2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics Logo History

The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held on February 12-28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the resort town of Whistler, British Columbia and in the Vancouver suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University Endowment Lands. The 2010 Winter Olympics shown alongside features a unique design of an inukshuk, a traditional stone sculpture used by Canada's Inuit people, as its official logo. The logo, called Ilanaaq (el la nawk) was designed by local graphic designers Elena Rivera MacGregor and Gonzalo Alatorre. The logo boasts five stone-like formations in green, two in blue, and one in red and yellow. Two pillars serve as the legs in support of the body, a horizontal shape acts as the arm and an eagle is where the head would normally be. The form stands over the words "Vancouver 2010" and the five Olympic rings.

The different colours represent different regions of the country: the green and blues symbolize coastal forests, mountain ranges and islands. The red represents Canada's Maple Leaf and the yellow depicts the brilliant sunrises. Their emblem was selected by a nine-member panel and beat out over 1,600 other submissions.

An inuksuk is a stone landmark or cairn built by humans, used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. These structures are found from Alaska to Greenland. This region, above the Arctic Circle, is dominated by the tundra biome, containing areas with few natural landmarks.

 

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Winter_Olympics