OUGD405 - Study Task 02 - Symbols

Pictograms communicate a message through the use of symbols and colour to an audience. They are used in a variety of road signs and are regularly included in transport. They are also commonly used in the Olympics. Each event is illustrated with a small pictogram that is recognisable internationally. This is a good example of how pictograms can be used to communicate to a large mass of cultures that speak different languages.

The olympic pictograms were first introduced in the 1948 London Olympics but it was not until the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, when the system for Olympic pictograms began to develop. An entire symbol and typographic system was produced for the games and were used actively throughout.

The 1968 Mexico games saw the 60s era pop art and Mexican folk art captured in their interpretation. 

This was shortly followed by the 1972 Munich pictogram design which was the most successful up to that point. It standardised and simplified every representation of every event and is the closest to what we think of as the olympic pictogram today.

Many variations and even copies of this design was used up until the 2000 Sydney Olympic games where the designer introduced part of Australia's own culture into the design. By including the boomerang element. This made the design more personal and giving it an Australian identity.

More countries began to produce an identity with their Olympic pictogram designs which is evident in the 2008 Beijing pictogram designs. The essence of Chinese calligraphy is demonstrated in its design.

The 2012 London Olympic pictograms had a utilitarian use but were also paired with dynamic illustrations for decoration purposes.

I chose to illustrate table tennis with my pictogram so I began to research into the sport because I wanted to give the design an identity like the identity of the Beijing and Sydney designs. I wanted my design to be informed. On learning that it was originally a Victorian game I looked into imagery of Victorian England. I decided to use the shape of a penny farthing.

With this shape I illustrated a player playing table tennis. To begin with I looked into the stance that a tennis player would have and then experimented by sketching, keeping the penny farthing shape in my illustration. I also looked into other pictograms of the same sport, to see what works best and what is instantly recognisable, and used these as inspiration.

The penny farthing shape worked well because it made comical stick figures. However after receiving feedback from my peers the shape was hard to determine what the pictogram was supposed to illustrate. I made the circles different sizes to humanise them a little more and included a table and ping pong ball.

After creating these initial sketches I developed them digitally.

From this I then chose asked for more feedback from my peers and asked them which one worked best. From this feedback I started to develop a final design.

I found that having two players was just overwhelming and the design didn't work well as it was too busy and distracting. The simpler design with a single player and half the table works best. It can also be applied more conveniently.

After these final developments I produced these two final pieces.