In December of 2009 we reported on the logo and look, created by the Moscow office of Interbrand, of the XXII Olympic Winter Games that will take place in 2014 in Sochi, Russia. This week the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee unveiled the concept of the Look of the Games which was designed by BOSCO Sports, a sponsor of the Olympics, as well as the official uniform provider for the Russian Olympic team since 2002. They donated the work to the committee. The look revolves around “the principle of the ‘patchwork quilt’ — a combination of 16 designs representing the most famous traditional Russian arts and crafts, ranging from Gzhel to Khokhloma.”

The VISUAL LOOK OF THE SOCHI GAMES developed by the BOSCO creative team and donated to the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee is a natural active citizenship of the whole BOSCO family and a conscious wish multiplied by a capability to provide all the best and real to the Sochi Olympic Games in order to achieve the general success of the Games.

[…]

The design was created from the motifs of ornaments of the most famous Russian national crafts. Here we can see Uftyuzhskaya painting and Vologda lace, Gzhel and Zhostovo painting, Kubachi patterns and Pavlov Posad shawls, Mezenskaya painting and Khokhloma, Yakutsk patterns and Ivanovo chintz. A new modern approach to the folk motifs, a thorough work on the common algorithm for construction of the patchwork quilt – “an individual net”, and on each of the 28 constituent fragments, and an unconditional work of authorship of the BOSCO creative team add an exclusive urgency to the LOOK OF THE GAMES.
— BOSCO Sport Press Release

All images below taken from here and here.

While Interbrand’s logo remains, its previously proposed look of “Snow Crystals” is gone. And that’s a good thing because it wasn’t too exciting. In contrast, this work is quite arresting. First, I appreciate that the color palette is not “cold”, with blue and green hues reminding everyone that they are watching the Winter Olympics. Then, the resulting textures of all these native crafts are vibrant and rich. Framing all of the different elements in diamond shapes makes for a very dynamic appearance and the more loose tapering at the edges makes it very expressive. From the photos of the event and some of the prototypes the only thing I worry about is that it might be just a tad much in heavily branded environments… perhaps some more generous white space would be welcome and allow the areas with the patchwork quilt to really stand out. Otherwise it’s like having Metallica, Iron Maiden, Guns N’ Roses, and Slayer all turned up to 11 at the same time. Other than that, this holds great promise.

Thanks to Alexander Zalutsky for first tip.

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