Study Task 02 - Olympic Symbols

Olympic Symbols 

The task was to create a pictogram for an Olympic sport, this pictogram had to use only colour and shapes to show the chosen sport. I started by looking for the current

Olympic symbols for different sports, but I wasn't just looking at the upcoming 2016 games. I wanted too look into how they have evolved over the years and see what ones work best and how they could be improved. After a little research I came across a PDF that showed all the pictograms from the 1964 games to the 2016 games, within these many games there was a couple that really caught my eye which I then looked at closer. 

First was the Munich 1972 games which was mentioned in the lecture, I found the design of this very simple and effective, the design follows the a geometric style but it can still be very flex able with the sport it is showing. The black and white colourway is also not too over the top and helps keep with the simple 45 and 90 degree style. 

Designed by Otl Aicher. 

Sydney 2000, although not as simple as the Munich games the way the designer has used the boomerang to symbolise Australia in each pictogram works very well to show homage to the traditional Australia culture. The colour of these pictograms are also very representative of the country to, as I feel that this is what all countries should do so that they can really show off the countries colours to the rest of the world. 

Designed by Saunders Design

London 2012, one of the most realistic looking pictograms used for the games the this with first games to have two different styles of pictograms. They had one as seen above used for posters and wayfinding. And then a second a 3D animated style used for TV and internet, this making them more interactive. The colour was keeping with the overall theme of London 2012, each colour used was to represent a part of London/UK culture. These colours were inspired by the worlds of media, communications and fashion. The colours were carefully chosen to communicate the spirit of the London 2012 energetic, spirited, bright and youthful.

Designed By SomeOne Design Agency

After looking at all the different sports that are in the Olympic games I deiced that Track Cycling was my chosen pictogram as this is one of my biggest interests when it comes to olympic sports. I looked at all of the different pictograms that have been used for cycling over the years and I deiced that I the Munich was the most effective as it was clean and too the point, but it could have done with a toy bit more detail. So I took my inspiration form Munich and the detail from the London games as a starting point. 

I started by design by looking at current track bikes and the side profile of the bike as this would be the easiest way to so a bike in flat format. From looking at my research I had seen that a bike has been symbolised as just two wheels (circles), so I thought I would use this idea and then make it look more detailed by adding handle bars.

This is my first idea, I have taken inspiration from the Munich games but I wanted too make it more detailed as preciously stated so I added the idea of movement too the wheels. As well as this just having half of the head was to symbolise having a head down to go fast. 

Idea two, I expanded on the first idea and looked more into what bikes looked like, many bike look different but I wanted too clearly show that it was track cycling not road cycling. This is why I added the air coming of the riders back and then the tri-spoke wheel as this is symbolising the sport better to the receiver. 

My third design, I took ideas from both of the previous designs. The wheels from design two were to complicated so I changed the more the first one, it was more simple specially as this pictograms would be used at a small scale a lot of the time. It has followed the clean and clear style that was used in the 1972 olympics, the sharp angles help to show the speed along with the lines as this is an important factor of the sport. The more detailed pictogram makes it more interesting from a design point of view when you see it being used.