All of that talk about Iran and the 2012 Olympic Logos got me thinking about past Olympic Logos.  Found this great listing of 39 of them:

39 Olympic Logos from 1924 to 2012

What strikes me immediately about all of these is that the overwhelming majority of them are not logos.  They are illustrations, and even (as in the case of St. Moritz 1948 and Atlanta 1996) posters.

Tokyo Summer 1964 could be considered a logo, but it is by far the plainest and most boring of the bunch.  A red gradient ball?  I get "the land of the rising sun" and the tie to Japan's flag, but it is still pretty uninspiring.

Munich Summer 1972 is a very cool optical illusion, but not very Olympic-y. 

Berlin Summer 1936 - yikes!  Is that bird a symbol of the third reich?

I find my favorites are the Winter Olympic logos.  Coincidentally (maybe not) the Winter Olympic games are my favorite.  I know I don't look it, but I LOVE the Olympics.  Always have, ever since I was a wee girl sporting my Dorothy Hamill hairdo (yup, I'm that old!).

*SIDEBAR!  FLASHBACK!  Cue swirly lines....*

My absolute f a v o r i t e games were Calgary 1988.  Battle of the Brians.  Brian Boitano vs. Brian Orser for Men's Figure Skating gold.  I was on the edge of my seat, firmly planted in front of the TV watching the men's long program silently praying for Orser to falter so that my Brian Boitano could win the gold.  A slight bobble from Orser clinched the gold for Boitano (Imagine my guilt when just two years later when I travelled to Canada and got to meet Brian Orser and truly appreciated what an incredible person, athlete and artist he is.  I even got to visit his incredibly gracious parents' house, stand in his childhood bedroom, and hold that 1988 Olympic Silver medal!!!!!  In my hand!!  AHHH!  Swoon!  A fangirl's dream!!! But that's a story for another time...).

*ok, back to reality.... swirly-swirly-swirly*

My favorites are (in no particular order except chronological):

Innsbruck 1964 and 1976
Sarajevo 1984
Calgary 1988
Salt Lake 2002
Torino 2006

I'm thinking it might be a fun personal project to try to design an olympic logo.  Think I'll do some investigation into Olympic medal design too.