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Sochi / Look of Games


paul

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Sochi seems to be going down the London route with differing colour combinations for their venues - orange, blue, purple, green, with the section of the quilt corresponding to that part repeated around the venue with a fade to white for full colour rings and solid colour behind white rings (as per IOC guidelines). It's a very similar system to what London did, especially when you closer into the details regarding transition to Paralympic branding.

There seems to be quite a bit of inconsistency though between the logo type and word mark (which is simply 'sochi 2014' in uppercase Sochi font) and I think this is a bit jarring. The danger of having a type-based logo…! I also notice incidents where all the colours are used (the uniforms, for example) it just goes over the top. The angling of the Sochi logo (note it is the logo, but without rings or Agitos, because you can't angle the rings- another version then) also isn't consistent with angles on vehicles. There just doesn't seem to be specific rules to how these things should be placed. I'm amazed they were allowed to crop the logo too, anytime this was attempted at LOCOG it was shot down as breaking copyright guidelines (even though on occasions it looked far superior).

That said against the white of the Winter Games it will look spectacular, if there is anywhere that has a good run of colours in say the banners. It also has enough vibrancy and things to it that it keeps surprising across the competition. The signage seems to speak the same visual language and despite being similar to London's shards, Sochi's diamonds have a symmetry about that looks to be executed well.

I'm excited to see more as the Games unveil themselves. Branding a Games is never perfect, there's simply too many variables, and what seems like good design ideas at the start can cause all manner of headaches by Games time, but that's what the whole learning curve of the Olympics is all about.

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Except for the poorly designed torch, weird cauldron and boring pictograms, I'm very satisfied with Sochi's design choices so far. Folks here on the boards sometimes overreact on Sochi 2014 as if they never could get over their Cold War Era rivalries.

I promise you it's not that. If you recall, I wasn't very supportive of London's aesthetic choices either, though I did soften a little bit by the time the Games were up and running. Maybe Sochi will win me over. So far I'm not sold.

I bought a shirt that displays the look in blue. Some reactions by people who had no clue of it's significance.

1) "What a nice Hawaiian shirt."

2) "That looks like something a nurse would wear."

3) "Whoaa!"

Sounds about right.

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I dunno, I guess with the logo/wordmark, they are in a unique position for the Olympics.

The .ru version is the logo, whereas the *Sochi 2014* is the wordmark. We have seen very little complete logo branding in recent Olympic Games, so skipping the .ru is no different to the use of the wordmarks from London, Sydney, Athens etc etc.

I'm really liking the changing up using those warmer colours .

I even think the mascot works on those banners. The only downer is that they have failed to add any personality to the trio, the biggest stupidity being not giving them names.

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Overall I like the look - very effective with the warmer colours in the mountain cluster for example.

The negatives for me are the volunteer uniforms - the torch & the slogan (I hate this trend for slogans) but Hot.Cool.Yours. makes me want to vomit! Trying to hard & means nothing really. Btw it not Cool if your gay in Russia or oppose the Putin regime & these games are not Yours if you don't accept the dictator's regime. A big fail IMO!

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Overall I like the look - very effective with the warmer colours in the mountain cluster for example.

The negatives for me are the volunteer uniforms - the torch & the slogan (I hate this trend for slogans) but Hot.Cool.Yours. makes me want to vomit! Trying to hard & means nothing really. Btw it not Cool if your gay in Russia or oppose the Putin regime & these games are not Yours if you don't accept the dictator's regime. A big fail IMO!

Agreed. The whole idea is embarrassing and so amateurish.

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I'm really not a fan of the look of the games so far. Just too incoherent, too many colours everywhere and I still can't get past the logo.

London's look grew on me, so maybe I'll end up liking what Sochi is doing, but I'm really skeptical. I certainly don't think I'll like it as much as Vancouver's.

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