Saturday 9 November marks 1,000 days to go until the Opening Ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and to celebrate the milestone, Rio 2016 has launched the Olympic and Paralympic sport pictograms.
For the first time the group of pictograms features Rugby, with Rugby Sevens set to make its Olympic debut in 2016.
Since Tokyo 1964, each edition of the Games has depicted the sports on its programme through iconic graphic symbols that reflect the culture of the host nation, and Rio have taken that one step further.
Rio 2016 President, Carlos Nuzman, said: “For the first time, all Olympic and Paralympic sports are individually represented. This is one of our unique contributions to the history of the Games. I congratulate the creative team for their dedication and hard work together with diverse groups who contributed to this launch.
The pictograms allow people from all parts of the world to immediately identify sports and are used to guide and inform the public. For the first time now, Rugby Sevens is set to be a part of that in the build-up to the Rio Games.
IRB Chairman, Bernard Lapasset, said: "The creation of the pictograms for Rio 2016 is an exciting milestone in the journey to the Games, and seeing rugby alongside the other sports serves as a reminder for everyone in the Rugby family that we will be there on the greatest stage in three years.
Rio 2016’s Brand Director, Beth Lula, explained the importance of the pictograms. “From now until 2016, the pictograms will serve as a communication platform for the promotion of the sports, for partner activations, and will be present in all the Games’ visual identity, including their application in venue decoration, signposting, tickets and licensed products, among other things,” she said.
About the Rio 2016 pictograms
The word ‘pictogram’ comes from Greek and Latin, meaning ‘painted word’. This original meaning was the source of inspiration for the first strokes of the Rio 2016 pictograms, which were based on the official Rio 2016 typography. After researching each sport, the first outlines were made by hand. These strokes were then reconstructed on a computer, fitting the contours of the letters.
The athlete bodies and sports equipment were built from the characters, or part of them, in a continuous stroke, with variations in thickness in order to give the impression of depth. The pebble shapes, which are a characteristic of Rio 2016’s visual language, support the designs and alter their shape according to the athletes’ different movements.
During the creative process for the Paralympic pictograms, Rio 2016’s team of designers sought to portray the integration of the athletes’ different impairments with sport in a balanced, natural way, depicting prostheses, blindfolds and other elements.
Work was completed in 16 months, five of which were devoted to the validation of the pictograms by the 42 International Federations. In total, there are 64 pictograms, 41 Olympic and 23 Paralympic.