Otl Aicher's designs for the 1972 Munich Olympics are one of the high points of iconic graphic design. Beautiful spare figures on a simple grid that depict human activity with amazing dynamism. The height of Olympic graphics.

The recent much-lampooned Homeland Security graphics echo these designs and are beautiful in their own right. The images are more personalized, with clothes and hair. And yet they seem even more inhuman. And while they attempt to depict more dynamism, with arrows and cartoon vignettes, they seem more static than the Aicher designs.

culturedesign
  2003-02-27 06:36 Z