Olympic posters

Olympic posters have always been fascinating cultural indicators, revealing insights into design history through a series of four yearly snapshots. An auction at Christies next month will include 26 vintage posters, from the Olympic Games through the decades, spanning London to Los Angeles, Melbourne to Berlin, and almost every host city in between.

The earliest, and most valuable original poster from the Olympic Games on offer is the design used to advertise travel to the first London Olympic Games – the IVth Olympiad, in 1908 (above left – estimate: £12,000-18,000). Originally scheduled to take place in Rome, the Games were relocated due to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1906. A poster for the London 1948 games by Walter Herz (above right) also features (with a guide price of £1,000 to £1,500).

Another highlight of the sale is the Chinese version of the first official Olympic poster – designed by Olle Hjortzberg of the Royal Academy for the Stockholm Olympic Games in 1912. Only 350 copies of the Chinese version were printed, however it was banned from display in China for being “offensive to Chinese ideas of decency”.

The evolution of the Olympic Games poster from the first official poster for Stockholm in 1912, right up to the present day is explored in A Century of Olympic Posters by Margaret Timmers. Drawing largely on the V&A's poster collection she sets the designs in their historical context, linking them to pervading themes such as politics, commerce, the Olympic symbols, cultural and physical diversity, and urban regeneration.

Some of my own favourite Olympic designs are those for the Munich 1972 games. The organising committee decided to produce a series of artistic posters to "represent the intertwining of sports and art worldwide" (below). These were produced in addition to the more functional pictogram style posters and visual identity created by Oti Aicher and his team of designers (who were also involved in producing visual identities for Braun and Lufthansa).

The poster designs for the London 2012 Olympics attempt to "revive" this artistic tradition. Patrick Burgoyne recently shared his views on this in an interesting article written for Creative Review which you can read here.

I came across a number of the Munich posters at auction a few years back. I don't recall exactly how much they fetched but I do remember looking longingly at them as the hammer came down at a price well beyond my reach.

A Century of Olympic Posters by Margaret Timmers is published by V&A publishing.

The 'Vintage Posters and Olympic Icons' sale takes place at Christies, South Kensington, London on April 18.