Olympics logos— the best part of my Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics experience.

Every two years, the world gathers together to witness and participate in the best of amateur athletics. While I enjoy the Olympics and watch as many events as I can squeeze in, I have a much geekier pursuit in mind— to check out the Olympic logos and branding. The Olympic logos are mini snapshots of where the world is at design-wise every four years— or at least where the world is at four years previous looking forward to the near future.

Last year when London revealed its logo and branding for the 2012 Olympics, most of the world recoiled in horror. For the past 20 years we had been used to branding that was fun and energetic, but safe, relatively conservative and easy to digest. But then the London 2012 logo was revealed and suddenly— it’s something that looks absolutely nothing like any logo from the past. It doesn’t say “sport”, it doesn’t say “let’s find something that most people will like”, it says “London is the center of gutsy, cutting edge design” much like the Sydney 2000 logo said “Australia: Land of Boomerangs and the Sydney Opera House” and the Moscow 1980 logo said “Solid Red Communist Power Through Conformity”

So a year ago, I was a little horrified by the London 2012 logo and now… well it’s really grown on me. I still think it looks like cartoon characters engaged in um, adult pursuits, so I would have changed the shapes somewhat, but I’m really starting to love the idea. I’m big on pushing the boundaries of design and not playing it safe and not worrying about whether it will look dated or not because no matter how hard you try, it will eventually succumb.

Beijing 2008, which we’ll be soon saturated with, has gone in a similar direction that Athens did in 2004. China, which is one of the fastest developing countries in the world, could have said something about looking towards the future as a major influence on the world stage, but instead harked back to their long history as the world’s oldest continuous civilization. This branding, including the 5 cute mascots that blend the old and the new along with the super-modern, futuristic architecture of the new Olympic venues that will be on prominent display that will show the world that China is not only an ultra-modern economic powerhouse, but is still essentially China.

But for a host country, the Olympics is the ultimate experience in branding. The Olympics may have started as contests of athletic strength, but they’ve become a goodwill showcase. When the eyes of the world are on you, you’ve got to look good and every Olympic host country understands this, and this is the beauty of identity branding. How much has China spent to develop their athletic program to try and win as many medals as possible at the Olympics? Not nearly as much as they’ve spent to make sure that they look their absolute best when the Olympics begin in a couple days. This is China’s window of opportunity to shine and they can’t screw it up.

And it begins with the logo. Because while the images of the impressive Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing takes the breath away and the mascots will make cute kid’s toys, it will be the logo that will be forever remembered, plastered on a trillion trinkets and hats and T-shirts and wrist bands. Heck, the last time I was in Atlanta 5 or 6 years ago, they still showcased the logo of the 1996 Olympics and probably forever will.