Beijing Olympics Logos Abound...

Walking around Beijing, you are met with an overwhelming number of Olympics related logos. It seems like BOCOG has gone a bit insane with logos, not being in any previous host city, I don't know how they treated the Games, but to me, by August it might seem like there are a hundred different logos and even more different "official sponsors." Without further ado, let's look at the different offerings:



1. The official logo

Okay, I like the Beijing font, but I've hated this logo since the first day I saw it. Okay, it is supposed to look like a Chinese chop, a person running, and the "Jing" character. Nothing about it is uniquely Beijing nor does it seem special, its just underwhelming. However, having seen the London logo, I'm starting to appreciate it.

2. Candidate City logo

Beforre 7/13/01, this was the logo that could be seen everywhere around the city. It's unique and exciting, there is movement to it and its colorful. It fails to scream Beijing, but has Chinese elements and is more dynamic than the current primary logo.

3. Olympic Mascots

Another example of how this is China's Games (in more ways than one) and not just Beijing's. The Fuwa are made up of mythical and real animals that are found throughout China, though none is really native to Beijing. Also, unlike most other Olympics with only 1 or at most 2 mascots, Beijing's going all out with 5, one for each ring, and their name spells out "Beijing Huanying Ni" (Beijing Welcomes You). Can anyone convince me the decision to have 5 mascots wasn't totally about money?

4. Paralympics logo

This one is bad, really bad. It's supposed to represent "sky, earth, and human beings" and be an "athlete in motion" that incorporates Chinese caligraphy and characters. Sorry, I'm not seeing that. This makes "Running Jing" look good...

5. Fu Niu Le Le Paralympic Mascot
As much as I hate the Fuwa, I love Funiu. It uses some good colors and while it doesn't shout China, it does shout cute, which is exactly what a mascot is supposed to do.


6. Other logos

Above are the logos for the torch relay, volunteers, environment, culture, and ticketing. For the first few, the logos are all variations on a theme and use the same style person and similar Caligraphy-like strokes that are reshaped in different ways. It incorporates Chinese caligraphy, but is unique to Beijing, the only minor problem is that its lacking some "Olympic" element, but then again, it is hard to incorporate everythin. The rings instead of "ticketing" might have made this a much better choice instead of "Running Jing".

So there's a quick, somewhat uniwatch-style look at some of the logos and I'm sure they'll be a few more over the next few months. What do the readers think? Any favorites? Any annoyances?

The ticketing logo is interesting (sorry for the crappy quality) to me. Unlike any of the other logos, this IS Beijing. As is often talked about, Tiananmen is the symbol of China, but Tiantan (the ticketing logo is a stylized version of Tiantan) is the symbol of Beijing.