… or is informed criticism vital for a healthy industry?

The controversy over the Olympic symbol is great for our business. You may think it looks like somebody else’s monkey logotype or a damaged swastika. You may believe a child could have done a better job, or that it cost as much as a garage in London’s Bloomsbury. Or you may feel, as I do, that the thinking behind it is sound and that it’s a vigorous and imaginative scheme that will help achieve fame for the London Olympics. It’s either a disaster or a creative high point. Either way, thank God we woke up, reacted and expressed ourselves.

Not so good for our business is the way we don’t react to the witless and impoverished clutch of work on page four and five of a recent Design Week (DW 14 June). So I will. The fake kid’s drawing of a smiling, weeping child for Great Ormond Street is banal. The ‘forged’ ArcelorMittal squashed lettering, the new symbol, ‘based, they say, on the idea of a signature’ is a poor cocktail – an empty piece of mindless graphics. Read the explanation in DW and if that doesn’t raise your eyebrows, I’ll be surprised. The Wenta, Muchos, UPC and ‘Plastic ain’t my bag’ marques are more examples of Mac monkey mediocrity. It is all superficial work with not enough quality to endure. None have depth, originality or integrity.

They make me feel ashamed of what is sometimes done today in the name of our profession.

Michael Wolff, Founder, Michael Wolff & Company, London WC1

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