Otl Aicher 1972 Munich Olympics
Otl Aicher is known for his work in the creation of the "Rotis typeface" while in the 70s he was the leading designer in the 1972 Munich Olympics and the creator of the first Olympic mascot. He was popular for his structural and visual system and was considered to be one of the leading graphic designers of 20th century until his tragic death in a car accident in 1991.
Born 13th May 1922 in Ulm, during his early years he was strongly opposed to joining Hitler's youth resulting in his failure in the college exams in 1941. During WW2 thought he tried to leave Germany he was forced to serve in the German army. Later on, he manage to leave the army and went hiding in Ulm until the end of the war. He began studying sculpture and eventually he founded his own studio.
He was actively involved in corporate branding and designed a number of visual identities, such as " Lufthansa " and "Braun." In 1966 he was asked to be the leading designer for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, were he was assigned to create a brand identity that can complement the architecture of the newly built stadium in Munch. Based his work on a complicated grid system he created a set of pictograms that provided a visual interpretation of each sport making it easier for visitors and athletes to navigate. His pictograms were influenced by the DOT pictograms developed by the United states transportation system in 1974.
He also participated in designing the logo for the Munich Olympics. Along with his design team, they went throw several design stages before creating a successful emblem. Some of them involved using elements from the coat of arms of Munich or the surround areas of the city. The final emblem was "Strahlenkranz" a garland which is a representation of the sun along with the five Olympic rings merged in a spiral shape. The colors palette that was used for the design of the games reflected the tones of the Alpes. For instance, the mountains blue and white would make the palette of colors which included green, orange and silver. This colors were used to distinguish different themes such as: Media, Technical service etc. Each theme had other colors from each other in order for the visitors can navigate around the stadium and village. Uniforms were also colored to much each theme.
To Promote the Olympic games, the design team created over 21 posters using a special technique called "Posterization" which separates the tonal qualities from the image and use the official Munich colors of the game. Each poster is a unique work of art since at that time Photoshop didn't exist so everything had to be done manually. The posters were displayed all around the city of Munich and the Olympic sites.
