Olympic Pictograms Through the Ages

Very fun video from The New York Times. Designer Steven Heller traces the evolution of the tiny symbols for each Olympic sport since their appearance in 1936.

[@pa4ulo]

I think Rio do an excelent job with your pictograms, and all the branding of the Rio 2016. Creative, inovative, authentic and friendly.

[@jimdizon2003]

Pictograms for Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 were really a standout from the rest of the olympics! Both were very much identified to their celebrated games!

[@whitesoxfanatic]

agreed, the London ones seemed decent especially compared to the more modern logos.

[@irondj]

Also, the red oval and white image of the Beijing logo is meant to evoke the traditional Chinese personal seal or "chop" -- this would be a person's name carved onto a stone (or ivory or wood) then covered in red ink to create the mark, similar to a wax seal. When you consider this, and the fact that the Beijing sport pictograms are direct offshoots of this design, the whole kit'n'kaboodle becomes pretty damn impressive from a design perspective.

[@irondj]

The Beijing pictograms are fantastic not only because they stand alone as attractive, unique and functional representations of the various sports, but they also reflect the official 2008 logo -- the white figure of a running man in an oval of red. That logo is not only a figure running forward, but it can also be read as a highly stylized piece of calligraphy.

[@FearOfTheFlesh]

Much better documentary ideas about the Olympics: 1) History and design evolution of the Olympic medals 2) History of the Olympics 3) History of which events were included, when and why 4) History of Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and their reception 5) History of various athletes, the most successful, oldest, youngest, etc. 6) The most unexpected events during the Olympics 7) The effect of politics on the Olympics 8) Drug scandal history in the Olympics 9) Evolution of Olympic marking

[@littlebuddylee]

super cool! i never knew that much work went into it!

[@wingsofhope2]

This was actually pretty interesting!

[@yosrahamza]

i like this documentry it is discussing a usful subject for designers and artist i saw a lot of logos and stuff but i didnt ever think of looking to these figures even though it isnt an easy job to design them (i know ;) )

[@irondj]

Think of the Washington State Cougars logo, where the stylized letters "WSC" create a cougar head. The running Beijing logo figure actually evokes various Chinese characters written in an ancient style, such as the character "jing" which means capital but is also shorthand for Beijing; and it also can be read as the Chinese characters for culture or language.

[@panasit]

Very insightful. I love the Beijing design.

[@RainyToaster]

Tokyo 2020 Pictograms made it full circle

[@ShaneAOF]

The Vancouver ones look fine to me

[@grapesofwraith1066]

Very interesting look back...some of those pictograms are downright freaky.

[@cOlz23]

wow. very interesting. thx

[@freddytk421]

Those sound great. When will you have one ready for us to watch?

[@scheitster]

The guy says that these were praised by critics, but yeah I can see where you're coming from.

[@Chief_of_Beef]

Who else is here after the Tokyo pictogram show?

[@silveryote1]

I like them all =D

[@FearOfTheFlesh]

this report is a classic case and point of making news out of no news...ny times..the future of failblog.

[@nstgc379]

I liked the Munich icons.

[@KryzMasta]

The problem with this little video is that the qualifications made are presented as absolutes, while they are more often than not taste-dependent. In some cases the functional quality is obviously good or bad, but other than that, taste is subjective, and therefor not a useful measure. Personally, I don't like the Athens symbols, and although I don't like the Atlanta symbols either, I can see how the classical form has Olympic stature, which might make them very appropriate.

[@StephenEuanTalua]

I want to believe this was intentionally satirical. Nagano's blob like pictograms were incorporated in its logo, and Atlanta's wated to pay homage to ancient Greece, considering 100 years had oassed since Athens 1896, the first Modern Olympiad.

[@lynxdaemonskye]

I'd forgotten about that Izzy guy! I used to have a plastic model of him. I'm not sure where I got it from... Either one of my parents was in Atlanta around then or it was a McDonald's toy?

[@thomasng8953]

You can add the Paris 2024 pictograms to the bad pictograms list ...

[@halfprice2]

I like the 2012 ones...

[@NAD1953]

Oh, yes!

[@hwtvi3466]

But I liked the London pictograms...

[@hermandeperman]

I agree! That's exactly my point.

[@BrazilianDaftPunkFan]

0:08 CURSED

[@castvm]

cool

[@jmonster007]

did u make this? it was good

[@veryinactiveukmapping]

this is offensive to all the countries who hosted the games with logos you didn't like

[@SerAbiotico]

I thought exactly that

[@shenzhenzhong]

Olympic icons of Beijing and Greece are really unconventional and understandable!!

[@DarthYoungling]

Am I the only one who never noticed any of these pictograms??

[@ooooomz]

Thing is, if you could get the designers to speak about the ones he doesn't like, they could just as easily tell you why they're fantastic. Design pitch bullshit can be used to say anything about anything, and there's piles of it in this video. There are positive arguments for all of them, for example the Vancouver ones - generic looking pictures, maybe, but at least you could see what they were, and they were made to integrate nicely with the graphics around the place. They even used colour!

[@IvanC14]

mexico rules, whit innovation, design and style.

[@hermandeperman]

En ik al helemaal, potverdorie.

[@SerAbiotico]

2:27 here starts the ugly part of this review

[@AlexHWalker]

I don't see any difference between Lillehammer's and Athens' so why make them sound so different? London's aren't childish this video just gives a crude representation they actually reflect the logo perfectly (in a good way)!

[@diaverde09]

geeezzzz.

[@GloriaD5767]

I thought this was really well done.

[@joebob1379]

Huh, that was interesting.

[@blackbird163]

aw but i liked the icons for Atlanta 96 :(

[@ligonchoi]

Thanks for yours! Recommending search words 'KP BAG'!!! If Bruce Lee were lived, he must have practiced with it... I dedicate it I invented to Bruce Lee as his mania...

[@zaheercronicious]

I like Vancouvers

[@Cass7191]

I had an Izzy the Whatzit doll(:

[@mentalitydesignvideo]

exactly, where the hell is the perfect work done for '80 Moscow games???

[@theds102]

imma let ya finish Athens but Beijing had one of the best pictograms of all time!

[@MagikalKraker]

@1jtwallace1 PUT IT UP TWICE FOR THE WIN

[@AzraelKans]

Great video except for the actual "appraisal" it starts great then it says some icons were not original or they were confusing or they were "childlish" not in a good way mind you. Then it present icons that have at least one of the flaws from the ones that were suposedly "no good" and praise them. uh?

[@vinellix]

otl aicher rules!

[@JamesUsill1]

Wow, awesome video!, but I have to disagree about the Athens pictograms...

[@KryzMasta]

Maar natuurlijk hermandeperman, nederlanders hebben altijd gelijkerdepijk.

[@croassung3721]

wait, this isnt 2021

[@croassung3721]

*wait this isn’t 2024*

[@deeliaartista]

See, the Greeks are not all that bad after all...!!!

[@hermandeperman]

Nice to see, but I don't get why one is better then the other. I clearly don't see the difference, which of course can be blamed on my lack of education and what not. But at least EXPLAIN in a way that I can understand!

[@FearOfTheFlesh]

@Monkeysniffer08 If this is a documentary then it is the most useless one about the Olympics I have ever stumbled on...if your next intelligent comment is why did you click on it then, the simple answer is, I was looking for Olympics through the ages looking at various athletes and events that bare some relevance to Olympic viewers and stumbled on this. Whats the next documentary? The type of laces used in olympic footwear?

[@AdamHeathImage]

@iKebz thank you ray william Johnson for inspiring such unique and awe inspiring insight such as "fake and gay" I kid, I love the fakes and the gays as much as the rest of us ;-)

[@nuraybd]

Hahahahahahahahahahahha😂

[@vinChilla]

I actually liked vancouver's and really disliked beijings..... :'(

[@OliverHyde01]

nahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[@WiredPockets]

I thought Sydney was very clever - guess he isn't aware of the aborigines. Just as good as Athens.

[@8LittleFishies]

sweet animations i have a few on my channel, check them out if u have time

[@Tezazeral]

God the athens ones were hardly even bearable wtf

[@DevinSloan]

BS those 2 he picked were stupid. I like Londons.

[@Nboy514]

Someone needs a day job.

[@scheitster]

Do you really care that much?

[@osobear26]

yeah. who cares?

[@MagikalKraker]

@1jtwallace1 PUT IT UP TWICE FOR THE WIN