With the London 2012 Olympics kinda coming up, and with all of the designer bloggy rage happening around the subject, I thought I’d post some of my all-time favorite Olympic schwag. Mostly all graphic designers are very much aware of the iconic past Olympic logos, pictograms and such. So, for all of you who don’t know, designing for the Olympics is pretty much one of the most sought after epic dreams. Here ya go…

Oh, and, here is the 2012 branding designed by Wolff Olins (revealed in 2007 with a price tag of £400,000.) The task with any Olympic emblem is to create an instantly recognizable symbol and ultimately universal form. Unfortunately, early public reaction to the logo was largely negative (more than 80% of votes hated it.) It was suggested that the logo resembled the cartoon character Lisa Simpson performing fellatio and others have complained that it looks like a distorted Swastika. There were complaints from Iran that the logo appeared to spell out the word “Zion” (describing the logo as racist) asking that it be withdrawn, the designers be “confronted” and threatened to boycott the Olympics. But, it all good now, and they still coming to the party. Oh, and one more thing, a segment of animated footage released at the same time as the logo was reported to trigger seizures in a small number of people with epilepsy.

The Olympic games are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom, from 27 July to 12 August 2012.