The 2012 London Olympics is only a year away now and it is at this time that the world is starting to pay more attention to the logo that will define the games. This bright-coloured creation was the brainchild of international brand consultancy agency, Wolff Olins, and was produced at a cost of £400,000, which since it was unveiled in 2007 has been the subject of much debate and controversy.

An early poll by the BBC website saw more than 80% of the voters give the logo the lowest possible rating and led many people to submit their own designs as an alternative. The logo has also been criticized for appearing to be everything from looking like a pornographic representation of the cartoon character Lisa Simpson, to two people making love, to a distorted Swastika, and to more recently as alleged by Iran officials, a hidden Zion message that has prompted them to threaten to boycott the games unless it is changed.

Wolff Olins claims that their logo is "...unconventionally bold, deliberately spirited and unexpectedly dissonant, echoing London’s qualities of a modern, edgy city. Containing neither sporting images nor pictures of London landmarks, the emblem shows that the Games is more than London, more than sport."

Although I do struggle to see these alleged hidden images, I can't help but wonder whether the £400,000 could have been better spent on a logo that better garnered the support of the people that it represents.