Sports pictographs, as we know, are pictographic drawings symbolising sports. They serve as points of reference and help overcome language barrier. Over the past few years, they have been integrated into the decoration of Olympic cities, and have been depicted in Olympic posters, commemorative medals, postage stamps, tickets, souvenirs, etc.

On the OCOG-80`s request, graduates from several art colleges took up the design of the pictographs of the insignia as the theme of their dissertations. With the help of the resachr institute of industrial aesthetics, the Organising Committee chose the work submitted by Nikolai Belkow, Mukhina Art School graduate from Leningrad.

The State Committee for Inventions and Discoveries under the USSR Council of Ministers recognised the new design as a production pattern.

Though highly stylised, the new signs are easily comprehensible. They are smoother in outline because they are constructed at an angle of 30 `- 60 `(previously the angle was  45` - 90`).

Another merit of the new system is that the design can be adapted for use in four representations: direct (solid, black against a white background), reverse (solid, white against a black background), contour (black contour against a white background), and reverse-contour (white contour against a black background), and permit several colour and shade and size variations.

(Source document:  Official Report 1980, Vol. 2, page 420)
© 1981by the Moscow Olympic Organizing Committee