With a decision on a host city for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games less than four months away, VSA’s brand strategy and design for the Chicago bid has helped put the city on a global stage.

An expanded program of communications and events featuring the VSA-designed logo and identity system began appearing this spring, culminating in activities for International Olympic Committee panel members who came to Chicago in early April to tour proposed event sites and evaluate the city’s viability to host the games. Chicago is considered a frontrunner in its bid, competing against finalist cities Tokyo, Rio de Janiero and Madrid. The IOC will announce its decision on Oct. 2.

VSA’s pro-bono brand and identity work has provided the visual basis for the Chicago bid effort for more than two years. The logo and accompanying visual identity has gained visibility in 2009 with the launch of an intensive communications effort to encourage Chicago-area residents, businesses and civic organizations to back the bid. Transit and out-of-home advertising, building murals and environmental installations, banners and video productions were deployed throughout the city, with particular emphasis on O’Hare International Airport and Midway Airport, as well as other potential competition venues visited by the IOC evaluation panel.

The identity is a tribute to Chicago’s unique physical attributes—a world-class location united by water, green space and architecture. The Chicago 2016 logo blends the colors of the five Olympic rings surrounding the city’s six-pointed star, evoking serene blue lakefront, vibrant green landscape and fiery skyline. It also evokes Chicago’s Games concept—to host compact Olympic Games celebrated in the center of the city, along the lakefront and in the city’s parks.

In addition to the logo itself, the visual identity was conceived as a system of versatile graphic elements, extending the “painted” look of the Chicago 2016 symbol through brushed colors and athlete photography. These identity elements have established the foundation for advertising and communications, providing the design basis for the Chicago 2016 Web site, event signage, broadcast graphics, clothing and hundreds of visible components used by the bid committee throughout the selection process.