A truly iconic look

Mexico City was the first host city to have an Olympic Identity Programme (later referred to as Look of the Games). Taking an innovative approach to branding and breaking down cultural and linguistic barriers, the project team created a unique look for the Olympic Games Mexico 1968 and a model for other event organisers to follow.

The Games’ emblem is still revered by graphic designers today. Cleverly incorporating the five Olympic rings into the number “68”, it became an instant design classic. Though it took its inspiration from the country’s indigenous folk art, its dynamic concentric lines also were an expression of the modernist, international style and project a vision of a modern, ambitious Mexico.

The Mexico City Games also gave a fresh look to Olympic pictograms, which had been officially introduced at Tokyo 1964 to help athletes and spectators find their way around easily. Instead of stick figures, it used easily recognisable sports gear and body parts to create visually appealing icons that reworked the symbols found in Mexico’s pre-Hispanic cultures. These pictograms have been very influential in the design world: the American designer Lance Wyman, part of the Mexico 1968 young design team, used them again as the basis for the station symbols he created for the city’s subway, the construction of which began in 1967.

The organisers flew ornamental balloons above venues to help non-Spanish speakers find them and filled Mexico City with colourful, hypnotic graphics and designs that could be found on anything and everything from streetlights, maps, stadiums, pavements and even clothing. Celebrated in the Olympic Museum’s 2018 exhibition “Olympic Language: Exploring the Look of the Games”, the team’s ground-breaking designs also featured heavily in a Mexico City fashion show held to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Games.