Monday, April 25, 2011

Type + Olympics



I have been thinking and trying to gain more ideas for inspiration on my Olympic theme for my capstone project. I have decided that I am going to design three campaigns for three different cities one of them being Chicago. Something that I want to bring into my project is typography.

I have always been fascinated with the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and have always wanted to actually be there. I found this typographic piece that uses the Olympic rings and their colors to say something about the ceremonies. It gives me inspiration for my project as well as some ideas. I also want to incorporate a lot of color when doing this and design new logos for each of the cities I choose.

My plan is to completely re-design the Chicago logo and take inspiration from some of the ones in the second poster. I love that the colors of the Olympic rings are used in these posters and want to further explore the colors with typography for my capstone project. If anyone has any ideas on other cities they think would be good for me to do I will take all the ideas I can get as I still do not know what other cities I will be doing but I really want them to NOT be in the United States.

19 comments:

  1. Something interesting I came across....Most Olympic Games have been held in European and North American cities; only a few games have been held in other places, and all bids by countries in South America and Africa have failed. So you could try and do something with South America and Africa. Even though all bids have failed, it would be interesting to come up with a design that might enhance their chances if they used your work. Even cities that are not in the best shape could be a unique way in changing the outlook of those places, by designing an olympic campaign for them.

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  2. They failed until Rio for 2016! I think it's exciting there is finally a new country being represented for the Olympic games.

    I was at the Chicago rally when they were announcing the winning city for 2016, and it was interesting to see the wide variety of designs even for Chicago. From t-shirts to flags to buttons to signs, people had EVERYTHING. I know someone who worked for the Chicago 2016 campaign, and he used to comment that it didn't really matter what was being designed, but the main thing about the Olympic designs was they try to represent the spirit that the games hold.

    I'm excited to see your project!

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  3. The visual elements shown are very eye-catching. They are effective in catching the viewer or target audience's attention!

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  4. Nice idea creating 3 different campaigns for 3 different cities. I'm interested in seeing what the differences between your Chicago look and the one that was created last year.

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  5. There are so many possibilities it will be cool to see what you come up with.

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  6. What if you did some tiny country that would never have a chance of holding the Olympics. That way whatever design you come up with would be completely new, never done before. (Tasmania or something)
    Or you could do one of the countries in the news lately like Libya?

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  7. This sounds pretty cool, the colors are fabulous. Are you thinking of using cities that have not hosted the Olympics? I wonder which ones they are.

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  8. What if you did 5 cities...one for each ring. And what if you chose them so that on the map, they were located where the 5 rings show up??? Maybe that's too much... :)

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  9. I'm seconding Shanna's idea. I would definitely like to see what a logo might look like for a very tiny, underrepresented country (maybe one of the Pacific Island nations like Tonga), and what it would communicate and why. It would be quite the challenge, but with a lot of potential payoff.

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  10. Since, as noted, the Olympics are almost always held in rich, influential nations, why not do the very poorest?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

    Kinshasa, Dem. Rep of the Congo is looking for some love.

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  11. I remember you presenting in class the idea of Africa and Antarctica never having the Olympics, and even though Antarctica will probably never happen I think it would be interesting to see how you would design that campaign.

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  12. I agree with the other comments on the fact that perhaps you should do a little digging and find out more about smaller countries. Perhaps you will come across an interesting fact that you can somehow incorporate into the overall design plan for the campaign!

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  13. i like the idea of tackling a place that hasnt hosted and probably never will. Antarctica for winter olympics...?

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  14. I aslo agree that you should tackle a new place. However, (if I remember correctly) I believe that it takes months of preparation to go to Antarctica because it is a long journey and it is really expensive. I guess for fun you could do it there, but if you wanted to make a statement or go more serious I wouldn't realistically expect it to happen there.

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  15. I find it interesting the way the olympics are a way for people to come together, yet through design, everyone looks different!

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  16. Cool images, I think color is going to be a big piece of your project..can't wait to see!

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  17. I think you should focus on places that it has never been held. But I love your ideas so far keep working.

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  18. i still think chicago had the best-looking logo. i am really interested to see your finished product.

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  19. I agree with what was said in class at your presentation, but I think that one season would be best, not both. I feel as though the project could be more unified and focused then.

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