Passing the Torch

On this episode, Michael and Jessica talk about Olympic design and designers, from Lance Wyman (Mexico City, 1968) and Otl Aicher (Munich, 1972) to the Wolff Olins logo for the London games, the subject of widespread mockery (as well as Adrian Shaughnessy’s piece for Design Observer, The 2012 Olympics Logo Ate My Hamster).

What image will define the 2016 Rio Games: The sinuous logo?

The beach bikes at the opening ceremonies? Or Phelps face? Memory doesn’t always obey the brand guidelines, Jessica says:

You just never know what it’s going to be. It’s hard: Designers want to create an iconic memorable, image, but sometimes it’s just not anything we can really control.

Also mentioned:

Mike Dempsey: Preposterous Posters
The Olympics in Design History
Video: Thomas Heatherwick cauldron lighting
Anne Trubek, The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting
Is Cursive Dead?
The Penmanship Collection from Design Observer
North Carolina State Law 2013-71: An Act to Require the State Board of Education to Ensure Instruction in Cursive Writing and Memorization of Multiplication Tables as a Part of the Basic Education Program
Samsung v. Apple, Brief of Amici Curiae 111 Distinguished Industrial Design Professionals and Educators
The Guardian, NASA has a secret art studio
Mike Monteiro
The New York Times, Facebook Banned Gun Sales. So Why Is It Still ‘Full of Them’?
Michael Bierut’s #firstsevenjobs

Subscribe to The Observatory on iTunes or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Soundcloud.

Posted in: The Observatory

Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati, and has been a partner in the New York office of Pentagram since 1990. Michael is a Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art.

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

Jobs | November 14