Being able to direct the masses with a simple pictogram can be so successful that the simplest of images will resonate with the audience and instant comprehension of the image will direct them to events, washrooms, civil order, and to build IKEA furniture. Artists such as Jean Yves Lemoigne (such as pictured above) have taken a deeply personal look at the pictogram as a way of gentrifying or removing a subject from the lens making it believable that it could be you, your loved one, or an alien instead of the negative human-like shape. Even interior designers use human-like shapes like my client rendering below:

Steven Heller, Art Director for the New York Times, explains the successful, and not so, of the Olympics since 1936 in the video Olympic Pictogram Thru the Ages.

Heller completely missed the official emblem of the 2010 Winter Olympics. I know it hasn’t been seen much, and the designers should have taken it further into more pictograms, but this is not a Bauhaus world anymore and they don’t always convey the visual style of the host city. It should be noted that Quatchi (“kwa – tchi”, not “kachi” as he says) is HUGE here and very much loved by locals and tourists.

As we Vancouverites head into the Olympics next week, some of you are really getting into the spirit inside and outside your homes and workplaces. The city is being visually slaughtered by Olympic advertising, temporary venues, mascots, country flags, and each of us react in our own way. Some of us embrace it, some of us are miffed by the expence while the cities real problems remain, some of us are happy to see some design focused ideas come to reality.

The 2010 Olympics have brought forth a huge influx in construction, so much so that the activity housing slump and poor economy was outside the protection of the Olympic bubble. One such fantastic venue is the Fairmont Pacific Rim.

Developer Ian Gillespie inside the lobby of pre-opened Fairmont Pacific Rim, Image credit: Darryl Dyck for the Globe & Mail

Poetry wraps facade of the hotel. Image credit: Vancouver Sun

It’s not all peaches and roses, take the Canada Pavilion at Georgia and Beatty Streets for example. It’s an ugly white tent. It’s ugly, opening late, and apparently “looks great“, so says Heritage Minister James Moore [Globe & Mail]. Oh, by the way, did I mention it cost $10M of taxpayer money, build by non-Canadian Chicago-based company, and it’s ugly? I wonder if Mayor Greggor will keep it open as a temporary shelter…

Image credit: Ric Ernst PNG for Global BC

“Something happened. It’s embarrassing,” says Bing Thom, ”This is a world event. As Canadians, we all want to put on a good show, and architecture can help. But from the outside, this pavilion is completely uninspiring.” [Globe & Mail]

“This is a missed opportunity for Canada to demonstrate to the world what the country represents,” says Vancouver architect Wayne De Angelis, Regional director of Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. “If we are going to be represented by just a white box that looks like something you can buy online, that’s fine, but other pavilions are doing much more than that. It’s sad.” [Globe & Mail]

 How did this happen? How did such an ugly thing and a beautiful thing get built?