1964～2012年奧運的icon設計

Tokyo 1964

The first systematically designed set of pictograms for both sports and services was created for the Games in Tokyo in 1964 by Masasa Katzumie as artistic director and Yoshiro Yamashita as graphic designer.

The Tokyo project included the design of 20 pictograms for the different sports and a further 39 general information pictograms.

Mexico City 1968

Artistic directors: Manuel Villazon,   Mathias Goerlitz
Graphic designers: Lance Wyman,   Eduardo Terrazas

Munich 1972 & Montreal 1976

The pictograms used in Munich, created by the Director of the Higher Institute of Graphic Arts in Ulm, Otl Aicher.

Moscow 1980

On the OCOG-80`s request, graduates from several art colleges took up the design of the pictographs of the insignia as the theme of their dissertations. With the help of the resachr institute of industrial aesthetics, the Organizing Committee chose the work submitted by Nikolai Belkow, Mukhina Art School graduate from Leningrad.

The State Committee for Inventions and Discoveries under the USSR Council of Ministers recognised the new design as a production pattern.
Though highly stylised, the new signs are easily comprehensible. They are smoother in outline because they are constructed at an angle of 30 `- 60 `(previously the angle was  45` – 90`).

Los Angeles 1984

Designers: Keith Bright and Associates.

Six criteria were isolated as essential to a successful pictogram:

• Clear communication; pictograms, by themselves, should be recognizable by people of other nations.
• Consistency; the pictograms should be identifiable as a set, through uniform treatment of scale, style and subject.
• Legibility and practicality; they should be highly visible, easy to reproduce in any scale and in positive or negative form.
• Flexibility; the pictograms should not be dependent upon a border and should work equally well in a positive or negative form.
• Design distinction; the pictograms should avoid stylistic fads or a commercial appearance and should imply to a worldwide audience that Los Angeles has a sophisticated, creative culture.
• Compatibility; they should be attractive when used with their Los Angeles Olympic design elements and typestyles.

Seoul 1988

The sports pictograms used for 1988 Seoul Olympics were distinguishable from the past Games by the division of the composition into trunk, arms, legs and head. The connecting parts for arms and legs were treated in a simple and clear fashion but resembling as close to the composition of human frame as possible. Sports pictograms were also utilized as elements of expression in various public relations and printed materials, including decoration, admission tickets for each sport and posters.

Barcelona 1992

The person in overall charge of the visual style of those Games was the great designer Otl Aicher, under whose direction a series of sports and services pictograms were created from a basic geometric formula. In Barcelona, though the Munich shapes were still used as a starting point, the break in style was more audacious, as the geometric formula was abandoned in favour of the characteristic line of the emblem created by Josep. M. Trias and its representational simplification of the human body in three parts (head, arms and legs) was also adopted.

Atlanta 1996

For the Atlanta Games, 84 pictograms were used—31 sports and 53 service pictograms—as well as 7 zone code and 5 transportation code symbols.

Sydney 2000

The pictograms specially designed for the Sydney Olympic Games were used as a directional aid to spectators, athletes and officials during the days of competition in 2000.

Here is an interesting case study “Look and image” on The branding of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Athens 2004

The ATHENS 2004 Sport pictograms were inspired by three elements of ancient Greek civilization. The simplicity of the human form is inspired by the Cycladic figurines. The Artistic expression of the Pictogram derives from the black-figure vases, where solid black shapes represent the human body and a single line defines the detailing of the form.

Beijing 2008

For the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the creative team designed simple but aesthetic patterns, based on Jingwen, the script found on 2,000-year-old bronze carvings to represent 35 different Olympic sports and 20 Paralympic sports displayed in “pictograms”. Here is a fantastic interview with Min Wang, design director for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

London 2012

Designed by Someone, the London Olympic Pictograms will be used on merchandise, way-finding signs, tickets, and other official print material for the 2012 games. Someone has provide two versions, a simple black and white and a more colorful option inspired by the London Underground map.