Following on from the previous post on the Mexico 1968 Summer Olympics Radio Times feature here are some more images from that era. The ’72 Olympics are considered ground breaking in their approach to design,  typography and merchandise.

Extracts from munich72.org:

The design work was led by Otl Aicher who sought to project the lightness of the Bavarian landscape and the character of southern Germany. Aicher’s team developed a range of material which is probably best remembered for the innovative and exemplary series of posters; and a range of pictorial symbols which subsequently has been adopted and extended worldwide with considerable commercial success, thanks to Aicher’s close collaboration with the German lighting manufacturer ERCO.

The colour palette was one of the most significant aspects of the identity. It was based upon the heraldic colours of Bavaria, light blue and white (as used by BMW and the Hofbräuhaus brewery). Aicher chose these, together with the light green of the Bavarian alpine landscape, as the principal elements to provide a light palette (which required bespoke ink formulations). The lightness of colour was reflected in the adoption of a light typeface (Univers 55). The colours in the German national flag were expressly excluded.

This is an Illustrated London News Special Publication produced in conjunction with Young World Productions Ltd on behalf of the British Olympic Association. Many thanks for Jan Roscoe for allowing us to photograph this memorabilia. She competed in Munich ’72 and Montreal ’76 as a 400m runner for Great Britain.

More images can be seen on our Flickr.

Helen needed to do some work for a client back home in the UK which required lots of uninterrupted internet speed! Our place of choice for this was the TimeZone 8 Cafe at the 798 art district. Prompted by the Chen’s we took our first bus in Beijing from the closest tube stop to 798, so our journey to get there cost us 3 yuan each! (around 30p) When we did this by taxi last time it was around 30 yuan to get to a tube station so we could get home. (The apartment has definitely become a little home for us whilst staying in Beijing!)

Between 11am and 5.30pm we took it in turns to sit and let the work upload via an FTP system whilst editing and writing for notworkrelated. After enjoying a very good lunch, Helen had a tofu sandwich which was quoted be one of the ‘best’ sandwiches she’s ever eaten whilst Dave opted for a meat one which was ‘Okay’, we took some time out individually to walk around some of the art exhibitions on show. Dave went first and found an amazing factory blasting out steam against the blue sky whilst en-route to some interesting gallery spaces. Then Helen went off for an hour or so and found an exhibition featuring David Salle and Robert Rauschenberg which was a pleasant surprise. We have included some imagery from our favourite exhibitions and the beast of the factory steam that day.

After we’d done as much as we could on the upload front, with still an hour or so to go, we got the tube to Sanlitun and met up with Jess once more. We went to her apartment to start with and drank a very nice bottle of Chilian red wine. The expats do get to pick out some amazing properties here whilst working in Beijing, her apartment has loads of personality, is pretty huge and set in a retro 70′s apartment block. Yum!

We got a late tube back after some tasty local Macau food.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)