We were invited to participate in a graphic motif system design competition for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The system would be used alongside the official emblem to identify the event throughout a range of mediums.
The Olympics are as much about ideas as physical competition. Our proposal was based on a type family whose characters were derived from a visual interpretation of snowflakes and the postures of athletes. The types, then, were used to set a selection of quotations about sports, which, in turn, produced graphic patterns to be variously cropped for different purposes.
Among the fourteen proposals, ours won the award, but we were given no control over the implementation. Eventually, it was distorted far beyond recognition by different agencies and designers, and we were not credited for the final design.