On the 23rd floor of a modern high rise is the brain power responsible for creating the brand awareness of the upcoming London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This morning the students of Chapman University had the fortune of hearing some of the big picture plans that are in place for these upcoming Olympics.
Current progress of the Olympic stadium, still under construction.
Yasmine Raffoul shared with us the rules put in place to maintain the integrity of the brandmark as well, as their paced roll-out of campaign materials, weekend events and newsworthy bits to keep the citizens of England engaged with the process of the games coming to their country.
Wenlock and Mandeville, the mascots for the 2012 Games
In addition, we learned more about the two mascots developed for these Games. Initially several agencies came to LOCOGO to pitch their ideas about an Olympic mascot. Big agencies - some with heavy backgrounds in toy development. And, some of the initial concepts were typical objects found in and around London; tea pots, London cabs and even a pigeon. Fortunately none of those were selected. The agency who won the contract had put together a focus group of children - who easily identified with these two characters. Each are designed of a shiny metallic surface to reflect what they’ll be learning on their journey as they travel around England, learning about sport. The single eye acts as a camera to record their learnings and neither actually speak. They squeak and whir allowing for the children to use their imaginations to speculate on their conversations. Their names come from historic references of two men; one who was responsible for starting what we now know as the modern Olympics (Wenlock) and the other who started the Paralympics (Mandeville).
It was very interesting to learn that the games are being managed, in terms of campaign roll-out, much like politics. London is the first city to introduce their brandmark as early as they have, and they are trying to slowly build messaging and awareness campaigns - so not to over saturate or peak too early. Which would dilute the value of the brand and the enthusiasm for the Games.
So in this weeks’ assignment, the students are to create a communications campaign that celebrates on of the lesser known sports in the London Games. By this we mean that they can’t select swimming, track & field or gymnastics. Their campaigns need to make the public aware of that specific sport - and ideally, encourage a younger audience to want to participate.
They’ll be presenting their ideas on Friday, up on the 23rd floor.
Eric Chimenti and myself in the lobby of London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG).
We just finished our first week in London, where the students were to develop an outdoor monument celebrating the athletes of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
On Monday, the students heard about the planning and details that went into the masterplan of the Olympic Park - as well as the big ideas for the Legacy Plan of that same site, as it gets built out over the next 30 to 40-years.
The students were divided up into three work teams - each presenting their own concepts to our group. The balance of our week was spent refining a single concept from each team that would be presented to EDAW/AECOM on Friday.
A trip to The Design Museum midweek allowed for them to recharge their batteries and continue working on their presentations.
Thursday evening became a LATE Thursday evening as last minute polishing of designs and presentations took place. Nevertheless, Friday mornings’ results proved that their time spent was well worth it. Our three teams each presented their conceptual designs to EDAW - and received great feedback on both their design ideas and their presentation ability.
When the presentations were completed, the students were able to ask questions about how graphic designers fit into a firm like EDAW/AECOM and how the company valued its importance.
It’s now our 3rd day in London – and my first opportunity for communication. Indeed, Mind The Gap.
This year’s Chapman University trip has started off much better than expected in terms of my students, their efforts to create good, solid communication design solutions and the added help I have with Eric Chimente, Department Head for Chapman’s Design School. Our only hiccup has been the access to the internet – which we rely on heavily for general communication with clients, family and our ability to continue working while here in London.
The students began their designing their first week, while we were still at the University. I had assigned them to create an INFILL campaign using the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics logo. We had them begin by sketching big idea concepts, and then refining them to a single campaign that would either speak to tourism of London or the encouragement of sport. They performed beyond expectation in both their design solutions and their presentations. For me, it made me breathe a bit easier knowing that they would proudly represent Chapman University. After all, last year’s Uni students set the bar high in their presentations to the design firms that we will be visiting on our trip.
Saturday’s travels were as travel days are; tiring. Nevertheless, we did our best to get out and see a bit of London. I drug Eric to Primrose Hill to eat at my favorite pizza restaurant: J’s. Of course, it was absolutely fantastic pizza.
Sunday, still a bit rough around the edges, the group took the bus tour around London. BTW – I hadn’t mentioned that the weather is incredibly hot – and quite humid. So we endured the heat, enjoyed the overview of the city – and headed back to the hotel to clean up and look for a place to watch the World Cup.
We found a classic English pub, not the touristy type, and settled in nicely with some traditional British eats.
Well a congratulations is in order for the City of Rio. Now the real work begins.
Since returning from London, and reading continued news on the upcoming London Games – as well as close-minded blogs on their dislike of the 2012 logo. I’ve been very interested to see what will be the next evolution of the 2016 Olympic logo will look like.
Real Life Branding has pulled together some of the more recent Olympic logos – showing you what they originally looked like when the featured city was vying to be selected as the host city. Adjacent to each is the final brandmark used for each city’s Olympic Games.
Since all but the most recent 2012 logo was designed as part of a general design competition – there were really no rules or design objectives that were put in place – other than represent the country in some manner. When I say rules, I’m speaking of branding guidelines. Something that would have a more concrete purpose to fulfill rather than to just look pretty.
Since I have an architectural background – I would liken this to having a client give me a piece of property and tell me to “design something.” What does that mean? Whereas if that client had given me a 40-acre parcel in Napa Valley and told me that they loved to entertain, typically 8 to 18 guests – that would tend to set up some boundaries. Imagine this same property and the client said that he and his wife liked the quiet views of the valley and reading books. Would those not be two very different homes?
It’s been quite humorous to have read blog postings of various designers who criticized the 2012 logo – knowing that they’ve never read the brand brief. As well as having never traveled to London to understand what the culture of the city is like. For this aspect, I’m truly looking forward to the London Games – giving London the opportunity to show off their new brandmark in its best light.
So my biggest curiosity for the moment is to see how the city of Rio will treat this new task at hand? Will they return to the mediocrity of the past Olympic brandmarks? Or will they forge ahead, continuing the new vocabulary that people like Frank Gehry have given to architecture, and Wolff Olins has given to branding of the 2012 Games?
I’m down to my last few hours in London, and wanted to unload some additional information that was very enlightening for myself - and I hope for the students of Chapman University.
When I initially watched the closing ceremony of the Beijing Games, and London’s presentation of their Olympic logo was revealed to the people of the world, I held my judgement - yet was a little underwhelmed when I saw the double decker bus performance.
Now that I’ve spent three weeks riding the crowded buses and Underground trains, walking thru the markets and seeing the diversity in the city’s people, food and architecture - that London performance makes perfect sense. In fact, in watching it again, I liked it even better.
I had a conversation with Allard Marx, principal brand strategist for INCIDE. We both agreed that in developing brand marks for clients - some solutions feel immediately comfortable, while others sometimes take a bit of ’sleeping on it’ to sink in and grow on you. The latter of these situations is quite often the outcome of a creative solution that is pushing boundaries. Taking people to places that might even be uncomfortable, particularly when it’s their own company’s brand mark. They tell us to take them to the “next level,” yet when it comes down to it they are quite often afraid to push those boundaries and truly take a stand to stand out.
When Wolff Olins was charged with creating a brand mark that would “shift” how we had previously been presenting the Olympic Games, they were already challenged by the issues that face a brand agency that’s to present a mark to the world. What cultures would see this logo? What languages? What religions?
No pressure, right?
Once the brand mark had been concepted, and potentially approved by the client - Wolff Olins had to present this logo to selected groups of people from various religious backgrounds, languages, age groups, etc., so that they could show them this brand mark from the front view, backwards and upside down. They would ask these groups if these shapes, or rings, or colors offended them in any way, or if they saw images in these shapes that were against their religious beliefs.
In the brand world we’re always asking clients about audience. But in THIS brand world, this one of international exposure, the Olympic logo being the most recognized brand mark, as well as the most protected brand mark in all the world. This puts a very different set of questions and rules on an agency to uncover as they develop their design solutions.
As I walked through this diverse city, and observed the people, clothing styles, languages, and those things that give London its unique flavor as a city - I grew to really embrace what this new brand mark embodies. It’s jagged edges, its wild color scheme and the ability to contain “infills” that truly represent London, sport and the Olympic Games.
I spent my last day, yesterday walking through my favorite neighborhoods. Eating at my favorite cafe and having that last pint of English ale. As I looked back on that first night in town, trying to get on to the new time zone, sirens and the noise of the city keeping me awake - and now, having made new friends and zipping around town like a local, I realized how quickly London became an easy place to fit in to. The intensity of an urban city that has its pockets of gardens to escape noises and people. Even the short train rides to the country for a real breath of fresh air. Yet this city is in an intense undertaking to build a grand park for the world to come and see - and judge - and I hope, embrace what London and it’s design community have put together.
Monday was our office visit to Buro Happold, the engineering firm who worked side-by-side with EDAW on the master plan, and legacy plan of the Olympic site. Our purpose for this visit was to expose the students to the finer aspects of professional collaborations and to gain a stronger sense of thinking, planning and designing for sustainability.
The presentation by the Buro Happold team was fantastic - along with the Q&A session that followed.
We wrapped our day with a spin around the London Eye - appropriately timed for sunset.
Chapman Graphic Design Students at Wolff Olins London
This past week the graphic design students were given a design problem to solve; create an “infill campaign” using the 2012 London Olympics logo. They were to create a theme with this project and show how it might be used in various media throughout London. During the months of July and August, 2012, London will primarily be displaying adverts and graphics relating to the London Games. The students’ work is to represent those two months when London’s would be filled with visitors interested in exploring the Olympic site or seeing the athletic events.
Theme: artist drawn infill focusing on places of interest for visitors of London to explore during their visit.
Theme: the boroughs of London. This team focused on visitor and even locals going out to visit some of the 32 boroughs that make up the greater London area. Each borough has a unique feature that would be highlighted within the infill, and copy would support the the campaign.
Theme: I am 2012. This campaign was to encourage both young and old to embrace sport in their lives. B/W portraiture was used to illustrate everyday people in London + the sport they participated in.
Theme: This campaign utilized the abstract grid pattern that made up the 2012 logo - and created shapes of sport figures and confetti to celebrate the Games.
Theme: GO BOLD! ((Gaterade as client)). This team created a campaign for a corporate sponsor, using varied quotes that would be specific to the media it was placed on. It was to encourage you to break out of your everyday and be bold.
Theme: Banksy graffiti art and the edgy aspects of London. Using the stencil art of Bansy, this campaign speaks to a younger audience to encourage them to get outdoors and do sport.
Theme: alternative ways to watch the games. This group went out and asked local people to pose for their shots used in this campaign. The images were of people watching the games on their iPhones - which is part of the IOCs plans for the 2012 Games.
When the presentations were complete the students were critiqued by Wolff Olins - and once again the accolades were very high marks. Neil Cummings, art director, had told the students that he had never seen such polished presentations from a group of students - and Amy Horsburgh had commented equally on their verbal presentations. The suggestions from both were to have the presentations give more information about the inspirations that created these campaigns - and to be careful that the infill not be so complicated.
I was very pleased with both the students design solutions and the feedback from Wolff Olins. Next week we visit Buro Happold.
This week we had the opportunity to visit with Wolff Olins, London. They are the agency who have created the new brandmark for the 2012 London Games. As a graphic designer, I have always looked at the Olympics - and the branding of - as one of the highest achievements in our profession. It entails the creation of an icon that should last a lifetime. The ability to design the “look and feel” of an event that would be seen, and ideally embraced, on a world stage. It would need to clearly communicate to all cultures and languages. In our industry, quite possibly a legacy to leave behind.
So let’s start with a little bit of Q&A. Who are these Games for anyway? What are they supposed to represent in their ideal form? Would you agree that it is supposed to be about sport? And inspiring our youth to get involved, get outdoors or try new things?
If we look at some of the past brandmarks - it’s become a little embarrassing. Russia: seems a bit like constructivism. And what followed between 1984 to our latest Beijing Games completely seems formulaic.
1. Pretty picture on top
2. Name of event location
3. Olympic rings
Really? Are we that afraid to draw outside the lines? The agencies who get to sign the big contracts and get paid the big bucks - is this the best they can do? When you look at what Frank Gehry has done for the vocabulary of architecture, then why hasn’t the graphic design community expanded their vocabulary with similar strides?
The Olympics have become my parents’ Olympics. Corporate opportunities and sponsorships that outweigh sport or inspiring our youth.
New Rules
Enter Wolff Olins; and a brand brief that specifically asked to make a shift in how we celebrate the games. They, the client, the IOC, have also noticed the formula designs and overdone corporate aspects of the games. They’ve also noticed that cities dating back to the 1972 Games are STILL paying for the party.
Rather than building a billion dollar party space, that’s only to last 4-weeks, it was time to begin thinking in a more economically sound way. London won the Olympic bid as a result of master planning a derelict property and revitalizing it FIRST, then overlaying how an Olympic Games might fit into the new master plan. Certainly the IOC thought it worthy.
So when Wolff Olins was put to task on creating a brand mark for this event, they had some new territory to explore. Boundaries to push.
It’s one thing to create a brandmark for a company selling a product or service. You have control over everything; the print, the packaging, the multimedia. But when you’re creating a brandmark for an event, it’s a completely different set of rules. You have to be willing to give up some of that control.
In the past, these brandmarks that you see (left) were placed on products, ads and wearables like a postage stamp. Regardless if the colors clashed or the fonts didn’t work well together. The postage stamp was it. No questions, just rules.
In working out how this shift might take place, Wolff Olins looked at how they might get the key sponsors to embrace the brandmark as part of their message - part of their look and feel.
Initially they tried some of the “safe” logos; images of London’s skyline, the River Themes, etc. But they continued to push beyond the comforts of a conservative brandmark. And truly, what they have done is fantastic.
As you look at the two columns of words, note that the first column is what we have been doing with the Olympics in the past - and the second column is where we are going to make that shift the IOC was looking for. The Olympics are for PEOPLE, no longer NATIONS. It’s an attitude that should be with us EVERYDAY, not just 2 WEEKS. It’s about SPORT+, appealing to ages 5+, it will be viewed everywhere, on the STREETS, internet, phone devices, etc. And no longer is it just for the ELITE, it’s for EVERYONE.
One of the brilliant aspects of this mark was that Wolff Olins created a area of “infill.” These colored zones that you see can be replaced with an outside sponsors own brand colors and imagery - leaving the framework of the London Games still in good form. No longer will sponsors be stuck with the postage stamp add-on that muddies up their corporate look and feel, like an afterthought. They will now have messaging that will truly embrace the look and feel of the London Games and maintain their own corporate identity. The example show is Lloyds TBS. They’ve used their own colors. Adidas has also stepped up their materials by photographing athletes around London, and placing their images within the framework of the 2012 logo.
So what happens with we purposely decide the break the rules, and go against the traditions of society? We get black eyes. When the London press saw the logo for the first time, without having been given the background or viewed the lead-up presentation, they began burning crosses. And when you have a city that’s pushing the 10-million mark in population, sensationalism newspapers can truly ruin a good thing. So yes, Wolff Olin got thrown under the bus. To a point that paparazzi were camped outside the homes of the Wolff Olin Principals, waiting to photograph wives and children for a scandalous news story.
The bad press has faded. Good corporate brands have embraced the new rules and are now running toward 2012. So as we move closer to the London Games, I hope that you might look at the new rules of branding an event as Wolff Olins had done with the 2012 Olympics.
We’re into our second week in London - and we’ve just visited the Wolff Olins‘ London office. As well, we were very fortunate to have heard the history of the 2012 London Olympics brandmark presented to us by one of the key designers, Luke Gifford.
During the presentation Luke had given us an overview of the past Olympic logos along with some of the associated words that made up the brand briefs of the past. He also shared with us that the I.O.C. was looking for a “shift” in the way that the Olympics had been presented, in that they have become too predictable, and less attractive to the youth of our world.
NOW: NEXT:
NATIONS PEOPLE
2 WEEKS EVERYDAY
SPORT SPORT+
LOOKING DOING
35+ 5+
TV STREET
ELITE EVERYONE
Chapman students very engaged with the presentation
Luke then shared with us a reel of footage that really helped the students to understand the ENERGY behind the new brandmark. It was certainly a light-bulb moment for all. Luke also went on to explain about the bad press that had taken place with regard to the brand launch. He said that the London Press had sent a car to his home to take photos of his wife and children - anything for a story. It was truly unfortunate.
The tide has shifted and Londoners have embraced the new look and feel of their upcoming Games. Wolff Olin like to refer to this as BRAND NEXT. And we, well, the students are about to embark on their next problem solving exercise.
With our first week in London nearly completed, the Chapman Graphic Design students gathered their laptops, flash drives and suited up to present their design solutions to EDAW London.
They were to have spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday working on their projects - but the field trip to Hampton Court was very tiring. So most of the projects got finished late last night. The students were putting together the final touches on their presentation graphic and practicing what they would say during their presentations.
Now, getting a little more used to the public transportation, we arrived at EDAW with a few minutes to spare. That always works much better for me.
The entire crew - preparing themselves for their presentations
The students were instructed to design a communication piece that would be outdoors, on the Olympic Park - but would be build after the games were completed. The criteria was to encapsulate some of the branding guidelines from the London Games:
The Olympics are for everyone
To inspire the youth of the world to do sport
London is a modern/edgy city
Additionally, I wanted to be sure that this was a communication piece that celebrated the London Games for those who would see these “pieces” for several years after the Games were completed, that they really focus on an over arching message and that utilize typography in their solution.
I feel very fortunate that we were able to get Graham Goymour, EDAW Principal, and two of his colleagues (Kristi and Adam) to come in to our presentations, and give professional critiques on the students work.
Team 1: Kailee Quinn, Linday Taylor, Garrett Burk and Lindsey Messenger
The first group of students presented a plaza fountain with monument pillars that would be visible both day and night - whose message would have the historical background of each of the sports played at the London Games.
Team 2: Jen Peters, Jessica Cardilucci, Kyle Pidot, Jessica Becker and Amanda Giaramita
The second group of students followed the graphic language of the London Olympic logo, but creating a plaza space that would celebrate all of the Gold, Silver and Bronze medal winners at the London Games.
Team 3: Marc Lu, Maggie Lane, Nicole Santos, Emily Astbury and Kate Eglen
Rather than creating one large element, the third group presented a concept of monuments that were placed throughout the Olympic site. Each one highlighting one of the 27 sports played during the London Games. The monuments were in theme with the existing London Olympic logo and the students came up with a plan that would include engraved illustrations of the medal winners, along with their name, signature and medal winnings. In this way, visitors to the site could do a ‘brass rubbing’ over the image and have a souvenir to take with them.
When the presentations were over, I was very proud of the students. They had done a fantastic job on both their design solutions and presentations. Several weeks ago I had mentioned to the students to curb their use of “like,” “and,” and “um” during their there presentations. The did perfect.
Here’s what we heard -
“I think the concept is brilliant!” Adam
“A lot of energy and color, which is really nice.” - Kristi
“I’m really impressed with how much work you were able to do in such a short period of time” - Graham
I’ll let the students share their work with you when they return.
