Wolff calls Commonwealth Games identity a 'colourful concoction'
Respected veteran designer and creative advisor Michael Wolff has given a mixed reception to the 2014 Commonwealth Games logo, describing it as a "complicated, overly colourful concoction".
Wolff said he believed the logo had "two different looks" which he described as "a shame".
“When you see portions of it graphically, frozen in mid-movement, and especially when you see it moving, it’s a playful, effortless and beautiful gyroscopic dance of geometry,” Wolff said.
“An unusually elegant solution, but when you see it with its clumsy typography and complicated discordant shapes beneath the type, the gyroscopic feel and the simple elegance vanish, and what’s left is a complicated, overly colourful concoction.
“Which came first, the complicated chicken or the effortless egg? The egg is a pleasure - the chicken, a scrawny mess. One consistent, coherent and harmonious graphic idea would have been far better.”
Wolff was unimpressed by the explanation of the logo which incorporates numbers relating to the games into its design.
“This ‘designer gobbledygook’ or drivel, which, sadly, is used to disguise a lack of confidence in simple beauty, explains the symbol in a way that no one will ever understand, believe or see. It belittles the design and makes you doubt its integrity.”
Wolff is one of the UK design industry’s most respected practitioners and will be one of this year’s judges for the Chip Shop Awards.
The Games identity, created by Marque, was revealed yesterday for the first time. The agency's Mark Noe spoke to The Drum about the identity following the ceremony to unveil it to over 1,000 people.
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Thumbs up.
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I heard Jimmy Crickets commenting on this next. And there's more.
Wolff is spot-on in his assessment although I believe hands have been tied with the colour palette. The rings-and-G element is lovely (very Marque actually, see Common Guild I suppose) but doesn't work alongside the mandatory elements. So why design something that doesn't work within the parameters you have been given regardless of how nice it is on its own?
Also, I know Marque are all very modernist and all, but isn't their view of the games (data capture basically) just a bit cold and linear as opposed to the more common, and celebrated, notions that sport is about passion, determination, desire, skill, ability etc?
So, “When you see portions of it graphically, frozen in mid-movement, and especially when you see it moving, it’s a playful, effortless and beautiful gyroscopic dance of geometry,” Wolff said.
That's not designer gobbledygook then? I hate all designers.
Designers don't half talk b****cks
Next person to comment is a idiot.
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is an idiot. you idiot. but i am actually an idiot too.
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Maybe watch John's interview where he discusses the procurement process - several non UK companies were in line to get the work apparently.
http://tiny.cc/44dbe
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I think maybe someone should tell the CGF to redesign their logo if it is to be used alongside other IDs. It is cumbersome and out-dated and does not help any agency designing a new brand identity for the games. Maybe someone is missing a trick. Doh! Still don't like the new ID though. Still looks like Marque have taken their identity for the common guild and added some 'Olympic' colour...
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A recent identity by the same agency. Is it just me or ...
thecommonguild.org.uk/about
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First the 2012 London olympics - some UK kid copying ol' school New York graffiti logo - Now some New York ol school kid attempting to do a bauhaus upgrade version 4 - what next?
I think the top 'Gyro' logo would work better if it were tilted minus 20 degrees. This would detach it better from the base and bring it to life - Glasgow is a bit more lively than this.
Can I just point out 2 things?
1) the logo is actually really nice - you can imagine how this will be applied over everything to do with the games. and it's a subjective opinion anyway - whatever they did you lot would be having a go because you never did it. get over it.
2) it's JUST the commy games! i really think there's a bit of an overreaction to this. i mean, how many people will actually see the logo anyway!? there's probably more people commenting on it than will actually watch the games!
toys back in the pram please!
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A recent identity by the same agency. Is it just me or ...
thecommonguild.org.uk/about
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Row-over-39identical39-logo-for.613...
8:20. Your comment 'Toys back in pram..' not very constructive or professional.
The Commonwealth Games is a massive event and to be given the task of designing the logo has to be a privelege to anyone. Take another look at the design..is it really nice?
Masterchef anyone?
http://apply.shinelimited.com/junior_masterchef/media/junior_masterchef_...
Masterchef is nothing like it. And is meant to evoke the rings of an electric hob.
While there's an important discussion to be had about similarities with Marque's The Common Guild logo (and how no-one anticipated the problem, when a high profile "logo" like The Commonwealth Games is bound to evoke public suspicion over the perceived value of design anyway), just sticking any 'letter in a circle' logo up and saying "ooh look" is dumb. You might as well put the @ symbol up.
Point taken - apologies for being childish ... more intended as light hearted banter.
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I'd love to read the brief as well but only from a curiosity point of view. The public at large aren't going to get to read the brief and if they do, will they give a toss. The original brief is now irrelevant as the logo is now in the public domain and the 'man on the street' isn't going to have the benefit of seeing it. The point of this logo was to be a lasting, iconic symbol of the contribution Glasgow will make to Commonwealth Games history and it falls flat on its arse in that respect.
You only have to look at the one that represents Dheli for this years games to see the cultural and ethnic references in it and its use of colour and how it represents the country in question.
I was at the original launch evening at the College of Art and and everything John Donnelly said got everyone fired up that we had a chance to produce something iconic, something Glasgow and Scotland could be proud of and would leave its mark on the games and it fails completely!
When you read the explanation of the concept, it's basically just a pie chart. What is it - 20 days, 17 other bits and 11 something else's, centred around G ..... stunning data analysis interpretation work indeed for 95k...ecclefechan.
Marques - I'd give an F minus.
David Jones 14:28
Are you stuck in your locker at the bottom of the shallow end of your local swimming pool. Interesting concept in being able to make something out of nothing. It's mince.
Glasgow International Festival of the Visual Arts also rings a bell, same font, same lame idea. Christ the competition must have been bad, or the power of per$ua$ion very good.
Is it an offense to plagiarise your own work.
Has anyone seen Delhi's Common Wealth Games logo. It's actually real good.
http://www.cwgdelhi2010.org/
In my layman's terms, it's pretty good.
Loving the Indian Commonwealth logo
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