Wednesday, October 28th 2009
Otl Aicher
Otl Aicher created possible the finest set of sports posters for the 1972 Olympics, and I’d go as far as saying the finest sports posters ever. He is held in such high regard over his involvement with that olympics that he set the bench mark for many future designs.The posters are timeless and wouldn’t look out of place at this years olympics.
What made them so great was the fact they captured the nature of each event they represented, simplistic yet bold and with great use of typography.
The canoe and 100 metre sprint posters capture the movement of the sport so well because of their simplicity, straight lines on the track give the feeling of speed, and the mass of texture on the canoe poster make you feel the power of the rapids.
The boxing poster has an certain intensity because of the contrasting colours, almost looking like a thermal image you can feel the heat of the two boxers.
In contrast the on archery poster you get a sense of concentration due to the calmness of the olympians face.
I’m really looking forward to the 2012 London olympics posters and hope they live up to the standards set by a truly great designer.
Posted by Ben on Wednesday 28th of October 2009 at 4:55pm
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