Sochi2014.ru Afterthoughts

The more I've reflected on it during recent days, the more the new Sochi2014.ru logo is growing on me.

But also, it still troubles me. Here's ... the .RUb:

While the logo is original and "a first" to incorporate the organizing committee's URL into its official mark, this logo may also prove to be "the first" that -- in the future -- will cause Olympic historians and anyone to look at the Sochi logo with a smirk of "What were they thinking?"

Why?

From my view, with the fast pace of the Internet changing and being constantly reinvented --taking only months, weeks, days or hours for something/anything online to become "outdated" -- the Sochi2014.ru mark puts a neon sign on their Games for thinking short-term marketing over long-term staying power (will the URL even function come 2016?).

In other words, I think it's logical that in 10 years (or fewer?), the Internet will have changed to the point where ".ru" or ".com" or ".gov" (or any similar nomenclature for a Web address) will be extinct, leaving future generations to gaze upon Sochi2014.ru and scratch their heads with wonder "what is the purpose of .ru? What does '.ru' mean?"

Oh, bother. It's likely the International Olympic Committee, Russian Federation and Russian Olympic Committee -- as well as the Sochi 2014 Olympic officials -- considered all of the potential T.ruth or Consequences of their decision.

Sochi, .RU Kidding Me?

Late yesterday I heard that the Sochi 2014 Olympic office planned to unveil their new official logo today, delayed by recent news events in Russia.

A few minutes ago I found the new Olympic logo news online, and my brain is still processing Sochi2014.ru (that's it!).

Knee-jerk initial reaction: Not crazy about this logo design, which for the first time is simply a custom font with the URL for the organizing committee. Unlike the clever "intercrossed C's" for Calgary 1988, the Northern Lights-inspired look for Lillehammer's 1994 logo, or the detailed skyline/snowflake for Salt Lake 2002, the Sochi 2014 Olympic logo does not really stir the soul.

According to the Associated Press ...

" ... The word 'sochi.ru' appears above the number '2014' in an apparent reflection, symbolizing the southern city's water-based location on the Black Sea ... Interbrand produced the logo, which was subsequently approved in a series of national and international surveys, [officials] said. [Officials] said the new logo would help break Western stereotypes of a Russia stuck in the past, instead promoting the country as a dynamic and modern nation capable of reaching out to new audiences in a digital age."

Borrowing a phrase from an English:Russian translation site: Ya ne paneemau.

It may take some time, and reading a few hundred pages of "Dr. Zhivago," to help me respond "da" to the new Sochi 2014 logo, but I'm sure in time my five-ringed brain will come to terms with the [dot] .ru - infused logo, and eventually the Sochi 2014 typeface will get added to favorite fonts.

I do like the video for the new logo, and encourage folks to view it in Russian or English. The views of the Black Sea and snow-capped Russian mountains are inspiring.

In honor of the new logo, I'll send a Moscow 1980 Olympic pin to the first international reader of this blog who posts a comment with their views on this new Sochi 2014 logo. Thanks/спасибо for reading!