The birth of the "ice pier": more than 500 images and tens of thousands of sketches were prepared

With the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the surrounding goods of the mascot "Ice Pier" have been loved by more and more people, which is a great encouragement and affirmation for us designers.

Remember that at the end of 2018, the beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee propaganda team came to the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, when there was only about a month left before the deadline for the collection of mascots for the Winter Olympics. Before coming, the propaganda team also expressed their concerns, believing that ice and snow are rare in the Lingnan area, and many of our students may rarely see ice and snow, and may lack imagination about ice and snow sports. To be honest, at the beginning, some of our teachers and students did not have confidence. But I think that children who have seen ice and snow less or even seen ice and snow may have a greater yearning and imagination for ice and snow than those who are accustomed to ice and snow.

Subsequently, I formed a team, originally 12 members of the group doing graphic design, and later added two more teachers who do 3D design. We hope that the design of the mascot is not only a static performance, but also more dynamic and more in line with the characteristics of the Internet era.

In less than a month, we created 16 works and sent them to Beijing on the last day before the deadline. A total of 5816 works were sent to the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, and in the final top 10 works, 3 of them came from our team. The "ice pier" that eventually became the mascot was determined after 7 months of modifications. During this time, our team often spent the night revising. In this way, over and over again, we have created more than 500 cartoon images, drawn tens of thousands of sketches, and 3D renderings of more than 100GB files. Out of the principle of absolute confidentiality, the team traveled to Beijing more than 20 times to show to the Olympic Organizing Committee.

On September 17, 2019, the mascot of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games was released. After the launch ceremony, everyone could not help but be excited: the "ice pier" we designed became the mascot of the Winter Olympics! After so long of hard work, there is finally a reward.

The "Ice Pier" is based on the panda as the prototype for design and creation. Ice symbolizes purity and strength. Dundun, which means thick, healthy, lively and cute, fits the overall image of the panda, symbolizing the strong body, tenacious will and inspiring Olympic spirit of the Winter Olympic athletes. The image of the panda is combined with the shell of ice crystals, reflecting the characteristics of winter ice and snow sports and modern technology. The head shell shape is taken from the ice and snow sports helmet, decorated with a colorful halo, inspired by the "ice ribbon" of the National Speed Skating Hall of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the flowing bright color lines symbolize the track of ice and snow sports; the heart shape of the palm of the left hand represents the host country's warm welcome to friends all over the world. The overall image resembles an astronaut, implying the creation of the extraordinary, exploring the future, and embodying the infinite possibilities of pursuing excellence, leading the times and facing the future.

After the release of the main image of the "Ice Pier", we began to continue to design its various moving postures. I hope that it can spread Chinese culture more widely at the Winter Olympics with a cute image.

(The author is a professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and the leader of the design team of "Ice Pier")

Source People's Daily

Edited by Zhao Siyao

Process Editor Tai Shaofeng