The Italian Jaunt
Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea…
Hang on a minute lads, I’ve got a great idea…
There’s a lot of them around. Here are some more.
Canadian design super-duo Hulse&Durrell, worked on what could only be described as my dream project. Researching 120 years of Olympic design heritage, they then documented and digitised hundreds of assets for use on officially licensed merchandise:
Beginning with the core elements of each Olympic Games identity (emblems, pictograms, mascots, and official posters), we set out to find their most authentic sources. The journey took us from the Olympic Museum archives in Switzerland to Olympic historians, private collections, and past-Games design directors around the world.
Where possible, emblems, mascots, and pictograms were re-created with the original techniques of their time. Design manuals originally intended for use with protractors, compasses and paintbrushes became blueprints once again – this time with a digital toolset in mind.
For wordmarks, classic typefaces like Univers, Helvetica, Times, and Futura were adapted to reflect the movable type printing process of their respective times and places. Physical artifacts were also referenced against the modern Pantone colour matching system to ensure tonal authenticity.
The result is the most comprehensive, authentic Olympic art and design collection ever created.
Jealous? I’m green with envy.
Following a £272m conversion programme, London’s Olympic Stadium can now host both football and athletics. Has this secured it legacy?
Whereas the world’s foremost architects, graphic artists, typographers, iconographers and illustrators are asked to create their best work to celebrate each Olympic Games, still we wait for the Olympic movement to give equal consideration to the design of its websites.
The last two weeks have been amazing. I tried my best to sample as much of the Olympic fever as I could, but with so much going on, the spectacle was overwhelming. So much to see, so little time to see it.
Olympics happen once every four years. Most are unlikely to ever experience them in their own country. I get shivers whenever I see banners with the Olympic Rings on them. This is once in a lifetime event, and I intend to make the very most of it.
Charlie Brooker:
The Olympic rings have been whored around so much they’ve become valueless: a status symbol for a few corporations to tote like a badge for several weeks, impressing almost no one except themselves.
Increasing commercialism of the games threatens to undermine the Olympic movement.
Rather than showcase British interactive design talent, the biggest cultural event of our generation has been represented online by an uninspired mess that flies the flag for the status quo.
After two and a half weeks exploring various cities, it was finally on to Melbourne, the final stop on my short tour of Australasia.