ABOUT

The first fully Digital Olympic Games across Europe.

In June 2015, Discovery was awarded TV and multi-platform broadcast rights in Europe* for the upcoming four Olympic Games (2018–2024), with PyeongChang 2018 marking their inaugural event. Discovery committed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to engage more people, on more screens, particularly younger audiences, and set about igniting the passion for the Olympics in a younger generation. This not only demanded an enthralling visual identity, but also a wealth of social, digital and on-demand activities to be considered. The coverage of PyeongChang 2018 would signal Discovery and Eurosport’s commitment to transform the Olympic Games viewing experience.

With a mission to inspire and engage a younger audience, DixonBaxi partnered with Eurosport to deliver its Games-time campaign, taking strong cultural cues from the South Korean location of the Games. Injecting a ‘K-pop’ spirit of hyper-neon colours and vibrancy into the brand experience, they created a radically different cross-platform identity – the antithesis to the typical frost bitten white winter imagery – transforming the entire Eurosport brand into Games-mode over the fortnight of the games.

K-Pop meets the Games.
DixonBaxi's ambition from the beginning was to work with Eurosport to create a look for the Games like never before. They challenged the typical blue, white and cold approach for a radically different look. K-Pop, and it’s hyper-neon music video aesthetic was a perfect inspiration to bring vibrant energy and colour to the Olympic Winter Games.

DixonBaxi collaborated with specialist DoP - James Medcraft to film and photograph the athletes bathed in UV light while firing gallons of specially formulated UV paint at them to represent snow, speed and the extreme nature of the sports. The result was a series of visually striking images that captured the energy, grace and intensity of the Olympic Winter Games.

Identity inspired by Korean landscape.
The logo represented a strategic alliance between Eurosport, the Olympics and PyeongChang 2018. A simple, graphic silhouetted mountain provided the visual metaphor to unite three logos into one iconic mark. The angular shapes, in turn, inform the broader visual identity of bold graphic slices that create a dramatic, infinitely flexible look across digital, studio set design, on-air and OOH advertising.

Digital first framework.
As the first fully digital first Games across Europe, it demanded a suite of tools that would withstand the rigour of every mobile touchpoint. DixonBaxi crafted everything for Eurosport from social kits to graphic systems designed for maximum mobile legibility. A highlight from the fortnight was Eurosport’s unique studio in South Korea “The Cube”. It combined augmented reality, data and 360-degree graphics to allow experts to analyse the games from an interactive environment powered by technology from Stype and Vizrt.

A bespoke typeface inspired by Korean letterforms.
The unique forms of the Korean written language - Hangul - provided fuel for the typography and pictograms. DixonBaxi commissioned A2Type to cut a bespoke Hangul inspired font ‘ES Pyeongchang 2018’. With the typeface design established, they then used the forms as the foundation for crafting an exclusive suite of pictograms for every sport from Big Air to Curling. The pictograms and typeface beautifully complimented each other and delivered a distinct and iconic communication layer atop the fluid graphic system, infusing a Korean spirit into the brand experience.