19th Annual GamesBids Olympic Logo Competition™ - LOGO SUBMISSIONS

[yoshi]

IT'S CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAAAAAAS*!

*And this time I actually mean it  And stopping off here on her way to the San Siro is Mariah - because if there's one thing we can all agree we need at this time of year, it's to hear that bloody song yet again listen to something seasonal. 

It is Christmas Eve in everywhere that it's not Christmas Day, which means it's time to finally give out the Christmas present we promised you 23 days ago, way back when the nights were lighter & some of us thought England could possibly play cricket (apologies to @Bear, I'm afraid this is what usually happens in Australia. Ashes in England usually resemble competitive sport). Anyway, the big event is here - it's time to reveal our 19th summer and winter logo comp victims cities! And there has been one change - because it'll the first time in god knows how long, we will introduce new years for this edition!

SUMMER 2040: ROME, ITALY

This comp counts down to what will be the fourth Olympics to open with the world's finest national anthem, & what better way to start 2026 than by honouring Italy in the capital city, the Eternal City, Rome. If there's anywhere that truly doesn't need an introduction, it's here. I mean, just follow any road. OK, recently it is literally famous for finding imaginative ways to not host the Olympics, but if you're a designer & you want inspiration, you'll find it here - so how will you brand a second Roman Olympics 80 years after the first?

WINTER 2042: SANTIAGO, CHILE

Last week they had an election, & this week they won a better one. In a moment to make even Kirsty proud, you voted to make history, sending the Winter Games (well the comp) over the Equator to South America & the mighty Andes for the very first time. Let's be honest, the World Cup will probably be in Saudi again so June will be free. It's not often we get to do something completely different, but Latin American Winter fits the bill tbf. How will you brand a truly historic Winter Olympic edition?

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And now THE RULES, copied and pasted (mostly) from last year. Kirsty doesn't even know what this is yet, so it stays as is:

We are, as ever, after logos that encompass the overall feel of the city and local influences that can be tied into a design concept. How can any of these cities articulate graphically what they could bring to future Olympics hosting? What flavour will they bring to the games? Will you inspire Rome to see a bid through for once?

The logos should be presented as full colour designs on white background. If you like, however, they can also be presented in black and white or utilised in forms like street banners, t-shirts, apps, vehicles, pins etc. For voting purposes, the main (colour) logo will be used on the polls, & extra stuff is not obligatory, but any extra material you produce may help you “sell” your design better to the wider GamesBids voting membership. 

 These logos are for the cities as they HOST the games. So you CAN use the rings, and don't need to include the words “Candidate City, Olympic Games 2040” or whatever the IOC want this week.

While we're on that, the new IOC branding & logo guidelines DO NOT apply, because we don't know how they work in practice yet. And also because they're stupid.

Please post your preliminary submissions on this thread. If you want to hold anything back to be presented as a “surprise” when voting starts you can contact me or Rols via PM and I'll tell you where you can send the extra material. However, it would be nice to see as many on-thread submissions as possible for people to chew over in-thread, & to try & make a worthy Olympic countdown. We can hope, right?

You can submit logos for either or both cities. However, you cannot enter more than one logo for the same city (see below). So entering one logo for each is fine, but two logos for Singapore, say, is not fine. You are able, encouraged even, to enter both 'sides' of the comp.

Feel free to post as many logo designs as you like, & to ask for feedback from our famously discerning electorate. If you really can't decide between your own designs for a city, feel free to start a poll (or to ask for one to be started). When the time comes for voting, however, you will be asked to settle on a maximum of ONLY ONE official logo per city as your official entry. 

The format depends on the numbers. Most likely, it will be the traditional exhausting exhaustive ballot preferred by the IOC, and the winter & summer 'halves' will be entirely separate, there will be two winners in the Olympic comp tradition. 

The competition is open to all members of GamesBids, or to any new legitimate members who join before the end of the submission period. I, with consultation, will rule on the legitimacy of new members.

As you would expect, I will rule on any disputes - always aiming to be as fair as possible in the process. As always, just remember, this is all meant to be fun. Olympic spirit, remember?. 

Hopefully this will spark up some action on the board. I'll be dipping in, keeping a close eye on things, but otherwise will try and keep my green yoshi-paws off until the polling stages.

The deadline for submissions is 1pm London time (that is, midnight in Sydney, as per tradition) on 31 JANUARY 2026. Thus, GB will begin 2026 with this, but the voting will coincide with Milan. Just one extra thing, due to the unusual existence of a massive 5-ringed deadline, there will be NO EXTENSIONS beyond perhaps the odd few hours on the 31st. With time of the essence, I will @ all the voters (yes all of you) in the next post.

And this is just to alert @Rob. Rob to the existence of the new comp in the hope that he'll do his traditional bit of putting up links to various free design programs etc for the benefit of those who want to take part but may not have the facility at the moment - @Bear does that too -, and to alert @GBModerator Rob to the fact the comp is back! In addition, we had a member ask in the election thread about info on programs people use - I don't know that world (those who can't...) but I'd encourage anyone who does to share.

All that is left to say is thank you Rols once again, and to all participants for having the guts to put your logos up for the annual GamesBids dissection, & may the best logos win - GOOD LUCK! 

Edited February 5 by Sir Rols

[Bear]

7 hours ago, yoshi said:

WINTER 2042

So it looks like Switzerland's privileged special magic targeted dialogue did work out in the end...

Anyways re-posting what I said in the election thread:

On 12/1/2025 at 6:57 PM, Bear said:

For those hoping to join the contest, I just wanna put it out there that Affinity is now FREE, as long as you log in with your Canva account (can be on the free tier too, no payment needed at all). This will be helpful for me because the program I normally used for graphic design was discontinued 

Also - reminder to NOT use Imgur, as it is blocked in the UK, and all images you upload here will show up censored for our UK friends.

[yoshi]

Had a rethink & decided to move to a new cycle. We might need to go back to 38 eventually if Switzerland actually passes its referendums

[Bear]

[baron-pierreIV]

     R

2040

  M

  A

(Damn system here won't let me single space.  OK, how do we post our graphics now that this thing only accepts URLs. etc.??

Edited December 25, 2025 by baron-pierreIV

[Sir Rols]

11 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

     R

2040

  M

  A

(Damn system here won't let me single space.  OK, how do we post our graphics now that this thing only accepts URLs. etc.??

You’ll need to go to a free image hosting site, like Flickr.com

[yoshi]

Can't you just paste it into the textbox as a filename? As you can tell this isn't an area of the comp I know much about but I seem to remember doing that the couple of times I sent (terrible) entries in while it was just Rols hosting? The only thing I do know is that Imgur is problematic now because anything posted there, I can't see 

[Sir Rols]

Nuh, these days images have to be from a url

[Bear]

-----

i think i'm having more fun doing the previews than actually doing the emblem...

[yoshi]

England have won a Test match! I say again, England have actually WON a Test match*! Let's celebrate with the mass @ I was planning to do ages ago! Here we go:

@Guilga @Olympian1010 @Palette86 @cfm Jeremie @Australian Kiwi @BTHarner @antiperspirant @krow @venuedesignlover @Citius Altius Fortius @Citizen-Seth @thatsnotmypuppy @Nacre @Nacholympic @PikyoK @KRATK @sebastien1214 @Cyriln @intoronto @StefanMUC @Faster @baron-pierreIV @hiroamorim @rio2016man @Ikarus360 @TorchbearerSydney @TorchbearerAA @FYI @Durban Sandshark @Quaker2001 @Alexjc @arwebb @Olympian2004 @Brekkie Boy @Karenina @panamfan @Anthony @GBModerator @DamC @JMarkSnow2012 @AmaniS @Tatsh @WD96 @mr.bernham @mattygs @kevzz @olympiaki-agones @fatixxx @zigzag @Athensfan @Olympic Fan Darcy @Shiruba98 @Olympian2005 @BigVic @Dave @SkiFreak @Iceman @stryker @Tony E Loves Architecture @Hansfromdenmark @Lee @Kenadian @Hightowerio86 @gotosy @Roger87 @Cape Town 2020 @HenryOaks @Michelle @AustralianFan @Faster @Josh0108

And the previous comp winners: @Rob2012 @DannyelBrazil @demetrius @paul @barrack @Aussie bum/ @Mr Tickle @aismanggo @woohooitsme83 @VIK @JDCLauron @Jon Will Chambers @Victorian @Glacib @Bear @Scotguy II @corn_zxl & @Sir Rols  

*if you can call whatever the hell that actually was a Test match 

Edited December 27, 2025 by yoshi

[Sir Rols]

33 minutes ago, yoshi said:

*if you can call whatever the hell that actually was a Test match 

Wasn’t it just two consecutive ODIs - Aus won the first and England won the second?

[Nacholympic]

On 12/24/2025 at 9:25 AM, yoshi said:

 

WINTER 2042: SANTIAGO, CHILE

WELCOME TO SANTIAGO!

http://[url=https://postimg.cc/R32zS412][img]https://i.postimg.cc/pTLVBdmV/Gemini-Generated-Image-nhp7zynhp7zynhp7.png[/img][/url]

 

 

[Nacholympic]

 

WELCOME TO SANTIAGO! 

WELCOMETO THE SOUTH!

[Nacholympic]

LOGO EXPLAINED:

The logo is a minimalist representation of the spirit of the games: modern, elegant and sustainable. All the word is written in glittering ice from the morning frost which is very common in Santiago and most part of Chile during the winter time.

- The S is a downhill track. Also maybe the roads that are in the Andes to go to the top of the mountains and all kinds of transportations should use.

- Both As are a representation of the peaks of Los Andes which are visible from every part of Santiago. Also is where snow sports take place.

- the N is an ice track used for speed skating and figure skating.

- the T is a ski jump trampoline

 - I and G are parts of ice and morning frost

- The final O is a snowball

 

The logo is used in different settinggs which are highly recognizable sceneries:

- A steamy glass, which separates the outdoor cold weather and a warm inside space.

- The rain falling down in Santiago. Despite snow is very rare in the city, it may have very rainy winters.

- A heater, which gives the feeling of comfort and warmness in winter time. A heating can be related to relaxing times, when you enjoy a cold night inside your space. Also it's a electric heating which represents the sustainability of eco friendly games.

- A recognizable element that most people use in winter: the woolen hat which gives you warm and identity.

- THE MOTTO: GO TO THE SOUTH! is not only and invitation, but also a command to open to new posibilities and a new world for the winter sports.

It's the very fisrt time that the Winter Games are held in the southern hemisphere, so, it's a strong reminder that  the south of the world also has a wide variety of posibilities to welcome you in winter time. GO TO THE SOUTH  is telling that the world should know that you can enjoy the winter time at any season of the year, even when the northern hemisphere is in summer.

WELCOME TO SANTIAGO!

WELCOME TO THE SOUTH!

[Sir Rols]

Nice one @Nacholympic! Thanks for getting the ball rolling. And a very strong start it is. @yoshi and Iwere just having a side bet on who would be the first to post an entry. Neither of us won (my money was on @Bear). And that gives me a bit more time to drum up some proper inspiration for myself, rather than throw in a placeholder.

[Sir Rols]

Okay, here we go with my first entry:

          

 

 

The logo is based on a kultrun, a drum and also a symbol of the infinite world, from the indigenous people of Chile, the Mapuche. The stars on the kultrun represent the Southern Cross, the most prominent and heralded constellation of the Southern Hemisphere night skies, marking the first winter games south of the equator. They also harken to the star on the Chilean national flag. The colours are pastel hues of the blue and red of the Chilean flag.

I chose not to go with the IOCs new graphics rules - I want to see how they’re used in action first, and there is such a thing as too much Olympic rings. A little goes a long way.
 

Edited December 28, 2025 by Sir Rols

[Bear]

2 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

I chose not to go with the IOCs new graphics rules - I want to see how they’re used in action first, and there is such a thing as too much Olympic rings. A little goes a long way.

19 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

Neither of us won (my money was on @Bear)

Sorry to ruin your wager, Sir Rols 

Unfortunately while I do have the design for Rome itself ready, trying to insert the Olympic rings in a way that looks fine and balanced has been an issue. I might have to switch things up (I'm already on version 3.2 of my initial concept design 😭) before I release the finished product. As for Santiago, I'm still on the inspiration stage...

[Nacholympic]

I had forgotten...!!!!!

Now it's complete!

WELCOME TO SANTIAGO!

WELCOME TO THE SOUTH!

[Sir Rols]

This one’s more in-line with the new IOC formats…

[Sir Rols]

I don’t think it really needs an explanation, but let’s just say the idea came to me when the intro for “I, Claudius” showed up on my Facebook feed
 

 

Now, THAT was peak BBC TV!

Edited December 30, 2025 by Sir Rols

[Sir Rols]

And just a few more observations, after the fact, about my Roma logo (and to bump the thread again).

I didn’t consciously think of these things while I was doing it, but I’ve since realised that it’s very much in tradition with past Roma Olympic logos.

The mosaic, for example, was used in its 2004 bid, as well as the sports Pictograms it used for 1960:

 

And the use of Roman numerals a\harked back to 1960’s games logo

And, of course, Rome has made much of its imperial past. That’s only natural - what a heritage to draw upon!

 

[yoshi]

2026! Happy New Year, an Italian Winter Olympic year - & what better way to celebrate than with new Italian & Winter logos for Rome & Santiago? There's also less than a month to go until the deadline at 1pm London time on January 31 - which remember, can't be extended for more than a few hours. Good luck

Edited January 1 by yoshi

[Sir Rols]

Just giving a bump, and to also show what Santiago’s come up with before… basically around d it’s 2023 PanAm games.

The final games logo:

Before this, and perhaps more pertinent to the winter comp, it used this bid logo:

 

That’s about all I could find, but perhaps our santiaguino members, @Nacholympic?, might know of other logos

[Victorian]

2197aa93-221e-4b87-980b-d42de91feb57 (492×409)

[Sir Rols]

2 minutes ago, Victorian said:

2197aa93-221e-4b87-980b-d42de91feb57 (492×409)

Is that a submission @Victorian? I’m just seeing a link that doesn’t  go anywhere