Signazon.com's graphic design team interpret the logos of every Winter Olympic Game to date, offers insight on trends, and predicts the upcoming design of the new logo. Signazon.com's graphic design team created the concept for Signazon.com's new website in 2013 and created thousands templates for all kinds of signage products including car magnets, decals, banners, and other marketing materials.

1. Winter Olympic Designs
Explained
By:

2. They’re Just Logos, Right?
Wrong.
Each logo is a symbol of the times and a
representation of the host city.
Add political environments to that equation.
Then factor in the artistic movements.
And consider technological capabilities.
We at Signazon.com can offer our knowledge in the
art of graphic design to help you interpret the
trends behind all the Winter Olympic Logos.

3. Keep In Mind:
• The 1940 & 1944 Olympic Games were
cancelled due to WW2.
• Computer assisted graphic design was
nonexistent until the invention of the mouse
in 1970.
• The 1992 Olympic Game was the last time
both summer and winter Olympic Games
were held in the same year.

4. A Time Before Logos
The designs mirrored popular artistic movements:
Art Noveau
FUTURISM
Bauhaus
minimalism

5. 1924 – Chamonix, France

6. 1928 – St. Moritz Switzerland

7. Did You Notice?
The first use of this logo was in 1928

8. 1936 – Bavaria, Germany

9. 1948 – St. Moritz, Switzerland

10. 1932 – Lake Placid, USA

11. 1952 – Oslo, Norway

12. 1956 – Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy

13. Did You Notice?
1956 was the first logo-centric design

14. 1960 – Squaw Valley, USA

15. 1964 – Innsbruck, Austria

16. 1968 – Grenoble, France

17. 1972 – Sapporo, Japan

18. 1976 – Innsbruck, Austria

19. 1980 – Lake Placid, USA

20. Did You Notice?
The last design went back to the poster theme.
…But Futurism influenced it instead of Art Noveau

21. 1984 – Sarajevo, Yugoslavia

22. 1988 – Calgary, Canada
(Poster shown, but please focus on the logo only)

23. 1992 – Albertville, France

24. 1994 – Lillehammer, Norway
(1994’s logo brought back the border one game)

25. 1998 – Nagano, Japan

26. 2002 – Salt Lake City, USA

27. 2006 – Turin, Italy

28. 2010 – Vancouver, Canada

29. 2014 – Sochi, Russia

30. 2018 – PyeongChang, South Korea

31. What Does This Teach Us?
• Each logo attempts to capture the spirit of
each game’s location or host city.
• There is a battle between simple and complex
design themes - what is not popular now may
be the theme 2 years later.
• Finding the thin line between complexity
versus minimalism is key.

32. Expectations: Future Designs
• In the near future, Olympic logos will more
than likely be created with sanserif fonts.
• The Olympic Logo and its colors will be used in
most designs.
• Plan for the next candidate citys’ logos to be
more complex or organic (less geometrical)
– Why? It does not get more minimal than
PyeongChang’s 2018 design

33. Image References
Olympics Logo - http://gurugraphicsgroup.com/files/2012/07/Olympic.png
The Boston Pops Orchestra. John Williams – Greatest Hits 1969-1999. Cond. John Williams. Rec. 2 Nov. 1999. Sony Classical, 1999. CD.
1924 - http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/57/84957-050-9D956BC5.jpg
1928 - http://www.99sportslogos.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1928-Winter-Olympics-Logo-Switzerland.jpg
1932 - http://olympicartifacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/1932_w1.jpg
1936 - http://www.everseradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/1936-olympic-games-poster.jpg
1948 - http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcxit8NlGg1rrcqu4o1_1280.jpg
1952 - http://www.regardemagazine.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/1952-Oslo-N.jpg
1956 - http://digitalpostercollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/1956-Winter-Olympic-Games-Italy-Cortina-dAmpezzo-Logo1.jpg
1960 - http://vepca.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/die-olympischen-winterspiele.jpg
1964 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/1964_Winter_Olympics_logo.png
1968 - http://hative.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/olympic-logos/grenoble-winter-1968-22.gif
1972 - http://www.regardemagazine.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/1972-Sapporo-J.jpg
1976 - http://www.mentalfloss.com/sites/default/legacy/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/innsbruck.jpg
1980 - http://chasethepuck.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/1980-winter-olympics.jpg
1984 - http://andrewspaldingamer.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/winterolypicgames_1984_sarajevo_yugoslavia.jpg
1988 - http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TwAbZhMGVEw/S2tdLWDvf5I/AAAAAAAAJwM/I4y60jUohuk/s1600/1988.jpg
1992 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/d/d1/1992_Winter_Olympics_logo.svg/1000px-1992_Winter_Olympics_logo.svg.png
1994 - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/96/1994_Winter_Olympics_logo.svg/1000px-1994_Winter_Olympics_logo.svg.png
1998 - http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130622181059/logopedia/images/7/73/200px-1998_Winter_Olympics_logo_svg.png
2002 - http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100904045047/logopedia/images/e/e8/200px-2002_Winter_Olympics_logo_svg.png
2006 - http://away2travel.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/torino-2006-su-bianco.jpg
2010 - http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_RyTV8gwEeOQ/S3u2o-nRsMI/AAAAAAAABGo/LGgjzJjx4Y0/s1600-h/2000px-Vancouver_2010_logo.png
2014 - http://dvo53oxmpmca8.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/SOC_Olympic-logoRGB.jpg
2018 - http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130506214416/logopedia/images/e/e2/PyeongChang_2018.svg