在北京2008年奧運會倒計時兩周年之際，北京奧組委發布了北京2008年奧運會體育圖標。名為“篆書之美”的北京2008年奧運會體育圖標以篆字筆畫為基本形式，融合了中國古代甲骨文、金文等文字的象形意趣和現代圖形的簡化特征，強烈的黑白對比效果的巧妙運用，使北京奧運會體育圖標顯示出了鮮明的運動特征、優雅的運動美感和豐富的文化內涵，達到了“形”與“意”的和諧與統一。

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) released the Pictograms of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on the occasion of the 2-year countdown to the opening of the Games.

One of the basic image elements of the Olympics, the Olympic Games Pictograms are widely applied in areas such as Olympic directional instruction system, advertising and communications, landscape and environmental arrangement, TV broadcasting and souvenir designs. The Pictograms play an important role in identifying the Olympic sports as well as in Olympic marketing.

Named "the beauty of seal characters" and with strokes of seal characters as their basic form, the Pictograms of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games integrate pictographic charm of inscriptions on bones and bronze objects in ancient China with simplified embodiment of modern graphics, making them recognizable, rememberable and easy to use. Skillfully using the effect of sharp contrast between the black and white colors which the typical Chinese traditional artistic form of rubbings have, the Pictograms of the Beijing Olympic Games display distinct motion character, graceful aesthetic perception of movement and rich cultural connotations, thus arriving at the harmony and unity of form with conception.

The Beijing Olympics Pictograms comprise of 35 sport icons, namely those of athletics, rowing, badminton, baseball, basketball, boxing, canoe / kayak flatwater, canoe / kayak slalom, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, artistic gymnastics, trampoline, weightlifting, handball, hockey, judo, wrestling, swimming, synchronized swimming, diving, water polo, modern pentathlon, softball, taekwondo, tennis, table tennis, shooting, archery, triathlon, sailing, volleyball and beach volleyball.

In March 2005, BOCOG invited four professional design institutes and organizations to the solicitation campaign of Pictograms of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The design based on "seal characters" by China Central Academy of Fine Arts and that on "string" by Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University were shortlisted after experts' appraisal.

A joint design working group between China Central Academy of Fine Arts and Academy of Arts and Design constantly improved and perfected the design in accordance with the suggestions of BOCOG and experts home and abroad.

In December 2005, BOCOG submitted the Beijing Olympic Pictograms to the 28 International Sports Federations (IFs) for approval, and all of the IFs had endorsed the Pictograms by April 2006. And in June this year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) granted the set of the Pictograms.

Vocabulary:

seal characters：篆書
canoe /kayak flatwater：皮劃艇（靜水）
kayak slalom：激流
equestrian：馬術
fencing：擊劍
artistic gymnastics：藝術體操
trampoline：跳床
synchronized swimming：花樣游泳
modern pentathlon：現代五項
taekwondo：跆拳道
triathlon：鐵人三項
International Sports Federations (IFs)：國際單項體育聯合會

（英語點津王星編輯）