Time to say goodbye to the 2010 Games after 24 amazing days in Vancouver. With 3 days to go, its hard to leave the throngs of Canadians celebrating in the streets and the wonderful, talented friends that I’ve had the pleasure to work with over the past 6 years. But I do look forward to seeing NBC’s coverage in the privacy of my own HDTV. Overall, the Games have been a resounding success, and the Look of the Games team has set the bar even higher in so many areas for the future. Special thanks to my good friends Ali Gardiner and Steve Lange who, along with Leo Ostbaum, (to whom this blog is dedicated) demanded and achieved excellence across the full range of Olympic design elements that make the Look of the Games the most complex design project in the world.

Ski Cross is the newest sport in the Winter Games, building on the popularity of its snowboard twin. It’s all action, with very sinister jumps and ramps carved into the course. When I did my preliminary inspection of the starthouse structure, course workers where painstakingly carving the ramps into the start. Now that the competition has begun, their work at the top of the course takes on additional significance.

Ramp-eye-view of the top of the course

Second thoughts

Shaping the start

Shaping the start

Look team admiring their work

It was a treat to see Iconologic’s Olympic design program for Coke Canada come to life in the Coke Pavilion in Vancouver celebration site. The commemorative Olympic aluminum bottle designs are given to the 7000 visitors that come through per day.

Another beautiful day in Vancouver. Started the day with a habourside  interview with Ted Hall from the Atlanta NBC affiliate 11Alive. The plan was to do the interview with the cauldron in the background, but by 10am there was already a hour long line along the seawall. Next stop was back to the Speed Skating Oval for the finals of Men’s 1500m. Ironically Barbara and I found ourselves sitting next to my former partner George Hirthler and his wife Carol. The grand finale was an Indian dinner at ViJs. If there is a better Indian restaurant in North America, please take me there.

Official IOC duties officially end today. All that’s left for the next four days is an interview with Ted Hall from 11Alive. Its time to enjoy the Olympic City with my wife and daughter like the rest of the visitors, and then focus a little on the upcoming Olympic cities–London, Sochi and Rio–before coming home next Friday. Today was a chance to visit the Russky Dome, Sochi’s hospitality center in Vancouver. 2014 will be here before you know it. Lots of work left to do!

The Russky Dome packs in 7000 people a day.

My comrade in the Sochi Look of the Games--Maxim

Moving on—Russky Dom

It sure is fun to watch the BEST—and I’m not sure if I’ve ever watched a more dominant athlete in any sport than Shaun, and what he did in his two runs in the Halfpipe. Same goes for skiier Lindsey Vonn, and Shani Davis, who I had the pleasure to watch come from behind in the Oval to win the Gold in the 1000m Speed Skating event. A great day for America.

Another beautiful spring day in the Winter Olympic Games. It couldn’t be nicer for the thousands of Olympic visitors in the streets of the city. For the mountain venues, the weather and lack of snow has been a constant curse. The Games Organizers have been bombarded with questions that suggest that they could have done something about it. Today I was asked the funniest question by a guy in the hotel elevator. When he saw my Olympic credential, he said with a straight face”couldn’t the Olympic Organizers have predicted the El Nino this year”, and therefore awarded the Games to another location? Wow! Vancouver was awarded the Games in 2003. That would have been an amazing weather forecast.

The controversy of the moment here is the chain linked fence that is keeping the public away from the Olympic Cauldron. While it is positioned well for the broadcasters, its proximity to the Media Center makes necessary to keep the crowds away. The shot below is the unobstructed view available only to the media.

When the world comes together for the Olympic Games, every day is full of surprises. Today I had the pleasure to meet Irene Jacobs, the talented artist who created the Vancouver sport pictograms. She linked up with me through LinkedIn. She’s attending the Games from Rotterdam, experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see her work at super scale throughout the Olympic city. I hope she’ll stay in Vancouver at least until Thursday so she can meet Elise Thomason, our designer who created the pictograms for Torino.

The Vancouver Games are off to strange start. A very nice Opening Ceremony suffered a glitch with the torch, protesters have tried to bring the Games to a standstill, constant rain has pummeled many of the venues into cancellations–yet the Olympic Spirit remains pervasive in the Canadians who fill the streets. Below is a collection of images from my visits to venues that I have held back because I didn’t want to get ahead of VANOC. What a great experience this has been.

Me, with a true Olympic believer, Steve Lange. Steve has led the effort to implement the Look of the Games in the venues and the city.

Rio, Sochi, London, in that order. This was taken during my venue tour with the upcoming city Look folks. Pretty awesome medals stand!

Posing in the Kiss and Cry with the designer

Dream job, Zamboni driver

The Look of the coffee. Tastes as good as it looks.

Finishing the ski jump

Aireborne

Its been fun to see Iconologic’s work for Coke’s Olympic Program come to life in the venues and around the city. Here are a few examples of how our Coke Olympic composite logo integrates with the rest of the Vancouver Olympic experience. More to come.