2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics
SoJung Kim
The richest history in symbols was developed since ancient time until nowadays. The Olympic game is one of the most well known examples for the development of symbolism in modern times. Interest in the ‘language of symbols’ motivated me to design a set of symbols for the upcoming Olympic game in Pyeongchang, 2018. I was committed to investigate how symbols in language, semantics and semiotics can play a role in informing and empowering people though their efficiency of form. My goal was to design the pictograms as pictorial symbolic with the linguistically symbolic, and pictorial symbols as a visual language using Korean characters. In order to do this, a common language between the pictorial symbols and the linguistic symbols was needed. Using the divine proportions and geometric classical scales, I created a symbol set based on a glyphic system along two-dimensions: Proportion of a whole and in scale. I then perceived to address the symbols utilizing the set of forms with the glyphs. Each pictogram is color-coded and designed based on the word that describes the sports (As an example, the bobsled will be designed with the Korean word for ‘teamwork’). I expanded the project to brand the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics by using these pictograms.