Olympics 2012 kicks off design roster hunt

London 2012 is in the throes of compiling two dedicated design rosters to handle the vast amount of work in the run-up to the capital’s Olympic Games, Design Week can exclusively reveal.

The rosters are being put together by the main governing bodies for the games, the Olympic Delivery Authority and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games.

As a public body, the ODA is in discussion to select consultancies through the Central Office of Information’s 64-strong roster, with a view to appointing a group of consultancies from a range of disciplines within the next few months.

The ODA is responsible for ensuring delivery of the permanent games venues, infrastructure and legacy facilities throughout the UK. ‘At the moment, we are going through the process of appointing consultancies via the COI and we are talking to them about our needs,’ confirms an ODA spokeswoman.

Simultaneously, Locog is also in the process of establishing a design roster, but a spokeswoman declines to reveal any further details on the nature of the process. ‘We are establishing a group to look to carry out ad-hoc work but nothing is firmed up,’ she says.

Locog is responsible for the preparation and staging of the Olympic Games and this week appointed Transport for London group marketing director Chris Townsend as its commercial director.

Separately, it has emerged this week that The Team is working with the ODA to design its marketing collateral. The ODA spokeswoman confirms that The Team was appointed a ‘few months ago’, although the consultancy declined to comment on the work. The imminent establishment of the design rosters follows the high-profile appointment of Wolff Olins to design the Olympic Games emblem (DW 16 March). The group beat Omnicom-owned sister consultancy Interbrand, as well as Identica and Lambie-Nairn. Wolff Olins is undertaking brand positioning research, logo design and a mapping out of corporate identity guidelines.

The ODA is also reportedly looking for a head of marketing to oversee its communications strategy. The role will include taking care of all branding issues, publications, internal communications and new media developments.

Olympics Design Rosters:

• Olympic Delivery Authority establishing design roster through Central Office of Information

• London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games establishing design roster, but declines to reveal details of process

• Transport for London group marketing director Chris Townsend appointed as commercial director for Locog