What I would like to know is how do these people get away with charging thee prices they do for logo design?
The value of the work often comes down to the value of the brand it's for. In the case of the Olympics, this is a HUGE, worldwide event with millions of people watching. An agency is not going to charge the same fee as they would for a start-up or small business because the branding will be everywhere, on multiple platforms, for years. There's huge value in that and agencies know it.
Think about an airline. They have branding on planes, on uniforms, in terminals, on TV, print media, radio, apps, etc etc. That's a lot of places a brand can/will be visible, which clearly demonstrates there's huge value in that company. Compare that to a little local taxi company – essentially they do very similar things, and will have their branding in similar locations, but on a much smaller scale. You wouldn't charge them the same as the airline, even though they have similar needs.
On the flip side someone like the Olympics committee will not pay £2000 for an identity because they feel that budget is not representative of their brand, so they up the budget to keep it in line with what their brand is worth. Add to that the fact that it's often agencies with 100s of employees with high fees to start that do the work and you can understand why budgets and prices are so high.
