Just loving this.

You may have seen the New York City ads (by BBH New York) that have been on the TV lately, or perhaps read about them over on the Creative Review blog.

They feature the chunky, and controversial, new New York City identity created by Wolff Olins. They were the folks behind the London 2012 Olympics identity, and their work for New York seems to be kicking up a similar storm, particularly as featured on the recently rebranded yellow cabs.

The New York Times ran a story about the branding of the cabs, and invited a series of designers to critique the design and create their own alternatives (there's a full list of all the articles here).

They then posted a picture of an unbranded cab, and invited readers and designers to contribute their own designs. You can see the results here and here. We've posted a selection of the entries below - you might even spot our own light-hearted response in there somewhere.

Some designers can get a bit huffy at times like this, thinking that design free-for-alls devalue our skills and profession. In general we couldn't agree more, and if you'd like to know why spec work is bad, just check out the No Spec site, read this AIGA article, or take a look at their sample letter for sending to clients who ask for free work.

But in this situation, we think it's just great that the public are getting involved in a relatively serious debate about design, and that a national newspaper is covering graphic design in such great depth.

Read more about the cab branding at Design Notes, and more about Wolff Olins flexible branding schemes in this NYT article.