The cover of the report on the 1896 Games evoked the
Olympics' classical ancestry. At Athens, as in early
times, only men took part in the Olympic Games.
1900
Paris
The Games were moved from May to October. A range of
trophies were awarded because the modern medal system
was not yet in place.
1904
Saint Louis
The program cover and poster of the St. Louis World's
Fair were used for the 1904 Olympic Games.
1908
London
The official program for the 1908 Olympic Games featured
a high jumper in action at the stadium of Shepards
Bush in London.
1912
Stockholm
After a thorough examination of several sketches sent
in and after having conferred with prominent Swedish
artists, the Swedish Olympic Committee, at a meeting
held on the 27 June 1911, accepted the poster by Olle
Hjortzberg, of the Royal Academy, which had been sent
in to the Committee in 1910 but had afterwards been
slightly altered. The poster represented the march
of the nations, each athlete with a waving flag.
1920
Antwerp
The official poster for the first Games after World
War I showed a classical discus thrower alongside flags
of the participating nations.
1924
Paris
Of the 150 designs submitted, the French Olympic Committee
selected two: one by Jean Droit and the other by Orsi.
10.000 copies of each were printed.
Of these 20.000 posters, 12.000 were sent abroad and
distributed with the help of the National Olympic Committees,
sporting federations, Olympic associations, etc. In
France, the posters were distributed by sporting establishments,
theaters and travel agencies.
The poster of Jean Droit for the 1924 Olympic Games
in Paris was dominated by a picture of athletes and
the French tricolor while the one of Orsi showed a
javelin thrower with the Sacre Coeur in the background.
1928
Amsterdam
Several Dutch artists were invited to send in designs
for the 1928 Olympic Games. The Organizing Committee
selected four designs from which a choice was made.
The design sent in by J. Rovers, whose original design
was slightly altered and 10.000 copies were printed.
As the Dutch Railways had promised to assist in distributing
the posters, a number of them bore the inscription
Netherlands Railways in the language of the country
to which they were sent (Holland, Belgium, France,
Germany and England). Other posters were distributed
among the sporting clubs throughout Holland, travel
offices, hotels and tourist information offices.
1932
Los Angeles
In an effort to produce an official poster which would
be novel and at the same time attractive enough to it being
displayed over a period of many months, the Committee accepted
the design offered by Julio Kilenyi. The poster depicted
the ancient Grecian custom of sending a youthful athlete
out to announce the forthcoming celebration of the Games.
Several thousand copies of the poster were displayed.
1936
Berlin
From the designs submitted, that of the Berlin painter
and graphic artist, Wurbel, was selected by the Organizing
Committee. His poster revealed the quadriga of the
Brandenburg Gate as the landmark of the host city,
Berlin, and behind this the figure of a wreathed victor
with his arm raised in the Olympic greeting. The poster
was distributed to and displayed in every country of
the world and was issued in all of the important languages.
1948
London
As there was no time to set up a competition for the design
of the poster because of the World War II, the choice rested
between a few designs submitted to the Executive Committee,
The Olympic rings are first printed on the poster. In front
of the Houses of Parliament there is the statue of "The
Discus Thrower", a bronze statue made by Myron of
Eleutherae in 450 BC. All 100.000 printed copies were distributed.
1952
Helsinki
The official poster, by the Finnish artist Ilmari Sysimetsa,
showed the legendary Finnish long-distance runner, Paavo
Nurmi. The poster was printed in two sizes and 20 different
languages and a total of 115.000 copies were distributed.
In Finland the first posters appeared in the summer of
1951 in railway stations, post offices, bus stations and
sporting clubs. It was not generally displayed until the
spring of 1952, shortly before the Games.
1956
Melbourne
Richard Beck's design for the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games
poster was one of five designs submitted to the design
competition organized by the Melbourne Olympic Committee
in 1954. Selected as the winning entry, the design was
first released in December 1954 as a postage stamp to draw
attention to the forthcoming Games. The poster presents
an invitation for the Games. The Olympic rings dominate
the front of the invitation while the official Coat of
Arms of the City of Melbourne appears on another fold.
The Australians refused Equestrian part of the Olympic
Games out of fear for transmittable diseases. The Equestrian
therefore took place in Stockholm. The Equestrian Olympic
poster, issued in 40.000 copies with text in English, French,
German, and Swedish was distributed all over the world
in the early part of 1955. The designer of the poster was
the Swedish artist John Sjosvord who lived in Stockholm.
1960
Rome
On 31st January 1957 the Arts Section initiated a " Prize-winning
Contest between artists of Italian nationality for the
poster of the Games of the XVII Olympiad
". 290.000 copies were printed of the design by Armando
Testa. The capital of the Roman column depicts the apotheosis
of a winning athlete, who, according to Roman rites, crowns
himself with his right hand and holds the palm of victory
in his left. Above is a Roman she-wolf from which Remus
and Romulus are suckling. They are the twin brothers who,
according to legend, founded the city of Rome.
1964
Tokyo
In February 1961, the first official poster of a series
of four was published. These four official posters were: "The
Rising Sun and the Olympic Emblem", "The Start
of Sprinters Dash", "A Butterfly-Swimmer"
and "An Olympic Torch Runner." All four were
designed by Yusaku Kamekura and from the second one onwards,
he had the cooperation of Osamu Hayasaki and Jo Murakoshi
as staff photographers.
The posters were in multi-colored photogravure, a distinct
technical accomplishment for Japan's printing industry.
The printing quality received a lot of favourable comments
both at home and abroad and the posters themselves received
a number of prizes for their excellence, including the
Milan Poster Design Award.
The first poster with its striking design from Japan's
National flag, to some extent served to renew the appreciation
of the Rising Sun's dynamic simplicity. Some 100.000 copies
of this poster were printed and distributed before the
Games.
The second official poster was modeled with the cooperation
both of athletes of the American forces stationed at the
Tachikawa Air Base in Japan and of Japanese amateur athletes.
The photo was taken on a winter night in February 1962
at the National Stadium in Tokyo. Ninety thousand copies
of this poster were distributed.
The first photos for the third official poster were taken
at the Tokyo Metropolitan Indoor Swimming Pool in February
1962 with swimmer Furukawa and other Japanese free-style,
backstroke and butterfly swimmers as well as W. Yorzyk
(USA) acting as models. None of these photos, however,
were accepted and later a butterfly trio of Waseda University
were called in to cooperate and a picture modeled by Koji
Iwamoto was selected for the poster. Some 70.000 of these
posters had been distributed by the opening of the Games.
The final official poster was made at the beginning of
1964 and 50.000 copies were distributed. The Olympic Torch
Runner selected this poster was athlete Tanaka of the Juntendo
University track and field team.
In Japan, these posters were distributed to all local government
offices, amateur sports associations, public buildings,
news media, airlines, prominent trading companies, tourist
agencies, business firms, banks, etc, The overseas distribution
included the International Olympic Committee, National
Olympic Committees, international sports federations, and
Japan's Embassies in the various countries. These posters
were responsible for accentuating the Olympic mood which
prevailed both at home and abroad.
1968
Mexico City
The poster was designed by Pedro Ramirez Vazquez, Lance
Wyman and Eduardo Terrazas. Posters were probably the most
popular publications in the Olympic Identity Program. They
not only served to promote every aspect of the Games and
the Cultural Program of the XIX Olympiad, but became coveted
souvenirs. Altogether, 2.120.000 copies of 159 posters
were printed in 1968 of which 18 sports posters totaling
287.000 copies.
1972
Munich
The official poster was meant to promote not one specific
sports event, but the whole of the Munich Games. It was
supposed to express the specific spirit of the Games. The
design evokes the modern architecture of the sporting venues,
in a style and using colors which are purposefully simple
and pure. In the centre of the background, the famous Olympic
tower. 5.000 copies were made.
1976
Montreal
Posters seem to have played an important role in the image
which recent Olympic organizing committees have sought
to project. COJO followed the same path, ordering two main
series of posters from the Graphics and Design Directorate.
The first series illustrated eight themes which the organizers
of the Montreal Games wanted to stress in particular: Olympic
Stadium, mascot, flag, International youth camp, Olympia
and Montreal, Kingston 1976 and the Olympic Flame.
The second series of posters commissioned by COJO illustrated
the twenty-one sports on the program of the Games of the
XXI Olympiad. Each was intended to communicate the action
of its sport. The Graphics and Design Directorate, therefore,
preferred photographic techniques to drawings, where the
results might have been colored by the artist's personal
interpretation.
1980
Moscow
The official poster featured the emblem of the 1980
Olympic Games in Moscow: a section of a running track
rising into an architectural silhouette typical of
Moscow and a five-pointed star topping the silhouette.
1984
Los Angeles
The LAOOC commissioned an Olympic poster series in December
of 1983. Twelve graphic designers were chosen to depict
a particular sport of the Olympic Games. The artists included:
Laurie Raskin (collage), Arnold Schwartzman (cycling),
Keith Bright (torch pictogram), Marvin Rubin (gymnastics),
Saul Bass (swimming), John Von Hammersveld (javelin), Charles
White Ill (weightlifting); Ken Parkhurst (shot put), Rod
Dyer (wrestling), Deborah Sussman (collage), James Cross
(discus) and Don Weller (athletics).
1988
Seoul
In the poster, designed by Prof. Cho Yong-je, the five
rings symbolizing the pure Olympic spirit were rendered
in bright figurative form to represent the Olympic ideal
illuminating the world in peace forever. The image of the
runner carrying the Olympic torch symbolized mankind's
progress towards happiness and prosperity. The SLOOC decided
to produce 27 types of sports posters to introduce the
sports of the Seoul Olympic Games and to establish a familiar
image of the Games.
1992
Barcelona
COOB'92 developed a highly ambitious project which involved
58 different posters grouped in four collections: the official
Olympic posters, the painters' posters, the designers'
posters and the photographic sports posters. The posters
were distributed by COOB'92 free of charge. Three kinds
of special packaging were prepared: plastic (for a single
poster), cardboard tube (for complete collections) and
boxes (for dispatching large quantities). All three bore
the Barcelona'92 emblem and the Telefonica logotype.
1996
Atlanta
Art Direction developed the ACOG Poster Program to embrace
a variety of images and artists. Of the 63 posters in the
program, 25 were available as limited edition prints. Each
poster had a predetermined border that contained the Games
logo and the phrase "Centennial Olympic Games"
in English and French. The posters were divided into four
series: sports, designer, Look Team and artist serie. The
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President, Juan Antonio
Samaranch, chose this image drawn by an artist from "The
Look of the Games", Primo Angeli, as the official
poster for the 1996 Olympic Games.
2000
Sydney
To reflect a diversity of styles and techniques, the Organizing
Committee asked several poster designers from a wide range
of different creative and cultural backgrounds to create
posters. In total, 50 posters were published. The official
poster was selected from creations presented in the following
four categories: "Schoolchildren’s work”, “Sydney
2000 emblems”, “Mascots”
and “Posters”.
2004
Athens
The official poster of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games incorporates
three key communication elements of the Games visual identity:
the emblem of the Games, a section of the “Panorama” composition
and a view of the Acropolis. The emblem serves as reference
to the four key values of the Athens Games: heritage, human
scale, participation and celebration. The “Panorama” artwork
composition is based on forms that reflect images of Greece’s
cultural heritage and natural environment: waves, a fragment
of an ancient Greek inscription, an ornamental motif from
an ancient vase, the blue colors of the Greek sea and sky,
the vibrant color of the bougainvillea, the grey of stone,
the warm orange colors of the sun. A black-and-white picture
of Acropolis in Athens occupies the centre of the poster.
The official poster was designed by the Image & Identity
Department of the OCOG Athens 2004 Communications Division.
