Ever since the 2012 Olympics logo was revealed in 2007, the graphic identity for the London games has been dogged by controversy. When Wolf Olins first unveiled the much criticised and in my opinion highly underrated brand, the public feeling was largely negative (although the reaction from the design community was much more thoughtful), and the video that accompanied the launch was even blamed for causing seizures.

But it did succeed in getting the whole country talking about the Olympics, and again splitting opinion seemed to be the aim with the recent introduction of the Olympic and Paralympic mascots by design agency Iris, which seemed to get their own post on just about every design blog around (so I’m not going to post anymore pictures of them), with several comparisons being drawn between the two amorphous shapes and the timely partnering of Clegg and Cameron. The two mascots seem to be the next step in 2012 embracing the digital space with their own microsite and individual twitter feeds and facebook fanpages. Early feedback seems to be adults don’t like them, but kids (ie. their target audience) love them.

Hopefully this is setting the tone for the way the Olympics will be appearing online, not as polarising daft-punk-inspired blobs, but as a multi-channel, all encompassing digital strategy. The 2012 website already boasts in impressive array of features, including  webcams of some of the venues (mostly shots of steel frames covered in tarpaulin at the moment), a timelined map of events, photos and information from all sites around the UK, as well as images, videos and blogs.

As the Games approaches I’d like to see the Olympic team continuing to feed this online hype and build momentum. The biggest danger is that people will simply get bored if 2012 is continually being shoved in their faces. It’s already been confirmed that YouTube will stream highlights of the Games around the world. We’ll have to wait and see how the organisers plan to capitalise on all the online media to make 2012 a bench-mark for the Olympics in the digital age.

Tags: 2012 Olympics, digital, London