Did you know that - Branding the Paris 2024 Olympic Games - between history and modernity
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games branding is characterized by innovation and creativity and addresses major marketing issues.
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games branding is characterized by innovation and creativity and addresses major marketing issues.
Branding the Paris 2024 Olympic Games: Between History and Modernity
Every four years the modern Olympic Games bring the entire world together with a message of hope, inclusivity, respect, and friendship.
Effectively the branding Olympic Games 2024 represented a major marketing and commercial challenge. With Paris acting as the host city, the marketing branding needed to be dynamic and modern while reflecting the cultural heritage and history of France.
A Revolutionary Creative Approach
The selection process for the Paris Olympic branding campaign began in 2018. After a country-wide competition, the French Olympic Games 2024 committee awarded the task of designing the symbols and the Olympic Logo to the company Royalties-Ecobranding. The firm W Conran Design was appointed as the overall brand manager.
The visual identity for the Games developed by these two companies took a bold approach that focused on promoting sustainability, equality, and French culture. The result was an Olympic branding campaign unlike any other.
Olympic Branding that Encapsulates the French Spirit
To inspire their Olympic branding campaign, W Conran Design developed the Games Wide Open concept. The philosophy behind Games Wide Open was to celebrate athletic ability but to also promote equality by drawing on the story of French athletics and France’s revolutionary history.
The work of W Conran Design was inspired by Parisian architecture, the Art Deco movement, 1920s cubism and orphism, and the 1924 Olympic Games, which were also hosted in Paris. The firm took a minimalist approach in its branding designs using abstract geometric forms and patterns with red, green, and violet tones. Representing the sandstone of Paris, pink was chosen as the hero tone for the Olympics.
62 coats of arms for each sporting discipline were designed as a tribute to the 1924 Olympics and the symmetry of the traditional French garden. The figures used in previous Olympics pictograms were replaced by representations of the sport itself. Each coat of arms pictogram is composed of three elements: a foundation, an axis of symmetry, and a representation of the sport itself - rather than the athlete. The design was deliberately non-gender specific and universal, so the coats of arms could be used for both the Olympics and the Paralympics.
Creating a Visual Identity for the Paris Olympic Games
Designed by Royalties-Ecobranding, the 2024 Olympic logo represents social equality and sustainability. The design process used by Royalties-Ecobranding endeavored to reduce CO2 emissions and waste at every stage. This reflected the green ethos of the Paris 2024 Games.
The typeface used in the logo was inspired by the Art Deco movement. Art Deco is a dominant feature of the architecture and typography of Paris and was popular when the city last hosted the Olympics. The 2024 Olympic logo is the first time a distinct human form has been used. It is also the first logo that will be used to represent the Olympics and the Paralympics.
The design itself is a simple one-color graphic that features three separate symbols: The gold medal, symbolizing the struggle for excellence in the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. Inside the gold circle is the Olympic and Paralympic flame, symbolizing the energy and passion of the Olympians. The flame and the gold medal form a female face, the face of Marianne and represent values of shared humanity, sharing, generosity, and fraternity.
The marketing branding designs of W Conran Design and Royalties-Ecobranding for the Olympic Games 2024 are inspiring examples of creativity and innovation. These designs will serve as a fitting testament to the remarkable event that was the Paris Olympic Games 2024.
