Alternative Olympic posters
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An all-star cast of graphic designers have created ‘alternative Olympics posters’ for a new show, Fit, opening this weekend.
No Guts no Glory, by Morag Myerscough
Curated by Jonathan Barnbrook and Vaughan Oliver, designers including Neville Brody and Alan Kitching were tasked with creating posters inspired by London 2012 – or, more accurately, its well-documented design-related oversights.
Where are they Now? Andy Altman, Why Not Associates
It’s been no secret that some people have been somewhat disillusioned with the official Olympic logo, and the process by which the official London 2012 posters were commissioned, featuring, as they did, the work of artists rather than designers.
VELODROME – Jonathan Barnbrook
However, the show aims not to make a complaint about these various issues, but to highlight the huge amount design talent Britain has to offer – even if said talent was overlooked in creating the logo and poster designs.
FIT – Marina Willer with Ian Osbourne, Pentagram
PUME! I am thee olympicks! - Graham Wood
Fit: London 2012-Inspired Posters by Contemporary British-Based Graphic Designers, is at Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, London WC1, from 2-9 July, and Window Gallery, Central Saint Martins, London WC1, from 2 July-30 August.
Onomatopoeialympics – Michael Worthington using Wonk modular alphabet by David Karwan
NEW GOLD DREAM – Vaughan Oliver with Marc Atkins
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Readers' comments (16)
Kieran | Thu, 28 Jun 2012 11:26 am
Miles: Critics are unaware because it hasn't been reported. Where is that information from?
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Anonymous | Sun, 1 Jul 2012 11:18 am
Unfocussed complaining is uncritical. I’m happy to see a constructive response to the London 2012 graphic design void.
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Gwynneth Carville | Mon, 2 Jul 2012 2:34 pm
even if it's "alternative" it should still be clearer that there is a link beween the poster design and the ethos/actual olympic events etc.. otherwise there is no point as the brief was not answered. Constructive criticism is better than plain destructive criticism, but then that's harder to do....I had a go. If the posters were communicating with the general public about the Olympics the message would not have been clear.
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Jonathan | Tue, 3 Jul 2012 9:59 am
There still seems to be a widely held misunderstanding regarding the 'official' Olympic posters. Something that the design press has rather unhelpfully done little to resolve.
The work done by the selection of artists for the 'official' posters follows on a long standing tradition of using artists to produce prints as part of the cultural side of the Games. These are not posters in the traditional sense as they are not intended to communicate any information about the Games.
There was indeed much moaning by designers that they were overlooked in favour of artists. The design press should have been more accurate in their description of the purpose of these prints.
I do however think that there is a massively missed opportunity on behalf of the organisers to use designers, and the outstanding talent that UK designers have to offer for the actual 2012 posters.
As far as these alternative posters go, I would say that they are no different to the artists ones in terms of content/ideas. Perhaps with just a bit more type.
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ROB NEWTON | Tue, 3 Jul 2012 1:14 pm
Justabittafun, it should be open to all to have a go.
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Tara | Tue, 3 Jul 2012 6:31 pm
"Fit" by Willer and Osborne is the stand out piece here for me. I like that it strikes a balance between the use of bold horizontal stripes (which seem to subtly reference the tube) while the word "FIT" makes an obvious connection to the Olympics itself. It had a lovely colour scheme to boot.
I've done a few posters for an Olympic related event myself, if anyone wants to have a look
http://cargocollective.com/supertara/Lightspeed
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