Prescott's Design Blog

Like many other sportsfans, I can’t help but overlook the Winter Olympics as the baby brother of the Summer Olympics in terms of it’s scale and cultural importance. After all, there are a great quantities of countries who do not have winter climates at all. (Hence the hilarity that comes from a Jamaican or Puerto Rican bobsled team).

But from a design standpoint, the Winter Games are no less important. They are in their own right a living breathing entity that needs a logo and a graphic look-and-feel. The Russian city of Sochi has been chosen to host the 2014 Games. In the aftermath of the London 2012 scandal, I have to commend the Russian team on a world-class logo.

First things first, the logo is simple, bold and clear. Everything a symbol should be. The blue, red, and white represent the Russian flag, as well as some mountainous imagery with that whole diagonal thing. And of course the whole thing feels ‘wintery’ by use of the star, which in spite of having only 5 points, has clearly been snow-flake-ified. Additionally, the type is plain and to the point. In fact, I would have searched slightly further for something a with a little more standout power. But the point is, it’s simple, direct and idiotproof. And, it lends itself well to a graphic style and to the series of icons that will invariably follow.

Wikipedia actually has a surprising wealth of information about this relatively new topic, including the logos of the other candidate cities which didn’t win. Looking at these, they all have a certain charm in their own respect. In no particular order, here they are:

So all of this begs the question, what Hell happened in London?