London fields new athletics brand

This summer London witnessed the success of the World Para Athletics Championship 2017. From 4 to 13 August, the eyes of all Londoners and the world will be again on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the venue of the World Athletics Championship 2017.

The success of the Olympic Games in 2012 set the bar high for future sports events taking place in London, but this city never disappoints. The head of brand at London 2017, Maria Ramos took the enthusiasm and power of the audience as inspiration for the campaign and aesthetics of the championship. Ramos had also participated in the branding of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympics, characterised by the unusual magenta panels and an alternative Johnston typeface. The look of London’s World Athletics Championship 2017 maintains warm colours, with a typeface closer to TFL’s classic Johnston, more familiar to those in the capital.

“With design work, it’s always tempting to start from scratch. Here, we built on existing colour systems we found in the championship logos — We built upon them, amplified them and pushed them as far as it could go — just like the athletes do.” explains Tom Myers,  SomeOne’s  senior designer and creator of the identity of the London World Athletics Championship 2017 brand.

And the “push as far as it could go” is perfectly portrayed by the colourful trails left by athletes that give an illusion of the speed and force everyone wants to see from the competitors.

The 2017 World Athletics Championship will not only see the best athletes retiring and the bloom of the new stars, it is also a highly committed competition as the mascots can attest. Hero the Hedgehog and Whizbee the Bee were revealed earlier this year.  They are not only product of an open contest for designs launched by BBC children’s shows, they were chosen because they represent two species whose population is in a sharp decline in the UK and could become endangered.