Madrid launched its bid for the 2020 Olympics yesterday with a logo that left many Spaniards confused (as reported in The Telegraph).

“The design purportedly consists of the letter M for Madrid and the number 20 in front of the coloured rings of the Olympics stylised into arches inspired by the Madrid landmark, Puerta de Alcalá.

“But the lettering appears to show “20020,” an effect that has brought much derision in the Spanish press and on social networking sites.”

The design is a result of a national competition, won by 22-year-old Luis Peiret. Here’s the logo (shown below) that Luis designed.

Luis Peiret’s original logo design, via elmundo.es

Luis picked-up €6,000 for his winning entry, and intended the script to say M20, but according to this report, an agency called TAPSA significantly modified the design by including an incorrect accent on the ‘i’ of Madrid, removing the colour black, and making the logo look like it reads 20020.

Photo of Luis Peiret via ABC.es

“This is not my logo,” said Peiret.

In a fresh twist, a Madrid company that manufactures gay dolls has claimed the Madrid 2020 logo is a rip-off of its design.

Note the Puerta de Alcalá, and the colours on the heads.

But never mind that. Gays Kelly. Inspired.

Via @MatDolphin.

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In May 2010, the UK’s largest high street bookseller Waterstones launched a new brand identity. The design work was created by London-based venturethree.

venturethree’s 2010 design

The following was added to the Waterstones press office yesterday (11th January):

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Waterstones, the UK’s largest high street bookseller, has today revealed a new logo for the company. It reinstates the much-loved Baskerville serif font with a capital W and no longer features an apostrophe.

James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones said: “Waterstones is an iconic brand deserving a capital W, and a font that reflects authority and confidence — Baskerville does just that.”

“Waterstones without an apostrophe is, in a digital world of URLs and email addresses, a more versatile and practical spelling. It also reflects an altogether truer picture of our business today which, while created by one, is now built on the continued contribution of thousands of individual booksellers.”

The new design and spelling of the Waterstones logo will gradually be implemented in all written communication, display material, online and shop fits and refurbishments.

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Waterstones logo evolution

The move “sparked outrage” (Daily Mail) among those who insist the apostrophe should remain. John Richards, chairman of the Apostrophe Protection Society said, “It’s just plain wrong. It’s grammatically incorrect. If Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s can get it right, then why can’t Waterstone’s? You would really hope that a bookshop is the last place to be so slapdash with English.”

Tim Waterstone launched the company in 1982 using £6,000 of redundancy money from WH Smith, before selling to his former employer for £47M 11 years later.

According to The Bookseller, the lower case FS Albert Pro logo by venturethree had only been transferred onto 25 of the company’s 310 stores. If correct, it’ll be less expensive to revert to the old design than to continue with the lower-case roll-out.

I can only guess at what the 2009/10? design brief was, but if Waterstones asked for a fresh, more dynamic identity, venturethree certainly delivered. Saying that, and from an outsider’s viewpoint, I was never convinced of the need to change.

Reported elsewhere:
Waterstones ditches apostrophe, on The Telegraph
Waterstones gives up on its apostrophe, on Mail Online
The Waterstone’s apostrophe. Who care’s? on Plain Text
Apostrophcalypse now, on Asbury & Asbury
Out with the old and in with the old, on CR Blog

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Update:
An employee at Waterstones Oxford Street spotted the abandoned apostrophe while walking to work.

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Answer: $2,000,000 in financing from FCA Venture Partners.

Via @justcreative.

LogoGarden tactics:

WWF’s panda logo, yours for $69
How low can they go?
Love Thy Logo
LogoGate 2011

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Update: 27 December 2011
LogoGarden founder John Williams responded with this comment.

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Benjamin Franklin image via Thinkstock

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And here’s a vector lion available for £29 from Shutterstock.

Curious.

Via Creative Group.

Similar: Buy the iconic WWF panda for $69

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Update #1: 01 December 2011
Having just been threatened with legal action for the sale of the MGM Grand lion, and as the vector graphic in question has since been removed from Shutterstock, I think it’s safe to say who was in the wrong. If ever there was a reason not to use stock graphics in logos (or anywhere else?), this is it.

Update #2: 01 December 2011
MGM apologised. No probs. Gotta do what we can.

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“I know I’m too late but I’ve designed a logo for London 2012. Because the other one is shit.”
— STUART WATSON

Crafted from venturethree’s response to Boris Johnson’s London brief.

http://madeinlondon.co.uk/
http://www.venturethree.com/#/work/london/london/01

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Update: 21 November 2011
I was unsure if the Olympic logo could contain the Olympic rings, but as Lee rightly points out, look at the actual London 2012 logo. It shows the rings as part of the design. Seemingly, bid logos can’t show the rings. Only the official design can.

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Brandstack symbol designed by Brandclay

“As many of you know, there is some unfinished business that won’t be taken care of. Many designers put their faith in Brandstack and were left short.”
— WES WILSON, BRANDSTACK

It’s a shame for those who’ve lost-out, but for me it’s just another signal that logos created without a client brief are more akin to icons or clip-art, and there’s not a lot of profit to be made from clip-art sales.

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Related, from the archives:
Stock trade marks from 1975

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“From over 15,000 submission from more than 190 countries, people have chosen a winner. The Human Rights logo will become an open source product, free to be used by everyone, everywhere, without restrictions — for the purpose of promoting Human Rights.

Quoted from Logo Design Challenge for Human Rights.

After contention surrounding the voting process, voiced in the comment threads of each news post, a logo has finally been selected to represent human rights.

Rahav Segev/photopass.com

The “free as a man” design, based upon a human hand and a bird in flight, was created by Serbian designer Predrag Stakić. The 32-year-old Belgrade-born designer will pocket €5,000 for having his design selected.

Photo credit

My opinion on the contest in general is still the same, but here’s to every success for those who submitted the 15,000+ designs.

Elsewhere:
Human Rights Logo Unveiled in New York
Serbian designer wins competition for a global human rights logo

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Update:
A few commentators have begun adapting the design on this dirty.ru thread.

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The story goes like this. Logo on the left: a 100-year-old monogram for a defunct company called S&Co. Logo on the right: designed by Rich Silverstein for his ad agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners (GS&P).

The GS&P monogram was entered into the 2011 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, and won. It was interesting to read the logo detail on the Cannes Lions winner page.

Description of how you arrived at the final design:

“After playing around with various renditions of the letterforms — from modern typography to more genre-specific — we arrived at a solution that was born out of classic monograms. The forms are purposely somewhat rough, in reference to hand-drawn type. But we have stripped out secondary decorative elements so it has a more modern, austere feel.”

I’ve a feeling the description would be a little different if Rich knew AgencySpy would call-out the similarity.

Disregarding the Cannes Lions and rationale, I found it interesting to see a design so old it’s in the public domain being reused for a different company. It might be free from copyright, but at what cost to the creative impression given of the ad agency? Or, as Rich Silverstein said (below), is such appropriation simply a “big part of our culture?”

Somewhat related, from the LDL archives: When logos look alike

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Steve Douglas gives the lowdown on the perils of DIY logo makers.

Here’s another rip from the same site.

The Maplewood Lions logo (above) was designed by Felix Sockwell. Very nicely, too.

The one above? Sold on DIY logo site LogoGarden.

Just the tip of the iceberg. The wall of the Logo Garden Facebook page is littered with other ripoffs. (Comments on the Facebook wall have since been removed by LogoGarden.)

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Update: 18 August 2011
Logo Garden in the news elsewhere:
How to get your logos removed from LogoGarden.com, on Prejean Creative
Love Thy Logo: Charlatan, Huckster, Moron, Thief!, on RockPaperInk
Thoughts on the Logo Garden controversy, on Dani Nordin
In Brief: August Miscellany, on Brand New
LogoGarden.com harvests logos from pros, on LogoMotives
How logo can they go? on LogoLounge
LogoGate 2011, on Drawsigner

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Update: 21 December 2011
LogoGarden secures $2M in funding

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Here’s the Villa dos Inglezes design.

I wonder if the Queen approved that one, too.

Via Kalebe Lima.

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