Olympic Posters

The Olympics are under way! So far I've caught a quick snippet of the opening ceremony and watched the men's speed skating while eating at a local sushi restaurant. I'm looking forward to super-G downhill skiing and ice hockey, go USA!

A lot of effort goes into promoting the Olympics, and posters are a great way to convey important information in a short amount of time. Here are some of my favorite posters of past Olympic games:

St. Moritz, 1948

I love the illustration on this poster, it makes me think of the perfect ski day.

Grenoble, 1968

The typography is very cool on this poster. I like how the text is right-aligned and the moving Olympic rings are speeding towards the right corner of the poster.

Sarajevo, 1984

This poster uses a striking symbol as well as the always eye-catching orange-blue color scheme. On the other hand, I wonder how the designer got away with changing the classic Olympic rings from multicolored to just orange...it changes the meaning a little bit, and makes it look less like an Olympic advertisement.

Torino, 2006

This poster expertly uses the colors featured in the Olympic rings to create a design that stands out, um, I'm just not sure what it is...Is it supposed to depict a specific sport or is it just abstract?

Vancouver, 2010

Here is this year's poster. I like the echo of the Canadian Maple leaf, but I don't think this poster is as memorable as some of the others.

To see all of the winter Olympic posters from 1924-present click here.