The Importance of Design: Epileptics Experiencing Seizures At Sight Of New Olympics Logo

Design is important, and bad design can kill: Here's a gem from the Guardian about the horrible, and I mean horrible new logo for the 2012 Olympics, which was developed at a cost of £400,000: Here's the story...

The organisers of London 2012 may have foreseen some of the criticism they have received since unveiling the Olympic logo - variously derided as an uninspiring emblem, a puerile mess, an artistic flop. But yesterday evening, they were forced to pull the promotional video for the new brand from the official website after complaints from a completely unexpected quarter - Britain's epileptics. In the two and a half minute animation, the logo comes alive, springing from athletes' bodies and bouncing vividly across the city, and one flashing section has triggered seizures. As the flow of complaints about the quality of the £400,000 brand gathered pace yesterday (the emblem was likened to a "broken swastika" and a "toileting monkey"), one viewer, Christopher Filmer, rang the BBC to say he suffered a seizure while watching the footage on television and his girlfriend had also suffered a fit and needed hospital treatment. "The logo came up on TV and I was thinking about the 2012 games and then I was out," he told BBC London 94.9FM.