Design 101: The London 2012 Olympics Logo

So my roomate, who is a great graphic designer, brought to my attention the London 2012 Olympic logo. Have you seen this? I am not kidding when I say someone paid a designer 8 million dollars for this. Was it 8 million? Yeah, something like that. Anyways, don't reach for your calendar in a panic; it's still 2007. We didn't wormhole into 1992. Most people are comparing it to a big pile of feces. I, on the other hand, think it was ripped off from a bunch of stuff. Let's see who should be filing copyright infringement papers with their lawyers, shall we?

PBS's Zoom
Oh man, PBS must be shitting a brick right now. That is basically the same goddamned logo! The slanty angles, the wacky colours, the annoying dorky kids who act out the lamest plays...oh, wait. That last one is all Zoom's.

Dippity-Do and LA Looks Hair Gel
There's no better memory I have from the early 90's than getting one of those Teen-Paks with Teen Spirit deodorant and stuff, and there would always be a giant tube of hair gel. And I had really manageable hair that didn't need gel, but I always used it on my bangs to push them up at the front. Sweet jesus, graphic designers, why would you want to remind everyone of their shitty, pre-teen hair?!?

Saved By The Bell opening theme
Know what I loved? That Dustin 'Screech' Diamond's shape in the opening credits was a diamond. Amazing. I also loved the shapes at the beginning: sneaker, surf board, sunglassess...ice cream cone, pink lawn flamingo? Oookayee. Anyways, take a look at the SBTB opening theme and tell me they didn't just take a bunch of shapes out of it and make a logo.

Barbie and the Rockers doll
Holy crap, this is just getting blatant.

Charms Blow-Pops commercial
Hit up YouTube and watch this classic commercial from the late 80's. It's supposed to look like kids are making the commercial, which kind of explains who actually made this logo: kids.

Blossom doll
I couldn't find a picture of Six from Blossom (she was always wearing clothes with overly-large bold prints). I could, however, find a picture of the Blossom doll, which is just as good. Remember when her brother was an alcoholic? Shit, is that show on DVD yet?

New Kids on the Block
Nothing represents the early 90's aesthetic more than New Kids on the Block. And while I did have literally hundreds of pictures of the most handsome boys on the planet, I decided to use this picture from a NKOTB comic. Holy crap, girl comics are so boring. Check out the blonde girl in the bottom corner. She's all like "sigh...I wish it was Marky-Mark and the Funky Bunch".

Ginger Tuesdays - 80's Cartoon Edition!

The 80's were a strange time for animation (Hello, how many shows were there about anthropomorphic animals in space?) But above all the space-exploring cats and motorcycle-riding mice, there was an even more disturbing trend in 80's cartoons; Gingers. Lots and lots of dirty soulless animated Gingers. Let's sort through some, shall we?

Kimber from JEM

The feathered bangs, the gaudy eyeshadow, the Key-tar. What's not to hate about Kimber, the Queen of the New Wave Gingers? Kimber is a classic case of a Ginger desperate for attention (they all are, am I right people?) and of course, she had a lot to compete with. Aja is a blue-haired Asian guitarist and Raya is a purple-haired Whitney Huston look-alike. Not to mention her sister, Jem/Jerica, is a shape-shifter and, need I say it, WAY prettier than her. Really, did the Hollograms need a keytarist? No, I didn't think so. They should have replaced Kimber with Roxy and Jem with Pizzazz. Now THATS a great band! The best parts of the Hollograms and the Misfits without all the "but guys, isn't stealing wrong?" coming from Kimber and Stormer.

Beastman and Teela from He-Man

Pop Quiz: Which one of these Gingers is the evil one? That's right, technically both. Teela's mom is totally Evil-Lyn. Go ahead, try to prove me wrong. Besides, only pure evil would give birth to pure evil (ie: witch gives birth to Ginger). Anyways, Skeletor would have been stupid not to plant a mole on the inside of Castle Grayskull to find out the secrets inside. Like how He-Man gets his shirts pressed so nicely or where He-Man bought that beautiful 1930's-era depression glass (come ON! Again, prove to me that He-Man isn't gay). Is Beastman not one of the grossest Gingers you've ever seen? Sick! I bet he is totally covered in freckles in real life. Same with Teela. Freckles are really hard to draw in 80's cartoons (unless you are an animator at Punky Brewster; then you are a pro at it).

Red Butler and La La Orange from Rainbow Brite

Sick! Little kid gingers!! I know many of you are disagreeing with my addition of La La Orange into the vat o' ginge, but let's take a look at the big picture. Someone who chooses to represent the colour of Ginger hair might as well be wearing a big sign that says Honorary Ginger or Grand Marshal of the Ginge-Day Parade (ew! Imagine a Ginger-Day Parade! That would be so...wait a sec, it's called St.Patricks Day. My bad). Anyone who reads The Skip-Raid knows how I feel about Ginger Youngins. They are so weird looking! Hell, I did a whole post on Ginger Kids in Movies and even then people noted how may weird Gingers I missed. When I was little, I used to wish that Rainbow Brite actually existed and that one day I could be friends with the colour kids. EXCEPT Red Butler and La La Orange (...and Shy Violet, but that's just because glasses are for dorks). Seriously, what parts of the world did they make brighter? Stop signs? Goldfish? Gingers?

Liono from Thundercats

Liono, I will admit, is a bad motherfucker. When I was a kid, I had a Thundercats ring and I used to throw my fist into the air and yell "Thundercats, HOOOO!" all the time. Thundercats were the coolest. I used to wish I looked like Wilykit, and that Wilykat was my boyfriend. It wasn't until years later that I learned they were brother and sister. (How did I not know?!?) Liono always acted like he wanted to defeat the evil Mumma-Ra, but deep down, he was probably his Dad. I always got this Luke-Darth Vader vibe from the two of them. I'm sure Liono just kept getting jypped and later found out in the same episode that Cheetara is his sister or something, and that Wilykit and Wilykat are his illegitimate children (but only as the result of a Thundera Maury Povitch-style Paternity Test between him and Panthro).
Anyways, back to Liono and his bout of Ginger-vitis. Liono (a Ginger) is also a cat. Neither Gingers nor cats have souls. Coincedence? I think not.

Tenderheart from The Care-Bears

Who's idea was it to make a Ginger the leader of The Care-Bears? The only thing Gingers care about is stealing souls and SPF 50. Remember Grumpy Bear? Why couldn't they have made him the Ginger? Everybody knows how moody Gingers are (seriously, I dare you to see how long you can call one a Ginger for before it snaps on you). You might be naysaying at home going "but wasn't Lionheart the leader?" No, he wasn't. Lionheart was NOT the leader. He joined the Care-Bears as a Care-Bear Cousin, along with that blue rabbit and the stupid purple elephant and that retarded pig. Come to think of it, all the Care-Bear Cousins were pretty lame. You know who wasn't lame? Shriekie and Beastly. Always with the hilarious adventures. PS - how was Shriekie related to that guy in the castle again? That was weird, non?



Strawberry Shortcake from Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake, like her namesake dessert, makes me barf. I like the idea of a world where people dress like their favorite foods. Hell, I'd parade around all day dressed like Exlax and live in a house made of Evian. But again with the making the Ginger the leader! (excuse me, Daywalker). How many of Strawberry Shortcake's friends are far superior to her? Um, all of them? Correct. Lemon Merengue Pie and Blueberry Muffins are way better than Strawberry Shortcake (which gets all mushy and damp). And what was Strawberry Shortcake's best friend? That's right. Custard the Cat. It seems there is a re-occurring theme here; Gingers and Cats. The soulless roll with the soulless.