The big event unveiling the emblem for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics happened at GM Place and was broadcast live across Canada.

The Big reveal of Ilanaaq.

The production values were high. In addition to the expected boring speakers, the more boring ones were before the TV broadcast started, there were Cirque de Soleil acrobats doing a performance, singing and of course pageantry.

The big celebration of Ilanaaq.

When I first saw the emblem, I wasn't that impressed. It lacked the slickness that the bid logo had. However the more I look at it, the more it grows on me. It is quite simple and easily recognizable.

There seems to be a lot of complaints in the public about how this logo does not represent Vancouver. I would grant that, however, it if you look at the logos from the recent Olympics that seems to be consistent with the trend. They rarely represent the region where they are being held, but often have national symbols. Now you can say that a inukshuk is not a Canadian symbol. True, but it is a symbol that is unique to Canada, and it represents the north which is appropriate for a winter Olympics. If you look at the emblems from other recent Olympics you will note that the trend is definitely to wards getting simpler and friendlier designs and this succeeds in that regard.

However, like the design or not, we are going to be seeing a lot of it over the next 5 years and probably beyond.

We can expect to start seeing this everywhere for the next 5 years.