Facts and data on pictograms
The initial impetus for development of pictograms for sports came from organizers of Olympic Games. The summer games in Berlin in 1936 were a starting point with a strong focus on displaying the equipment or parts of it to symbolize individual sports. In the contrary to this, the pictograms developed for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 (Leading designer: Masaru Katsumi) were based on the sporting activity as symbolic motive. The maybe most influential work was the development of a visually uniform communication system for the Munich Olympics in 1972 (Leading designer: Otl Aicher).
Other key drivers advancing pictograms related to sports and other activities were tourism and standardization organizations of countries with a dominating tourism sector. There are several pictogram standards with a considerable number of referents depicting activities. Some examples:
But some organizations, companies and designers also provide substantial collections of pictograms. Again some examples:
Comparison of Concepts, Examples, Reviews
Below you will find the current compilations of examples plus reviews for public information symbols for activities related to sports and recreation.
Updated 2024-05-10 by Ch.Brugger