Lake Placid Olympic Bobsled Run, 1937

This was produced as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project, a New Deal program that employed artists with a goal to promote American culture, tourism, and public life. This poster relies on simplified forms, flat color, and hand rendered typography to communication motion and place with clarity and warmth. Items like this show how the Olympics logo which has gone mostly unchanged was worked seamlessly into the design style of era. Where contemporary Olympic graphics are often sleek, dynamic, and system-driven, this poster represents an earlier evolution of design in which illustration served as the primary communicative tool.