NZ Design Icons: 1974 Commonwealth Games
by Lindsay Yee
We marvel at foreign design, look back in history to the Swiss modernist, Russian Constructivist’s, American Post Modernist’s and everything in between but rarely do we look back at New Zealand graphic design. This — will hopefully be — the first in a series of posts that will look at New Zealand graphic design icons.
One piece of Design that has transcended the design community and into popular culture is the logo for the 1974 Commonwealth Games logo in Christchurch. Wellington designer Colin Simon put together the design, submitted and won the competition set up for the games logo.
The logo itself packs so much into one simple icon. Colin Simon came up with the idea while playing around with the numbers 7 and 4. But all of the simple genius maybe missed, the incorporation of the year of the games which is also the acronym NZ. The colours and shape mimic the union jack and incidentally an ‘X’ representing the 10th commonwealth games.
The logo is also significant in that the next five Games used a similar idea using the same colours and very simplified forms. Also the logo was trademarked, only the second Commonwealth Games to have a trademarked logo. Which is ironic considering how many times the logo has been copied for t shirts.
With the critiquing of everything to do with Wolff Olins’ Olympic games branding for London 2012 (and comment here and here), it is nice to have a comparative look at what New Zealand designers produced when such design challenges appear — even if they were 35 years ago. And the colours used in the posters are actually comparable to what has been used between the two completely different Games.
It’s also worth looking at what was done two years prior the poster design of the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich was taken as an interest by design studio Bibliotheque and from them, others.
Here are various ephemera that surfaced during the games.
Various promotion stamps for the Games as well as the 4th British Commonwealth Paraplegic Games issued by New Zealand Post Office.
Stickers for the Games and a Polaroid lapel pass (bottom right)
More Ephemera
And just for fun some associated fashion. Eileen Halley designed the evening gowns. Jane Daniels designed the jump suits.
Further Reading/Bibliography:
Thompson, Hamish. Paste Up: A Century of New Zealand Poster Art. Auckland, N.Z. : Godwit, 2003
Cant, A.R. and Bloxham, L.R. Official History of Xth British Commonwealth Game, Christchurch, New Zealand. Christchurch, N.Z. : Organising Committee of Xth Commonwealth Games, 1974.
New Zealand Industrial Design Council. “Designscape”. Wellington, NZ: New Zealand Industrial Design Council, 1969-1983.
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March 21
2012
October 24th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
[...] For more information on the logo and to check out some of the other funky threads and games merchandise check out the Design Assembly blog. [...]
January 12th, 2011 at 10:43 am
love the logo and the branding… its nice and simple. You can tell its from the 70′s though!!
January 12th, 2011 at 12:41 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Howard Taylor, Alan Clarke. Alan Clarke said: I love this work for the 1974 New Zealand commonwealth games: http://www.designassembly.org.nz/nz-design-icons-1974-commonwealth-games [...]
February 20th, 2011 at 3:27 am
I am at the final stages of sourcing images for my book – ‘Incubation in Isolation: essential New Zealand product design’ – due for publication July.
The book is well in to the design /layout phase and I urgently require a publication quality pic of the apparel design for the 1974 Commonwealth Games – preferably the fashionone74 image at the bottom of this website. Are you able to tell me where you sourced it?
February 20th, 2011 at 3:52 am
Just noticed an inaccuracy – Bret de Their recently put me right when I made the same mistake. His email read: “No, I did not design the ’74 Games’ posters. I think it was Peter Calcott … I did the logo for QEII Park venue and the souvenir book.” (This is confirmed in Designscape 51, Sept 1973 and 54, Dec 1973.)
Peter was also the design coordinator for the 74 games. My recollection is that he was so burnt out by the end of that project he gave up design and opened a burger bar!
June 10th, 2011 at 11:31 pm
Hi , this is such an iconic NZ design , I was 10 at the time it came out , and never knew about the ’74 influence — makes it so simple but even more brilliant ! Does anyone know what the copyright details are on this — I’d be extremely interested in using this as part of the background of a business logo ( instead of the cheesy NZ flag that is over-used ) — who would I contact thanks ?
June 25th, 2011 at 9:38 am
Did Graeme Potts get any help with the copyright issue for the NZ Logo of the 74 Games?
September 6th, 2011 at 7:31 am
[...] The visual identity for the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand was designed by Wellington designer Colin Simon. The logo is simple clean and has so much to say. Colin came up with the concept whilst playing around with the numbers 7 and 4. Having design the year of the games in such a way they also represent NZ (New Zealand). But thats not all, the colours and shape represent the union jack and coincidentally and ‘x’ depicting the 10th commonwealth games. via designassembly [...]
September 10th, 2011 at 2:51 am
[...] in looking at these web pages full of graphics the one the sticks in my mind is the NZ Design Icons: 1974 Commonwealth Games. http://www.designassembly.org.nz/nz-design-icons-1974-commonwealth-games [...]
February 2nd, 2012 at 11:36 am
I noticed the logo on a T-shirt in Sydney only last week (Jan 2012)… wow… blast from the past. Does anyone know if some enterprising commercial artist has started to print these again on t-shirts?