2038 Olympics Brand Identity | Conceptual Project

An Olympic identity built to honor tradition, inspire the present, and celebrate the multicultural spirit of the Games.

Abä, Genau is Swiss German for "yes, exactly," and became the starting point for this project.

I wanted the identity to feel grounded in Switzerland, but still flexible enough to move across everything from patches and credentials to motion graphics and campaign work.

This is a conceptual event identity developed as a speculative brief, not an official Olympic commission.

  • Scope: Identity system for a conceptual Winter Olympic Games, built around multilingual place-making, national symbolism, and flexible use across ceremony, wayfinding, print, and digital touchpoints.
  • Deliverables: Visual identity, logo system, color palette, tagline, typography direction, symbolism rationale, and preliminary brand applications.
  • Role: Brand Designer leading research, concept strategy, identity development, visual system design, and case study presentation.
Logo system shown on white and core brand color fields

Problem

Designing an Olympic identity for a multilingual, forward-thinking host nation.

The challenge was balancing a few things at once: honoring Olympic tradition, reflecting Switzerland in a way that felt specific, and building something clear enough to work across a huge range of uses. It needed to have ceremony, but it also needed to function.

That balance led me toward a heraldic chamois-inspired mascot, a multilingual color system, and typography that could hold both personality and precision.

2038 Olympics research and symbol development board
Matterhorn, chamois, Swiss cross, paper craft, and ski heritage references

Research

Research and Symbol Development

I kept coming back to environmental stewardship as a core part of the Swiss context, which is what led me to the Alpine chamois from the protected Aletsch Forest. It felt like a strong symbol for balance, resilience, and motion without being too obvious.

From there, the crest started pulling in more references naturally: Swiss Renaissance armor, the Matterhorn, ski culture, switchback trails, and the national cross. The goal was never to stack symbols for the sake of it, but to let the mark feel like it belonged to that landscape. Alpine Script gives the project a little ceremony and personality.

Key Insights

2038 Olympics chamois mascot and wordmark lockup set against a mountain silhouette
Mascot logo and wordmark lockup

Color Palette

Intentional boldness that celebrates the four national languages.

One of the most important choices in this project was treating the four official language groups as equals. I thought the best way was to use the color palette to speak to each language.

Each color was tied to one language, not as decoration, but as part of the structure of the system itself: Ross Red for Romansh, L'oro del Vincitore for Italian, Jägergrün for German, and Bleu Ciel for the French-speaking region.

The palette needed to do more than look good. It needed to carry meaning and make the identity feel intentionally built.

Aa

Neue Haas Unica

Heading

Multilingual Clarity

Subheading

Event schedules and accreditation

Body Copy

Neue Haas Unica handles the hardest working moments of the identity system. From Monotype foundry, the typeface brings precision and warmth to multilingual navigation, credential information, and event logistics without sacrificing clarity across languages and applications.

Applications

In Action

2038 Olympics brand identity applied to a campaign print advertisement
Campaign print ad
2038 Olympics brand identity applied to an event credential wristband
Credential and wristband application
2038 Olympics brand identity applied to an athlete uniform jacket
Uniform and venue system application
2038 Olympics brand identity applied to a media accreditation badge
Media badge application
2038 Olympics brand identity applied to an event credential badge
Credential badge application

Outcome / Reflection

A system capable of moving from ritual to logistics.

The final concept includes logo variations, color guidance, type hierarchy, credential templates, and application rules all held together by Abä, Genau. Whether the crest shows up on a wristband, a jacket patch, a media badge, or a broadcast graphic, it still feels like the same system.

What I like most about this project is that it let me explore how a big event identity can still feel thoughtful and specific. It’s symbolic, but it still knows it has a job to do.

2038 Olympics Abä, Genau campaign poster showing the full identity system in use
Campaign print application