(DESIGN CHALLENGE)
(BUILD A UNIQUE VISUAL LANGUAGE TO DISTINGUISH
(EACH EDITION OF THE GAMES AND TO REFLECT THE HOST CITY)
(KNOWN FOR INTRODUCING BRANDING AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
(INTO SPORTING EVENTS AND POPULAR CULTURE)
When the athlete walks on to the field of play,
you want them to feel like they've arrived
at the Olympic Games,
and the look of the games communicates that.
The Olympic Games are the biggest
design project in the world.
You can design a magnificent stadium,
but it's the look of the games that makes it Olympic.
Even if the venues are 400 miles apart,
the viewer who's tuning in doesn't realise
because the look of the games makes everything feel
like it's right next door to each other.
The visual language should kind of be cohesive
and hanging together so that if I'm looking
at the pictograms, I know that it belonged to this Olympics.
That look needs to expose your culture
and talk to your own legacy and your own heritage.
The look is the most important project
because this is the background
that inspires the athletes to achieve their best.
You see that athlete running the race
or going out of the starting gate.
That's where you see the look of each games,
but as a spectator, it extends to so many places.
We have to design everything from tickets
to a meal voucher to a wrap in a venue.
To a pin, to a plane, to a train, to a uniform.
All the wayfinding signage around the venue,
banners, medals, mascots, to all the publications.
Key chains, T-shirts, and posters.
The design programme brings to life the culture
of the host region,
transforming that region for a time.
You have to move from the symbol itself
to the texture of the games, the pageantry of the games,
what we call secondary graphics.
That secondary graphic should give you a moment
in time where that Olympic took place.
It has to connect somehow to the country,
to the values of the Olympics,
and it has to connect to the excitement
that people have when it comes to the games.
There's always a struggle between the desire
to put the city in the best light and to avoid the cliches.
Sydney, for instance, they didn't want to focus
on koala bears and kangaroos.
They wanted to focus on what life was like in Sydney.
The narrative is important in this process
because it will give people an opportunity
to know more about the culture of the country
in a way that is playful, full of joy, of pleasure.
So it's a very important mission that designers have.
The look of the games really starts with Tokyo,
where there is a will to coordinate
and to have a coherent message above all.
But of course, the climax arrives in 1968
with the Mexico games.
The word look of the game was not even invented
on that time, but they had the typical scenery
of the venues, showing the elements of the games.
And here's from Tokyo.
1964. It's a very nice piece.
You need to know the past if you want to invent the future.
All designers worldwide,
when they are involved with the Olympics,
they're looking what was done in the past.
Every year I get contact with designers,
and they want to get material from me
to know how they did things.
My collection is about 15 or 16,000 pieces.
I'm convinced that people who design good things
in the past, they didn't knew on that time
that they are really doing something fabulous.
And that's why I'm doing this.
I put all the stuff together.
I look at the poster, the merchandising,
and get really the impression about the legacy they leave.
The Olympics had always the chance
to do something with a lot of money,
with time, with the best designers
and develop something that was not invented before.
And everyone copied them later.
So, the look of the game,
many company have now a look of the games.
They call it different,
but the Olympics were really a pioneer
of design in many ways.