Jilly Traganou, ADHT’s Associate Professor in Spatial Design Studies, has recently published a post on OUPblog, the online space for daily commentary for the Oxford University Press’ authors, staff and friends, regarding the most recent design for the London 2012 Olympics. In her essay, Professor Traganou writes about what she considers an overlooked subject in design history and Olympics studies: the design of the Olympics. Specifically relating to this past summer’s games, she explains Wolff Olins’ approach to the controversial logo and identity system for the London’s Summer Olympics and their attempt at creating an effect of what the Mexico 1968 Olympics logo designs were able to pull off. This was to make the design adaptable enough for it to be re-appropriated by essentially anyone and create a design that has an openness and fosters participation “off the podium, onto the streets.”
Professor Traganou last year published an article that examined the graphic design of the Tokyo 1964 Games and its relation to Japan’s post-war identity. She is currently working on a new book Designing the Olympics: (post-) National Identity in the Age of Globalization.
You can read Professor Traganou’s full post here.
