Branding for the Olympics can’t be an easy task. On one hand, you have to adhere to a stringent set of guidelines from the Olympic Committee that haven’t changed much over the years. On the other, it’s your city’s time in the limelight, and your design should speak to your own culture and history, or perhaps to where your country is headed in the future.
Finding the delicate balance between honoring the legacy and history of the games and claiming the games as your own must cause designers a thousand headaches. This past week, I’ve been reading up on the history of the Olympic brand and the process of creating the emblem for each of the games.
As the Olympics get underway tonight in Vancouver, I have to say that their emblem really stands out from many of the cities who have gone before.
The design is based on an inukshuk, a stone guidepost created by Canada’s Inuit people to guide travelers on their journey across the country’s arctic regions. The game’s official website states that the “inukshuk has become a symbol of hope and friendship, an eternal expression of the hospitality of a nation that warmly welcomes the people of the world with open arms every day.” For an event welcoming tens of thousands of people from across the globe, it seems like Vancouver couldn’t have picked a better symbol.
Some other strong examples from the past 20 years:
Compare those to the logos for the games taking place in the US in the past 20 years:
If I summed up my feelings about the emblems for the US games in one word, it would be underwhelmed. In my eyes, they fall completely flat, and speak nothing about what makes the United States or the title city unique. Where’s the nod to our history? To our values? Beijing and Sydney’s designs both speak strongly to their culture; there’s nothing generic-feeling about them. If you saw only the logo, chances are you’d be able to guess the country it represented. On the other hand, from its font to the human figure, the logo for 1996 Atlanta games seems more Romanesque than American. Salt Lake City’s snowflake emblem was a no-brainer.
As much as I like Vancouver’s, the emblem that really strikes a chord with me was designed for Rio’s 2016 Summer Olympics.
Rio’s emblem seems to highlight the zest for life that Brazilians are famous for. The design was loosely based on Rio’s Sugarloaf Mountain, reflecting “the pride that the city takes in its natural assets.” I love that an exclamation point is used in place of the 1 in the logo; it’s obvious that the city is truly excited about the games and their bid. Rio blew their big competitor in the bid for the games right out of the water. By comparison, Chicago’s logo looks more like branding for a telecommunications company.
What are your thoughts on the Olympic games? Are there any emblems or opening ceremonies that really stick out in your mind as showcasing the best of their country’s culture?
