Convenors: Isabel Campi (Eina School of Design and Art, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and president of Fundacio Historia del Disseny), Raquel Pelta (Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Barcelona and editor of Monografica.org magazine), Anna Calvera (Faculty of Fine Arts University of Barcelona), and Guy Julier (University of Brighton/Victoria & Albert Museum Principal Research Fellow in Contemporary Design)
The seminar is organised in conjunction with Monografica.org magazine.
Barcelona hosted the XXV Olympic Games in 1992. This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the event. The Fundacio Historia del Disseny, Monografica.org magazine and the Design HUB Barcelona will commemorate this anniversary at this seminar that gives a critical and historical view of the event.
The Olympics were a great opportunity for the city of Barcelona that went into a deep transformation. Design played an important role in these games. Designers and managers made a great effort to project to the world an image of an avantgardist and Mediterranean city far away of the "typical Spain" of bull fighters, flamenco dancers and paella. The Barcelona games are widely acknowledged as a role model for the use of design and branding in subsequent games and contributed to the city's importance as a reference point for urban regeneration programmes elsewhere. Shapes, colours and typographies were carefully selected according to the local traditions, but reinterpreted in a postmodern and contemporary way.
After the games Barcelona became a sort of modern, fashionable and international city and the footprint of the games can still be felt in the city. However, there has no been historical research or even any effort to investigate and disseminate the Olympic heritage into the young generations of designers. The seminar gathers historians and designers active in the 92 games because they are still alive and can provide a critical and, by now, contextualised view of the significance of this event.
Seminar Programme
Session 1: Raquel Pelta: "The Barcelona Olympics corporate image" With Josep Ma Trias and Javier Mariscal (graphic designers)
Session 2: Anna Calvera: "The aesthetics of the Barcelona Olympic Design" With Jaume Masferrer and Manuel Huerga (design managers)
Session 3: Isabel Campi: "Objects for the sacred fire" With Andre Ricard, Ramon Bigaa and Carles Riart (product designers)
Session 4: Oriol Pibernat: "Reinventing Barcelona" With Guy Julier and Viviana Narotzky (historians)
For more information, please contact: info@historiadeldisseny.org
Palace of Virreina, La Rambla, 99, Barcelona
Palace of Virreina (Room 4), La Rambla, 99, Barcelona