...

The costs of such things are not just related to the logo itself, but rather a whole design strategy and corporate identity.

That's why they can seem so hideously inflated - and often why amateur (or even, say, art school) commissions are not sought. I do feel such designs are often viewed critically by the public, or even in this case considered faintly underwhelming, but it's difficult to please any significant section of the public for long.

I suspect the Glasgow design was an attempt to avoid the controversy of the London Olympic design - and in that regard, it's been fairly successful.

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