In advance of launching the Sochi collection with the Opening Ceremony parade uniform, I wanted to introduce you to some of the fundamental elements of the brand that will inform every piece I design for Sochi going forward. First up, the logo!
It is something of an unwritten rule that the Canadian uniforms for each Olympic and Paralympic Games must have their own design aesthetic. To brand the Canadian team for Sochi 2014, I placed an emphasis on simplicity in order to maximize the possible brand applications.
The logo is comprised of three circles surrounding a maple leaf, each circle representing the bronze, silver and gold medals our athletes aspire to win. The maple leaf is variation on the one which appears on our national flag, but still retains 13 points, one for each province and territory.
As the official languages of both Canada and the International Olympic Committee, Canadian Olympic Team is written in both French and English, with Équipe Olympique Canadienne placed at the top to reflect international protocol and the order in which the team is announced during the parade of nations.
The logotype, which I will cover in a future post, recalls the simplified typeface used on hockey jerseys and other sports gear in years past. For my designs for Sochi, I tried to straddle the line between a mark that was timeless but could meet the demands of the many more applications called for in modern branding.
Ideally, the logo wouldn’t look out of place on the hockey sweaters of our gold medal-winning team at Oslo in 1952, or sewn onto a backpack my Dad took on a camping trip in the ‘70s. However, most importantly, it needed to work with today’s trends. This couldn’t be a mark for the nylon-golf-shirt and pleated khaki crowd; it needed to look at home at a skate park in Vancouver, at a bar on College Street in Toronto, and at a hole-in-the-wall café in Montréal.
The logo is used prominently, but subtly, throughout the Sochi 2014 collection. I’m excited about the logo and the rest of the Sochi 2014 collection and exploring new and exciting ways to project Canada on the world stage.
