Friday 23 April 2010

beijing olympic games sport pictograms

really like this set of sport icons used in the beijing olympic games. this is one thing i like about the beijing games, the logo and these icons, because of the creativity and the cultural reference to chinese calligraphy. i think chinese calligraphy is an epitome of simplicity and elegance. these two elements constitute my sense of aestheticism. With strokes of seal scripts as their basic form, these icons integrate pictographic charm of inscriptions on bones and bronze objects in ancient China with simplified embodiment of modern graphics. i think this is really brilliant, and once again shows the wisdom in chinese characters which can represent ideas and concepts and also have phonetic significance too.


seal script

seal
image sources:
1. http://www.beijing2008.cn/20/28/column212032820.shtml 
2. http://www.qhsl.gov.cn/Html/xuexiyuandi/2009-1/2/040729842.html
3. http://mypaper.pchome.com.tw/tomy120/post/1312477236
4. http://www.sinoarts.net/product.php?productid=16267