Identity Program
The look of the games was a combined effort from five national design firms and one architectural firm. The team was made up of Atlanta firms Copeland, Hirthler/Murrell, Jones Worley Design, Inc. and Turner Associates; Boston's Favermann Design, Malcolm Greer Associates from Providence, RI and Primo Angeli from San Francisco. ACOG asked them to come up with a graphic concept which supported the theme "Harmony, Radiance and Grace". The team met for the first time in January 1994 for the first of four sessions before coming up with their "quilt of leaves" concept in March 1994 after much brainstorming and focus group tesing.
The Atlanta graphic design firm of Copeland Hirthler has been involved with the Olympics since 1988 when Brad Copeland designed the "Five A's" logo for the Atlanta Organizing Committee (AOC). Copeland collaborated with George Hirthler to write and organize the bid books which were part of the package which ultimately lead to Atlanta's securing the 1996 Olympic Games. After the bid was awarded to Atlanta in 1990, Copeland and Hirthler formed a partnership, Copeland Hirthler design + communications, and broadened their work with the Olympic Games. In 1994 Brad Copeland was named design director for the Look of the Games and Copeland Hirthler became ACOG's principle design firm. They continued to shape ACOG's communications efforts, from creating the identity standards to aid in the control of the many applications of the Atlanta Games logo and images, to systems of identity for a number of Olympic affiliates.
Copeland's Five A's logo was quite helpful in giving the Altanta Organizing Committee an identity and in sparking the interest of Atlantans in the Olympic Games. It showed up on T-shirts and other collectables as soon as Atlanta's bid success was known. With the games having been awarded to Atlanta, ACOG, at the suggestion of Coca-Cola, went to Walter Landor Associates in San Francisco to design the final Atlanta Olympic logo. Landor, one of the country's premier corporate identity firms, has developed identity programs for Lite Beer, Hunts Foods, Coca-Cola and many others. Copeland's Five A's had served its purpose quite well as a rallying flag for the city and it was very much an Atlanta logo. Now it was time to develop a symbol that was more international in scope. Landor did this quite nicely by connecting the Olympic Flame to a very condensed 100 with the Olympic rings. The 100 gives the feeling of classical Greek columns and thus helps to tie the symbol back to its roots. The logo is unified enough that it serves well as an identifying mark on all of the many licensed products and signage as well as for general communications uses. The rich forest green background echo's Atlanta's "city in a forest image".
The Atlanta Olympic Games' theme, "A Quilt of Leaves, has been called a "green theme", homespun visuals" , "bland and down home". The theme is said to reflect the city of trees that is Atlanta, the American and particularly Southern nature of quilting, as well as the diverse cultures that make up our city and country. Mayor Bill Campbell said "The moment I saw the look, I knew it was right for Atlanta. We are a city of diversity- a patchwork of neighborhoods that forms the quilt of our community." As a unifying element it has been quite successful. An overall pattern is one sure fire way to achieve a unified look through any number of color changes. The theme ties together banners, the Olympic Torch and Ceremonial Caldron, uniforms of Olympic staff and volunteers as well as buses transporting Olympic visitors. One just has to look at the wide variation in banners to see this. Although they come in many different colors and hues with each group featuring the name of a different Olympic sponsor, as they spread throughout the city the city seemes to become more visually unified.
Ceremonial Cauldron ... Izzy
... Olympic Torch ... Olympic Cauldron
... Landmark Torch ... Olympic Identity Program
