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Forums > Critiques
Written by Terri Stone on August 31, 2009
The location of the 2016 Summer Olympics will be announced in about a month. For the past two years, cities around the world have been knocking themselves out to be chosen as the event's host. The field has been narrowed to Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo.
The International Olympic Committee is no doubt weighing many factors, but we creatives know what really matters: the logo!
If you want to dig into the designers' thought processes, go to the Wikipedia entry and click on each candidate city's bid details.
Based on either the visual strength of the above logos, or the logos and the bid details, which logo would you choose?
Not Rio
I haven't decided which one of the 4 is most successful, but I do not like Rio's logo. The type and color choices are boring and echo the current Wal-Mart mark.
No Rio!!
Certainly not rio, it's between Chicago and Madrid. Go Chi town!
I like individual elements
I like individual elements to the Rio logo, just not as a whole -- looks like Design By Committee! Am liking Tokyo -- is that meant to reference an obi?
Chicago logo hands down best design
One word can describe Rio, Tokyo and Madrids efforts. "Busy". Chicagos is clean, crisp and memorable.
my favorite is…
Tokyo, it has my vote. I love the flow of the ribbon/obi. I really like that they mirrored the Olympic ring colors throughout the design.
Chicago is ok but could be better. I don't get Rio's and the colorization of the hand in Madrid's makes me feel like it is giving me the finger!
Chicago for sure
After reading the descriptions by the artists I still don't get Rio's concept. I think most people will be able to relate to either Chicago or Madrids icons without having to look up the intention of the artists who created them. Tokyo's knot just reminds me of either an awareness ribbon or a knot of confusion!
chicago - booooring
1. tokyo
2. madrid
Something wrong with each
Chicago's has no connection to the colors of the rings. And probably I'm missing something big, but what's the significance of the six-pointed star? Otherwise it is clean and nice.
I like Rio's typeface (for rio2016), but the logo leaves the black and red rings unrelated to anything.
I don't like Madrid's typeface. I do like their use of color, as I like Tokyo's.
I guess if Tokyo's is a reference to an obi, then I get it, but that was going to be my criticism of their logo--what does it mean?
Chicago and Tokyo
For me, Chicago and Tokyo are the strongest. I would give Chicago a slight edge for the number one spot because I feel that the visual composition works better than Tokyo. Conceptually they are both nice. I actually would give Tokyo the win there. The knot – which has a lot of meaning in Japan, mostly bringing people together – is a great visual and is the most dynamic of all of the marks. Married with the modern font which definitely has a Japanese feel and the red sun completes it pretty well. But it is just a little too visually hectic for me. I think it is very, very close but just needs a little tweek. The Chicago mark is well balanced, creates the feeling of the Sears tower and the star and modern font which somehow has a deco feel to it relates to a lot of the architecture of downtown Chicago. It's visual simplicity with conceptual depth is what makes this the winner to me.
Rio - too cutesy for me. I like the type treatment but really dislike the heart symbol.
Madrid – I have been to Madrid and I understand what they were going for but I think they missed the mark. The red in the hand is too dominant and once you start focusing on it it's like the hand is flipping you off. I also don't like the type treatment on this one.
But that's just my opinion...I could be wrong.
Scott Aucutt – Aucutt Design
Madrid
Multi colored hand extended to the world--this speaks volumes about the entire purpose of the Olympic movement. Color and "in your face design" make this the stand out best of the best.
Not Tokyo
Tokyo design does nothing for me... it's not attractive or eye catching. It's ugly.
Madrid is also poor. The font is ugly. The logo looks childish like a kids hand in hand paints.
Chicago is ok but doesn't wow.
RIo is the most eye-catching and attractive. The font use, style and color is beautiful. The logo is a little strange and off balanced. Red and Black are missing from the color scheme. If I had to pick, I'd pick Rio but it's not perfect either.
You don't like Rio? Have heart! (or two, or three...)
I personally like Rio because it is many symbols in one... the obvious hearts; the landmark mountains that crown Rio; the setting sun and the blue ocean. And for once, an Olympic logo that is not a slave to the Olympic colors!
Edge to Chicago
Chicago has the cleanest design, but points off for not relating the colors to the rings properly. Also, I don't know what the star means. Madrid is a close second, points off for the type treatment and, like the other commenters, the red is too dominate in the hand; perhaps if they had switched positions with one of the other colors. Tokyo gets a nod for relating the Olympic colors well, and the symbolism is nice, but the design is somewhat uninspired. I don't particularly go for the juxtaposition with the ultra-modern type. Rio, well, it is pretty, just not olympic. Maybe for a balloon festival?
Creative Possibilities
The thread width in Tokyo's ribbon complements the Olympic ring width. And the type is a nice choice. The ribbon flow could continue across any collateral material. I think it offers more creative possibilities.
Tokyo
Tokyo, to me, really has the flavor of the locale. It is very Japanese in style.... I don't get the symbolic meaning of the star for Chicago at all and think it could be controversial religiously.
Yes for Madrid
The hand as a symbol of piece and cooperation of all the nations participating at the Olympic Games is the winner in my eyes.
Japan...
Immediate impact was that Chicago was the cleanest...on second look though, it says nothing at all. Madrid is giving the world the finger (lol) and Rio would be an awesome design for a childrens doll company. Japan's has a cultural signifigance, a message of unity, incorporates all colors and is pretty clean...funny conclusion as I hated it at first glance.
Tokyo #1
Tokyo wins it for me: the ribbon ties in with the rings and everything looks like one logo instead of two.
Chicago: a close second, but the star made me think of Texas.
Rio: Loved the way they wrote Rio2016, but the design left me confused
Madrid: Hated the font, but I want to be the red finger! (Had to let out my inner 6th grader for that.)
Madrid
Madrid's bold hand requires no question about what it represents — it's a hand. Chicago's star looks a bit Star of David-ish (though I know it's not) and the Tokyo ribbon is also a bit too local. Plus, Chi-town and Tokyo both include blends which will make repro more difficult in many applications. Rio's colors don't resonate with me, and I keep thinking of the Sydney Opera House. So Madrid because it requires the least interpretation and will allow easy use.
And the winner is...
Tokyo. I quite like the simplicity of the design and the bringing together of the olympic colours. It is both a modern design as well as very Japanese.
Chicago looks very dated and reminds me of Depression-era design, circa 1933. Even the choice of font is a throw-back to another time.
Madrid is distracting as others have pointed out with the middle finger, and the computer-font choice does nothing to complement the free look of the logo.
Rio leaves me puzzling about the significance of the heart? leaf? 3d view of Rio's hills? Whatever it is, it's certainly not olympic.
No Wow in either of these
Chicago star is not olympic looking at all and the background looks church-like
Madrid is clunky and just horrid...type and mark.
Rio is a butterfly festival looking nomad that should be thrown in the trash.
Tokyo is too boring and resembles tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree or breast cancer. Just too complex.
Try again on all!
logos not effective
I like Tokyo a little until I saw London 2012's to much a like and no tie in, also not enough movement. Madrid is horrid, and Chicago's leaves one asking whwhwhat?
That leaved Rio which needs some red and black added to it somewhere.
As a graphic designer I will tell you how any of them with a lttle rework could work.
Chicago-out the star design on a flaming staff
Madrid--Make two hands;three colors each doing the high five
Rio--add red and black and make the hearts more stremline and flying
Tokyo--make the knot more like Madrids colors where they are not like strings or Londons and have the know look for fluid like movement.
Anyone need help with logos write moffutt@austin.rr.com
Chicago - hands down!
The Tokyo logo looks like a noose! I agree with the above statements about Rio - What is that? Spain - I like the red finger comment!
The stars have been a part of the Chicago flag since 1917, on the police cars, and lots of logo stuff. The orange shapes look like skyscrapers with grass and lake below.
Tokyo hits the mark
At first glance I picked Madrid as a symbol of unity, but unfortunately the red middle finger killed it for me. It's a shame they didn't do a dominant color over the pointer and middle fingers to emphasize 'peace'. And a less childlike hand, font, etc. would have made it more dramatic. Rio - cool font, wrong colors, non-descript symbol. Chicago - blah/wrong colors. Tokyo - pulls it all together. Simple and clean, yet symbolic of unity. The shadow/glow effect at the knot is also a nice touch,
Chicago if it has an athlete figure
My first thought was that all of them were designed in PowerPoint by committee. The only one that had any oomph at all for me is Chicago ... but I'd rather see a daVinci-man style figure instead of the star, or two figures if we must be polcor .... All the others are just too cutesy, like soft drink or candy - or in Rio's case, a soft rock radio station, with no feeling for what they should be portraying: the best athletes and sportsmanship the planet has to offer. Arrrugh.
Tokyo or Madrid
Chicago is too generic. And Rio is just plain BAD design.
Chicago logo best design.......but
Don't Know of the Star in the Center Area....maybe another "Symbol"
Rio, sort of
They're all pretty blah, but at least Rio has some interesting complexity. I'm seeing the hearts (ya gotta have 'em), but also hills with a big sun behind them, reflected in the water in the foreground. Definitely reflects (okay, sorry) the character and location of the city. I'm not worried about the colors all being present. Those rings will be everywhere.
Madrid's and Tokyo's are really off base for me. Hideous typography in both cases. Chicago hit me at first, but the more I look, the more "nothing" there is.
Madrid
Of the four I would go with Madrid; though I would ask for the hand to be refined into something a little sleeker and less childlike. The open/extended hand ties in perfectly with the Olympic spirit and the incorporation of the colors works well.
The Rio logo is a near miss. The heart/butterfly is a nice referral to the joyful spirit that is supposed to be part of the Olympic experience. What torpedoes it is the inclusion of the inverted exclamation point in the date. Not a bad thought but for it to work it would have to be in a more natural position at the end of a phrase or line. As it is it feels too forced.
Chicago fails completely. The star looks like a stylized snowflake. Great for the winter Olympics, but exactly the wrong thing for a summer Olympics logo.
The Tokyo logo is fair but not great. It gets the diverse roads coming together idea across, but lacks dynamism and, as another poster stated, feels a little too self-referential.
Mix & Match
Love the Madrid Hand, hate the type. Lets combine the Hand with the type from Chicago.
Tokyo really is the best design
The olympics are international. Chicago has a six-pointed star?! Madrid reminds me of the old NBC peacock. What is rio 201.6? Tokyo has many colors which could represent many nations, as well as the ribbon shape, which has come to stand for many causes. Why not the world coming together for the single greatest sporting event. Plus, you can't mistake the red circle from Japan's flag. It's easily the best design for it's purpose.
Tokyo has best concept
I like the fact that they used the colors of the rings in the ribbon. The knot is a great concept because even though we are supposedly all from different colors (your choice of groups of people or continents) we are all in this together. There is no longer an "All American" or "All" anything. Like it or not we are a global community, financially, culturally, as well as genetically.
Chicago & Tokyo
I definitely don't understand Rio's logo or how it ties in with the Olympics (maybe it makes sense to Brazilians)... and I agree with the guy who feels like Madrid's logo is flipping me off. Both logos also look kind of childish/cartoony.
Tokyo's is the most instantly relatable/understandable and I can also see it being translated into other formats. It ties in well with their culture as well as reminding us that the Olympics is ultimately a sporting competition -- I immediately think of martial arts when I see it, and judo and taekwondo are Olympic events.
Chicago is a little harder to figure out, but it does make me think of the Sears Tower and the rest of the skyline (red/orange/yellow gradients above the star) and also Lake Michigan (the blue below the star). For those who don't get the star, it is the same star found on the city's flag. I can also see this logo on other display formats.
Both Chicago and Tokyo have the best typography, IMO.
Olympic logo
Of the four presented, I like the Tokyo the best. It is very clean, type font, design, and I like how it incorporates the Japanese flag in the design. I also appreciate the symbolism of the rings combining to create an element stronger than the rings by themselves - a knot that holds us together. I don't care much for the Rio logo. It doesn't say anything - just elements thrown together on the page. I also appreciate the symbolism of the Chicago logo - the tall skyscrapers at the top in contrast to the waterfront colors at the bottom.
TOKYO
font should be stronger, bolder but the concept is right on. adding the red circle in between city and year hits the mark. the ribbon not only symbolizes "unity/olympic awareness" but it also ties in the nature, art, fashion, food, culture... all that this country's history is about.
not impressed
none of these are all that impressive, several of the most basic design concepts were ignored here.
Rio - great typeface and use of color, but the graphic doesn't connect well.
Chicago, nice-but-boring image, AND gradients won't always reproduce well at all.
Tokyo - would look great at a large size, but fairly complicated for smaller sizes, and once again, gradients don't always reproduce well.
Madrid - the hand image would be great if - the actual image wasn't so chunky and cartoonish, and if there weren't those strange little intersection wedges of color here and there - something a good beginning design class tells you to avoid. They look like sloppy accidents, not planned elements of a logo. And the white space 'M' in the palm is just too abstract to connect visually - it would have been stronger if it was created by the intersection of the colors rather than chopped out haphazardly.
So, in my opinion, none of these are professional level work.
Star
Thanks for the clarification on the star. Not being too familiar with Chicago, I questioned the star. However, most people are probably like me and don't know the star's relationship to Chicago. My South Alabama gut still draws me to Japan's design. A million people would come up with a million designs. We're asked to pick one of the four. Simple enough.
Tokyo designs unity
Keeping both the color and strength of the multi-hued olympic rings, Tokyo married its culture to a theme of unity and action. While the soft knot is stable, the notion of the sash has a lot of movement. That said, I will hope the logo prize goes to Tokyo but Chicago is named for the 2016 games.
Chicago. No doubt.
The Chicago logo has just the right blend of Olympic influence (the torch), and Chicago influence (the star). The logo reads quickly – one solid, yet simple design. Great eye appeal reading as one cohesive mark as opposed to the others – a collection of elements that detract attention away from each other (a frankenstein approach, the best 3-4 designs living in one design nightmare).
Chicago without a doubt.
Rio
I like the Rio logo the best, especially the font and the larg 16.
All missing important elements
The olympic logo should try to give a sense of the culture of the host city and/or give a sense of the action representative of the sporting event that it is. Not one of these logos really achieves either of these - If I had to pick based soley on logo, I'd have to choose Chicago.
Madrid
No one mentioned the yellow (left) and green (right) shoes created from the middle white space at the bottom of the hand. Am I the only one that sees this? I really like the hand and foot image combination. Am surprised no one else has seen it here. Though, I do agree with a previous comment about creating a more refined, less-cartoonyish image, a not so prominent red middle finger and a better choice of type font. However, this one is a very powerful and creative juxtaposition of human elements in every Olympics.
RIO
Chicago and Madrid are too flashy. I am tired of ribbons so Japan is out. I don't dislike RIO but I am not crazy about it either.
Ann
Kansas City
None of these !
None of these will actually be used in the future. The committee will definitely re-design the logo for sure.
chicago no doubt!
chicago is a classic piece . This should be the winning logo , the star says it all!
Wish I could pick Madrid
The human element is missing in the other three, but the execution is a bit lame. One could make an argument that it plays off of the abstract expressionists - Picasso was from Spain, right? - but the color shapes need to be refined and the type is horrid. Would be fun to be a promoter and design a glove to match and have thousands of people wearing it and waving their hands.
Tokyo
just works!
Bottom line, can it be stitched from thread?
Regardless of which they pick, it has to be reproducible as a stitched product. Chicago, my favorite for it's classic lines, would be tough because of the fade. Tokyo likewise. Madrid's, while reproducible just doesn't appeal and Brazil's...uh....what were they thinking?
Chicago
Why the star? There are four stars in the flag of the city of Chicago, each representing an important event in the city's history. The six points of each star represent aspects of the event. (If you want to learn more, Google "Flag of the city of Chicago'.)
The design is strong, memorable, and fits in the tradition of Olympic icons and previous cities logos. But the star is what truly sets it apart from the others; it is the only design with at reference to the host city. The only other design that even hints at the city is Tokyo's, but could just as well be referring to any Japanese city.
RIO
Rio for me. Hills, hearts, leaves, water, sun, national colors. A nice representation of so much of what the host country is associated with.