Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Olympics and its downfalls

With the Olympics coming up (and I'm really gung-ho about it but...) there's been a lot of controversy over the spending, the ticketing system, the logos and the mascots! There's been more controversy over what will happen with public transport too and how people will get to work etc. I have a few friends that travel via the tube and trains to work. One in fact has to use the tube a few times a day just to get to her clients. And another needs to travel across from South London to either the West or Central London. Such a menace! I think a lot of Londoners are going to take those couple of weeks off work just to avoid rush hour!

The ticketing system to me was a disaster, why couldn't they use Ticketmaster to sell their tickets? Why did we all have to have a Barclays Visa card? And why on Earth are they still selling tickets when they said they were sold out! Such ridicule to the ticketing system! And so expensive too - that's just to cover the costs of building the Olympic stadium I bet.

Don't get me started on the logo! Oh my god!! What on Earth was the designer thinking? It cost £400,000 to make this thing? I remembered at the time it was unveiled a lot of people were in disgust and people started pouring in their own designs to the media to show what the logo could've been. I think I could've made a better design as well to represent London! Oh well.

Taken a while back, when there were 185 days left! 
I'm not even sure about the mascots too... 

I know they were designed by school children but what on Earth were they thinking?! The one-eyed mascot that is to represent a camera lens... Hmmmmmmmmmm... It just looks like a one-eyed monster to me. But if children like it then... Oh well. Maybe Millwall's Lion mascot would've been a better choice (a redesigned version of course!), an animated Big Ben, the Beefeaters, a football, the red buses and even pigeons!! These things all represent London!
Found these in John Lewis - Ugly London Olympic Mascots 
Oh well, I guess London has to go with the flow as we always do... 

What does the rest of the world think? Could the organisers have spent less and saved a few pounds on the Olympics?

Update 10-06-2012
So I went into Argos (a catalogue shop for the UK) on the weekend and spotted more mascots being sold! 
Mascot in the Union Jack
Wendlock and Mandeville London 2012 mascots
However, this mascot Pride the Lion seems like the designer took thought into this one...

I'm afraid there's no more time for improvement... How sad...  


Update 29/07/2012
Didn't I say the ticketing system was rubbish!... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19034245