Snow Time! Olympic Winter Games Posters

The first Olympic Winter Games were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The 23rd and most recent Olympic Winter Games take place in PyeongChang, South Korea. Among the many unifying threads that stitch across time: the vibrant posters that advertise, promote and celebrate the games.

Snow Time! Olympic Winter Games Posters is a sampling of Olympic Winter Games posters from the collection of the LA84 Foundation. Some are the official posters created by the host organizing committee, others, by the travel industry. Together, they illustrate the transition from the modern art graphic design of the early to mid-20th century to a more computerized, marketing-driven graphic design branding using Olympic Games emblems as the primary image to announce the Olympic Winter Games.

Beginning with the birth of the modern Olympic Games in 1896, posters were used to advertise both the Olympic Games and the Olympic Winter Games. Graphic designers created posters that announced time and location of the games, and highlighted sports associated with the games. After 1928, the most significant unifying element of the Olympic Games posters was the inclusion of the Olympic Rings. In many instances, travel posters were used to promote the Olympic Winter Games. Organizing committees screened the Olympic rings or added the time and place the Games were to be held onto existing travel posters.  

Beginning late in the 20th century, advancements in communication and technology made some elements of Olympic Games posters obsolete. Communications through radio, television, the internet and social media have removed the necessity for an advertising poster to promote the Olympic Games. The posters now produced are more of a design element of these 21st century Olympic Winter Games.