(DESIGN FOCUS)
(OLYMPIC SUMMER GAMES LOS ANGELES 1984)
(ENVIRONMENT VENUES COLOURS FLOWERS)
(DESIGN CHALLENGE)
(UNITE A VAST, DIVERSE CITY
(THROUGH A COMPREHENSIVE DESIGN SYSTEM)
(KNOWN FOR BRIGHT ENERGETIC COLOURS AND CREATIVE
(USE OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
(INCORPORATING BROADCAST CONSIDERATIONS
(INTO THE DESIGN SYSTEM)
(DESIGN FOCUS)
This is about making the world a better place
and helping to bring people together
and understanding it isn't
just sports that does that, but culture and art.
The design for the '68 Olympics was pushing
the envelope.
Lance had definitely taken risks.
But Deborah Sussman's work for the '84 Olympics was a big
deal for designers because all of a sudden there's this
whole other world of possibilities.
It was a big team, working on this, and they were willing
to take these chances and say "This could be more exciting.
"We could push this a little further."
I think every Olympics since then has done
the same thing. "Let's take that risk."
Deborah Sussman, my late wife and partner, she went to
the coloured paper drawer, you know, in those days, and she
pulled out magenta, aqua, crimson,
and everybody was a little hesitant.
I mean, even I said, "You're not going to do that, are you?"
But the colour became the thing because the city
was so big,
the city was so broad, it had to be bright colours to make
an impact.
It was on the starting blocks for the races, the tags with
their number on it, and even, you know, the flowers.
I remember one day we were having a meeting and Deborah
looks out the door and she sees these people
coming in with these little baby's breath
and little roses and stuff.
She got up and she went over and said,
"Who are you and where are you going?"
She said, "We're having a meeting about the flowers."
And so in she went and she said, "It's not going to be
"the stuff we want.
"Birds of paradise, it's the city flower, we want things
"that go up, we want stuff from Hawaii".
And those flowers became a,
you know the guy said, "Well, they usually put their hands
"around the back and hold the flowers there,"
but these... they were just holding them up
like a big sword, you know. It was really amazing.
The athletes train their whole life to walk away with
that medal and what we were trying to do
was create a place
where their dreams were being fulfilled
and that vibe was 24/7 within the warehouse.
There was Olympic Arts Committee,
and they built a whole little community.
Artists from around the world
came and did projects and interacted.
Jon Jerde was really the sort of mastermind
of the whole thing, he saw the big picture.
One of the greatest things that Jon had the presence of
mind to do is he found us a building of our own,
outside of the Olympic Committee.
The idea of being able to work with all this talent,
under one roof, from graphic artists to architects
to photographers.
For me at that very young age
was an experience that holds
very close to my heart still today.
The first thing we looked at was -
where are the TV cameras going to be?
What we were actually doing was creating a stage set for
all the different venues.
So there was this coherent look that on TV, it was all
concentrated, it was all one big party.
When people looked at it around the world, they saw
the Olympic Village but in actuality it spread
from Santa Barbara down to Chino.
We knew that this was a temporary installation,
in two weeks it was going to go away after the Olympics
so it was very simple, common elements that you would find.
Painter's scaffolding, sauna tubes, large spheres,
fun kind of objects to put into each of the venues, and
also throughout the streets of Los Angeles, it wasn't just
limited to the Olympics.
It was transforming the whole city.
Being able to see the pageantry on light poles
on the major streets, everyone felt that they were part.
It was the first time that people really felt in LA
that we were a community.
Design is a reflection of a time and place and
the 84 Olympics are specifically Los Angeles,
and they're not just Los Angeles,
they're Los Angeles of the 1980s, with
this sort of splash of the new wave, and this intensity of
energy that was happening in the city at the time.
I love, like, seeing the Coliseum downtown
where the opening ceremonies where,
and that's where the opening ceremonies
were for the previous LA Olympics.
It was still the same stadium but all of a sudden it was
this exciting place that had this amazing energy.
The looks on the people was probably the most exciting
part of it.
Hopefully, to the designer, the '84 Olympics
helped to transcend that mundane moment
of what's going on in the world
and bring people together.