Munich 1972: Sports Posters of the 20th Olympic Games

Experts debate which Olympics were the best designed, with Mexico City, Los Angeles, Barcelona, and Grenoble drawing enthusiastic advocates. But a consensus usually forms around the graphic program created for the 20th Olympiad held in Munich, West Germany, in 1972. Usually attributed to a single visionary creative director, Otl Aicher, the program was in fact created by a team of designers who worked tirelessly on every detail of it for nearly six years. The result was a fully coordinated, rigorously executed, totally comprehensive scheme that set a new standard for the design of the Games. It became an influential model not only for the design of sporting events but for comprehensive identity programs of any kind.

This exhibition highlights the program created for the 1972 Munich Olympics at its best, one for each event, each capturing both a moment in time and making a bid for permanence. Together, they demonstrate a magically calibrated balance of consistency and surprise, control and power, precision and exuberance: no less than the athletes they celebrate.

Graphic designer Michael Bierut graduated from the University of Cincinnati and worked for ten years with Massimo Vignelli before joining the New York office of the design consultancy Pentagram in 1990. His teaching appointments have included positions at the Yale School of Art and the Yale School of Management. He was the recipient of the AIGA Medal in 2006 and the Design Mind Award from the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in 2008.