2008
2004
1948
1936
Berlin
The first pictorial signs for
sport were devised by the
1936 Olympics in Berlin.
Many of the achievements
and innovations of those
games are unfortunately
associated with the Nazi
swastika, and no one has
ever been keen to draw
attention to them. They
were, however, the very
first Olympics to be
televised, and in terms of
organization this was an
unprecedented feat. Part
of the preparation
consisted of developing a
system of pictograms.
Visually minimized and
systematized, the picto-
grams were highly
abstract and extremely
graphic. It was not the
sporting action itself that
provided the symbolic
motifs, but the apparatus
used. A uniform pictorial
language thus emerged
from this systematic use
of motifs together with a
thick ring in the back-
ground, which gave the
individual sports a
common denominator.
1964
London
After the 1936 Berlin
Olympics, owing to the
Second World War, the
next Games did not
take place until 1948 and
were hosted by London.
Once again pictorial
images were used
for all the different sports.
By being framed in a sort
of shield these images
took on the
aura of a coat of arms,
although they did not
follow any particular
system – sometimes
they showed the appara-
tus, at other times the
athletes themselves,
either partial or
complete..
1968
Mexico City
Tokyo
In 1964, the Olympic
Games were held for the
first time in an Asian
country, with Asian
signs. Since the Japanese
have a totally different
system of lettering, it was
essential to
find an alternative
method of communica-
tion that was independent
of language and
culture. Masaru Katsumi
was appointed to devise a
totally new pictorial
system to
indicate the different
sports. Since then, picto-
grams have been a
permanent design feature
in these quadrennial
games..
1972
The pictograms for the
1968 Mexican Olympics
were also designed for an
international
audience, but they used a
completely different
visual language to those
of the Tokyo
Olympics four years
earlier. Instead of illustrat-
ing the athletes in action,
designers
Manuel Villazón and
Matthias Goeritz symbol-
ized the various sports by
means of the relevant
apparatus. This gave the
pictograms a more
striking impact as the
apparatus
alone generally required
fewer details, making the
form more compact and
closed. However, for
subsequent Olympics,
with an increasing
number of sports in the
program, the apparatus
alone could not provide
enough distinctive
features, and it was
commonly felt that the
athletes rather than their
equipment should be the
focal point.
1976
Munich
The designer Otl Aicher
followed the example of
the Japanese in dispens-
ing of any individual style
of pictorial language for
his Olympic pictograms,
instead using stereotyp-
ing and systematization
to reduce the motifs to an
almost idealized abstrac-
tion.
In 1967, Otl Aicher was
commissioned as the
official designer for the
1972 Munich Olympics.
The visual uniformity of
the different modes of
communication – logos,
colors, dress, outfits,
information and advertis-
ing material – presented
an image of these
Olympics that is still
recognized today all over
the world.
The pictograms provided
visual markers. The
stereotyped, idealized
representation of the
different sports, through a
system that was as
consistent as an alphabet,
made a tremendous
impact with its basic,
minimized geometrical
forms.
1984
1980
Los Angeles
Montreal
Moscow
In addition to the high
*The Canadian Olympic
costs of the rights to Otl
Committee acquired the
Aicher’s pictograms, the
rights to the pictogram
West’s boycott
system designed by Otl
of the Moscow Olympics
Aicher for the 1972
prevented these symbols
Munich Olympics and
– now firmly established –
used it in the 1976
from being
Montreal Olympics
used a third time.
without any modifica-
tions.
In the 1970’s, a young
architecture student from
Lenningrad, Nikolai
Belkov, designed a
series of pictorgrams for
the individual Olympic
sports as part of his final
examination.
Like the series used in
Tokyo, Munich, and
Montreal, these adhered
to a strict concept.
Each pictogram consisted
of a black background in
the form of a square with
rounded
corners, pierced by the
white silhouette of the
athletes. The rounded
corners of the square
were echoed by the
uniform and systematic
rounding of the figures’
limbs. In 1980, Belkov’s
pictograms were taken up
and used in the Moscow
Olympics’ corporate
design.
1988
Four years after the West
had boycotted the
Moscow Olympics, the
East took its revenge
with its own boycott of
the Los Angeles Games.
Once again, Otl Aicher’s
influence on the picto-
gram system was very
strong, although there
were clear differences.
The aim
was to individualize the
highly abstract stereotype
by varying the details. The
bodies of the athletes
were composed of
individual forms, and
head, trunk, arms and legs
were not
actually joined together.
As in Aicher’s pictograms,
the structure was system-
atic, but the
design drew more atten-
tion to the figure. For
example, even when the
leg was outstretched, the
calf was still distinguish-
able and, like the arms,
was conical. The athlete’s
bodies were conveyed by
filled shapes, in formal
contrast to their appara-
tus, which was depicted
exclusively through lines.
1992
Barcelona
Seoul
In 1985, the Seoul Olym-
pic Committee commis-
sioned the graphic
designer Buyong
Hwang to design a new
series of pictograms,
which were used for the
1986 Asian Games.
There were, however, a
few problems when it
came to the Olympics. In
1976, the Canadian
Olympic Committee had
acquired the rights to Otl
Aicher’s pictograms, and
they forbade the use of
Buyong Hwang’s work on
the grounds
that it was too similar to
Aicher’s. The Seoul
Olympic Committee
decided that Buyong
Hwang should design an
entirely new series,
which he did.
2000
1996
Atlanta
The pictograms used at The Atlanta pictograms
the Barcelona Olympics brought to an end the
were also heavily influ- run of geometrical,
enced by Otl stereotyped forms of
Aicher, whose work symbol. They harked back
provided the basis for to the ancient figures
designer Josep M. Trias’s seen on Corinthian and
new pictogram system. Attic vases.
However, Trias changed Their degree of iconicity
the strict geometrical was therefore consider-
structure of the symbols ably higher than that of
in favour of a freer, their predecessors. The
brushstroke form, which representation of the
reduced the human body body in silhouette was
to three elements: head, essentially true to nature
arms and legs. The trunk and incorporated far
was omitted altogether more physical features,
but could be visualized in but the form tended to
the white space between lose some of its impact as
the black strokes. a result. It is interesting to
note that in Atlanta a
completely new form of
symbol was used for the
pentathlon. Since 1972
the symbol had been a
rider with five dots, but
for the Atlanta Games the
rider was replaced by a
runner and the individual
sports were represented
by a flower with five
petals.
The Olympic Games have played a special role in the history of the pictogram. They were
the intitial impetus behind the creation of international pictorial signs. Examples are
from the Summer Olympics as those sports tend to be the best known.
Sydney
Athens
Four years after the The thirty-five pictograms
naturalistic pictograms of designed for the Athens
Atlanta, Sydney returned Olympics were inspired by
to abstract elements
symbols. As with the of Ancient Greek civiliza-
Barcelona design, the tion. The depiction of the
body was composed of athletes themselves drew
three elements – head, inspiration
arms and legs – and again from the black-figure vases
the trunk was left out. typical of Ancient Greece.
However, the depiction of Scratched white lines were
the arms and legs differed used on the figures to
a great deal from the bring out specific details
Barcelona figures. Instead and define the black
of Picasso-style brush- bodies. Cycladic marble
work, the arms and legs statues were also a clear
took the shape of the influence on the design,
boomerang used by with their elegant and
Aboriginal Australians – a dynamic forms. Even the
large boomerang for the format of the pictograms
legs and two smaller was derived from ancient
versions for the arms. history, using uneven
shapes to resemble shards
found in archaeological
excavations.
Beijing
TThe pictographs for the
2008 Beijing Olympics
include 35 icons, repre-
senting each of the
sports in the 2008
summer Games. The
designs, named ‘the
Beauty of the Seal’ are
based
on the strokes used for
seals, which were widely
used in inscriptions on
bones and bronze vessels
in ancient China some
3,000 years ago. Four
design institutes were
asked to
submit designs for the
pictographs by the
organization committee
in March of 2005. ‘The
Beauty of the Seal’, by the
China Central Academy of
Fine Arts, finally won out.