Aesthetics & Olympics, it rhymes!
Now that the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games are behind us and have been a real success, the analyses are multiplying. Here are those of Olivier Saguez, designer and founder of Saguez & Partners.
Two keys to this success for Paris (and yet two usual complaints): fluidity and safety. An unexpected dream, an almost unreal happiness for Parisians, which has turned into national pride: “It’s possible in France”.
The aesthetics of sport: a Greek heritage
All too often, sporting events fall prey to the “funfair spirit”. Aesthetics are sacrificed for the sake of popularity, and the event becomes a “festival of the ugly”, a collection of clichés and platitudes. Yet sport is beautiful. The beauty of a gesture, a stride, a run, a dribble and a pass of course, the aesthetics of a fine tactic or a committed strategy. By the 8th century B.C., the Greeks had understood: sport is all about aesthetics, from the body to the uniform, the stadium, the symbols... And even the flame. Ah, the Greeks: philosophy, democracy, Olympism, myths and, of course, the cult of beauty, they invented everything, or at least the essentials for dreaming.
Paris 2024: global aesthetic coherence
At these Games, for the first time perhaps, aesthetics have been thought through down to the smallest detail, with absolute consistency. Sports brands have known it for a long time: sport is technical, and therefore necessarily aesthetic. Nike has its own visual identity, so does Adidas, and our fine French brands such as Le Coq Sportif and Salomon have also crafted their own. We’re talking about a global aesthetic: from the sole to the laces, from packaging to display, from store to website, including advertising and events.
Paris, a brand in its own right
The Games were a milestone because they were conceived as a brand, with an original and assertive aesthetic, in the “champagne” spirit of Paris. Our capital, far beyond the clichés of the Eiffel Tower, has always had a strong and recognizable appearance. What a great idea to have organized the events in the heart of the “beautiful Paris”: the Grand Palais, the Place de la Concorde, the esplanade des Invalides, the Trocadéro, the Butte Montmartre or the gardens of Versailles... Each image was thus guaranteed to be both beautiful and unique.
Beauty silenced the critics
French culture, carried by Paris, met the world’s sports, combining them in a joyful way and under the banner of excellence. Beauty transcended all worries: traffic jams, queues, heat, rain, even ticket prices and lack of space! Aesthetics pushed to the extreme generated contagious enthusiasm and an irresistible desire to be part of these Games.
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This article is the third in our “Decoding Branding” series. In the previous episode, Liliane Richard and Martin Lyonnet deciphered the branding impacts of the Paris 2024 Olympics. Watch episode 2