I'll be the first to admit that I can write stuff that's serious and intense at times. Therefore, on Fridays I'll be featuring something more lighthearted, fun or creative, so we can all end the week on a high note. Have a great weekend!
What feels like an eternity ago, I worked on a speculative olympic project, back in my student days. All the research I did for that project (the olympic village in Chicago), made me intimately aware of many aspects of the olympics that the non-initiated person wouldn't even suspect.
These events are indeed incredibly complex and demanding, one only needs to read the olympic village list of requirement to get a taste of the myriad of rules organizing committees have to abide by. It can be dizzying at times.
One aspect of the olympics that endures more than any other is the graphic identity (although you could easily argue that some are more memorable than others), the best ones leaving an indelible mark in the collective psyche. Here's a list of the most memorable ones, according to people familiar with the topic. While their selection is pretty decent, winter games are noticeably absent from their list, despite having some notable examples in great design (Sarajevo, Salt Lake, Vancouver and Calgary come to mind. On the summer front, Montreal, a well-respected design in its own right and Seoul are absent from the list in spite of being infinitely better than the uninspired designs of the last couple of decades.
What do you think? Which is your favourite olympic identity?