Peking University, February 21, 2022:  The 2022 Olympic font was announced in conjunction with the Olympic slogan “together for a shared future” on September 17, 2021. The font is designed jointly by researchers from Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA) and The Center for Chinese Font Design and Research, Peking University (CCFDR). It is the first time in the Olympic history that the host country created a Chinese font, showing the cultural features, cultural confidence and friendly attitude of the Chinese people.

Fonts, as an important part of publicity, exhibit the style, spirit and culture of a nation to some extent. On August 2019, researchers from PKU CCFDR and CAFA jointly wrote a letter to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympics, expressing their wills to design a special font for the global event. They had been accepted.


The snowflake used in the 2022 Olympics opening ceremony symbolizes Chinese culture. The font was designed based on FZWeibei (a style of inscriptions of Wei and Jin Dynasties from 220-420 A.D.). The lighting snowflakes show halation in the lens of TV cameras, obscuring the characters on them. Therefore, designers must attenuate the traditional Weibei fonts. Besides, the size of snowflakes and the diameters of the LEDs must be considered. The font designers kept protruding the slender strokes and attenuating the thickness of the big ones, and the result was a well-balanced, solemn, and energetic new font.



So far, the 2022 Olympic fonts have been widely applied in Olympic publicity, helping to forge Winter Olympic scenes full of Chinese characteristics. This special gift from calligraphers integrates the glamour of calligraphy and the strength of winter sports, showing to the world not only China’s fascinating culture and sportsmanship, but also the beauty of nature, humanity and sports.



 
Background Information

The Center for Chinese Font Design and Research (CCFDR) is jointly founded by the Department of Language Information Management of Ministry of Education, PKU Institute of Computer Technology, and Beijing Founder Electronic Co., Ltd. on April 29, 2005. CCFDR aims to research and develop new font design and techniques. The mission of CCFDR consists of font investigation, typeface design, demonstration and promotion of glyph standards for multiple languages in China. By continuously providing graceful standards-compliant font products, which fully satisfy the requirements of the society, CCFDR promotes the level of Chinese writing systems in China. CCFDR also undertakes many projects supported by the agencies of states and ministries.

Written by: Bai Qingwen
Edited by: Ye Yimeng
Source: PKU news (Chinese)