Olympics

2012 London Olympic Stamps.

The 2012 London Olympics Logo might be one of the ugliest design tragedies of the last few years, but at least one design firm has managed to make something fabulous with it.

Hat-Trick has designed a set of four postage stamps to mark the start of the London 2012 Olympics that are visually quite wonderful. The stamps feature a design that blends sports with iconic London landmarks. Released today in the UK the stamps will be on sale in Europe. No word on international availability via the web, but I’m sure they will be.

“The pictured athletes are all elite members of the GB teams so they are all due to compete. We had to make sure that they are not recognizable individually as it was important that these are not just GB specific, but rather about the sports themselves. However we wanted to make sure that the sports are represented properly by shooting real athletes in action. One of the trickiest was the fencing and tower bridge stamp.”

“Best Job” Wieden+Kennedy’s Latest for P&G.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, Procter and Gamble have released a new commercial for the upcoming 2012 London Olympic Games. ” Best Job”, was produced by Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, under the supervision of Creative Director Karl Lieberman. What I love about this spot is how it is a great example of how to reach beyond typical brand perceptions, by creating something that is truly moving and touching.

Everything about this ad is the opposite of what you think of about Proctor and Gamble. If I hadn’t known who this spot was for when I first saw it, I probably would have pegged it for Nike, or another athletic company. It isn’t until the very end of the spot that P&G is tied in, and by that time you are hooked.

Beautifully shot and edited, this 2 minute spot tells multiple stories that all have the same outcome. A proud mother watching their child rise above the rest in the greatest athletic competition on earth. Wonderful camera angles, and lighting capture the growth of 4 children as they become Olympians. 10 or more years is compressed into just over two minutes of footage. Only the last 10 seconds of the piece references P&G and I think this is why it works so well. The spot helps to humanize the brand as you relate to the people in the video.

Once again, a great job from the folks at Wieden+Kennedy.

Win a Trip To The Olympics. Create a Typographic Poster about Sports.

So who wants to go to the Olympics in London? I do for one…

Right now Conqueror is holding a contest where you could win a trip to the Olympics. How do you win, you enter the contest and design a typographical poster about sports using the phrase “It’s not what you win, but how you conquer it.”

The competition is free to enter, so you might as well go for it. Details can be found at http://www.conqueror.com/typographicgames

Gold Prize: An Olympic Weekend which includes 2 tickets to the 2012 Olympic Games in London
Silver Prize x 5: 1pair Bike ID Shoes, feature in Creative Review
Bronze Prize x 7: Artwork displayed in Creative Review