Ron Turner 
Image © Gensler
Sports fans are an especially passionate and engaged group of consumers. Their loyalty to the teams they follow is unmatched; their dedication never waivers. Most brands would relish having such enthusiastic followers. Season after season, sports fans show up and do whatever they can to support the teams they love.
Image © Gensler
As I finished up my workout at a local gym the other day, I couldn’t help feeling something has been missing from my workout regimen lately. I have been feeling uninspired and frankly am finding it hard to get back into a routine. As I walked out, I realized what it was. I am no longer inspired by my gym. I looked around and noticed that the gym felt tired and un-energetic. It was the middle of a weekend day. The weather wasn't so perfect that everyone would rather have been outside, but it also wasn’t so bad that it would keep people from leaving their homes. This should have been peak gym time. The place should have been brimming at the seams with people all striving to reach their fitness goals. The gym is a well-established, national big box location in a densely populated area. So why was it so empty?
Laura Weiss 
Image © Jim Bahn
I’ll admit it, I was hooked. Even before Oracle Team USA began its improbable rise out of the basement of defeat, I was drawn to the spectacle of those huge ships slicing across San Francisco Bay. Up on their dual-hulled haunches, they were anthropomorphized by the audible groans they emitted while being maneuvered by their handlers.
This Olympics toned down the presence of sponsor companies in favor of pageantry and spectacle.
Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and American Michael Phelps have collected their gold medals; the 2012 Olympic games in London begin are now relegated to history. What does this all mean? It's time for me to get back to my normal life of NFL football and MLB baseball and all the familiar elements inherent to those leagues.
Tony Wilks 
These posters of Otl Aicher's brand design work for the 1972 hang in my kitchen as a reminder of how powerful effective branding can be.
Otl Aicher’s graphic design work for the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich, Germany is the gold standard by which all subsequent brand design work for Olympic Games should be compared. Hanging on my kitchen wall are two posters of Aicher’s work, and every morning as I’m sipping my coffee I’m reminded that even though 40 years has passed, the graphics have not aged at all. If Aicher’s work was released tomorrow, the freshness of the colors, the simplicity of the graphic language, and the way it communicates information would still come across as innovative and effective.
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