Theme Poster

On Friday afternoon, a press conference was held at the Main Press Center (MPC) in Beijing regarding the launch of official posters of the Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Zhao Yanxia, deputy director of BOCOG Culture and Ceremonies Department, pointed out that Olympic and Paralympic posters are an important part of promoting the appeal of the Games, as well as highlighting Olympic host cities, acting as "a visual representation of commerce and culture."

Next, Zhao Meng, art director of the look and image of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, spoke about the design concept and creation procedure of the official posters. He indicated that designers kept the ideas of a "Green Olympics, High-tech Olympics and People's Olympics" in mind when creating the images, while embodying the philosophy of "One World One Dream." He also emphasized that artists wanted to bring out elements of Chinese culture and the passion felt by the Chinese about having the honor of hosting the international event.

The several categories of posters were introduced to the media present at the press conference. They are: "Sophisticated Beijing for a harmonious Olympic Games," "Smiling Beijing and inclusive Olympic Games," and "Robust Beijing to exceed the Dreams."

Zhao also described the creative process of the Olympic posters, starting with the first stage, when on May 23, 2007, a special meeting involving 71 invited design institutes and studios was held for a brainstorming session. During the second stage, 930 designs were collected for evaluation; in stage three, a special committee organized in Tsinghua University reviewed the submissions. In the end, after serious scrutiny and refinement, the team lead by Professor He Jie, vice-dean of the Academy of Art and Design of Tsinghua University, was selected as the artist group with the best design. 16 poster designs each for the Olympic and Paralympic Games were chosen.

Beijing Morning Post under Beijing Daily Group has been designated as the official poster publisher. According to Zhao, about 100,000 posters will be printed and made available to the public on July 20 at 10 yuan each. They may be purchased at franchised kiosks.