The Olympics are just about here! Every two years, the world turns their attention to a new locale, and a new celebration of the world's best athletes. And with the entire world watching, the organizing committee must come up with a logo to put a face on their Olympics. That's a tall order! The logo appears on every broadcast, every venue, merchandise, the website, and much more.
The Sochi Olympics logo is surprising in its simplicity and lack of illustration (aside from the Olympic rings). It is also the very first logo to feature a web address. Russia has a rich cultural history of intricate, detailed art. Religous icons, nesting dolls and scrolling floral folk art come to mind. So for the host city to choose a modern-looking, very simplified logo is quite daring. I like how the letters "o" "h" and "i" in sochi are mirrored in the "014" below and the blue color hits the right wintry note.
As can be expected, there has been some outcry that the logo does not call any attention to Sochi's heritage. As you can see in the logos below, many previous host countries took the opportunity to showcase various facets of their culture.
While I agree that the logo is a great place to showcase a city's heritage (I just LOVE everything about the Vancouver logo above), I think the Sochi's logo works. It presents the Sochi Olympics as of the digital era and shows innovation in it's simplicity.
What do you think of Sochi's logo? Plain Jane or just right?
