London 2012 Launches Games Pictograms

The Organising Committee for the London 2012 Olympic Games (LOCOG) today launched the pictograms for the 2012 Games. These visual representations of each Olympic sport will be used in the run-up to and during the Olympic Games in 2012. The 38 pictograms represent the sports and disciplines at the Games and will be used for signage, on tickets and on the field of play at Games-time, becoming an important “wayfinder” tool for spectators. 

Unique Link

IOC Coordination Commission Chairman Denis Oswald said: “The pictograms of an Olympic Games are a unique link between the host city and the sports involved. The London 2012 pictograms are a strong and dynamic representation of the 2012 sports and are instantly recognisable as part of London’s look. This is particularly true of the dynamic version, which draws its inspiration from the London underground map, forever linking these Games to this great city. The Olympic summer sports are delighted by these designs and I hope that they will not just help people to find their way to the events but will also encourage young people to try out different Olympic sports as we head towards 2012.”

Different Formats

The London 2012 Pictograms were developed in consultation with each International Federation and have been designed to be vibrant and accurate depictions of each sporting discipline. They will come in two different formats – a silhouette version for standard use and a dynamic version inspired by the connectivity of the London Undergound map, which will be used on merchandise, posters, signposts and wayfinding materials. Olympic Games pictograms were first used at the 1948 Games in London and have become a regular feature of the Olympic Movement since the Tokyo Games in 1964.

London 2012

London was elected as the host city for the Games of the XXX Olympiad on 6 July 2005 at the 117th IOC Session in Singapore. London eventually succeeded in the fourth round of voting, taking 54 votes from a possible 104. London faced stiff opposition during the vote from the other four candidate cities: Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid. There will be 26 sports on the Olympic programme in London in 2012 and around 10,500 athletes.