Summary: Olympic Games 1972-Basketball By Otl Aicher

Jessica Cheng

Successfully strategic use of colors in a poster:
”Olympic Games 1972 - Basketball”
The poster, “Olympic Games 1972 - Basketball”, was designed by Otl Aicher, who was a pioneer of developing the visual identities of the 1972 Munich Olympics. "As a strictly designed grammar, the identity system allows free, playful application," Aicher explained before the Munich Olympics in 1970. "This is comparable to ball games or chess, where fixed elements and an agreed set of rules allow playful freedom." Aicher's system of color for the Games was easily identifiable and effective in communicating the atmosphere of composition. This poster is one of his famous works throughout the world because of its strategic use of colors. The dynamic colors he used make this poster a terribly compelling design because the consistencies with the visual identities make the poster easily rememberable, and the poster is remarkable because of the high-contrast colors which attract the audience’s attention. Also, the poster has a good color rhythm that the audience can feel the atmosphere of
Take a look at the “Logo” on the next page. Aicher designed the logo of the Munich Olympics. The colors which were chosen reflected the tones of the Alps mountains which are near Munich. The mountains are blue like the ice, white like the snow, green like the grass, orange like the dirt and silver like the reflection of the snow. You can see all of these colors in the other 21 sports posters on the next page that were produced by Aicher. The exact consistencies of the posters surprise me so much. In reality, designers are devoted to make all the products become a set. Sometimes it’s hard because different products have different subjects and information. How to make those look like a family is a difficult work. Aicher used colors to connect all the posters which is a very smart and professional