the 1948 London Olympics was nicknamed the Austerity Games because they spend no money on it (not that they had any money to spend). Then ended up housing the athletes in various army barracks and college dormitories around London.
As someone from a state other than Newcastle, Sidney, Wollongong I'm for it. In fact, I'm never spelling it any other way now, no matter what the Sidneysiders want to say about it.
As a Mexican Graphic Designer, the emblem and the overall branding created for Mexico City '68 is an absolute must in our college education, haha. Happy to see it well-received in this.
Mexico 1968 was the absolute peak of olympic logo design. So very clever. I am amazed at how poor the US efforts are - the US has some great graphic designers but their attempts are simply not up to standard.
Interestingly, the Mexico logo was reflected in a local tv station ident in the U.K. available on RUclips - it was for Harlech Television from 1968. Worth a look but could only be broadcast in black and white.
Please never hesitate to produce content that is just "forty minutes of Graham talks about something he is interested in." I am here for this sort of content, and the Baxter cameo was an excellent bonus.
For Barcelona 92, it's worth keeping in mind the yellow and red are also the colours on the Catalonia flag so I wouldn't be surprised if it was a sly reference to the independence movement of that region.
But that are also the colors of the Spanish flag, and considering blue is the royal color in Spain, it might be actually the opposite: The Spanish government forcing a "national" logo instead of a more regional one.
@@DanideLouroyou say that, but the official Catalan flag is also just red and gold. the Catalan independence flag though? red, gold, and *blue.* (plus a white star)
@rin_etoware_2989 Yeah, it could be a nod to the independence movement, but with a nationwide effort involved in it, I think that the opposite is more likely.
Looking forward to the followup videos of "Graham discusses every Olympic bid logo chronologically" and "Graham tears apart every Olympic mascot, from least-to-most terrifying"
The image that they gave to the Olympic Games in Mexico '68 with that branding was titanically incredible, beautiful, it was the first country brand that Mexico had and with it the Mexican Department of Tourism was founded. That branding left a great mark on Mexico City, the metro stations have the aesthetics of the icons of Mexico '68, the same for the Central de Abasto, the largest market in the world, many of its stores are marked with icons that preserve the aesthetics of Mexico '68. The Olympic Games gave another face to the most important capital of Latin America.
you're right, it never actually took place in the actual city of Athens, as a matter of fact, it took place a good ways from the city (at least by foot), a good 50 miles away.
when i was like 8 years old (2008?) i had a folder on my pc that i would download every single olympics logos, world cup logos etc. in it. when i had nothing to do and was bored, i would just open those folders and scroll thru them commenting on them by myself. i feel like i just did the exact same thing but with someone else this time. thanks for making me go back in time, it was a fun 45 minutes.
The Athens logo isn't just a symbol of peace, an olive wreath was the prize you won at the ancient games. There were no medals etc, the wreath from an olive tree was the ultimate prize.
I love the london bid for 2012. The subtle tracing of the ribbons imitating the river thames was simple yet unique conpared to a lot of the other logos
As a Sydneysider, mispelling "Sydney" renders everything you said irrelevant. Joking aside, we all disliked the Sydney 2000 emblem: see the blue zig-zag (meant to represent the Opera House) as hair, the red boomerang as lips, and the middle yellow bits as an eye and moustache, you get the face of a man with a painful, constipated expression. We loved the bid logo though.
The Sydney logo is the best one! It’s boomerang limbs to give it a distinctly Australian take on the running, each a distinct colour to reflect the colours of Australian environments. Plus he’s running beneath the shape of the opera house so we know where in Australia this is and the angle of the blue can also be the Olympic flame as well. Unlike any of the other designs the meaning in the logo is layered and nuanced. It’s perfect.
I also loved some of the branding that was done for the Sydney 2000 games, especially as seen on Ansett Airways special liveries leading up to the games. And who can forget Syd, Millie and Olly (The real best Olympic mascots). Moreover I hate how graphic designers obsess over the phrase Its very dated..... when everything we look at as cool now will be considered "dated" in the near future. I quite like designs from the late 90's to the early 2000's as it showed a time of optimism and looking forward to the future with bright colours and shading, a lot of things now just seem very bland or looking to the past for "inspiration"
I was, like, 3 or 4 when the Sydney Olympics occurred. I remember seeing that logo everywhere, but I had no idea what it was for. I also remember getting the Happy Meal plushies of the mascots - Ollie the kookaburra, Syd the platypus, and an echidna whose name escapes me - but again, having no idea what they were for. I think it was when the Beijing Olympics came around 8 years later that it finally clicked for me. Also, I just Googled it, and the echidna's name was Millie. There was also a frilled lizard mascot named Lizzie, though I have *no* memory of her, so I'm guessing she got sidelined a bit. It's funny, because there was 90s childrens cartoon called _Blinky Bill_ that also had a frilled lizard character, named Ruff, who also got Chuck Cunningham'ed early on, so I'm guessing frilled lizards aren't particularly popular despite their iconic appearance.
37:33 correction. Denver was actually a successful bid city. The city, after local voters objected to it, opted out of hosting after already being awarded the games.z that’s why Innsbruck hosted in 1976, so soon after having previously hosted
A lot of those unsuccessful bids were gorgeous logos. Shoutout to the Beijing, Sydney, and Madrid bids in particular, but all the ones you showed looked really nice.
The Denver one in particular gives me pause because I think it looks ugly but I totally get what they're going for with it nonetheless and it's really clever.
Personally, my three favorites Olympic logos are Mexico City, Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro. The Barcelona one reminds me my teen ages and a turning point in the world history. Mexico City logo is vanguardist and reflects the intensity of 1968. Rio logo is pure energy and tropical environment.
I always liked the Athens 2004 emblem, the olive leave. So simple yet so posh and elegant and symbolised the ancient reward the olympic champions would get.
I would watch the heck out of those kinds of videos. (Both mascots and torches) I’ve kind of been hyperfocused on the Olympics and there’s surprisingly not much content that’s informative out there.
The Munich design suite- especially the posters and pictograms are seen as one of the high points of clean, modern graphic design, and a game changer The 'wreath thing' is the 'bright sun'... I think you under value it immensely.
i saw a (spoof??) suggestion for a tokyo 2020 logo that had the oplympic rings all normal, except that the red ring was the japanese sun and honestly, that would have been some tokyo '64 stuff, if it had happened
33:00 if I'm not mistaken (and I'm not Greek nor Athenian), the Olive Branch does pertain to Athens specifically because of one of its founding myths, that is, the time Poseidon and Athena competed for being the patron god of the city; Poseidon offered a salt-water spring, and Athena offered the Olive tree. You can guess which olympian became the patron of the city of Athens (Sorry for butchering the myth)
@@Jsdo1980 no, olive tree is correct, back then it was one of the most important crops that existed in the mediterranian area, that produced both food and oil (which is also food but has other uses)
@@trillaco1 Sorry, mixing up the terms in laurel wreath. I'm not a native speaker, so I didn't know that laurel was the plant. It's a wreath made from olive.
My wife worked at the 2012 London games and I have nothing but good memories from the games. So I actually really like the logo because of the feelings it evokes. It is demonstrably terrible but I can’t bring myself to dislike it. That said it does look like adult Lisa Simpson doing something very rude. Once that’s pointed out you can’t unsee it.
40:15 Hello. The Rio 2016 logo not only features people dancing and celebrating, holding hands, but the design itself reminds us of one of the strongest symbols of the city's landscape, Sugarloaf Mountain. The dancers' outines is recognizable when you look at the Sugarloaf Mountain from a fair distance: ruclips.net/video/ZJ0VOtDk1Dw/видео.html
I LOVE the Mexico City one and the Munich one because they looked so good in printed materials. Maybe they're not as nice to look at today when it's mostly screens that make the branding work, but at the time they fit really well the purpose they were intended for.
The 1972 Summer Olympics emblem may leave much to be desired, but the mascot for the games was a dachshund named Waldi and I think his design is pretty cute!
I started this video looking at the runtime and was like "ehhh, I'll watch the first 2 minutes of it"... what felt like 2 minutes later Graham says "ok bye" and I was completely entertained without realising the time passed. Very nice video!
A bit of correction on 37:37 Denver '76 isn't an unsuccessful bid. It's a bid that won the right to host the winter olympics of that year, but the city voted against the games funding in 1972, therefore Innsbruck was rushed to host the games just 12 years after they did it first time, hence the logo of 1964 games being reused.
i honestly really love seeing the emblems change over time! i like the 40's london games logo with the clock tower! it is very wood carving-esque but it's beautiful!
The brush strokes for Barcelona '92 were evocative of the work of Joan Miro. They did all the event pictograms in the same style. This was the start of the move away from the old standard pictograms to having them integrate with the overall brand.
I really love the RIO one, because it has so many references!, the theme for the games was respect of diferences, so each person being a different color and all of them being connected, represented that, but also! it represents a land mark of Rio, the sugar loaf mountains! I found it very cute and clever all around!
also the logo itself spells "Rio", each person is playing a different sport (green: volleyball, yellow: handball and blue: diving), it's 3d (!!!!!!) and the font is AMAZING! that "16" achieved something I thought it was impossible: to overcome the "!6" from the bid logo. it's brazilian, it's carioca, it's sporty Am I biased, since I am myself a carioca and worked for the olympics? maybe! but just like graham said, it's just my opinion! hahaha
I remember watching the 2010 Vancouver Olympics live, and that combined ski-snowboarding slope was possibly the best thing I've ever seen in a sporting event. I've never been so on edge as I was watching everyone fall over and dogpile almost immediately out of the gate, it was amazing.
Very cool video!! The Barcelona 92' one is reallly loved in Spain by graphic designers because represents the transition of the Spanish design to a new modern era
You are very correct on the Vancouver mascots being the best. I was a kid when the games happened and I remember huddling around my moms laptop to watch the little animations they made about them. My dad volunteered at the Vancouver game and brought home me and my brother plushes of them and I keep them on my shelf to this day
33:05 In the logo it wasn’t the olive branch, symbolising peach but the Laurel leaf crown that was the awards of the winners! Back in the day, the award to the champions were the Laurel leaf crown and the respects of his city. When Romans discovered the Hellenic culture and adopted the Olympic Games they introduced the cash award!
38:05 London's logo has actually been one of my favorites for a reason I haven't been able to confirm was intentional: the logo itself looks like the UK and Ireland - the 2 is in the position of Northern Ireland, the 0 is Scotland, the 1 is Ireland, the dot is Wales, and the other 2 is England
@@JayJay-dp8ky Everyone I know keeps on talking about how great Sydney olympics was (I was too young to remember), but I do remember the three mascots vaguely. I just know they wouldn't have aged well at all from my memory
@@JayJay-dp8ky There wasn't a Wombat among them. Was a Platypus, Echidna and Kookaburra. Syd, Millie and Olly. Also a Frill-Neck Lizard for the Paralympics named Lizzy... cause apparently they used their symbolism up with the main three. As for the games, I mean... I was ten years old at the time, I remember it reasonably fondly in the sense that the Torch looked cool and damn near every Australian Athlete they hyped up got a medal of some sort. Kinda one of those scenarios where it was nice to watch your home country win a decent amount in their own country. _Course the absolute best moment in the Olympics for Australians ever didn't come until the next Winter games in 2002 with that legendary speed skating gold from Steve Bradbury,_ but hey, plenty of medals at home was good to see too.
Regarding Innsbruck in 1976, they were a fairly last-minute choice to host the Olympics after their originally-selected host, Denver, withdrew after voters said "aw hell naw" to funding the games. Denver was selected in '70, but withdrew in '72; Innsbruck was selected in '73, giving less lead-in than most games experience.
I kind of like how the Barcelona 1992 emblem is evocative of Joan Miró's art. Fitting for the city. Koreans were underwhelmed by the Pyeongchang 2018 logo, and it emerged that Choi Soon-sil, a daughter of a cult leader and confidante to the disgraced President Park Geun-hye who was impeached and removed from office a couple of years before the Olympics, was heavily involved in pushing for the five colours used in traditional Korean art (obangsaek). Everything Choi touched seemed to use this colour scheme, so when the political scandal broke out there was a huge backlash against it, but it was probably too late to change the emblem. The emblem probably would have worked better with a cleaner colour scheme and less spindly lines, though I'm not in love with the overall concept.
I know Albertville 1992 is supposed to be the flag of Savoy...but the resemblance to the Super Smash Bros symbol is uncanny Also, you were right to say the Vancouver one was based off an Inukshuk in Vancouver. It was based off one built by Alvin Kanak for Expo 86 that has since been donated to the city and now on English Bay Beach. The one in Whistler that you showed was built AFTER the logo was unveiled to further promote the Games
i'd love to see you review the submitted but unused logos and compare them to the official logos! like comparing the london 2012 submitted logos to the one they chose to use (why!) and which they should've gone with!
Today I learned my favourite Olympic snowflake logo is that of Sarajevo '84. What a delightful way to spend the better part of an hour stuck at home sick. Thanks Graham!
The one for Paris already exists, and raises an obvious question: why does that Olympic torch have lips? EDIT: Also the Beijing 2022 logo is going to have the same font issue that Graham had with '08, but the actual logo is pretty fresh, IMHO.
Let us not forget, even for one millisecond, that Atlanta's mascot terrorshow was so fucking horrific they named it "The Whatzit" because no single human who laid eyes upon it could stand its unbearable gaze long enough to rationalize any other functional nomeclature.
9 year old me was obsessed with Izzy and wanted all of the hat pins, all of the plastic figures they had at hotel chains, and rented the cr*p out of the video game. Izzy still holds a special place in my heart... probably a tumor. ... though I do understand people's fear of it when looking at the plush/costume incarnations and early renderings of it, I still think the final cartoon version was really cool and well done when shown competing in events.
Japan adding a snowflake to the 1972 logo to make it look different from 1964: Sometimes my genius is...it's almost frightening Rest of the world: Hey, I've seen this one! Japan: What do you mean, you've seen it? It's brand new! When we do host the games, we will do the ceremonies in our world's largest stadium, Rungrado May Day Stadium, and put on a display the world will never forget. Just like we do with our Arirang Mass Games
Man I loved the Rio one. The colours are great - the way the gradients were done really help make the colours not clash, and the font is evocative and ties into the movement of the logo too - finally there are the stories you can make up about what’s happening in the logo itself. For me that one is A+, easily in top 3. And this is good content, Graham 🙂
Essa logo também tem o formato de um dos pontos turísticos mais famosos do Rio de Janeiro: o Pão de Açúcar. Além disso, forçando um pouco, dá pra ler "Rio" ali, mas é se esforçando pra abstrair. Sem falar que é tridimensional. Algumas curiosidades só
When I was in 4th grade, we made the Seoul logo in art class by tearing and gluing construction paper. It was on my grandmother’s fridge until we moved her out of her apartment (I was in college).
there is one thing about the 2012 London logo that was not brought up; the one that was coloured with the union jack patterns ( and indirectly all the other colour schemes) was actually a puzzle which could be solved to reveal the complete flag. Still doesn`t stop it looking bad, but it was an interesting function of the emblem
I love this please do more of these types of videos! Maybe like evolution of company logos? Country flags? Anyways I love this it makes me happy, calm, and I’m learning!
Seconded. It was a joke before the Games, it was a joke during the Games, it was a joke ever since the Games, it's been mocked by every angle of British culture. It's pretty much objectively horrid.
I worked at Squaw Vally for a few years as a ski instructor and in IT so I ended up seeing a lot of the facilities and I honestly do not remember that logo being used a lot at all.
I've always loved the little suggestion the Montreal 1976 logo is meant to represent the 3 peaks of Mont-Royal, the mountain in the middle of the island that gave the city its name. So simple and yet it may contain the most meaning of any logo (M, maple leaf, podium, running track).
I enjoyed the parade of logos and your commentary. As a stamp collector in my youth, I enjoyed seeing all those old graphics again. Having been born and raised in Montreal, I certainly liked the simplicity of the 1976 logo. I remember reacting to the 2012 London logo - expecting something historical and elegant. "What!!! That can't be right!? C'mon!" (by the way, the locals just call it "Garmish")
This was very enjoyable. I'd love to see a similar video with you ripping apart the visual styles for the Eurovision Song Contest, which is a live television show that has been held yearly (*) since 1956. There's lots of visual identities and progress in those, while also having a similar theme of peaceful competition and getting to know eachother! (* Covid kind of ruined that streak in 2020...)
Re Australia. Bite me but this is one of the funniest videos I have ever seen, thankyou so much for keeping my mind sane during lockdown I was literally laughing the entire time
Ah yes, the three seasons: Summer, Winter, and Horse.
🐴
tag yourself im horse
H o r s e
People sleep on Horse season far too much.
Hbomberguy: *TRIGGERED*
I mean, I can’t blame the England 1948 emblem designer for wanting to show off one of the 3 buildings we had left tbf
Is it wrong that I laughed at this? 🤣
😂😂😂
the 1948 London Olympics was nicknamed the Austerity Games because they spend no money on it (not that they had any money to spend). Then ended up housing the athletes in various army barracks and college dormitories around London.
@@KariIzumi1 i shouldn’t have laughed at this
@@KariIzumi1 hey I’m English and I laughed. But then again I hate London so take it with a pinch of salt
Opening the Sydney 2000 discussion by saying "I love you Australia" after misspelling Sydney is a bold choice.
don't worry he corrects it to Slippery in the next video ^_^
@@fntthesmth423 Squiggly
@@LlamasAtMidnight The Great City of Spaghetti
As someone from a state other than Newcastle, Sidney, Wollongong I'm for it. In fact, I'm never spelling it any other way now, no matter what the Sidneysiders want to say about it.
There's also a municipality on Vancouver Island near Victoria BC called and spelled "Sidney"
As a Mexican Graphic Designer, the emblem and the overall branding created for Mexico City '68 is an absolute must in our college education, haha. Happy to see it well-received in this.
I love that they kept the text for the 1970 world cup as well
Stare at it long enough and you start hallucinating despite not taking anything. It is a classic of psychedelic art :).
Mexico 1968 was the absolute peak of olympic logo design. So very clever. I am amazed at how poor the US efforts are - the US has some great graphic designers but their attempts are simply not up to standard.
Interestingly, the Mexico logo was reflected in a local tv station ident in the U.K. available on RUclips - it was for Harlech Television from 1968. Worth a look but could only be broadcast in black and white.
Just don't research what happened to some protesting students before the games started
I'm very much here for "Graham talks about graphic design for 45 minutes"
compare 1930s Nazi Germany Vs 2020s Communist Chinazi IN YOUR NEXT VIDEO Project.
Please never hesitate to produce content that is just "forty minutes of Graham talks about something he is interested in." I am here for this sort of content, and the Baxter cameo was an excellent bonus.
This feels like a condensed Talking Simulator stream.
Wife just asked why I was watching something on Olympic logos. "Because Graham talks good."
A cat is always worth extra clicks, Baxter knows this.
This was rad and I want more of it.
Moar.
Moar!
MOAR!!!
I've never even watched this channel before, but this kept appearing in my recommended and I'd totally subscribe if he made more stuff like this.
For Barcelona 92, it's worth keeping in mind the yellow and red are also the colours on the Catalonia flag so I wouldn't be surprised if it was a sly reference to the independence movement of that region.
But that are also the colors of the Spanish flag, and considering blue is the royal color in Spain, it might be actually the opposite: The Spanish government forcing a "national" logo instead of a more regional one.
@@DanideLouroyou say that, but the official Catalan flag is also just red and gold.
the Catalan independence flag though? red, gold, and *blue.* (plus a white star)
@rin_etoware_2989 Yeah, it could be a nod to the independence movement, but with a nationwide effort involved in it, I think that the opposite is more likely.
Mexico 68 is my favourite one: thick and kind of hypnotic, iconic from a crazier time
Looking forward to the followup videos of "Graham discusses every Olympic bid logo chronologically" and "Graham tears apart every Olympic mascot, from least-to-most terrifying"
oh yes pealse
Bartleby et al. discuss the mascots, hmm?
Surely he'd tear them apart from least to most recent.
I'm british and a graphic designer. The 2011 London Olympics mascots were.... a choice!
omg YES i'd love to see a ranking of the mascots
fun fact about mexico city 68 they even made hats and dresses, so you could go full 60's fashion craze WITH the olympic logo
The image that they gave to the Olympic Games in Mexico '68 with that branding was titanically incredible, beautiful, it was the first country brand that Mexico had and with it the Mexican Department of Tourism was founded. That branding left a great mark on Mexico City, the metro stations have the aesthetics of the icons of Mexico '68, the same for the Central de Abasto, the largest market in the world, many of its stores are marked with icons that preserve the aesthetics of Mexico '68. The Olympic Games gave another face to the most important capital of Latin America.
Fun fact, the 1970 FIFA World Cup used the same logo font that they used for the '68 Olympics
"It's Athens, you know, it's where the games started"
Olympia: "...and I took that personally..."
maybe hes referring to the modern one
you're right, it never actually took place in the actual city of Athens, as a matter of fact, it took place a good ways from the city (at least by foot), a good 50 miles away.
He's talking about the modern games, which DID begin in Athens
@@aegisofhonor What the hell are you talking about
Mj: that's when I took it personally
This is the most Graham content you've ever made, Graham. Please make more.
Now we need Beej and Ian to critique the mascots.
Yes!
I could not agree more.
I agree- keep Graham'ing it up and I'll be here forever.
Production is so good too! I love this
when i was like 8 years old (2008?) i had a folder on my pc that i would download every single olympics logos, world cup logos etc. in it. when i had nothing to do and was bored, i would just open those folders and scroll thru them commenting on them by myself. i feel like i just did the exact same thing but with someone else this time. thanks for making me go back in time, it was a fun 45 minutes.
Besides subtly showing the letters R-I-O, the Rio 2016 logo also resembles one of the city’s most iconic landmarks: the Sugar Loaf Mountain.
The Rio logo of the three figures also subtlety hides the letters R I O.
The Athens logo isn't just a symbol of peace, an olive wreath was the prize you won at the ancient games. There were no medals etc, the wreath from an olive tree was the ultimate prize.
I love the london bid for 2012. The subtle tracing of the ribbons imitating the river thames was simple yet unique conpared to a lot of the other logos
The Tokyo 64 logo has aged incredibly well. I could totally see a different logo in that exact style being used today.
Did it aged well or we got suck into the same kind of asthetics again?
@@clorox1676mid century design is big again.
The content RUclips needs, but not the content it deserves
Hey I definitely deserved this
@@nuggetstheunicorn1592 oh *we* do deserve it, but not RUclips™
As a Sydneysider, mispelling "Sydney" renders everything you said irrelevant.
Joking aside, we all disliked the Sydney 2000 emblem: see the blue zig-zag (meant to represent the Opera House) as hair, the red boomerang as lips, and the middle yellow bits as an eye and moustache, you get the face of a man with a painful, constipated expression. We loved the bid logo though.
Well that is how Juan Antonio pronounced it 🤣. The bid logo was so much smarter than the one we went with.
The Sydney logo is the best one! It’s boomerang limbs to give it a distinctly Australian take on the running, each a distinct colour to reflect the colours of Australian environments. Plus he’s running beneath the shape of the opera house so we know where in Australia this is and the angle of the blue can also be the Olympic flame as well. Unlike any of the other designs the meaning in the logo is layered and nuanced. It’s perfect.
I also loved some of the branding that was done for the Sydney 2000 games, especially as seen on Ansett Airways special liveries leading up to the games. And who can forget Syd, Millie and Olly (The real best Olympic mascots). Moreover I hate how graphic designers obsess over the phrase Its very dated..... when everything we look at as cool now will be considered "dated" in the near future. I quite like designs from the late 90's to the early 2000's as it showed a time of optimism and looking forward to the future with bright colours and shading, a lot of things now just seem very bland or looking to the past for "inspiration"
I was, like, 3 or 4 when the Sydney Olympics occurred. I remember seeing that logo everywhere, but I had no idea what it was for. I also remember getting the Happy Meal plushies of the mascots - Ollie the kookaburra, Syd the platypus, and an echidna whose name escapes me - but again, having no idea what they were for. I think it was when the Beijing Olympics came around 8 years later that it finally clicked for me.
Also, I just Googled it, and the echidna's name was Millie. There was also a frilled lizard mascot named Lizzie, though I have *no* memory of her, so I'm guessing she got sidelined a bit. It's funny, because there was 90s childrens cartoon called _Blinky Bill_ that also had a frilled lizard character, named Ruff, who also got Chuck Cunningham'ed early on, so I'm guessing frilled lizards aren't particularly popular despite their iconic appearance.
I always thought the Sydney logo looked like a cheap piece of knock-off Ken Done tourist tat.
i like how he says "Mexico 68 just flexed it's machine guns and the others just looked down before it"
37:33 correction. Denver was actually a successful bid city. The city, after local voters objected to it, opted out of hosting after already being awarded the games.z that’s why Innsbruck hosted in 1976, so soon after having previously hosted
I was going to add that correction as well. 😊
I was hoping someone would mention this.
Which makes the reuse of the logo very fitting, as the whole reason Innsbruck was picked in 1976 was to be able to reuse what was already there.
Also the logo for Mexico 68 was inspired by the patterns of the Huichol, an indigenous people of Mexico. ♡ ♡ ♡
A lot of those unsuccessful bids were gorgeous logos. Shoutout to the Beijing, Sydney, and Madrid bids in particular, but all the ones you showed looked really nice.
The Denver one in particular gives me pause because I think it looks ugly but I totally get what they're going for with it nonetheless and it's really clever.
Personally, my three favorites Olympic logos are Mexico City, Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro. The Barcelona one reminds me my teen ages and a turning point in the world history. Mexico City logo is vanguardist and reflects the intensity of 1968. Rio logo is pure energy and tropical environment.
absolutely the correct opinion yes !
MEXICO’68 🇲🇽
definitely one of the best logos in Olympic history!
I always liked the Athens 2004 emblem, the olive leave.
So simple yet so posh and elegant and symbolised the ancient reward the olympic champions would get.
I like it too. I just wish the olive branches were drawn more elegantly.
It would be neat to see a breakdown of Olympic mascots!
As someone from Atlanta, I kinda hope he'd just skip past ours which was literally drawn by a kindergartner, if I was told correctly.
Or an analysis of the design Olympic torches for each Olympic Games. One of them looks a stylized fly swatter. Another looks like a candy dish.
Moscow80 wins again
I would watch the heck out of those kinds of videos. (Both mascots and torches) I’ve kind of been hyperfocused on the Olympics and there’s surprisingly not much content that’s informative out there.
@@TARDIS915 wdym Izzies got the drip
Seoul 1988 is a stylized tri-color Taegeuk, which is a symbol related to the two-color Taegeuk that appears on the South Korean flag
The Munich design suite- especially the posters and pictograms are seen as one of the high points of clean, modern graphic design, and a game changer The 'wreath thing' is the 'bright sun'... I think you under value it immensely.
Yes!!! I agree 1000% He should explore Munich in more detail! I love the design of Munich 1972
Munich's branding is easily the most impressive total work
We need a series of these where Graham rates random things like movie posters and album covers.
I would watch that!
If he wants to stay on the topic of the Olympics for a bit, I’d love to hear his thoughts on the mascots!
War Penguin yes. Just yes
@@LlamasAtMidnight Good news. Mascots are next.
“It’s no Tokyo ‘64” is now a phrase I shall integrate into my normal conversations.
i saw a (spoof??) suggestion for a tokyo 2020 logo that had the oplympic rings all normal, except that the red ring was the japanese sun and honestly, that would have been some tokyo '64 stuff, if it had happened
33:00 if I'm not mistaken (and I'm not Greek nor Athenian), the Olive Branch does pertain to Athens specifically because of one of its founding myths, that is, the time Poseidon and Athena competed for being the patron god of the city; Poseidon offered a salt-water spring, and Athena offered the Olive tree. You can guess which olympian became the patron of the city of Athens (Sorry for butchering the myth)
Isn't it supposed to be a laurel?
@@Jsdo1980 no, olive tree is correct, back then it was one of the most important crops that existed in the mediterranian area, that produced both food and oil (which is also food but has other uses)
@@trillaco1 Sorry, mixing up the terms in laurel wreath. I'm not a native speaker, so I didn't know that laurel was the plant. It's a wreath made from olive.
this guy pronouncing melbourne correctly makes me so so happy
and you calling that grating pronunciation "correct" makes me cringe
My wife worked at the 2012 London games and I have nothing but good memories from the games. So I actually really like the logo because of the feelings it evokes. It is demonstrably terrible but I can’t bring myself to dislike it.
That said it does look like adult Lisa Simpson doing something very rude. Once that’s pointed out you can’t unsee it.
Noooooooooooooooo now that's going to be stuck in my mind forever....
I worked London 2020 also and liked the logo but in the pink that it actually was in not the white
I saw that Lisa meme once in 2012 and it's still all I can see when I look at that logo
NOOOOOOOOOOO
... but, can we all agree to stop sex-chaming? oral sex is a valid part of human sexual activity no need to be called rude...
40:15 Hello. The Rio 2016 logo not only features people dancing and celebrating, holding hands, but the design itself reminds us of one of the strongest symbols of the city's landscape, Sugarloaf Mountain.
The dancers' outines is recognizable when you look at the Sugarloaf Mountain from a fair distance:
ruclips.net/video/ZJ0VOtDk1Dw/видео.html
I LOVE the Mexico City one and the Munich one because they looked so good in printed materials. Maybe they're not as nice to look at today when it's mostly screens that make the branding work, but at the time they fit really well the purpose they were intended for.
The "Nagano" name in the 1998 Winter Olympics logo is in the font Basilea-same font used in the Sega Dreamcast logo.
The 1972 Summer Olympics emblem may leave much to be desired, but the mascot for the games was a dachshund named Waldi and I think his design is pretty cute!
I started this video looking at the runtime and was like "ehhh, I'll watch the first 2 minutes of it"... what felt like 2 minutes later Graham says "ok bye" and I was completely entertained without realising the time passed. Very nice video!
A bit of correction on 37:37
Denver '76 isn't an unsuccessful bid. It's a bid that won the right to host the winter olympics of that year, but the city voted against the games funding in 1972, therefore Innsbruck was rushed to host the games just 12 years after they did it first time, hence the logo of 1964 games being reused.
The 2016 Rio's logo also shapes the Sugar Loaf, a well known landmark in the city
That sounds yummy
i honestly really love seeing the emblems change over time! i like the 40's london games logo with the clock tower! it is very wood carving-esque but it's beautiful!
The brush strokes for Barcelona '92 were evocative of the work of Joan Miro. They did all the event pictograms in the same style. This was the start of the move away from the old standard pictograms to having them integrate with the overall brand.
people really out here scrambling to find symbolism for red blue and yellow like we don't know they just want the primary colors aesthetic lol.
I really love the RIO one, because it has so many references!, the theme for the games was respect of diferences, so each person being a different color and all of them being connected, represented that, but also! it represents a land mark of Rio, the sugar loaf mountains! I found it very cute and clever all around!
also the logo itself spells "Rio", each person is playing a different sport (green: volleyball, yellow: handball and blue: diving), it's 3d (!!!!!!) and the font is AMAZING! that "16" achieved something I thought it was impossible: to overcome the "!6" from the bid logo. it's brazilian, it's carioca, it's sporty
Am I biased, since I am myself a carioca and worked for the olympics? maybe! but just like graham said, it's just my opinion! hahaha
100% agree the Rio one was great
It took me half of the video to realise that he’d been changing the music along with the decades. Nice touch.
I remember watching the 2010 Vancouver Olympics live, and that combined ski-snowboarding slope was possibly the best thing I've ever seen in a sporting event. I've never been so on edge as I was watching everyone fall over and dogpile almost immediately out of the gate, it was amazing.
Stumbled upon this and I loved the deep dive. Here for any more deep dives into design of things
tokyo 64 looks like something that could even be used nowadays
Very cool video!! The Barcelona 92' one is reallly loved in Spain by graphic designers because represents the transition of the Spanish design to a new modern era
I love it too!
Getting to chill and hang out for a while with Graham as he gets nerdy about stuff he likes? Why yes, I liked it.
You are very correct on the Vancouver mascots being the best. I was a kid when the games happened and I remember huddling around my moms laptop to watch the little animations they made about them. My dad volunteered at the Vancouver game and brought home me and my brother plushes of them and I keep them on my shelf to this day
I love how people in the comments agree that Mexico 68 is the best.
What?? The whole Munich Olympic design was outstanding! You can't just stare at a single element by itself!
I loved the symbols used to indicate the competitions.
33:05
In the logo it wasn’t the olive branch, symbolising peach but the Laurel leaf crown that was the awards of the winners!
Back in the day, the award to the champions were the Laurel leaf crown and the respects of his city. When Romans discovered the Hellenic culture and adopted the Olympic Games they introduced the cash award!
One of the better “random subject” RUclips videos I’ve come across. Many thanks!
38:05 London's logo has actually been one of my favorites for a reason I haven't been able to confirm was intentional: the logo itself looks like the UK and Ireland - the 2 is in the position of Northern Ireland, the 0 is Scotland, the 1 is Ireland, the dot is Wales, and the other 2 is England
Maybe the small one is Island of Man...
@@clopec isle of man*
I never thought of the logo that way, I’m currently comparing this logo to the map of the UK and Ireland and I can kind of see it
The Albertville Logo reminded me of the smash ball.
YES!!
Graham: Spells Sydney as Sidney,
Also Graham: "I love you Australia"
Yeah. Sydney's wasn't that good, but all I remember from Sydney Olympics was the wombat mascot with the massive arse.
@@JayJay-dp8ky Everyone I know keeps on talking about how great Sydney olympics was (I was too young to remember), but I do remember the three mascots vaguely. I just know they wouldn't have aged well at all from my memory
@@JayJay-dp8ky There wasn't a Wombat among them.
Was a Platypus, Echidna and Kookaburra. Syd, Millie and Olly.
Also a Frill-Neck Lizard for the Paralympics named Lizzy... cause apparently they used their symbolism up with the main three.
As for the games, I mean... I was ten years old at the time, I remember it reasonably fondly in the sense that the Torch looked cool and damn near every Australian Athlete they hyped up got a medal of some sort.
Kinda one of those scenarios where it was nice to watch your home country win a decent amount in their own country.
_Course the absolute best moment in the Olympics for Australians ever didn't come until the next Winter games in 2002 with that legendary speed skating gold from Steve Bradbury,_ but hey, plenty of medals at home was good to see too.
@@JayJay-dp8ky Fatso the Wombat was actually a parody mascot, from Roy & H.G.
Regarding Innsbruck in 1976, they were a fairly last-minute choice to host the Olympics after their originally-selected host, Denver, withdrew after voters said "aw hell naw" to funding the games. Denver was selected in '70, but withdrew in '72; Innsbruck was selected in '73, giving less lead-in than most games experience.
This! Thx for mentioning.
I kind of like how the Barcelona 1992 emblem is evocative of Joan Miró's art. Fitting for the city.
Koreans were underwhelmed by the Pyeongchang 2018 logo, and it emerged that Choi Soon-sil, a daughter of a cult leader and confidante to the disgraced President Park Geun-hye who was impeached and removed from office a couple of years before the Olympics, was heavily involved in pushing for the five colours used in traditional Korean art (obangsaek). Everything Choi touched seemed to use this colour scheme, so when the political scandal broke out there was a huge backlash against it, but it was probably too late to change the emblem. The emblem probably would have worked better with a cleaner colour scheme and less spindly lines, though I'm not in love with the overall concept.
I know Albertville 1992 is supposed to be the flag of Savoy...but the resemblance to the Super Smash Bros symbol is uncanny
Also, you were right to say the Vancouver one was based off an Inukshuk in Vancouver. It was based off one built by Alvin Kanak for Expo 86 that has since been donated to the city and now on English Bay Beach. The one in Whistler that you showed was built AFTER the logo was unveiled to further promote the Games
Hello Avery, I see you everywhere.
The first thing that came to my mind was the flag of Denmark.
I was thinking Denmark
Great video. The Rio 2016 is shaped like the Pão de Açúcar (sugar loaf) mountain, so it's more clever than it looks.
i'd love to see you review the submitted but unused logos and compare them to the official logos! like comparing the london 2012 submitted logos to the one they chose to use (why!) and which they should've gone with!
For Sarajevo, I think you might have missed a design element of the snow crystal, they also form a ring of 4 people with their arms up.
Today I learned my favourite Olympic snowflake logo is that of Sarajevo '84. What a delightful way to spend the better part of an hour stuck at home sick. Thanks Graham!
You realise of course this means we'll be chasing your opinion for all the upcoming Olympiads
The one for Paris already exists, and raises an obvious question: why does that Olympic torch have lips?
EDIT: Also the Beijing 2022 logo is going to have the same font issue that Graham had with '08, but the actual logo is pretty fresh, IMHO.
I'm Canadian and I always thought the Montreal games logo was just a 3D version of the Olympic logo turning the 2D loops into 3D cylinders
The logos of Mexico 68, London 2012 and Los Angeles 2028 are so far the ones I like the most from the Olympic Games.
Let us not forget, even for one millisecond, that Atlanta's mascot terrorshow was so fucking horrific they named it "The Whatzit" because no single human who laid eyes upon it could stand its unbearable gaze long enough to rationalize any other functional nomeclature.
9 year old me was obsessed with Izzy and wanted all of the hat pins, all of the plastic figures they had at hotel chains, and rented the cr*p out of the video game. Izzy still holds a special place in my heart... probably a tumor.
... though I do understand people's fear of it when looking at the plush/costume incarnations and early renderings of it, I still think the final cartoon version was really cool and well done when shown competing in events.
If you’re interested in a follow-up, Beijing 2022, Paris 2024, Milan-Cortina 2026 and LA 2028 have all unveiled their logos.
I don't like the Milano Cortina one 😭 I'm crying because they are in my city
You know what bugs me about the pyeongChang one, the fact the star's colour do not at all follow the sequence of colours in the ring.
Japan adding a snowflake to the 1972 logo to make it look different from 1964: Sometimes my genius is...it's almost frightening
Rest of the world: Hey, I've seen this one!
Japan: What do you mean, you've seen it? It's brand new!
When we do host the games, we will do the ceremonies in our world's largest stadium, Rungrado May Day Stadium, and put on a display the world will never forget. Just like we do with our Arirang Mass Games
Pyongyang 2036 and onward !!! It shall be the only new Olympic city for eternity
Kye Dalgleish isn't that supposed to be Brisbane?
@@LlamasAtMidnight Brisbane is 2032 but PYONGYANG WILL BE 2036
Love the video Graham, fyi there is a whole 99% invisible podcast about the graphic design of the 68' Mexico City games logos and motifs.
This is basically the only Olympic content I'll consume this year
This, and the clip of the one guy doing Franky's pose from One Piece
Yeah this was just really easy and relaxing to watch
@@ericmarquis319 Wait, context?
@@wannabehistorian371 ruclips.net/video/m6l0L0la4OQ/видео.html
Please analyze the mascots, that would be fun
Graham whether you admit it or not you are a dream and a half and I appreciate your effort and hard work.
Man I loved the Rio one.
The colours are great - the way the gradients were done really help make the colours not clash, and the font is evocative and ties into the movement of the logo too - finally there are the stories you can make up about what’s happening in the logo itself.
For me that one is A+, easily in top 3.
And this is good content, Graham 🙂
Essa logo também tem o formato de um dos pontos turísticos mais famosos do Rio de Janeiro: o Pão de Açúcar. Além disso, forçando um pouco, dá pra ler "Rio" ali, mas é se esforçando pra abstrair. Sem falar que é tridimensional. Algumas curiosidades só
It’s also meant to depict Sugarloaf Mountain.
In the Berlin 1936: "The olympic rings are off-model, so weird"
In the Los Angeles 1932: "The olympic rings are off-model, so stylish, so classic"
Ya see, one of those is in an extremely racist country.
And the other is in Germany.
@@raphaelsanchez7386 hats off my man. Good kek
@@raphaelsanchez7386 🧐 kinda a backhanded defense to hitler when you don’t call Germany racist while he was In power. But America bad.
You hits vein of one of my favorite hobby - graphic design for olympic posters.
I didn't realize that the London 2012 logo had 2012. I thought it was just a collection of shapes until now.
When I was in 4th grade, we made the Seoul logo in art class by tearing and gluing construction paper. It was on my grandmother’s fridge until we moved her out of her apartment (I was in college).
there is one thing about the 2012 London logo that was not brought up; the one that was coloured with the union jack patterns ( and indirectly all the other colour schemes) was actually a puzzle which could be solved to reveal the complete flag. Still doesn`t stop it looking bad, but it was an interesting function of the emblem
Where can I find it?
Also that the pieces resembles the shapes of the 4 nations that comprise Great Britain.
Does it. The first zero is actually a stylised shape of Greater London.
I love this please do more of these types of videos! Maybe like evolution of company logos? Country flags? Anyways I love this it makes me happy, calm, and I’m learning!
30:56 - ah yes, my favourite Australian city, "Sidney"
As a resident of London, you cannot possibly hate the 2012 logo more than we do.
Seconded. It was a joke before the Games, it was a joke during the Games, it was a joke ever since the Games, it's been mocked by every angle of British culture. It's pretty much objectively horrid.
At least you remember what it looks like haha
27:05
Sydney:"Pst! Can I copy your homework?"
Barcelona:"Yes, but change it a bit so it won't look like you copied!"
Sydney:"OK!"
31:00
Exactly!
sydney not sidney
@@estherqin3080 fixed
I really enjoyed this. Thanks!
This is an awesome and informative video. Came for the logos, stayed for the trivia! 🙂
I worked at Squaw Vally for a few years as a ski instructor and in IT so I ended up seeing a lot of the facilities and I honestly do not remember that logo being used a lot at all.
I've always loved the little suggestion the Montreal 1976 logo is meant to represent the 3 peaks of Mont-Royal, the mountain in the middle of the island that gave the city its name. So simple and yet it may contain the most meaning of any logo (M, maple leaf, podium, running track).
La majorité des montréalais ne savent même pas l'existence des 3 sommets .
@@emiriebois2428 c’est pour ceux qui le savent 😘
I thought the top part of the logo looked more like a stylized fleur-de-lys than a maple leaf, but what do I know?
Your pronounciation of Garmisch-Partenkirchen was actually awesome! And the Baxter cameo was really cool!
Rio's design actually also represents the Sugarloaf Mountains, which are an important monument in the city
I enjoyed the parade of logos and your commentary. As a stamp collector in my youth, I enjoyed seeing all those old graphics again. Having been born and raised in Montreal, I certainly liked the simplicity of the 1976 logo. I remember reacting to the 2012 London logo - expecting something historical and elegant. "What!!! That can't be right!? C'mon!" (by the way, the locals just call it "Garmish")
This was very enjoyable. I'd love to see a similar video with you ripping apart the visual styles for the Eurovision Song Contest, which is a live television show that has been held yearly (*) since 1956. There's lots of visual identities and progress in those, while also having a similar theme of peaceful competition and getting to know eachother!
(* Covid kind of ruined that streak in 2020...)
Re Australia. Bite me but this is one of the funniest videos I have ever seen, thankyou so much for keeping my mind sane during lockdown I was literally laughing the entire time
>.> I started watching this and was interested and thinking about subscribing and then here comes your cat and that sealed the deal :3