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Table of Contents 1. Foreword 2. Welcome to Norway 3. Research 4. Creating a Logo 5. Creating a Brand 7. Conclusion
Foreword The Olympic Games are not a brand. They are not a broadcast network, a franchise, or an even event. The Olympic Games are a symbol. They represent humanity at its finest; coming together to work out its differences without ever loosing a life. They represent friendly competition, a celebration of culture, and the appreciation for common world values. To create the 2022 Olympic Games visual identity is not a chance to design a brand, but is the opportunity to represent humankind’s highest ideal: peace regardless of our differences.
Welcome to Oslo, Norway Oslo is the capital city of Norway and in considered one of the most globally connected cities in the world. It has a strong Scandinavian history and has been a major European city for over 1000 years. The city is very far north of the equator giving it 18 hour long days in the summer and as short as 6 hour days in the winter. It’s winters are cold and snowy and summers are mild and often rainy. Norway is much like the United States’ Alaska. It has tall mountains the sit along the coast and the northern lights are often seen dancing across the sky during the winter.
The history of Norway dates far back to the early days of 3000 BC. People have been inhabiting the lands for thousands of years, battling over its plentiful resources and rich fishing economy. The Vikings called Norway their home and Norway today still has a rich Norfolk influence. Norway already hosted the Olympic games at Oslo in 1952 and 1994 in Lillehammer proving that Oslo already has the conditions, infrastructure and capacity to host the Olympic Games for a third time.
The Unique Opportunity Due to Norway’s strong Scandinavian and Viking influence there are a lot of really fun patterns and Celtic imagery to play with in the branding. The northern lights and vast landscapes also offer a great opportunity to play with color and light in a unique way to really make this Olympic games stand apart from its predecessors. The culture, the location, and the natural display of beautiful scenery makes Oslo, Norway an ideal spot to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
Olympic Branding Research As I studied past branding of the Olympic games I noticed a few trends that were consistent from game to game. 1) A clear recognizable logo Each set of Olympic games is marked with a logo that represents the games in that city. The logo sets the visual language that is then carried across all of the branding material. 2) A Branding Pattern At the Olympic games there are a lot of assets that the brand needs to carry across. Branding the Olympics requires more than just choosing a font an a few colors but becomes an overall visual language that needs to be present in everything from ticket, to flags, billboards, and even the medallions. The past few Olympics have had a strong pattern that is represented in the logo and carried throughout the brand. 3) A Style That Represents the Culture The branding for each of the games speaks the language of the surrounding culture. It takes influence from history, modern day changes, and the surrounding geography to create a brand that reflects its surroundings.
Goals and Objectives Target Audience: People of various countries who enjoy watching sporting events and who have pride in the athletes representing their country. Goals: Create a brand that is memorable, represents the culture of the host country and captures the energy and excitement of the Olympic games. Mission Statement We are Norway, host of the 2022 Olympic Games. We stand bold and strong in the mountains of the North and are wrapped in the beauty of the northern lights. We come from a rich history of those we stood firm despite hardships in weather and war. We welcome the world to our land and invite you to celebrate the competitions with us while enjoying the beauty our land and culture has to offer.
Logo Explorations Gathering Inspiration
Thoughts and process
This week it came time to finally put pencil to paper and begin exploring a few directions for the Oslo 2022 Olympic Games. After reviewing a lot of my research from last week and thinking through all of the various directions I could go with this, I concluded that I wanted to push the designs into a modern and abstract area. Some of the curled paisley patterns found in Norwegian culture looked too Russian or Polish when on it’s own and anything Viking seemed to un-inviting and fierce.
I started out trying to go pretty literal with the northern lights. I depicted mountains with swirls above them, wavy lines and a couple other attempts to communicate the lights. I also played a lot with the unique letter forms of the Norwegian alphabet such as the o with a slash through it.
I decided to go with more of the look of nature and the surrounding area as my motif and especially the Northern lights. The Northern lights are something that very few other places can claim and makes Norway a unique host for the games. It turned out to be quite difficult to capture, using solid lines, the look of faint dancing lights that have no form or mass. I played a round with a lot of styles, did a lot more online research to see how others and communicated this idea and I feel happy with a few of the directions I landed on.
During the process I stumbled upon the idea of just using a wavy, thin and thick line to communicate the lights. It leaves everything really abstract but I think in context a viewer could still get the idea. Perhaps playing with gradients and color could help communicate the concept as well. I did some research on Norwegian graphic design and I found that their style is quite similar to Swiss design: modern, minimal, and very organized. My goal became to take elements of Norway’s surrounding and communicate them from the perspective of the modern design world.
Logo Exploration II Going Digital
Meaning Behind the Design
After creating my sketches I wanted to quickly make a few digital versions of my favorites to see how they would really work in the branding world. Jumping back and forth from digital to sketching helps me better understand if my thoughts are working or if I need to pivot and go a totally different direction.
Design #1 This design really speaks to the beautiful nature that surrounds Oslo. You can see the majestic mountains shapes and the ways swirl along the bottom provides a strong base for the illustration and communicates everything from a river, to the ocean, or even to a reflection from the sky. The entire logo mark uses flowy lines and abstract shapes, drawing inspiration from the Northern Lights.
I intended to create three quick digital mock-ups that were different from each other but I fell in love with the thick lines and wavy abstraction of this style and couldn’t help but make several that are similar.
Design #2 This design draws from two areas of inspiration. The first is the modern design style of Norwegian graphic design, and second is the northern lights. The bold circle is very modern and communicate an abstract moon sitting over the horizon. The wavy line says the Northern lights, a rolling hill, or even the ocean, all of which are strong elements from Norway’s surroundings. The design as a whole resembles an athletic abstract figure with the arm outstretched which works well for communicating the Olympic story. Design #3 This third design is an attempt to completely simplify the message to be as minimal as possible. The wavy lines indicate the northern lights and movement. They carry a sense of energy and lightness and could work as a great branding element to carry across all of the various assets and could easily be used to create patterns and a visual language for the Olympic games.
Creating a Brand The Brand System In order to carry the visual language across lots of assets, a main repeating visual pattern is the norther lights color scheme, paired with the smooth gradient curved shapes. These patterns work for a great as backdrops and overlays to create visual harmony within the brand. I think a key brand pattern too is simplicity. Many Olympic games’ branding and design become incredibly busy, which is great to give a feeling of excitement and energy but I think Oslo has an opportunity to stand for the ‘less is more’ mantra and allow the brand to be bold, and without embellishment.
Beyond a Logo Creating a logo is one thing, but implementing the logo into a brand that has a strong, recognizable language is something entirely different. It’s hard to simply create a visual language for a brand unless it’s being applied to something so I decided to design a ticket for one of the events and use that medium as my playground to explore. I played with a several different ideas but I stumbled onto this concept of using subtle gradients that resemble the northern lights, divided into smooth rolling curves. The feeling these gradiated shapes communicate is one of excitement and energy yet with a solid foundation of strength and power. The shapes colors can easily be altered to add variation to the brand yet the visual language remains consistent across all assets.
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Conclusion With it’s tall mountain peaks, rich history and snowfilled winters, Oslo makes a perfect home for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The city offers a unique experience for the entire world, especially with the backdrop of the remarkable Northern Lights. Combine all of this with Norway’s proven track record with hosting the games in the past, and Oslo stands out and an incredible host for the future’s Olympic Games.