Picture this: You're briefed to create visuals that need to make a grandmother in rural Greece feel as connected as a teenager in downtown Tokyo. Oh, and honor the host city's heritage while speaking to Generation Z. No pressure, right? Welcome to......
just dropped some thoughts on why olympic design usually sucks (and how to fix it)
okay so i've been making olympic art for like 20 years and i'm honestly tired of seeing the same lazy flag-and-rings approach every four years
your audience has seen every culture through netflix and tiktok. they can spot fake "cultural appreciation" immediately. they want something that actually gets the place, not tourist postcard vibes.
wrote up my whole process for diving deep into cultures before designing anything. it's partly art theory, partly cultural anthropology, partly just... caring enough to do the research?
examples: that time i had to make british coins for the paris olympics without causing diplomatic incidents, or when i created mosaics for team usa in rio that actually honored brazilian street art traditions
the full breakdown is here if you're into design process stuff or just want to see how the sausage gets made
also currently researching american cultures (plural!) for LA 2028 and it's wild how complex this country actually is when you look past the obvious stuff
anyway if you're a designer working on international projects this might be useful. or if you just like mosaics and olympic drama
