I’m no lover of the Olympics but the branding behind them fascinates me (see 99pi Mexico 68). This morning I stumbled across some hate for Utah 2034 and all I could do is shake my head; to be an Olympic Logo designer, what a thankless job in it’s time. I think the general trajectory of an Olympic logo is this:

1. Unveiling: everyone hates it and loudly proclaims this
2. Lead up to the games: through repeated exposure the image is rehabilitated in people’s minds
3. Immediately following the games: people mostly have positive associations with it
4. Legacy: this is where the timeless/iconic nature of the logo is actually proved. Will people remember it in 30 years? 50 years?

In general people hate new logos, anytime a company changes their logo there is going to be backlash which is why, it’s best to just keep moving forward and ignore the chatter for a few months. The Olympics are unique because the logo (and associated iconography) for each games is both a “brand new” logo but it’s also an iteration or a “redesign” of all previous logos. Of course, Utah is not Vancouver, or Turin but when people see this logo their mind is going to think of those logos and do, likely, the same thing it would for a corporate rebrand.

Personally, I think Utah 2034 is dope. Although, I might have skewed something in the A or H to avoid the 4 leaf clover look they’ve got going on.

I’m pretty disillusioned with the state of US politics; but last night gave me a great deal of hope. Specifically Zohran Mamdani’s victory in NYC. It underscores something I’ve been feeling (and trying to practice) for the past year; the key to political success lies in local government. As individuals we have almost no control over who the president is; we have a bit more influence on senators and governors but at a local level within our cities individuals can exert a great deal of control. Of course NYC is a bit of an anomaly because of it’s size but in any city or town anyone can get involved by calling their city counselors, campaigning for what they believe in. It’s a sad fact but local politics have such low levels of engagement that it only takes a few phone calls for a city counselor to prioritize an issue. If we all focused less on national politics and put our efforts into making our home towns more equatable, safer, more affordable, et al. our impacts would be multiplied.

I firmly believe in the grassroots idea that making our hometowns better will create an upwards momentum at a state and, eventually, national level. People need to feel safe, healthy, and happy in their hometowns and if they do they won’t need to vote for strongmen.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks in world news. A lot has been going on that I’ve felt moved to comment on but haven’t had the heart to actually write it down. Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the NYC primary is a ray of sunshine in otherwise very dark times. It’s a powerful reminder that progressives can win even against massive entrenched interests. In the final weeks of the race billionaires and powerful centrist democrats such as Bill Clinton were pouring millions of dollars and coveted endorsements, respectively, into Cuomo’s campaign in what amounted to an attack on Mamdani. The attack failed. The voice of the people could not be silenced. Big as New York is, on the scale of everything else going on in the world this is kind of small potatoes, but a win for progressives anywhere is a victory for progressives everywhere. I’ll take it.

Photo by Birk Enwald

For the past few weeks postal workers in Canada have been on strike. This has, of course, caused a fair amount of disruption during the Christmas season. Before I even knew the details of the strike I was naturally on the side of the workers. This is my default position: support labour. In general, I have found that if you are on the side of labour you’re on the right side of history. That’s not to say there aren’t corrupt unions, pointless strikes, or strikes that are regressive in their outcomes. However, in general strikes are a way for “the means of production” to get more of the benefits of that production. In other words; the people doing the work should be reaping the biggest rewards. Not the government, not billionaires, not some mythological “job creator” who took some risks a few years ago and has sat around collecting a “passive income” ever since. No, labor deserves the wealth, because they are the ones creating it.

The arguments against strikes have always been a bit baffling to me. There is no multi-millionaire union. The picket line almost always represents the low and middle class. These are our people, and they deserve more for what they do. Even highly paid people, in my view, deserve more for what they do. In Ontario it’s taken for granted that public teachers are “highly paid”. OTF, the Ontario Teachers Federation is very powerful and well monied. So what are these rich teachers making? After 10 years salaries appear to be capped at $102,000*. Great money for a single person, maybe more than you make, maybe more than you take home but I would ask; “why not more?” Teachers work damn hard, long hours, lots of stress and there is the years-long grind of even becoming a full time placed teacher in Ontario. Not to mention these are people who spend as much time with your kids as you do! Yes, I also think you should make more money, but it’s not a zero sum game; that’s kind of the point of unions. We are living through a time when the wealth gap looks more like France before the revolution; the middle class is shrinking and not because families are getting rich. A “high paying” job ten years ago may barely get you by; but billionaires own more than ever. In the past 25 years the world’s billionaires have added six trillion to their collective wealth. Anybody, any union, who takes a stand is fighting for all of us not just their workers.

Sure it’s an inconvenient time for a strike, but spare a thought. You may not get all your Christmas packages in time, but there are workers who literally cannot make ends meet 365 days a year, not just at Christmas. Strong labour is good for society as a whole!

• https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/81-582-x/2023001/tbl/tblc.6.3-eng.htm ** https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/12-581-x/2023001/sec14-eng.htm