Favourite Olympic Pictograms Poll 2023 Edition

[Sir Rols]

 

 

I was over at Skyscrapercity to see the anti-wokists’ response to the Paris pictograms and came across the diagram at the top here. It struck me as perfect to compare the evolution of pictograms over the years since 1964, and that we haven’t done one of these polls for a while.

I don’t think we’ve done pictograms before.

Vote and comment away!

 

Edited February 12, 2023 by Sir Rols

[Sir Rols]

A few thoughts, and things I learned, while putting this together:

* Tokyo 1964 was the first games to introduce sports pictograms. They were seen as a way to bridge the divide between kanji/hiragana and western scripts to be able to identify the sports for both domestic and international audiences.

* Between 1972 and 1996, there wasn’t really evolution in the pictograms - a few minor tweaks at most between games. Munich 1972 is therefore probably the signature template for pictograms in this period.

* From Sydney 2000 onwards, the hosts started putting their own distinctive “spin” on the pictograms. For the most part, however, they still followed the stick figure format familiar since Munich. That is until…

* Paris have been the most radical departure from the old format, producing pictograms that are meant to be animated and focussing on the sports equipment rather than anthropomorphic figures. Really, Paris is only one of two who have gone beyond the anthropomorphic tradition, the other being…

* Mexico City 1968, the one I voted for. I think Mexico’s were simple, colourful and easy to identify and fitted so well with their overall look. Just again goes to show how far ahead of the game Mexico was when it introduced the concept of an Olympic “Look” and how successful and distinctive they were with their visual branding.

I’m also a fan of Paris’, love that they’ve thrown down a challenge to the future and penned up a new avenue for distinctive branding. But Mexico to me win’s through its simplicity and use of colour.

An honourable mention from me also to Athens, which I think did a great job in being distinctive, giving them a Greek “spin” and keeping them in tune with their overall “Look”.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Sir Rols

[baron-pierreIV]

My favorite Summer is Atlanta 1996.  They used the classic human body -- NOT those dumb stick figures!! 

But of all, I like the Grenoble 1968 pictos best.  

[Sir Rols]

4 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

My favorite Summer is Atlanta 1996.  They used the classic human body -- NOT those dumb stick figures!! 

I’d forgotten about that aspect, and didn’t notice when I posted the chart. You’re right, they are a bit more naturalistic. To my mind, though, still just a slight variation on a, by then, very old theme/style.

4 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

But of all, I like the Grenoble 1968 pictos best.  

I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen those before. Yep, they are pretty cool indeed. Very distinctive.

Speaking of winter pictograms, I always liked Lillehammer’s, based on the old rock glyphs from Norway

Maybe I’ll get around to adding a  winter games section to this poll one day.

[Rob2012]

The boomerang legs and Grecian Urn depictions mean Sydney and Athens stand out when it comes to recent Games. When laid out like that there really is a 25 year period of much of muchness isn't there?

I'll just add that with London we had two sets of pictograms; the dull ones shown on the diagram (generally used in signage), and the dynamic ones which were much more interesting and much more ubiquitous in and around the venues (and which I've got on a t-shirt). I think they were meant to reference the original Harry Beck tube maps, but I might've misremebered...

https://someoneinlondon.com/projects/london-2012s-brandworld

 

 

[SportGuyz]

Tokyo pictograms looked pretty nice to me although they were quite similar to the other ones.

[TorchbearerSydney]

Paris pictograms are a huge fail for me- they are not legible or graphically impressive and their meaning is a mystery.... I could only guess half....

[Sir Rols]

14 hours ago, TheOtherRob said:

I'll just add that with London we had two sets of pictograms; the dull ones shown on the diagram (generally used in signage), and the dynamic ones which were much more interesting and much more ubiquitous in and around the venues (and which I've got on a t-shirt). I think they were meant to reference the original Harry Beck tube maps, but I might've misremebered...

Thanks for reminding me Rob. Yeah, I thought those pictograms were better and more representative of the games. They’re the ones I remember more and I think were more widely used in branding. I’ve amended the chart to use those instead - when I took the original chart from SSC yesterday, I just added Tokyo and Paris to it and didn’t look too closely at the rest.

21 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

But of all, I like the Grenoble 1968 pictos best.  

And I’ve also now added the winter ones and put in a winter poll - unfortunately, if you’ve already voted in the original it seems you can’t vote again in the new section. Maybe those eight people (at time of writing) can post their preferences - unless they have alt accounts 

[Sir Rols]

Another tidbit I picked up hunting down the pictograms for these is that prior to 1964, when Tokyo brought out the first stylised and standardised pictograms (or at least how we think of them today), many host cities did use illustrations of the sports at their stadiums or in their programs. Examples below:

Looking at those, I quite like Rome’s mosaic style, which fitted in with their sorta proto-look of the games.

Interestingly, Berlin and London ‘48 did seem to be approaching a pictogramic form in their illustrations.

If anyone’s interested in more information on pictograms in general, and the various games’ pictograms designers, philosophies etc in particular, here’s a good site: The Olympic Design Dot Com

Edited February 12, 2023 by Sir Rols

[Olympian1010]

5 hours ago, SportGuyz said:

Tokyo pictograms looked pretty nice to me although they were quite similar to the other ones.

Tokyo gets a bonus point for introducing animated pictograms. I enjoyed that innovation during the broadcasts of the two most recent Olympics.

[Rob2012]

I particularly like the Art Competition pictogram from London 1948:

https://www.olympic-museum.de/pictograms/symbols1948.php

And on reflection, it looks like Paris 2024 has just chored Berlin's concept:

https://www.olympic-museum.de/pictograms/symbols1936.php

Edited February 12, 2023 by TheOtherRob

[Rob2012]

Another opinion

 

[Sir Rols]

An interesting interview with Paris’ Head of Design talking about the Paris pictograms and delving into the history of pictograms. A good read.

Paris 2024 Head of Design speaks of "test" to "break" literal images for sports pictograms

[BigVic]

On 2/12/2023 at 8:31 AM, TorchbearerSydney said:

Paris pictograms are a huge fail for me- they are not legible or graphically impressive and their meaning is a mystery.... I could only guess half....

Not a fan of it. I prefered Tokyo's pictograms 

[baron-pierreIV]

I think LA28's will be dynamic -- to go with their Logo, but how do they make the "dynamic" work on flat print?  
 

[Bear]

3 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

I think LA28's will be dynamic -- to go with their Logo, but how do they make the "dynamic" work on flat print?  
 

Tokyo 2020's pictograms were dynamic (assuming you mean animated like the emblem), for print versions they just used a static version as seen in the above images