Wolff Olins - Two bad designs

I have been working on a UNI project to improve the look of the Samaritans. The current design is just awful, even the website is dated looking. I am unsure if the branding for the Samaritans is done deliberately like this, to show that it is run by volunteers. More astonishingly, with over 25,000 volunteers, someone could have improved the look by now. In case you are wondering I am not slagging the work that the Samaritans do, I think as an organisation, they are tremendous, and a brilliant cause. It was during my research that I found out that the Samaritans brand was designed by the design agency Wollf Olins. This totally oustanded me, surely something from a reputable agency could have come up with something better. The logo itself is just a typeface called Tarzanna created in 1998 by Zuzana Licko, nothing is actually designed. This I know, as the new Samaritans brand was developed in 2002. Ok, it has been 8 years now, but it would have looked dated even then. Again while researching, I found out that Wollf Olins also designed another project, which caused huge uproar in the news and on TV, the design in question is the 2012 Olympics logo, again another astonishing piece that I personally find poor. The point of this thread, is that it shows, no matter how good you are, agency, designer, artist, you are going to have the odd off day.

Samaritans


2012 Olympics Logo