Chosen Olympic Pictogram and critique

I decided upon this pictogram as my final approach due to its clarity and obvious relationship to the gymnastics sport. It obviously targets the intended brief, and the iconic body form is clearly correlates to that of gymnastics. The colour used expresses optimism and also enjoyment, factors that participants within the sport can highly identify to. Unlike some of the similar design approaches this pictogram displays balance an important factor that is essential within gymnastics.

When I took this design to the critique it was highly praised. I decided to not tell my critique group what sport the pictogram was displaying, and asked them to guess. As they all came to the same agreement, that it was of gymnastics, this supported my view of the clarity possessed.

It was discussed if the yellow would appear illegible from a distance, and whether a darker colour would be more suitable. When developing the design I used the same colour of yellow that is represented within the olympic rings, and as the rings are recognisable on multiple scales I do not feel that this is a critical factor, although if I were to redesign this pictogram I may consider altering the colour to that of green. Other criticisms include that of the sharp edges appearing very violent. This is a point that I was concerned about throughout my designing, and thus if I were to redesign the symbol I would most likely round the edges slightly to create a softer, balanced approach.