Ek India Team India — Designing a New Identity for the Indian Olympic Association

With roots in India, and offices across the world, it has always been a curious experience seeing the story of India being told to audiences across geographies. We largely see it on restaurant signages, and performance pieces, and film — mainstream representations employing visuals that audiences are already comfortable with. These are the stereotypical images of elephants and paisley prints — visuals that Indians themselves don’t identify with.

But then again, what is a visual that can unite, and touch the hearts of a country of 1.2 billion people?

This was the question we were tasked with finding an answer for when we were commissioned the rebranding project of the Indian Olympic Association.

A Little History
The rebranding marked 120 years of the country’s participation in the Olympics, and it’s logo was to be redesigned after 96 years. The logo in use at the time was inspired by an emblem called the Star of India which was in use during the British Raj. The identity was proving to be a challenge to extend across athlete kits with its intricate form, but more importantly it was a visual that was no longer in common use, and unrecognizable to both the athletes that wore them and the audiences that cheered for them.

Team India
The Association also saw this as an opportunity to create an identity that could rally more support for Indian sport across the board, for all the sports federations they worked with. To do this, we would launch Team India, an offshoot of the IOA brand that athletes and fans could band together under, and rally behind.

Identity
But this raised the question — what is it that can unite a country that’s characterized by its very diversity? What is it that Indians across the country and the globe could associate with, and that could be worn with dignity by athletes on the sports field?

Most National Olympic Committees across the world drew inspiration from geographical features, flora and fauna. But does the tiger, the peacock or the Everest evoke national pride?

We also studied the logos of NOCs that appealed to our sensibilities as designers. Timeless and sporty, while rooted in their national identity.

Which brought us back again to the crux of the brief — National Identity. And we realized that while India conjured up visuals of lotuses and tigers across the world, and even in our textbooks, national pride is experienced by all of the country, collectively, at the sound of the national anthem, the hoisting of the flag, standing at attention to think about the length, breadth and beauty of our country, as the flag unfurls.

And we realized that this is a moment that’s remarkable to Indians as well as athletes, who live for the moment they can represent their country, and carry their flag at the start and end of a game.

What if we empowered every athlete to carry the flag through the game? Celebrate what their journey, and their participation truly means for their country — a chance to show the world that we are here, and that we are game.

Typography
And so we drew inspiration from the ways in which we saw the flag during national celebrations across the country, strung up vertically as pennant banners. And we built it right into the name. Making our flag, our identity, synonymous with who we are.

The tricolour, built around the negative space between the I and the N is also a device that allows for extend-ability across merchandise and collateral with a slick and sporty vibe.

The Band of Unity, devised for special circumstances and specific usage unites team and country, every time the athlete steps on to the world arena.

Ek India Team India
The anthem we launched the logo with — captures this spirit of unity, for use across digital in the form of a hashtag.