I don’t care what some people say, I love the Olympics. I love the padgentry, I love the curious nature of more obscure the sports. I love it all 1. I think it stems from my being just the right age for the 1992 Abertville, 1994 Lillehammer and 1998 Nagano Winter Games, and the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games2. As I have grown, one thing I do not care for is the design. The recent Olympic pictogram and logo designs have been atrocious. The last year that I can point to as having any character is the 2000 Sydney Summer Games. The incoporation of the boomerang was unique but not overwraught like the 1996 Atlanta and 2004 Athens Red-figured pottery style.
On November 7 the 2016 Rio Summer Games Committee unveiled their pictograms and I have to say that I am throughly impressed3. The thin to thick ratio of the stroke of the people gives a sense of motion and liveliness. The “pebble” shape gives it a consistency that most of the other years have lacked and the color choices fit with the location and atmosphere of the 2016 Summer Games.I find the 2016 Summer Games pictograms pleasing and I look forward to the Summer Games in Rio, despite the looming problems.
- Except the cheating ↩
- Interesting Note from [Wikipedia][11]: In 1986 the IOC decided to stagger the Summer and Winter Games. Instead of holding both in the same calendar year the committee decided to alternate them every two years, although both Games would still be held on four-year cycles. It was decided that 1992 would be the last year to have both a Winter and Summer Olympic Games. There were two underlying reasons for this change: first was the television lobby’s desire to maximise advertising revenue as it was difficult to sell advertising time for two Games in the same year; second was the IOC’s desire to gain more control over the revenue generated by the Games. It was decided that staggering the Games would make it easier for corporations to sponsor individual Olympic Games, which would maximise revenue potential. The IOC sought to directly negotiate sponsorship contracts so that they had more control over the Olympic “brand”. The first Winter Olympics to be hosted in this new format were the 1994 Games in Lillehammer. ↩
- Unlike my feelings on their logo. ↩
