Art-directing the Beijing Games

By Dirk Eschenbacher

No doubt the Games is the most exciting event for anyone who has lived in Beijing for any length of time (seven years in my case) Many things have changed in Beijing ahead of the Games. We’ve torn down an entire section of this city as big as my hometown to construct an all new central business district. The same for the Olympic Green, where tens of thousands of residents have been moved to places not mentioned. We have a new CCTV building and a new opera; we built an entire new subway system; an airport which couldn’t be any bigger; and we’ve made it rain on command. Change indeed.

But something that has been little commented on is the smaller, visual change that we’ve seen. What Olympic tourists take for granted is in fact something rather special for us Beijingers.

It starts with the city’s cab drivers who have undergone a complete make-over. While the old, trashy cabs have been banned from the streets over the past three years, it wasn’t until 1 August that the taxi drivers themselves had a visual upgrade. These guys used to live a cowboy life, dressing as they pleased and even shaving while driving; but they now all sport the same yellow and blue uniform with matching ties. When asked about it, they are all very happy with the uniforms and their 100%-cotton comfort. Only the ties are a bit of a drag, and are usually stowed inside the glove compartment.

The night of 1 August saw another amazing thing happen across the city. Suddenly every shop front, in every road and on every corner, featured standardised signage. Where before a wealth of more or less creative signs pointed out what to expect behind the doors, now a unified size and a standard set of colours and fonts make every street and every shop look the same. I can only imagine the amazing logistics behind such a feat. Even McDonald’s and KFC had to comply with this new regulation, though they could keep their logo on the board.

Walking though the Olympic streets of Beijing reveals another detail to the trained eye: flowers everywhere. This took a bit of trial and error, though, as flowers of all shapes and forms have been put up and down throughout the town for several months. It is a real treat - wherever you go you can play flower spotting. Written in tulips or roses you find anything from ‘Welcome to Beijing 2008’ to ‘Use civilized behaviour; create a new atmosphere’.

But of course it is all about the sport, and the organisers have really managed to apply Olympic 360-degree branding to the city. The Beijing Olympic logo, the colourful signage with the lucky clouds, the five mascots and countless slogans are applied to every bridge, every fence and every billboard that sat empty after the non-sponsors’ advertising was removed. The Olympic branding really is a welcome change in design and typography to this usually rather grey city. I only hope that when the factories are turned back on after the Olympics, that some of Beijing’s new art direction will stay for a little while longer.

Dirk Eschenbacher is executive creative director at Tribal DDB