Set in Ink

As the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics came to a close, all are who took part in and watched from the sidelines committed to keeping the memories of the games with them moving forward and onward. The closing ceremonies reinforced the importance of “remembrance” in the featured “memory tower” to live on after the giant flame was extinguished, on which nearly 400 performers climbed and swayed to the music. After nine months of training, the climbers surely represented unity and teamwork, two values by which the Olympic Games stand. It was incredible to watch as the performers moved together like flowers opening, recreating a whole new flame, and using floating yarn at the end to reveal the logo on the tower—the logo living on in our memories.

But in case the “memory tower” is too metaphoric for you, you can always… get a tattoo, the New York Times describes in this past Sunday’s “Sunday Styles” section. Tourists, athletes, and local residents have sported the Olympic rings in ink in an effort to commemorate their time in Beijing. The action is a surprising one, considering the disreputable past of tattoos in China for centuries. The article mentions how “imperial courts tattooed criminals’ faces before sending tem into exile. By the 1949 revolution, the tattoo was the favored mark of crime syndicates and subsequently condemned by the Communist Party. Today, tattoos remain taboo for many of China’s elder generation, which sneers at the sight of a sun or lotus inked on the back of a trendy neighbor.” Even Phelps sports the rings on his right hip... but he also holds 8 Beijing gold medals of which to be reminded.

Get your knock-off logo here

Want a fake Prada purse? Cheap baseball jerseys? New luggage at a fraction of the price? Well, you can always head to Canal Street in New York City… or better yet… Shanghai. But as the August issue of Print Magazine points out, while you might be able to find such knock-off luxury brands in China, you won’t be able to find any phony merchandise with a particular brand—that of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

“We cannot sell that,” explains a vendor of fake Nike and Adidas running socks. “The police say it will destroy the reputation of the Olympics.” And I’m not all too surprised by the response. If a country does not allow a young girl with crooked teeth to sing its anthem, what would make people think it would allow copies of t-shirts with the ancient script logo or its cuddly cartoon characters?

Where can you buy the merchandise? The article writes: For several years, it and the Fuwa have been for sale in their own right as part of a mass merchandising campaign unparalleled in modern Olympics history. There are at least three licensed Olympics merchandise shops within a block of each other on the busiest section of Wangfujing Dajie, Beijing’s pedestrian-only, 700-year-old shopping boulevard. T-shirts, caps, and stuffed versions of the five cuddly Fuwa are available at all of them. Those shoppers interested in higher-end items can visit the Beijing 2008 Olympic Flagship Store, a long, poorly lit space where customers file past cases stuffed with goods, and a giant inflated Fuwa stands guard over $1,000 bejeweled commemorative plates decorated with more of the cutesy creatures. It’s a little ironic that even though the Olympics include and embrace all spectators and athletes, the logo has an air of exclusivity to uphold.

Fun Label Design

This is a cool product that I haven’t really seen anything like it before. Mentioned in September’s InStyle Magazine, Wine That Loves is a wine company that positions itself as a wine company that prides itself on bringing “that seemingly elusive pleasure” of tasting what happens when food and wine are paired right “to your dinner table each and every night.” The wines have titles that range from “Wine That Loves Grilled Steak” to “Wine That Loves Pasta with Tomato Sauce.” It’s an extremely clever way of approaching what many consider a daunting subject – which wine to serve for dinner. The label design is my favorite part. It’s fun, iconic, and there’s a consistency between the different wines’ labels that unifies the brand.

NBC Olympic Coverage... or not?

So I’ve officially been glued to the TV watching endless coverage of the Olympic Games. I can’t help but emphasize the large role that technology and new media have taken in this year’s games. I will address the beauty and intricacy of the opening ceremony last night later on, but I would first like to bring up the issue of how modern technology has redefined how viewers will be watching these games. NBC, which owns the exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympic Games in the United States, created quite the uproar in deciding to delay the broadcasting of the opening ceremonies by 12 long hours, unlike any other coverage across the globe. From a business perspective, this makes total sense—airing the ceremonies live instead of waiting until nighttime coverage would limit the audience size and also waste potential advertising dollars. Yet, in doing so, NBC neglected the importance of the whole world joining together to view the beginning of these games… at the same time. There is something almost spiritual about viewing these opening ceremonies and the notion of everyone viewing the games starting at the same time only adds to this special feeling. Had this delay happened four years ago, Americans would not have had much choice, but today, NBC’s delay sent people all across the country to their computers to access foreign broadcaster’s web sites and YouTube clips. Interestingly, knowing that the 4-hour coverage was already delayed, I figured what’s another 2 hours… let’s DVR the opening ceremonies and fast forward through the commercials, another impossibility from the last Summer Games. And on top of that, I received a New York Times email alert while watching the ceremony declaring that the U.S. had already won its first gold medal in saber fencing. It’s funny—even with all this technology, how are we still finding ourselves falling behind?

Olympic Torches

The New York Times online sports section currently has a really cool interactive feature about the history of the design of the Olympic torch. The article has accompanying audio, and each torch (the first one was from the 1936 games) has a blurb about its design. The design for the Vancouver Olympics’ torch for 2010 has already begun – promising to be the “cleanest and greenest torch ever.” Check out the interactive timeline here: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/01/sports/20080802_TORCH_GRAPHIC.html?th&emc=th