Donut or Design Genius?
December 20th, 2005
Italian design by Ottaviani Iternational has produced the new medals for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. They’ve received a lot of criticism from the media (SI, MSNBC, FoxSports, and of course echoed by the Colbert Report). However, there hasn’t been much productive design commentary out there. The makers claim it resembles an Italian piazza and when worn by the victors, their hearts show through. Others have remarked that an Olympic medal isn’t something to be meddled with. ; ) What are your thoughts?
Popularity: 2% [?]
December 21st, 2005 at 9:52 am
I love the design of the medals. Very well thought out. I also like how the ribbon folds over onto itself to attach to the award.
December 21st, 2005 at 7:26 pm
I like ‘m.
why does the media always do
this? what’s so wrong with unique
olympic medals? I think all olympics should have specially designed medals for each city they are in. Design is a competition too. Maybe we need to have competitions to design medals for each olympics.
peace,
A
December 22nd, 2005 at 12:19 am
I think the medals could have been a bit more abstracted from the symmetric donut/washer shape. Perhaps by moving the center hole off-center and stretching it into a crescent moon shape to accommodate the ribbon. I do like the use of the “lark’s head†to loop on the ribbon without having it sewn into place like previous medals.
I wonder though where the gold and other metals come from for the awards. For an event that highlights human excellence and achievement in peace, health and prosperity, I’m curious about the source of the precious metals. Gold mining has some pretty bad effects including deforestation and mercury pollution. According to No Dirty Gold, 80% of gold mined goes into jewelry. Green Karat is one of a handful of companies that uses recycled gold.
December 23rd, 2005 at 1:09 pm
“Lark’s head,†I really should have know that.
January 3rd, 2006 at 5:40 pm
: ) I had to think back to my days in the scouts to dig up that name…
Tie one!