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Rio unveils official font for the 2016 Olympics

Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports
The "t" in Rio's official font looks like The Redeemer statue, just like all other "T"s do.

The official typeface for the Rio 2016 Olympics was released recently and it looks exactly like a font for a Brazilian Games should. That's neither a compliment nor an insult. Opinions vary on the font. I think it's okay. One colleague said it's a "whack verison of Lucida Handwriting." But compared to the universally-despised font used at the London Olympics, Rio's might as well be Helvetica.

Dalton Maag, the Swiss typographers who designed the new font, could have yanked a spelling test from the desk of any third grader in Santa Teresa and used their handwriting as the font and it would have been an improvement over the one used in this summer's Games. One site said London's official typeface, 2012 Headline, was the "worst new public typeface of the last 100 years." (And somehow it still wasn't as bad as London's logo.)

Rio didn't have a high bar to clear. The font is fun, evocative and distinct. From my layman's view, it's a nice compliment to the first ever South American Olympics. If you don't feel that way, read these retroactive connections to sports, citizens and Rio landmarks (see the photo above) and you'll change your tune.

From the Rio 2016 website:

Each letter expresses a characteristic of the Rio 2016™ Games, its people and the city. The letters are written in single continuous strokes, with fast and fluid motions, suggesting the movements of the athletes in action. The strong contrast between thick and thin strokes was explored during the design process by putting brush to paper and writing by hand. The variety of the curves in the different letters has a unique informality, inspired by the joyfulness of the Brazilian people.

Maybe it's just me, but calling Brazilian's "uniquely informal" sounds like a backhanded compliment and a weird inspiration for a font. But, again: better than London.

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