Author 丨 Liang Xin
Editor 丨 Lin Hong
Figure Source 丨 Figure worm
On the homepage of the official website of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, there is a long timeline that records every important time node in the seven years from the bid for the Beijing Winter Olympics to the upcoming opening. Now, we are only 6 days away from the official opening of the Winter Olympics, and all the work is speeding up into the final stage.
Beijing is about to become the world's first "City of Double Olympics" that has hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games. As a "passer-by", he naturally understands that the Olympic Games itself is not just a grand event in the sports world – it is also an international cultural event that attracts global attention and welcomes guests from all over the world.
Compared with the 2008 Summer Olympics 14 years ago, the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics have injected richer Chinese cultural meaning into the design of the emblem, mascot, clothing and so on, showing a strong national cultural self-confidence. Let's take stock of the eye-catching Chinese designs in this Winter Olympics.
Emblem: Submissions have multiplied, and there are many professionals
On July 31, 2015, Beijing successfully bid to host the Winter Olympics. On the same day a year later, the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee solicited the design of the emblem of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games from the world. Finally, on December 15, 2017, the emblem of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games "Winter Dream" and the emblem of the Winter Paralympic Games "Leap" were officially released at the Water Cube.
Left: Winter Dream Right: Leap, Photo/Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee official website
In fact, the year-and-a-half-long crest collection and review process was very tight and rigorous. According to official statistics, the emblem design collection work lasted for 4 months, and a total of 4506 design proposals were received, which was 2.2 times the number of submissions at the time of the collection of emblems for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Among the creators who came to submit articles, the age ranged from 85 years old to 7 years old, with a large span; there were amateur creators (such as primary school students and state-owned enterprise employees), teachers and students from professional art colleges, as well as a number of disabled designers, with a wide range of participation. It is worth noting that the number of design schemes from professional design institutions and colleges and universities reached 3198, accounting for 71% of the total.
Jiang Xiaoyu, former executive vice chairman of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee and vice president of the Beijing Olympic City Development Promotion Association, is the chairman of the jury of the emblem collection, and he pointed out that "large number, wide source and strong professionalism" are the three characteristics of the emblem design plan collection. Jiang Xiaoyu said that during the collection of the emblem of the 2008 Olympic Games, because the citizens were very enthusiastic about the motherland's first Olympic Games, many of them were amateur creators' works; but in this Winter Olympics, the number of professionals submitted was even greater. Such changes, in addition to benefiting from the careful publicity and preparation of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, reflect the emergence of more and more outstanding designers in China, "especially after the baptism of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, designers generally have a deeper understanding of the Olympic spirit."
The emblem "Winter Dream" is inspired by the Chinese character "Winter" and uses the art form of Chinese calligraphy. In a few simple strokes, it is like a skier with smooth and energetic movements, and like a ribbon of rolling hills, race tracks, ice and snow slides and festival dancing, blending the cultural heritage of the East with the modern style of internationalization. The Paralympic emblem "Leap" also cleverly uses the stroke of the Chinese character "fly", which vividly expresses the special sports equipment form of the Winter Paralympic Games such as wheelchairs, and reproduces the image of an athlete who strives to be the first. The main pattern of the two emblems has the seal of "BEIJING 2022" underneath, and the font absorbs the characteristics of Chinese calligraphy and paper-cutting, and then after careful stroke adjustment, the iron painting silver hook echoes the Chinese character calligraphy above, making the overall look simple, bright, harmonious and unified.
Mascot: tens of thousands of sketches, memory of more than 100 G
As the carrier that best shows the cultural features of the host city of the Olympic Games, the design of the mascot has always attracted the attention of the public. The mascot is often developed into a variety of Olympic peripherals, as the most frequent elements, whether its image is cute and pleasing to a large extent determines whether future Olympic souvenirs are best-selling.
After the collection of emblems came to an end, on August 8, 2018, the global collection of mascots for the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games was also officially launched. According to statistics, the entire mascot collection activity lasted 84 days, and a total of 5816 design proposals were submitted from countries and regions at home and abroad. Similar to the emblem design call, the age span of the mascot designer is also very large. Among them, nearly 15 million primary and secondary school students from more than 45,000 primary and secondary schools across the country participated in the mascot design solicitation. Jiang Xiaoyu believes that the process of participating in the mascot collection and submission is also a process of promoting and popularizing the knowledge of the Winter Olympics, and in general, the number of mascot submissions for this Winter Olympic Games has also increased greatly compared with the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
Left: Ice Pier Right: Snow Rongrong, Photo/ Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee official website
Interestingly, the image of the Winter Olympic mascot "Ice Pier" that we see now cannot be finalized at once. During the judging process for the mascot, the creative work "Ice Sugar Gourd" from the design team of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts was shortlisted in the top ten, but was then asked to deepen the revision. As a result, the Guangmei design team ushered in a long period of 7 months of pondering and revision, sketching tens of thousands of pictures, and accumulating more than 100G files. After a long period of exploration, in the end, the image of a panda wrapped in a shell rich in super-energy ice crystals "turned out": the ice crystal element echoed the characteristics of the Winter Olympics, and the panda, as a national treasure of China, had a round head, wore an ice and snow sports helmet on its head, and a heart-shaped pattern in the palm of its left hand, releasing the friendly kindness of the host country and a warm welcome to friends from all over the world.
In contrast, the mascot of the Winter Paralympic Games, "Snow Rongrong", designed by the design team of Jilin Art College, was much smoother. The mascot has determined the basic creative direction from the beginning, and then underwent many repeated revisions, and finally "polished" the "snow rongrong" that we see now full of warmth and tolerance - the design inspiration comes from the lantern, and the white on the face represents the beautiful wish of "Ruixue Mega Year", expressing the concept of joint participation, joint efforts and common enjoyment.
Regarding the mascot design finally made by the two creative teams of one south and one north, Jiang Xiaoyu said: "The ice pier of the Mascot of the Winter Olympic Games and the mascot of the Winter Paralympic Games are a very perfect combination and combination, another perfect combination of Chinese culture and Olympic spirit, and also a precious gift from the Winter Olympic Organizing Committee and the Chinese people to the Olympic Movement and the world, condensing the crystallization of collective wisdom. ”
Uniforms, torches: blending ancient and modern, going abroad
In addition to the above-mentioned chinese design with high originality, in fact, in the design of this Winter Olympic Games, there are also many works that borrow from traditional Chinese culture and produce innovative and ingenious works, which are also amazing and unforgettable.
Uniforms and equipment for the Beijing Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
For example, the design of the staff uniforms of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics has made many citizens praise "high quality" and is also called "a flowing landscape on the sports field". The visual elements of this year's uniform design are all inspired by the green landscape of the traditional Chinese landscape painting "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" and the "Mountain Shape of the Competition Area" in the core graphic of the Winter Olympics. People can distinguish between different identities of workers by different landscape positions and color variations: the uniforms of ordinary workers are mainly "Xiaguang Red", the uniforms of technical officials are "Great Wall Gray", and the uniforms of volunteers are "Tianji Blue". In addition to the rich colors and patterns, these uniforms also have hard-core scientific and technological elements: windproof and water-repellent, breathable and breathable, and very flexible and skin-friendly, which is convenient for the special climatic conditions during the Winter Olympics, which can be described as "both to see and to fight".
QingYan, a design teacher and fashion designer at Guangdong Mechanical Technician College, noticed that compared with the uniform design of the 2008 Summer Olympics, especially in the use of graphics that can reflect traditional culture, the uniforms of the Winter Olympics are "more concise and abstract and powerful". She told reporters: "Traditional culture needs to be inherited, but it is not completely copied and copied, which is particularly evident in the clothing design related to the 2022 Winter Olympics." The designer not only adopted the elements of traditional culture, but also made a "redesign" according to the current aesthetic trend on this basis, so that it will look more contemporary from the visual point of view, and it will be closer to the hearts of citizens and netizens.
Professor He Yang, the chief designer of the uniform appearance of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games and the head of the Olympic Costume Culture Research Center of the Beijing Fashion Institute, was recently interviewed by the 21st Century Business Herald reporter. As the designer of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games and the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, He Yang said: "In 2008, the design tended to express the traditional Chinese symbols, and this year is more focused on reflecting the concepts of science and technology, sustainability and green environmental protection. In the design, compared with the use of surface and figurative "Chinese elements" such as buckles, cloud patterns, and ruyi, the uniforms of this Winter Olympic Games have made more combination of virtual and real and simplified treatment. She stressed that "thrift" and "prudence" are the traditional wisdom of China, when designing uniforms, pay attention to whether the people wearing the uniforms are beautiful and generous, carefully decide whether to use special processes, and also reduce the time-consuming and labor-consuming production process as much as possible, so as to present the "richest" with "least", which can more deeply convey the spirit of traditional Chinese humanistic aesthetics.
Photo / Tinder lamp is inspired by the Changxin Palace lamp
Photo / Tinder table inspired by the bronze ceremonial vessel "Zun"
In addition, in the transmission of the holy flame all the way from Athens to Beijing, the original idea of the tinder lamp carrying the Olympic flame was derived from the "First Lamp of China" Changxin Palace Lamp, which expressed people's pursuit and yearning for light and hope by means of "Changxin". The design team combined the characteristics of the Changxin Palace lamp, adding a square circle nesting symbolizing the round place of the sky to the tinder lamp, taking into account the elegant appearance and ensuring the important function of windproof; as for the Tinder platform of the Winter Olympics, it adopted the curved shape of the traditional Chinese bronze ceremonial vessel "Zun", and then matched with a calm base, symbolizing the meaning of "carrying everything on the ground". The styling styles of Tinder lamps and Tinder stand echo and harmonize with each other, reflecting that Chinese design reflects that modern design adheres to historical inheritance and maintains innovation.
"Design" is a major topic in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, whether it is a sports venue, a competition track, or as small as a commemorative medal or a poster, every detail reflects the Olympic spirit, but also shows China's great power style and increasingly progressive aesthetic and design level. Do not forget the cultural tradition, grasp the scientific and technological innovation, let us look forward to it together, China's design will ride the East Wind of the Winter Olympics stride out of the country, so that the world can witness China's outstanding achievements in the fields of sports, culture, art and science and technology!
This issue is edited by Feng Zhanpeng Intern Zhan Huinan