Olympic medals

Authors own Final design - the Front

- Authors own the back of the medal 

The changes to the medals have actually been quite substantial and to be honest they look far more sophisticated and modern and really more in touch with what Brazil holds dearly. Looking into the country's heritage and icons made me design this in this fashion, yet at the same time I have kept of the really old design. The Olympic rings I was told my Geoff, Will, Anna, and Levi look great and once cut out like this will make a huge impact.

Nike is a goddess who personified victory, speed and success both in battle and peaceful competition. And this is exactly what the Olympic movement is all about, coming together in competitive spirit but working as one.

Another reason she is on the final design is every games so far including 2008, 2012 and 2014 she is featured and this is obviously a statement.

The Roman lettering is anther one I started to explore probably far to late but it worked so I'm happy, the numerals obviously represent each game. To me they fit as the games have hundreds of years of history and having something old and vintage is current to that.

Authors own...the front of the medal - close up

The background?This is seen in my research but what I found out was the typography for the 2016 Rio games was inspired my kinetic movement done my Brazilian athletes. This is is one seriously delightful font, designed by the prestigious Dalton Maag, for the Rio 2016 Olympics. What truly amazes me is how bloody hard it has to be has to be create a totally unique, yet stunningly beautiful, brush script style font, and Dalton Maag have utterly blitzed that challenge.

Magg quotes " took one look at this and instantly fell in love with it’s flowing curvy shape whilst having it’s own unique style, and let’s not forget to mention aspects of the fonts’ lettering having been inspired from real world geographical forms, and physical objects". When looking at many fonts from past Olympics they do tend to represent the host nation, but Magg has done this so well and its now an iconic font for the games. The letter B represents Brazil and I thought this would look great engraved and so it does, it has come out better than I previously thought it would.

The Stunning Rio 2016™ Olympic Font Design by Dalton Maag!

- Authors own Me holding one - this is before I laser cut them smaller

The back of the medal- wrong scale medal before laser cutting the final one

Analysis

what do you think was successful about your work and why is this?

From the start I knew I wanted the medal to incorporate aspects of historical and religious connotations like Gods and Goddesses and me being able to use Illustrator well to create them as vectors was easy. Taking inspiration from previous games and then applying them to mine was key for me to make a great looking medal that I think athletes would be proud receiving them.

Due to deep research the typography that had already been done was a great hand as Magg's font was pure and fluid and really represented athletes movement and real life in Brazil. Taking a font and incorporating it into my design was pure genius and it now relates perfectly to the font the existing logo etc.

What aspect of your work were you not happy with and why ?
The time it needed I found hard to give, the file on 2D design and Illustrator wasn't easy to do, as there were many layers ans at some points I struggled with the layering, but once that was done the laser cutter is capable of cutting it. For example I had to make sure the background of the B's was behind the God statue, so individually move each letter B to avoid the laser cutter etching onto the icon. But I got through this and its complete now and look fab.

What did you find challenging?
The amount of times I had to adapt the files, this had to of taken 2 weeks it was a lengthy process, it was because each bit on the medal had its own layer and the layers can be mixed up so trying to separate them so they don't overlap.  Another challenge was testing the engraving, on illustrator you just change the line thickness but 2D differs to that, so it took me a while to decide on how deep the engrave should be to look good under golf leaf.

What tasks did you find easy?
Not much was simple but a good challenge at that

What I learnt for next time?
For next time to look into the past and research them deeply in order to know what pattern had been reoccurring and what hasn't.

Golf Leaf-

Authors own - Before the Gilding process. 

This is the start of my Gold leafing my Olympic medal, the first stage has to be done well otherwise the gold wont settle and it will sink in and this is what I don't want to happen. If it happens I will spray paint them.

How to Gild steps 1 -3 



Step 1:  Prepare work area: Cover working surfaces and floor areas with drop cloths or newspaper. Use low-tack painters tape to mask any areas not to be gilded. Lightly sand the surface if necessary with 220 grit sandpaper to remove any blemishes.
Step 2: Prime surface:  Remove sanding dust with a tack cloth and apply a quality primer like Burnish Sealer. This primer-sealer has been specially formulated for gilding processes and is available in 3 colour tones - Red, Grey and Ochre. Burnish Sealer produces a high quality, smooth surface for gilding. Ochre, red or grey can produce fault hiding bases or colour enhancing undertones.

Step 3: Apply 'bole' color: This base colour is also referred to as the 'Bole' colour. Traditionally, bole was made from clay. Today paint is typically substituted.