London 2012 Olympic Torch Unveiled

The design for the London 2012 Olympic torch which will be carried throughout the UK next year has been unveiled. The golden cone will travel 8,000 miles over 70 days next summer, before arriving in London for the opening ceremony on 27th July.

The torch was designed by east London designers Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby and has been built to allow the flames to burn out through the 8,000 tiny holes for onlookers to see. These holes also represent the 8,000 people who will be carrying the torch and add the functional purpose of making the torch light enough for children to carry.

Style and Function

Indeed, this matching of style, symbolism and practicality was something at the forefront of the designers' minds: 

"We felt it should be something that's really beautiful and simple, but it had to feel like a functional object, a piece of sporting equipment like a baton"

However, there will not just be a single torch, but 8,000 of them all playing their part in a huge relay across Britain. Each torchbearer will be given their own torch which will burn for the allotted distance they have to run (300m on average) before they will pass the flame on to the next runner. This will be repeated over and over again, until the torch has travelled the length and breadth of the country, coming within an hour's travelling time of 95% of the UK population. The organizers expect hundreds of thousands of people to turn out to see the torch pass nearby them.

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