North to Vancouver ’010
With the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver only hours away, and the Alpine Skiing qualifier already in full swing. I wanted to reflect upon the Olympic logo, which if you haven’t already, are going to be seeing a French-Canadian ton of, before the fortnight of games are over.
The logo is supposed to represent a monolithic Inuit character known as an Inukshuk. The Inuits were a tribe of people native to the Vancouver area. The name of the character is Illanaaq and it means friendship in Inuit. The illustration is chalk full of symbolism, which I guess, all Olympic logos are supposed to be. The green smiling head is for the coastal forests, the blue arms for the coast, the sky blue torso for the mountains, the red left leg is for the maple leaf, which, who doesn’t associate Canada with the maple leaf, and finally the yellow leg is for the sun. The CEO of the Vancouver Games said that the figure “reflects the sheer joy for winter sport and draws its strength from the true spirit of teamwork.” The ironic thing is that nothing about this identity equates with the speed, grace and athleticism of the Winter Games. My real question is what does the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man have to do with Alpine skiing, the Luge and speed skating. If you can’t tell, I’m not overly psyched on the 2010 Olympic logo. It seems as though the Inukshuk symbolizes so many things, but it missed out on the one that matters…sport.
I guess it could be worse, though. It could be as bad as the 2012 Summer Olympics logo from London, which looks like it could grace the cover of the newest Sex Pistols record. Stay tuned and enjoy the Games…
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Not bad article, but I really miss that you didn’t express your opinion, but ok you just have different approach