{"id":21428,"date":"2024-08-10T21:09:13","date_gmt":"2024-08-10T21:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=21428"},"modified":"2024-08-10T21:09:14","modified_gmt":"2024-08-10T21:09:14","slug":"the-man-behind-the-last-decade-of-logos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=21428","title":{"rendered":"The man behind the last decade of logos"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

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Mitch Monson, the man behind the last decade of NBC\u2019s Olympic logos, never imagined he\u2019d become a designer. His plan was to join the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d always been one of those kids that drew all the time and spent a lot of time in art classes, but never really thought it was going to be a career,\u201d Monson, who is now the executive director of creative and partnerships at brand studio Sibling Rivalry, told Marketing Brew.<\/p>\n

After freelancing post-college, Monson ended up starting his own production and design agency and working with clients like Prince, which he said \u201copened up a bunch of worlds\u201d for his career. Years later, in 2014, Monson was approached by NBC Olympics to visualize a logo design for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games coverage while working at branding and design firm Trollb\u00e4ck+Company.<\/p>\n

As an athlete himself, Monson said that \u201call [he] really wanted to do as a kid was to\u2026be part of the Olympics in some way.\u201d His r\u00e9sum\u00e9 now includes the NBC logos for the Games in Rio 2016, PyeongChang 2018, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024.<\/p>\n

We spoke with Monson about what goes into designing a logo for a broadcast viewed by millions, and what\u2019s next after the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s in a logo?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When Monson was first approached by NBC Olympics over 10 years ago, he said the network was looking to shift away from its traditional Olympics design approach, which was \u201cvery shield-based and landmark-based,\u201d in the hopes of appealing to a broader audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey really hired us to completely break that whole design aesthetic and look at something that was fresher and more inclusive so male and female audiences would respond well to it,\u201d Monson said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of been our mantra ever since. We\u2019re reinventing all the way into what we\u2019ve done for Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

When designing an Olympic logo, Monson said he and his team research the architecture, art, graphic design, and other cultural influences related to the host city. In total, the research, design, and finalization process begins about two years prior to the actual games.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe do hundreds of versions of the final logo before we get it to a final mark,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s logo features a custom font that draws inspiration from the Art Nouveau style seen in settings like Parisian Metro stations. The diamond-shaped container around the logo, he said, is inspired by the underside view of the Eiffel Tower, and the shape of the \u201cA\u201d in \u201cParis\u201d is also inspired by the iconic landmark.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some cases, you might see some of [the design elements] as being on the nose,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the thing is, it has to work for a US audience so when they see it, they have to immediately connect with, \u2018Where is this in the world?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, Monson said his team has brought \u201cnontraditional\u201d collaborators into the design process, ranging from illustrators and sculptors to matte painters from Marvel movies. \u201cWe always bring them into the team to give us a fresh take on something,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With the Tokyo 2020 logo, Monson said an external illustrator was brought in for that project to help perfect the brush look of the logo. The \u201cK,\u201d he said, was pulled from Japanese kanji script, with the character representing the word \u201chuman.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to working with the International Olympic Committee, Monson said the group offers creative freedom, mostly reviewing for spec and sizing requirements on mark-protected images like the Olympic rings. The IOC didn\u2019t require any other design consistencies with its official Paris 2024 Olympic Games logo, he said.<\/p>\n

With the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan on the horizon, Monson wouldn\u2019t share much, but hinted that another logo may be in the works. The future of his Olympic work, he said, depends on one key communication.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think my favorite part of the whole journey is I literally just get a text [from NBC Sports\u2019 Wade Echer] that says, \u2018Are you available?\u2019 And I know just those words mean, \u2018We\u2019re going to be talking about the Olympics today,\u201d Monson said. \u201cHopefully I keep getting a lot of those texts into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mitch Monson, the man behind the last decade of NBC\u2019s Olympic logos, never imagined he\u2019d become a designer. His plan was to join the military. \u201cI\u2019d always been one of those kids that drew all the time and spent a lot of time in art classes, but never really thought it was going to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-marketing"},"yoast_head":"\nThe man behind the last decade of logos | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mitch Monson, the man behind the last decade of NBC\u2019s Olympic logos, never imagined he\u2019d become a designer. 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