Wenlock & Mandeville: London's Olympic mascots

After the design community's reaction to the London 2012 logo, the mascot was always going to be a difficult job. But UK agency Iris has just unveiled not one, but two characters for the Olympic and Paralympic Games: Wenlock and Mandeville. Both are clearly of the digital age and will be used over various social media, websites, animations, YouTube and Twitter etc (yes, both Wenlock and Mandeville already have Twitter feeds).

As Nick Asbury perceptively pointed out, what do two slick, glossy, near-identical characters claiming to represent the nation... one blue, one yellow.... remind you of?




www.ourlondon2012.com/mascots

Source: Creative Review

Anish Kapoor to create 'London's answer to the Eiffel tower'

Designs for what will be Britain's biggest piece of public art, a 120 metres tall looping tower by Anish Kapoor that people will be able to climb, giving spectacular views of London, were unveiled today by Boris Johnson, mayor of London.

Kapoor's Orbit, a vast, snaking steel structure, will dominate the 2012 Olympic park. It is being hailed as London's answer to the Eiffel tower and is part of an ambition to make the Olympics site a permanent visitor attraction.

Kapoor won the commission from a shortlist of bidders believed to include the artist Antony Gormley and the architects Caruso St John. Johnson said of Kapoor: "He has taken the idea of a tower and transformed it into a piece of modern British art. It would have boggled the minds of the Romans. It would have boggled Gustave Eiffel."

The structure will officially be called the ArcelorMittal Orbit, after steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, the richest man in Europe, who is funding it. Johnson said that if he and Mittal had not bumped into each other in a Davos cloakroom "we would not be where we are today".

Mittal said: "This project is an incredible opportunity to build something really spectacular for London, for the Olympic games, and something that will play a lasting role in the legacy of the games."

The structure will cost about £19.1m. Johnson said: "Of course some people will say we are nuts – in the depths of a recession – to be building Britain's biggest ever piece of public art. But both Tessa Jowell [Olympics minister] and I are certain that this is the right thing for the Stratford site, in games time and beyond."

Kapoor has collaborated on the project with his friend Cecil Balmond, one of the world's leading structural engineers. Approximately 1,400 tonnes of steel will be used. The plan is for work to begin soon with a completion date of December 2011.

Kapoor said one of his references was the Tower of Babel. "There is a kind of medieval sense to it of reaching up to the sky, building the impossible. A procession, if you like. It's a long winding spiral: a folly that aspires to go even above the clouds and has something mythic about it."

Source: The Guardian

More Olympic Logo Parodies

Will it ever end?

Continuation of the logo saga...

50, 000 have signed an online petition against the London 2012 Olympics logo, but it has now been closed after its creator realised the design was "here to stay".

Nicknames for the logo by now include 'Gay swastika puzzle' and 'Tiswas disaster'. But the leading name now is 'Lisa Simpson giving head'. Hhhmmm.

London unveils its logo for 2012 Olympics

Does anybody out there like this logo?

My friend, Struggling Author, rightly calls it a "crumpled crisp packet swastika"

This is the icon that is supposed to sum up what London 2012 is all about. The jagged emblem in bold colours, has apparently been designed to define the image of the Games in five years' time.

The logo, based on the date 2012 itself, comes in a series of bright shades of pink, blue, green and orange, and includes the signature five Olympic rings emblazoned onto the "0".

I myself can't stand it.

I've seen the BBC News website has some of the alternative logos... so much better.

Have a look at them - especially no. 11 - just great!