London Olympic logo A new logo for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics was revealed in London overnight. Now, we all know that graphic arts is entirely subjective and one man’s art is another’s trash and far be it for us to comment on a fellow designers work, but.

The BBC reports that the design cost £400,000 (nice work if you can get it) and according to London 2012 organising committee chairman Seb Coe “will define the venues we build and the Games we hold and act as a reminder of our promise to use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people around the world.”

Apparently Londoners have overwhelmingly rejected the logo with over 5,000 people signing an online petition calling for it to be scrapped.

With this kind of response the logo will certainly get plenty of exposure and no doubt divide opinions for years to come. In the designers defense; we don’t know the brief and we don’t know what other designs were presented and vetoed along the way. Its a fact of life for designers that much of what we propose or labour over just doesn’t quite gel with the client – particularly when working with large committees composed of an assortment of strong personalities all looking to put their stamp on proceedings.

We see what we think are great designs relegated to the cutting room floor in favour of safer, more mainstream concepts. I sure hope the designers’ banked the cheque.