Designing the Multilingual: Summer Olympic Sports Pictograms and Universal Design in Cross-Cultural Context
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Designing the Multilingual: Summer Olympic Sports Pictograms and Universal Design in Cross-cultural Context By He Wenjie Submitted to OCAD University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Contemporary Art, Design and New Media Art Histories Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2020 Abstract This Major Research Paper explores Summer Olympic sports pictograms design in historical and cross-cultural context. The distinctive characteristic and significance of Olympic sports pictogram design lies in its capacity to negotiate specific cultural expression alongside universal legibility, ideally communicating without supplementary text. On the other hand, they are also sutured to the mission of expressing the national identity of the host city/country and charged with conveying the specific cultural legacy unique to the host. Through an in-depth case study of the design process for the pictograms of the 2008 Beijing Olympiad, it further attempts to counter the Western-centered perspective of Olympic design scholarship. Drawing on the role and meaning of Chinese script (direct inspiration for the 2008 pictograms), as well as interventions by domestic and international stakeholders, this paper demonstrates how these images negotiate a synthesis between specific cultural interests and universal communication. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisors. Most especially to my primary advisor, Dr. Keith Bresnahan, for your expertise, insights, and patience. I’m grateful for your continuous revisions at every stage of the writing process; this major research paper would not have been possible without your enthusiasm, attention to detail, and support. An exceptional thanks to my secondary advisor, Dr. Soyang Park, for your encouragement and challenge along the way. Your passion for academia and writing keep inspiring me. I am deeply indebted to your insights. iii Table of Contents Forward .......................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 3 ISOTYPE, Olympiad Sports Pictograms, and “Universal” Design ............................................... 8 Part 1: Tokyo 1964 Pictograms and the Hidden East Asian Particularity .................................. 9 Part 2: Olympiad Sports Pictograms and ISOTYPE................................................................. 11 Part 3: Munich 1972 Pictograms and German Nationalism ..................................................... 12 Part 4: Rethinking “Universal” Pictogram Designs .................................................................. 14 Part 5: Modern or Postmodern? Mexico 1968 and the Post-1990s’ Pictograms ...................... 18 China, ISOTYPE, and The Design of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Pictograms .............................. 22 Part 1: Confusing Terminologies .............................................................................................. 24 Part 2: Beijing: First Steps ........................................................................................................ 25 Part 3: Obstacles and Reception of the Design ......................................................................... 27 Enacting Four China(s) ................................................................................................................ 31 Part 1: The First China: Calligraphy Meets Typography.......................................................... 32 Part 2: The Second China: Hanzi as the Extreme Other ........................................................... 38 Part 3: The Third China: Hanzi as Self-Otherness.................................................................... 42 Part 4: The Fourth China: Retracing Cultural Flows ................................................................ 44 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 48 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 50 Appendix A: Figures ..................................................................................................................... 57 iv List of Figures Figure 1: Paris 1924 Olympiad Sports Pictogram Sample ........................................................... 57 Figure 2: Berlin 1936 Olympiad Sports Pictogram Samples ........................................................ 57 Figure 3: London 1948 Olympiad Sports Pictogram Samples ..................................................... 57 Figure 4: Tokyo 1964 Olympiad Sports Pictogram Samples ....................................................... 57 Figure 5: Munich 1972 Olympiad Sports Pictogram Samples ..................................................... 58 Figure 6: Mexico 1968 Olympiad Sports Pictogram Samples ...................................................... 58 Figure 7: Beijing 2008 Olympiad Sports Pictogram Samples ...................................................... 59 v Forward The modern Summer Olympic Games are among the most anticipated global mega- events, drawing interest from athletes, spectators, and media worldwide. From the first edition of the modern Summer Games (held in 1896 in Athens, Greece), art and design have played essential roles. The modern Games — following the desire of their visionary originator, Baron Pierre de Coubertin —initially included official Olympic Cultural Programmes, which aimed to “develop an internationally recognised marriage between art and sport.”1 The official Olympic Cultural Programmes were practiced in various formats. In the early stages from 1912 to 1948, while athletes were still amateurs, art competitions featuring professional artists were held alongside sports competitions; winners of each art category (sculpture, painting, architecture, music and literature) were also awarded medals. Beginning with the 1956 Melbourne Games, the art competitions evolved into cultural festivals, which have become increasingly prominent features of the Games from the 1970s onwards. These cultural festivals were held separately from the competitions, in the form of concerts, plays, exhibitions. The elevated status of architecture and design in contemporary global culture has led to a great deal of attention being focused on the design aspect of the Games: before any Games begins, media coverage often focuses on the progress of the Olympic infrastructure, such as the design and construction progress of stadiums. The dramatic appeal of the opening and closing ceremonies, broadcast globally, has likewise become part of the success of each Games. Coinciding with the rapid growth of mass media, the Games and their expanded Cultural 1 Beatriz Garcia, (2008) “One hundred years of cultural programming within the Olympic Games (1912–2012): origins, evolution and projections,” International Journal of Cultural Policy, (14:4): 367, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10286630802445849. 1 Programmes has become a media event — “a great cultural phenomenon”2 — in which images of the culture and identity of the host city/country are displayed for both a domestic and global audience. While architectural design and the opening and closing ceremonies can act as part of the accumulation and display of national culture and pride, the role and influence of graphic design have not come under equal scrutiny. Olympic sports pictograms, as a branch of the overall “look” of the Games, also enact the national identity of the host nation. 2 Miquel de Moragas Spà, (1992): “Communication, cultural identities and the Olympic Games: the Barcelona’92 Experience,” Barcelona: Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB, (1992):4, http://olympicstudies.uab.es/pdf/wp006_eng.pdf. 2 Introduction Attention to Olympic design reached a new peak during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. A global audience (the largest ever) cast an interested eye on the images of modernization, art, design, and cultural representations of China disseminated through mass media. During the period leading to the 2008 Olympics, Chinese mainstream coverage of the Games among newspapers, TV programs, and radio broadcasts was extensive but unified, tending to praise the country’s strong presence on the global stage. Design historians worldwide have devoted much attention to the 2008 Games’ opening ceremony and the design of Olympic infrastructure, mainly the Bird's Nest and the Beijing National Aquatics Center, but very few details have emerged concerning the design process for the 2008 pictograms, or the designers involved. Individual voices from on-line forums (both in English and in Chinese) discussing the Games likewise tend to ignore the pictograms — when they discuss design at all. Pictograms are schematic graphics/icons that aim at expressing a particular message. Ideally, they communicate accurate information with efficiency, and transcend language barriers among their audience. Post-war Olympiad sports pictograms have embodied this cross-cultural goal. Designed specifically for each Games, a set of sports pictograms usually appear as silhouettes of human figure with particular actions, each representing a certain sport. The pictograms are also printed on competition programs, venue maps, and enlarged in size and painted on building walls, as part of the wayfinding system