The 2012 Olympics (that will be held in London) logo was revealed yesterday and I must say, with all the hype around it, it was surprisingly disappointing! And to think that it cost about £400,000. I have been trying to find out who actually designed it, but cant seem to find any information on that, but I am pretty sure that it was not a young person - who incidentally is in the group that the organizers are claiming to be targetting with the logo.

To me, one of the issues at stake here is how the Olympics committee, and one could argue, society at large defines young people. If you read the coverage that this logo has received, it becomes evident that they define young people as children/kids, not as an independent group who has creative ideas and a range of talents. Why didnt we run some sort of competition encouraging young artists to submit their logo ideas and then encorporate the best ones into a logo? Now that would have been a neat idea. Instead, what we have is a logo that apparently resembles one from the children's programme 'Tiswas' of the 70s and 80s. Young people will undoubtedly see right through the logo concept, and it may actually be seen as patronising. The committee could have also taken advantage of the diversity within young people in the UK - the LSE alone prides itself on having over 150 nationalities present on campus. I dont see how the pink and yellow represents any of London's diversity, something that most large cities would dream to have.

Its high time that young people are treated not just an ambivalent group of kids, but a group that can actually make a useful, if not powerful, contribution in the societies around them. Revamping the 2012 Olympics Logo would be a start.