For our group presentation project me and my group decided to research and speak about the Olympics, more specifically how the design system has changed throughout the years.
We came to the conclusion together after we all had a chance to talk about what we wanted to present for the class. It was a bumpy ride since we all had ideas about what to speak about and together we came up with a conclusion after conclusion on how to approach this project.
There were many changes since everyone had ideas about what to bring up and what to speak about, ideas were added and removed as we worked with this project to fit everyone’s wishes and ideas and stay within the time limit.
Timeline
For the first few meetings, we came up with the idea of talking about the timeline of the design of the Olympics, comparing games from different eras to see the evolution of design, technology, etc.
The games we were going to mention by then were:
- St.Louis // United States
- Tokyo // Japan
- Barcelona // Spain
- Seoul // South Korea
- Athens // Greece
- Bejing // China
- Mexico City // Mexico
- Sydney // Australia
And we split it up to each team member two by two to speak about either culture of the games or the technology.
After a lot of consideration after we had our research, we all agreed to cut it down to fewer countries since we realized that it was a little bit overwhelming and we wouldn’t be able to get all the important information about the games within the time limit. After we chose to keep a few games we were left with.
- St.Louis// United States
- Tokyo // Japan
- Athens // Greece
- Mexico City // Mexico
Once again to be able to fit more information into our time limit, we chose to remove two more countries. We were left with Tokyo and Athens and from there on we worked together to put together the slides together and research.
We split the information we would present between each member to give a little bit of variety and mix our presentation so we would take several turns talking about our research.
I ended up speaking about the pictograms of the Olympic games as well as the history behind the Olympic rings design, which wasn’t entirely what I was researching. Since I did add information to other slides in our powerpoint I also did research about the Athens games as well as the Tokyo games, I did deeper research about the pictograms and how they were used throughout other Olympic games, than just the ones used in Tokyo and Athens, just to give the audience an idea of how it changed the look of the game and how they brought they cultural history into the design of them.
For our project, we were using Google Slides, which one of our group members set up. While I did my research I was actively setting up my slides and added my content of research into it as well as a description about what my slides were about to inform my team members what I was researching and adding so they knew what they were about. I did this because unfortunately, two of the group members weren’t always available for longer meetings during the creation of the presentation.
One of the very first slides I made with the general style of the document.
I was actively working to stylize the Google slides document as well since I felt like we needed a general theme to work with, at this point, it was only me and another member that had added content onto the page, and I was as well actively adding content for another member since she didn’t have access to the document.
I chose to use the font, Gill Sans since it was used during the Athens Olympics 2004 and it was available on Google slides, I later rounded all the images and put an off-white, pale yellow background to make it a little bit more interesting. This was later changed after we got some feedback from our tutor to white, adding stripes to represent the colors of the Olympic rings.
With the help of one of my group members, we set up a general theme for the google slides document, to keep a consistent layout throughout. Making it easier for each group member to place their images and add text, etc. when adding their information onto their slides.
My Slides, thoughts, and sources.
Olympic rings:
7.
The Olympic rings first appeared in 1913, in a letter from the co-founder ‘Pierre de Coubertin 17 years after the first Olympic games took place. The letter contained the explanations behind the design. 5 rings that represent the five continents, including every color shown on the flags of the participating nations.
8.
“The rings made their official first appearance at the 7th Olympic game taken place in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920.”
9.
In 1957, The International Olympics committee approved a new version of the Olympic rings which is slightly different from the original design made in 1913.
10.
The design of the Olympic rings went through yet another change in 1986, receiving an official version of how the rings spaces should be produced.
11.
Having kept the elements from the previous designs, the symbol went back to its seamless roots in 2010, much like the original design created in 1913.
Thoughts: I was always unsure how to approach this. It was a good idea at the start with what we had planned to do originally but at the very in didn’t really make any sense. We let it still be in, I did in fact tell my group members and ask if we should really keep it in because I was contemplating removing it.
There wasn’t much information but the same information written in different ways that I found regarding the design of the Olympic rings. Thankfully the Olympics website had information about it, which I used for my source since there are a lot of misconceptions regarding the colors and what they really represent.
Pictograms:
16.
For the 2004 Athens games, the designers took inspiration from ancient greek illustrations found on vases from around 3000 BC. They took these cultural influences and implemented them into the design of the pictograms, making them unique to their country.
30.
As the Tokyo games would be the first city to host without a Latin-based language, the designers came up with using pictograms. This gave everyone the ability to read the signs regardless of their language.
They can be seen as Silhouetted figures engaging in a sport during the event.
Japan’s Olympic Game designers had made the biggest design achievement in the Olympics so far with pictograms becoming vital to future look of the games, it inspired future events with their own version of pictograms representing the countries in various ways.
31.
…. such as the designs used in Lillehammer during the 1994 Olympics, with the designs taking inspiration from rock paintings found in Norway dating back thousands of years ago.
32.
As well as Beijing 2008, The Designers behind the pictograms took reference from ancient Chinese carvings, resembling Chinese writing.
38.
The animated images did not appear in the image that I inserted so I added another one of them in afterward.
Tokyo 2020 revolutionized design elements of the game yet again with the first animated pictograms, each pictogram illustrated to capture the movement of the Athlete making it easier to animate.
The opening ceremony paid tribute to the 1964 pictograms with a dance sequence acting out each sport.
Thoughts: The pictograms were a very important visual as well as communication technique used in the Olympics that evolved throughout the years and became a must-have during the games. They were created during the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 to help foreigners to navigate within the event, which is honestly a fantastic idea. Whenever I began looking into different countries and their own versions, some being inspired by the ancient history of the country. The designs were creative, fun, and innovative. Inspiring other countries to do the same.
During our presentation, two of my slides were sadly accidentally skipped, The one for the Norwegian, Lillehammer as well as the Chinese, Beijing pictograms, which were unique and had an interesting history to them. For the pictograms, seeing how they evolved throughout the years and what was improved after a certain amount of time was interesting, seeing the evolution of the very same pictograms, in Japan for example, or Athens take on it.
Other research:
Before we came to the conclusion to stay within certain topics we researched a lot about different Olympic games. I researched Athens, Mexico, Tokyo 1964 as well as Tokyo 2020, and took a deep dive into the pictograms.
Overall Thoughts: This was a very interesting project to do. It was fun to do research and learn so much more about an event I usually show little to no interest in. I never had the idea that so much design was involved and how much a difference it made. I have always been interested in communication so I found the pictograms fantastic and I really enjoyed doing research about it.
What could have been better?
I could have changed up my part of the presentation, removing the Olympic rings, since I felt like they weren’t really relevant in the end. I also wished that our group would have had more meetings, since communication always helps in the long run, and I believe that with the opinion of my group members could have changed my slides for the better.
Regarding the presentation, I wish I could have practiced more and possibly done some practice in front of people since I get really nervous talking in front of people. Even though I put a lot of hours into practicing my speech it didn’t go well and I had to take a lot of help from my reading cards.
Thank you for reading.
Sources:
Sources for slides 7 to 11:
https://olympics.com/ioc/news/in-1913-pierre-de-coubertin-designed-one-of-the-world-s-most-famous-symbols
https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-rings
Sources for Pictogram slides and other research:
https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/kamekura-yusaku-tokyo-1964-olympics-identity-graphic-design-040821
https://fontsinuse.com/tags/377/olympic-games
https://www.olympic-museum.de/pictograms/olympic-games-pictograms-2021.php
https://www.olympic-museum.de/pictograms/olympic-games-pictograms-2004.php
https://www.olympic-museum.de/pictograms/olympic-games-pictograms-1968.php
https://www.olympic-museum.de/winter/pictograms/wpicto1994.php
https://www.olympic-museum.de/pictograms/olympic-games-pictograms-2008.php
https://go.distance.ncsu.edu/gd203/?p=70115
How the Tokyo 1964 Olympics sparked a design renaissance in Japan
https://www.theolympicdesign.com/olympic-design/pictograms/tokyo-2020/
https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/lillehammer-1994/logo-design
https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/tokyo-1964/logo-design
https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/mexico-city-1968/logo-design
https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/athens-2004/logo-design
https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/beijing-2008/logo-design
https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/tokyo-2020/logo-design
https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Factsheets-Reference-Documents/Games/Pictograms/Reference-document-The-Sports-Pictograms-of-the-OWG-from-Grenoble-1968-to-PyeongChang-2018.pdf page: 19 & 20
https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/Factsheets-Reference-Documents/Games/Pictograms/Reference-document-The-Sports-Pictograms-of-the-OG-from-Tokyo-1964-to-Rio-2016.pdf
Pages: 5&6 (Tokyo 1964)
Pages: 7&8 (Mexico City 1968)
Pages: 25&26 (Athens 2004)
Pages: 27&28 (Beijing 2008)
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