London Boil.

There’s a been a lot of online hubbub about the new identity of the 2012 London Olympics: in the design world, the dailies world, and even the medical world [thanks D.C.].
Me? I think there are two ways to explain this logo. First, it was designed by a team of novices who didn’t know what to do and came up with something as a joke and decided to see how far they could take it. This little team got it to go all the way to 11, with investment banks now jumping on board the happy bandwagon. Go team! Second, the logo was designed by a very earnest set of designers who were deliberately attempting to break some non-existent mold and ended up delivering just that: mold.
The resulting logo is not only butt-ugly. Worse, to me, it’s illegible and intellectually thin.