JKR

As Beijing kicks off, so arrive the pictograms designed for the event. Based on Chinese calligraphy, they are likely to have a great influence on the world as Olympic graphics tend to reflect and define wider design styling. Notably, these pictograms will influence the way all those leaping figures decorating low fat foods and municipal swimming pools look in the next few years.

For example, over recent Olympics, the characters have become looser and less linear (Munich ’72 and Sydney 2000 above) which has been mirrored in the wider world of fmcg (see below).