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.

After our time in London and a visit to the Design Museum (see blog post here) we were very much inspired by the visual language used in the Olympic games of this era. Mexico 1968 and Munich 1972 are two highly regarded Summer Olympic Games that were talked about at the Design Munich ’72 talk with guest speaker Ian McLaren.

Fortunately Helen’s Mother, Jan, participated in two Olympic games and has a collection of memorabilia for the 60′s and 70′s. She competed in Munich ’72 and Montreal ’76 as a 400m runner for Great Britain. Highlights of the Mexico games include: The Black Power salute, East and West Germany competed as separate teams and the Fosbury flop technique won Gold for the first time.

We managed to get our hands on a copy of the Mexico ’68 Olympics Radio Times dated October 10th 1968. With people at the London 2012 Olympics questioning certain corporate sponsors at least certain sectors of adverting are no longer attributed to sport.

More images can be seen on our Flickr.