Paris 2024 Olympics: sustainable design values & a Neo Deco custom variable typeface for a revolutionary visual sports identity
Deeply rooted in sustainability whilst incorporating fundamental elements of France and the Olympics heritage, the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games brand identity aims to revolutionise the major international multi-sport event.
“Continuing the lineage of the 1924 Games, framed by its past yet forward-facing and innovative, Paris 2024 has built a brand that is as generous as it is daring, worthy of the greatest sporting event on the planet” notes IOC on the visual approach of the Games which, under the direction of the independent brand consultancy Royalties and Ecobranding Design, features a logo, an emblem and a custom variable font.
The logo pays tribute to Paris as the host city of the Games, as “its pure, understated lines and its original variable typeface take their inspiration from Art Deco, the first complete artistic movement, which reached its height at the 1924 Games in Paris.”
According to the official press release, “the emblem embraces the shape and color of the most beautiful medal of all to express one of the core values of sport: striving for excellence. That same commitment also informs every step that Paris 2024 is taking in organizing the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024, so that it can fulfill the pledges it has made to stage a different, grounded, sustainable and inclusive Games.”
Featuring Marianne, the Paris 2024 emblem “pays tribute to a woman who is a French national symbol known around the world. She embodies the revolutionary spirit that infuses the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. She encapsulates the desire to bring the competitions out of the stadium and into the heart of the city.”
“A familiar figure everywhere in the everyday lives of French people, she is also a reminder that these Games will be Games for everyone, Games that will belong to the people. Her face is also a homage to female athletes and a nod to history, as it was in 1900 at the Olympic Games in Paris that women were first allowed to compete.”
For the first time, the emblem will be the same for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, only differentiated by the Olympic rings or Paralympic /agitos/, which will appear underneath notes IOC.
Opting to make the Paris 2024 Olympics a true game changer in sustainable visual branding “from logo to typo, from social to environmental,” the creatives applied sustainable values to the brand’s identity materials.
From Art Deco to Art d’Eco and inspired by the influential movement’s radically geometric yet eccentric spirit, “the Paris 2024 typeface has been eco-designed to limit the use of paper needed for materials and limits the power consumption on digital media. The typeface is designed to reduce paper and ink consumption thanks to the tightly drawn letters. The variable font size also reduces power consumption thanks to its single font file.
The 2024 Summer Olympics (French: Jeux olympiques d’été de 2024), officially known as the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (French: Jeux de la XXXIIIe Olympiade), and commonly known as Paris 2024, is a forthcoming international multi-sport event that is scheduled to take place from 26 July to 11 August 2024 in Paris, France.
Having previously played host in 1900 and 1924, Paris will become the second city to host the Olympics three times, after London (1908, 1948 and 2012) with the upcoming games marking the centenary of the Paris Games of 1924.
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Tags/ typeface, logo, france, olympics, typedesign, emblem, variable, paris 2024, sustainable