Favourite Olympic Fonts/Typefaces Poll 2024 Edition

[Sir Rols]

                   

 

This is a poll idea that came up from a comment/suggestion by @venuedesignlover. It’s not something we’ve done before, but I thought could be interesting to discus and vote.

A few comments on those presented. I’ve gone with totally original or specifically developed fonts used for particular games  Those not listed or shown usually used standard Ariel, sans serif or times Roman fonts. The 1990s hosts, for example, all seemed to use Times Roman typefaces in their logos and signages. 2000 seemed to be the birth of the original created typefaces for logos and such, and while a few since then (SLC, Athens, Vancouver, PyeongChang and Tokyo*) have gone with standard sans serif types, we’ve otherwise seen some a trend to very new typefaces especially created for their Olympics. That’s not to say that those earlier fonts weren’t good or used effectively, but to me they didn’t break any new typographical or design ground. Feel free to disagree, show examples and state your case for other Olympic typefaces you think I’ve egregiously snubbed.

Some of these types, especially Beijing, apparently have only been applied to the actual logos. Torino had other applications but I couldn’t find examples that worked well here. Sydney surprised me - I thought it was only used in the logo, but I found several examples of the full font type. Personally, though, I can’t recall it ever being used at the games beyond the logo.

London, and then onwards, we started seeing applications of the full new typefaces across the look and in wider signage and materials. I suspect more use of online applications drove that a bit too.

* The Tokyo one shown was NOT the one ultimately used. It was abandoned shortly after release following the plagiarism scandal surrounding the logo and they ultimately went with a standard sans serif font. But I was fascinated to see the disgraced logotype had already been used as the basis for a branding font for the games, and thought it as worth sharing and discussing. Personally I find it very intriguing, but very hard to read.

** The Milano-Cortina one is based on conjecture and a font they have just started using on their website. I’m surmising it is the games font (it was indeed what kicked off this thread/poll idea), but as far as I know nothing’s been said officially yet.

Edited May 11, 2024 by Sir Rols

[Sir Rols]

As to my personal thoughts and preferences:

I loved Sydney’s brand font, and rather proud we sparked off the more creative use of fonts. I could see though why it wasn’t more widely used - it would probably be messy and difficult to read,

London gets high marks for fully embracing a new font. Like all it’s branding, it was edgy and possibly hard to love, but by God it was effective in distinctively branding those games.

Loved Rio’s. It was attractive, distinctive and came sever so close to getting my vote for favourite, but at the end, that vote went to…

Paris! What’s not to love about the Paris font? It’s classy, simple, elegant, fully embraces its art deco flavour. Magnifique! As has been nearly every aspect of Paris’ branding and design.

[baron-pierreIV]

Just at a quick glance, I like Rio's best.  Quite playful.  

[venuedesignlover]

Quite happy that whole plagiarism scandal happened for Tokyo 2020. Could honestly not imagine the look of the games any differently than what it actually was. That proposed Tokyo 2020 font is a little too old-fashioned and I honestly love the basic, yet powerful actual font. Also love the Tokyo 2020 logo. 

Sydney and Rio are definitely by favorite “cursive fonts” out there. They’re both very welcoming and just really pleasant to look at. Sydney’s especially.

Not a fan of Beijing 2008, but I am a fan of Beijing 2022. Beijing 2008 feels like Sydney 2.0, Beijing 2022 really added to the Beijing 2022 in a good way. Though it does feel a little too corporate.

Also I’m loving the actual Milano Cortina emblem font that @Sir Rols displayed on the left. Something about that First M and last A extending like mountains make it so sleek and fashionable. Definitely one of my favorites so far but need to see it actually be implemented to like it. I’m also a fan of 2026 emblem itself.

London and Sochi are iconic, and wouldn’t come off nice as fonts by themselves but the way they were implemented with the look really sold them for me. Athens 2004 is very simple, but very elegant and really captures something “modern Greek”.

[BigVic]

Rio's  and Sydney's cursive fonts were the best 

[Bear]

vancouver 2010 snubbed...

[Sir Rols]

7 minutes ago, Bear said:

vancouver 2010 snubbed...

Lol! Thanks for that. I knew someone would find some omission I’d made.

Honestly, when I was googling all the games, the only result I got from “Vancouver 2010 font” and “Vancouver 2010 look” was the logo font, which I thought was not distinguished enough to stand out as an original typeface.

Actually, interesting those examples you gave. The “With glowing hearts” example you showed, with its rounded edges,  is not a match with the alphabet shown below it. It seems like Vancouver had three fonts then (counting the logotype).

 

[Bear]

1 hour ago, Sir Rols said:

Lol! Thanks for that. I knew someone would find some omission I’d made.

Honestly, when I was googling all the games, the only result I got from “Vancouver 2010 font” and “Vancouver 2010 look” was the logo font, which I thought was not distinguished enough to stand out as an original typeface.

Actually, interesting those examples you gave. The “With glowing hearts” example you showed, with its rounded edges,  is not a match with the alphabet shown below it. It seems like Vancouver had three fonts then (counting the logotype).

 

yep, you can see the two fonts I included here:

then there's the emblem font as well.

honestly I'm surprised the website for Olympic designs hasn't been linked yet in any of these polls (from what i've seen): https://www.theolympicdesign.com/

lots of cool stuff there, got a whole category on typefaces as well: https://www.theolympicdesign.com/olympic-games/typefaces/

[Sir Rols]

18 minutes ago, Bear said:

honestly I'm surprised the website for Olympic designs hasn't been linked yet in any of these polls (from what i've seen): https://www.theolympicdesign.com/

I used TheOlympicDesign.com a lot when I was doing the Look and Pictograms polls. Didn’t think to go there for the fonts (which was really just a whim that came up after @venuedesignlover was commenting on them in the Milano-Cortina thread). 

Looking through the typefaces there, the other miss - and I see now it was a MAJOR miss - was Mexico City 1968:

 

My vote for Paris still stands, but the page above just made me realise yet again how ahead of its time Mexico was with its Olympic look and graphics. It really was an amazing, trend-setting games graphics-wise.

Edited May 12, 2024 by Sir Rols

[TorchbearerSydney]

Munich 1972 for all graphics for me...it was so clean and modern and ahead of its times.

[Sir Rols]

18 minutes ago, TorchbearerSydney said:

Munich 1972 for all graphics for me...it was so clean and modern and ahead of its times.

I attribute Munich’s look and graphics a lot with initially kindling my passion for the games. I remember having a little preview booklet (I think 10-year-old me picked it up at the dentist) with logos and maps and all the sports pictograms and such and it fascinated me. That so many of these became semi-official templates for games branding over the next quarter century or so is a tribute to the clarity and utility of the Munich branding. It’s almost a pity that’s it almost gets lost now because it was so ubiquitously used I succeeding games. That said, I’m a big fan now how graphics have become more imaginative and distinctive this century and now an integral and important part of the individual games’ identities.

Strictly on its typeface, though, I’m not sure I consider it having broke any new ground. It was a standard sans serif font (univers 55, developed in the 1950s) similar to Tokyo 64’s and used either exactly, or with slight variations, by many after. It certainly suited the clean, modern Munich look, but for the purposes of this poll, I was thinking more of assessing those fonts designed specifically for their games rather than generic fonts adopted fr Olympic use.

[Australian Kiwi]

Sydney 2000 for me. Not any bias on my part as an Australian, but I think it was unmistakably fresh and fun following years of very staid and careful typeface. 

Having said that though, I do like the stateliness of Atlanta 1996 (I think the MS Font 'Georgia' is based on it?)

[Bear]

LA28 is also not on this list, even though they too have a custom-made font... 😔 (not that I would have voted for it anyways, the font designed for the candidature phase was superior)

[Sir Rols]

9 minutes ago, Bear said:

LA28 is also not on this list, even though they too have a custom-made font... 😔 (not that I would have voted for it anyways, the font designed for the candidature phase was superior)

I didn’t even look that far. Apart from the thick blocky logo text, I can’t say I’ve seen much else yet to have an idea. I just figured we’ve still got most of the look and stuff ahead to look forward to.

[sebastien1214]

I had the chance to visit the Olympic Park in Munich a few months ago. I loved the look of the games. And the font used (Helvetica?) fit perfectly into the whole.

Afterwards, in general, I love all the artistic and visual productions of the 1970s, so obviously I was going to love the design of Munich.

But Mexico City remains unbeatable, for me, especially for its avant-garde side as some have pointed out. I mean, over half a century later it hasn't aged at all, it could totally be the design of much newer games.

For recent games, I really don't like the initial design of Tokyo (before the scandal). And the final design, to me, just makes me say "meh". Nothing crazy.

My two favorites are Rio and Paris; because in these two cases, we really feel that the chosen font perfectly reflects the host country or the host city.

[baron-pierreIV]

The supposed true story behind the development of the Mexico68 look -- by a team of international artists recruited from the New York scene. 

The story of the 1968 Mexico City olympics logo (mexiconewsdaily.com) 

What's even odder to me is that while it took an international team for Mexico to develop its look, I wonder how Grenoble 1968 developed its pictograms which had that same "OpArt-influenced" look-- yet was like ten months ahead of Mexico68?  I'm sure there was no collaboration at all.  But I wonder how the French designers felt when they saw what appeared in Mexico?? 
 

[Rob2012]

On 5/11/2024 at 5:31 PM, venuedesignlover said:

Quite happy that whole plagiarism scandal happened for Tokyo 2020. Could honestly not imagine the look of the games any differently than what it actually was.

Well, we could be about to find out...

 

[venuedesignlover]

Perfect timing! I love it, but could that whole aesthetic be Olympics worthy?

[baron-pierreIV]

On 5/14/2024 at 3:45 AM, Rob2012 said:

Well, we could be about to find out...

 

Why different fonts for "World Athletics" and "Championships"?  It speaks very BENIHANA to me!!