Deepblue Ideas

One of the most quintessential design elements for each Olympic Games is the pictograms used as visual shorthand for each sport. Anyone who watches the Olympics will find themselves immersed in a sea of these small icons appearing throughout the Games in all sorts of contexts.

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Diving into Designers’ Favorite Olympic Sport: the Pictograms 🥇

One of the most quintessential design elements for each Olympic Games is the pictograms used as visual shorthand for each sport. Anyone who watches the Olympics will find themselves immersed in a sea of these small icons appearing throughout the Games in all sorts of contexts.

It’s essential to have a visual language for the Olympic Games since many athletes and viewers speak different verbal languages. “Pictograms were designed to create a universal and easily understandable language,” writes Markus Osterwalder in his book Olympic Games – The Design. Osterwalder is a graphic designer and a bonafide Olympics historian obsessed with Olympics design. Aside from his book and his accompanying The Olympic Design project, Osterwalder also curated the exhibition “Olympic Language – Exploring the Look of the Games” at the Olympic Museum in Switzerland, which was on view in 2018 and 2019.

Read the full story here: https://www.printmag.com/branding-identity-design/olympics-pictograms/

Words: Charlotte Beach

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