We were the official designers of the the sports pictograms for The London 2012 Olympic & Paralymic Games.
We estimate (it’s hard to really know) that we had around 500 clients on the project. From The Princess of Jordan (she’s the president of the equestrian side of things) to Boris Johnson (he’s rather influential regarding all things London!)
Everyone wanted to get involved — which was great! This project really allowed us to bring to bear our includive approach. Getting everyone involved, enabling them to be heard, and creating an inclusive brand identity system across multiple channels on a global scale.
Rather than bang on about how wonderful we think they are — we thought we’d leave it to far smarter people than us…
These are bold and dynamic images, which capture the energy and colour of the Games. Each sport is illustrated with graphic simplicity and the way it incorporates the iconic London Underground visual identity is genius. The designs will add to the pleasure of everyone attending, as well as helping them navigate the city whilst the Games are on.
These pictograms will be a simple way of helping people navigate London during the Games and a reference point for fans of the Olympic sports in the run up to and throughout the Games in 2012. They will, I’m sure, become an enduring image of London 2012.
The pictograms will be a vital wayfinder for spectators at Games-time and will become recognisable come 2012, but by unveiling them now we have a fantastic opportunity to use them as a tool for people to find out more about the Olympic sports. Over the next three years, each sport has a golden opportunity to tell its story and educate the British public about what it is on offer at London 2012. I hope the pictograms will be the gateway to achieve this and we will work with all of the governing bodies to ensure that knowledge of all the Olympic sports increases between now and 2012.
The pictograms of an Olympic Games are a unique link between the host city and the sports involved. The London 2012 pictograms are a strong and dynamic representation of the 2012 sports and are instantly recognisable as part of London’s look. This is particularly true of the dynamic version, which draws its inspiration from the London underground map, forever linking these Games to this great city. The Olympic summer sports are delighted by these designs and I hope that they will not just help people to find their way to the events but will also encourage young people to try out different Olympic sports as we head towards 2012.
The IOC Chairman: “The Olympic summer sports are delighted by these designs”
Lord Coe: ”The work, like an Olympic Athlete, pushes boundaries.”
Boris Johnson, The Mayor of London; ”It’s absolutely delightful”
HRH Princess Haya of Jordan; ”They are really cool!”
Everyone saw the Pictograms‚ however in addition to the pictogram design work we also completed:
London 2012 Olympic Partner Workshop Brand Identity
International Conferences that bring together the worlds experts in Olympic hosting.
London 2012 Olympic Joint Branding System Design
Systems and guidelines for all sponsorship levels.
London 2012 Olympic Licensing System Design
Systems and Guidelines for the creation of all branded merchandise.
London 2012 Olympic Brand application for the ‘Get Set’ Initiative
Primary branded surfaces created for educational aspect of 2012.
We also created…
London 2012 Olympic non-commercial partner branded system designs.
This is actually five independent branding systems:
1. Guidelines for the creation of all Security aspects
2. Guidelines for the creation of all Host Governmental aspects
3. Guidelines for the creation of all National Olympic Committee aspects
4. Guidelines for the creation of all International Olympic Committee aspects
5. Guidelines for the creation of all Broadcast aspects
Commercial Partnership Design System
Systems and Guidelines for the creation of all primary co-branded surfaces.
Cultural Olympiad Creative Strategy
Key strategic thinking demonstrated and presented through in-depth documents
Full Brand Induction
Key strategic thinking for the internal and external brand-reputation management demonstrated and presentations supported with in-depth documentation
And we did it all in 10 months. Delivered early — and under budget.
If you walked around London in 2012 you probably saw our Pictograms everywhere.
They had been chosen to lead the advertising campaign promoting the Ticketing for the Games. All rather exciting.
Interesting also to see how the creation of the pictograms have really helped extend the London 2012 Olympic Games BrandWorld into a more deeply engaging and useful branding system.
If we do say so ourselves.
They make sense of the identity
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