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.

Development

 Development of the Olympic Cauldron

what the abstract pieces mean ?

They represent lots of principles the Olympics stand for being: Cohesion, spirit, equality, the future, dynamic, respect and skill. Pier De Coubertin said the games aren't about winning but taking part and I wanted this abstract detail to showcase this. 

Stages in making

1. I put them into groups of 4 and 3 the group of 4 was for the bottom layer and the group of 3 was the second layer.
2. A glue gun was used to stick each individual piece together at the base
3. I tried to make the glue unconscious as possible to the eye
4. A circular base I made was glued to a piece of foam board to support the structure
5. I glued the row of 3 to the base, did this 5 times
6. I then glued the row of 3 the same way to create the top

Authors own - all the pieces in line in the correct order of assembly

Authors own - before Glueing the other 2 surfaces

Authors own 

Authors own  I had to use a base just as extra support.

Authors own  the first half fabricated together 

Authors own - before building higer

Authors own - birds eye view

 Analysis 

What aspect of your work were you not so happy with ?

My design is fun and creative but the pieces don't have much surface area to physically join them via, they are curved which makes joining really tricky, what I've come up with is joining them by the hip ad this still isn't 100%. 

What worked well?

The shape made was Thomas Heatherwick like due to it having a message, the message being respect for one another and cohesion of people to work together and to compete together as one.

What could be improved next time?

The shape is far too limp I will have to alter that before I make the real thing.

CAD FOR THE OLYMPIC MEDALS IN PROGRESS 

Authors own - finished 3D design file showing the RED cut lines and the BLUE engrave lines 

This is the final CAD drawing, the whole process was fairly lengthy this was mainly because the Rio tm font is not available for use so I had to redraw the B shape and copy and paste it into the design. When engraving the B pattern it needed to be thick enough to when spray painted or gilded it still shows, the line thickness of the blue was 1/2 .  This is the same for the lettering "Rio2016" this was my best copy of the font.

Authors own- This is a zoomed in picture and it really show the detail I added to this medal

The picture shows the level of intricate detail planned out to precision to make sure it fits perfectly inside the perimeter of the circle. The layers are also evident here, the Rings are layered over the statue, to do this I made sure the laser cut out the rings, I then glued them back in to solve this problem.

Authors own, showing back and front 

Sporting events are often numbered using Roman numerals. The Athens Olympics in 2004, the 28th games in modern times, were called the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, showing that it is the 28th games of the modern era since the first in 1896. The 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy will be the XX Winter Games; they began in 1924 and were in the same year as the Summer games until 1992. Beijing will be the XXIX Olympiad in 2008 and the 2012 Games won by London will be the XXX Olympiad. When counting Olympic Games the ones cancelled during war in 1916, 1940, and 1944 are included.

Authors own this stage was putting the lettering behind the imagery 

 This picture above shows the struggle of getting the letter B to fit inside the perimeter of the circle this meant one by one moving and shuffling the letters inside.

It wasn't as easy as copy or paste each on the outside was individually turned to fit. The next stage was to make sure there were no letters inside the shape of Christ, deleting one by one cleared this out of the image. The finished product is shown 2 pictures above.

Development / dome making and experimentation

taken by me - first stage of dome making

Making and experimenting with Geodesic domes 

Geodesic domes are made because of their sturdy exterior and great toughness and stability. I tried several types, one being paper. Paper is easy to manipulate but there is no strength to it so it bends and creases easily. This is on of the main struggles I faced when making them.  Online tutorials were a great help during this process. I started looking at domes to help with the stability of the Olympic cauldron, the dome would be a platform for the flame.

Authors own- second stage arranging the shapes

My intention for the design was to use the dome as a stepping point, the  cauldron would be lit on top of the dome, its hard to explain so my blogs from this one will explain it further as I develop the idea.

I created 6 hexagon shapes and 5 pentagon shapes, and then 5/6 half hexagons. By doing this alternatively in a pattern and this is shown below.

what worked was the tessellation of that pattern the picture shown below demonstrated this.  I managed to do this all the way round to complete the dome, but the next stage was almost too hard.

Authors own - making the dome

What I did next?

once the base was complete I filled the rest of the base in with the remaining hexagons and pentagons.

what was not successful?

The instructions bothered me, when making something as complicated as geodesic domes helpful instructions can be a great hand.

The final completed dome is on the right honestly it did take me a while, I think this was because the printed template didn't come with the folded flaps. Folding the paper took at least 2 hours.

Advice from peers and Geoff?

Geoff was impressed and liked the design process of how I arrived with the idea of using the geodesic dome in my design as a platform to hold the flame. The only concern he voiced was the materials and what would be flexible enough and string enough to withstand pressure.

What I found easy ?

Authors own- the final dome 

Making it wasn't the tricky part it was all the stages in-between that challenged me it was more mentally staying with it till complete. Because the process was so long winded just sticking with it till its completion was the main problem. At some points it didn't look right so giving up was easy to do, but eventually I did complete it.

Straw Experiments and joining techniques

Random experimenting with materials shape form and colour is a great way to explore all the possibilities out there for the final model, techniques in joining can be taken from one design and used in another, and this is why the experiments are great to do. Cheap materials are always easy to find, Geoff mentioned in the 3D pathway go to the 99p store and that's exactly what I did.

I found a few pictures online of straw Geodesic domes they looked great, and I hoped recreating one would help me move on with the design, but really it held me back, they are much harder to join than I first thought. The online pictures were joined using split pins but using them the straws still wouldn't hold and it looked messy.

What wasn't successful ?

Joining techniques that looked easy were actually pretty hard, split pins started off nice and tight but then loosened as I added more straws to the design.

The quality of the straws were cheap and cheerful so therefore they broke occasionally when joining them and this was frustrating because you had the shape then they would break away.

Authors own - 99p store pack of straws

Authors own straw structures

Authors own - neon straw structure

Analysis

What happened next?

After the split pins catastrophe I looked harder online and a few pictures came up of designs held via wooden cocktail sticks, so this was my next plan. The pictures above are all joined with cocktail sticks it actually worked pretty well until the straws started to snap due to the spiky sharp point.

What was successful?

Creating abstract forms with the straws and sticks worked well and this pictures prove this, the neon straws add another dimension to ordinary ones.

What could of been improved?

Joining techniques could of been improved the joints were weak and vulnerable to movement. But I  was joining straws together at the end of the day they don't give you much margin for error. 

Medal Development

RIO FONT ™ AND OLYMPIC MEDAL DEVELOPMENT

It's been a tough few years for Olympic typefaces. London's 2012 event used this sharp-edged, jagged, and much criticised font and the next Olympics, 2014's games in Sochi, will probably feature this futuristic heavyweight lettering. The good news is that the Rio Olympics may come out ahead of the three, with a conceptual typeface designed by the Rio-based studio Dalton Maag. To make the typeface site-specific, Dalton Maag incorporated lines and features of landmarks in Rio like the "Christ The Redeemer" statue, as well as the surrounding natural features.
















Dalton Maag designed the font for the upcoming Rio 2016 Olympics. It is gorgeous. The great swooping curvature used in the characters was inspired from real geographical forms and physical objects that are in connection with Rio.


Magg and his team were inspired by human movement and historical monuments around Brazil. 

Font and its inspiration ?

Rio 2016tm font to me is the most successful already because they have used human movement and body shape to create the swirls and fluid movements. This example above is some Brazilian competitors  in action and the graphics team have taken this movement and translated it into letter form.  Whats striking about this is it looks so effortless like a brush to paper. Ironically this is what the team did next got a pen or a brush and just drew letters and shapes.

Again a Brazilian rhythmic gymnast and her sharp edgily movement is taken advantage of, this is the first time sporting movement has been incorporated. Just like Nike the goddess is used on my new designed medals because she represents speed and success. 

Rio God sculpture 

The letter T was inspired by the statue of Christ  the Redeemer. Brazil still is a very religious country and religion plays a very large role in everyday life.

Further Development - Medal Designs 

Gold medal in development

Silver medal in development

Back and front, bronze in the development stage

The changes: The overall feeling of these designs was a lot better and closer to what I was aiming for in the finished product. The goddess nike will take centre stage on the medals as she comes across as an empowering force, that emphasises success and winning, power and athleticism. These medals I feel embody Rio more than my previous designs due to the fact the Rio font ™, has been used in the text and background, the statue of God is still there and nike.


What I like? the changes made are so much better and it just look more stylish and modern, and it takes the form of Brazil.


What is the colour going to be like?

Gold leaf is thin sheets of metal that has been hammered into extremely delicate sheets by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-karat yellow gold. The silver and bronze will also be gilded. 

Method and material progression meant that the medals have required some rethinking. A gilded medal showed failings in the application of real gold, silver and bronze leaf due to the porous nature of plywood and difficulty pre-sealing the surface and losing fine detail in the process.

Triangulation and Geodesic Domes / abstract people

Authors own- abstract experimentation

ABSTRACT EXPERIMENTATION 

The drawn abstract people drawn are all experiments for my Olympic Cauldron design that will involve a Geodesic dome supporting the Olympic flame.  I wanted a very abstract shape to represent the coming together of nations.  Just like Thomas Heatherwick's 204 petals which represented the nations competing mine will suggest cohesion and togetherness.
I did quite a few drawings and came up with the heart shaped version, this is like 2 people becoming one.
Originally the dome wasn't going to exist at all it was just going to have lost of abstract people supporting a flame but this idea changed.
The shape shouldn't be too human like but human enough to tell its 2 people together.

Authors own - Abstract design 

Authors own 

Authors own

Inspiration 

What is real is not the external form but the essence of things. Starting from this truth it is impossible for anyone to express anything essentially real by imitating its exterior surface." —Constantin Brancusi

In the early 20th century, many avant-garde sculptors pushed the bounds of accepted modes of representation, abandoning faithfulness to the visible world in favour of abstraction. The question many artists asked was no longer how to reproduce the world as it appeared, but rather how to best express realities of life (sensed and theorized) through forms. 

What I wanted to was take this inspiration design my own shape and use it to create this new form that represents something different to individual people, that's what abstract design does. 

Triangulation 

Geodesic domes are made via triangulation  which creates a very strong form, this is why many well designed buildings use this technique. A good example of this is the Gherkin building in London, in many ways its tessellation of the same shape a triangle.  Another good example is the Eden project based in Devon but this uses hexagons instead, this gives the same strength and support but just allows the tessellation to be larger. 

Reasons for Triangulation with triangles not rectangles?

Rectangle shapes loose their shape, but triangle withstands the pressure, but the triangle is still twice as strong.

Sphere uses the more with less principle that it encloses the largest volume of interior space with the least amount of surface area.

Geodesic Dome with the flame

This is a really quick thumbnail sketch of the product I want to make its a geodesic dome with the flame lit on top. The problem I face is that most domes do not have an open top which is needed in my design for the flame.   The flame doesn't have to be real but a bunsen burner could be fun, though this would be a safety risk. Therefore I'm thinking of using  hot acrylic rods which will look like fire in the end. 

Medal Development - These designs are the old ones and I hope the new designs show my development from these. 

Gold Silver and Bronze medals, at the moment they are missing the ring, this is not the final development. The bronze I changed totally, it now has the symbol of Fifa  2014 football cup on it as Brazil is the home of football.  Each medal has a different amount of rings meaning for golf 3 rings etc.
The statue of god was important to keep simplistic and its a major aspect of Brazilian life.

Final Macaw Design

MACAW DESIGN / MASCOT

Authors own - Final Macaw Mascot

The macaw is Brazils most iconic animal and therefore my design is appropriate. The only thing  changed is the palm tree that is no longer there.  The colour palette was an important thing to me.  B@Q had  farrow and ball colours but for this it needed to be as bright as possible.

EVALUATION 

Things i like about it?

The creature really represents the hosting nations, the colours also inspire and reflect the country in all its vibrancy.  The animal needed to keep the look of being real in order to make it fun and realistic, with the patterns around the eye I tried to keep this as similar to the real thing as the birds do have individual markings.

The bird could be have the Brazil colours but when printed the colours weren't bright enough so the blue was the brightest and boldest colour and this worked well with the design.

What I don't like?

The palm tree does look fake and this is why I got rid of this part of the design.

Feedback and comments?

That the bird is very realistic therefore the macaw would be a great costume. The fact the bird is purely on a white background means the detail comes through.




I decided not to pursue to the Macaw design any further due to the time-scale available to me, and I cant afford to develop it at the same time as my other 2 projects the cauldron and the medals.