Hasta La Ideas

Twelve British artists, including Tracey Emin and Chris Ofili, have been chosen to design posters for the 2012 Olympics. Great, but couldn’t some designers have been asked as well?

Alongside Emin and Ofili, Fiona Banner, Michael Craig-Martin, Martin Creed, Anthea Hamilton, Howard Hodgkin, Gary Hume, Sarah Morris, Bridget Riley, Bob and Roberta Smith and Rachel Whiteread will each create a poster. Their works will shown in a free exhibition at Tate Britain as part of the London 2012 Festival, and will go on sale this autumn (more here).

The idea has a precedent – 29 artists were commissioned to produce posters for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games (as we mentioned here). In the run-up to the 1972 Games, the Organising Committee decided to commission a series of Artist Posters to “represent the intertwining of sports and art worldwide” (see them here). It was a great success as sales of the posters, which were produced in various editions, made over 2 million Deutschmarks.

The 2012 posters may prove to be a similar success but wouldn’t this have been an opportunity for the UK’s world-renowned graphics community to show off their skills too?