The Beijing Organising Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) released the Pictograms of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on the occasion of the 2-year countdown to the opening of the Games.
One of the basic image elements of the Olympics, the Olympic Games Pictograms are widely applied in areas such as Olympic directional instruction system, advertising and communications, landscape and environmental arrangement, TV broadcasting and souvenir designs. The Pictograms play an important role in identifying the Olympic sports as well as in Olympic marketing.
Named “the beauty of seal characters” and with strokes of seal characters as their basic form, the Pictograms of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games integrate pictographic charm of inscriptions on bones and bronze objects in ancient China with simplified embodiment of modern graphics, making them recognisable, rememberable and easy to use.
Skillfully using the effect of sharp contrast between the black and white colours which the typical Chinese traditional artistic form of rubbings have, the Pictograms of the Beijing Olympic Games display distinct motion character, graceful aesthetic perception of movement and rich cultural connotations, thus arriving at the harmony and unity of form with conception.
The Beijing Olympics Pictograms comprise 35 sport icons, namely those of athletics, rowing, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, canoe/kayak flatwater, canoe/kayak slalom, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline, weightlifting, handball, hockey, judo, wrestling, swimming, synchronized swimming, diving, water polo, modern pentathlon, softball, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, triathlon, sailing, volleyball and beach volleyball.
In March 2005, BOCOG invited four professional design institutes and organisations to the solicitation campaign of Pictograms of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The design based on “seal characters” by China Central Academy of Fine Arts and that on “string” by Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University were shortlisted after experts’ appraisal.
A joint design working group between China Central Academy of Fine Arts and Academy of Arts and Design constantly improved and perfected the design in accordance with the suggestions of BOCOG and experts home and abroad.
In December 2005, BOCOG submitted the Beijing Olympic Pictograms to the 28 International Sports Federations (IFs) for approval, and all of IFs had endorsed the Pictograms by April 2006. And in June this year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) granted the set of the Pictograms.
Following the successful meeting organised by the Malta Olympic Committee in collaboration with the Malta Equestrian Federation last June in an effort to uplift the level of equestrian sports in Malta, the MOC and the Malta Equestrian Federation will once again be hosting a meeting to continue discussions on the way forward for the Federation.
The setting up of a district system organised in clubs affiliated to the Federation will be discussed. Furthermore a calendar of events for national competitions will be proposed.
In addition there shall be an open discussion to devise a strategy to maximise the benefit to local equestrian sport through the federation’s cooperation with international bodies and partners.
Hence, the Malta Olympic Committee would like to invite all riders, horse owners and any parties interested in equestrian sports, particularly show-jumping and dressage, to attend on Monday 18 September 2006 at the Malta Olympic headquarters at 7pm.
This meeting will be chaired and addressed by Director of Sport Pippo Psaila. For further information, interested persons may contact the Malta Olympic Committee on telephone number 21332801 or alternatively by email to [email protected]