Madrid unveils final 2016 bid logo

From a press release:
A bright and lively open hand which represents, in its author’s own words, “the unity of the different cultures, people and nationalities that live together in Madrid” has been today unveiled as the Madrid 2016 Olympic bid’s official logo.

The modern presentation, that has been hosted by the multi-winning medallist swimmer Gemma Mengual and the Paralympic swimmer Xavi Torres, has reached its most touching moment when the logo was finally unveiled in a very innovative way.

Five groups, formed by a representative of the Spanish institutions, an Spanish Olympic or Paralympic medallist and two children each, have put their hands in a digital scanner, forming five hands in different colours (black, blue, green, red and yellow) in a giant screen. After several seconds, the five hands have finally merged in the final Madrid 2016’s logo to the amazement of the attending audience.

During the ceremony, and in the presence of a packed Telefonica Arena, the Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, accompanied by Mercedes Coghen, Madrid 2016 CEO, has stated that “this hand includes us all, because we all are Madrid 2016”.

“We have an appointment with the future on October 2nd 2009, when the city that will host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games will be announced in Copenhagen, and we are confident because we know how far we can get”, he has added.

On her part, Mercedes Coghen, Madrid 16 CEO, has said that the new logo “represents Madrid and its people’s friendliness. Madrid is an international meeting point of people and cultures and I think this logo
Mercedes Coghen, Madrid 16 CEO, Joaquin Mallo, author of the logo, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, Mayor of Madrid, and Gemma Mengual, host of the ceremony and Olympic medalist.
truly represents this idea”.

The birth of a logo

The process to elect the Madrid 2016’s logo started on June 11th 2007 when the Mayor of Madrid and Mercedes Coghen announced the public contest that would start one week later.

On June 18th, designs from all around the world started to come in for the Olympic bid. A total of 2,691 designs were sent during the process, and the Madrid 2016 Foundation, together with a group of experts in design, selected the best ten ones.

The next stage in the process started on August 30th, when the 10 chosen logos were unveiled and were displayed at three exhibition points located at Cibeles, Entrevias and General Peron, as well as many other places all around the city.

From that day until September 23rd, a total amount of 113,817 people voted for their favourite logo through the different balloting points or the City Council of Madrid’s website (www.munimadrid.es).

Two days after the public vote finished, the Mayor of Madrid announced the final results. “Corle”, created by Joaquin Mallo, was the winner with 36,379 votes (32%), followed by “Espejo para el Mundo”, designed by Rafael Palomares, with 17,645 votes (15.5%) and “Pintar el Alma”, created by the company Fosforo Artworks, with 16,298 votes (14.3%).

During the last few weeks, the author himself and a group of experts in design have been working in several changes to the original logo. The final result is the logo that has been presented today.