Conran Design Group, a Havas brand and design consultancy, is the mastermind behind the “Games Wide Open” branding at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Although Conran wasn’t tasked with creating the emblem for the Paris 2024 logo, they built everything else. Their designs include the event banners and signage around Paris and the playful and revolutionary-inspired red cap mascot, the Phryges (a word editors will have to triple check before any articles go to print).

So where exactly does a design firm cast their vision when beginning to undertake a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of branding the Olympics and Paralympics?

Conran looked to the past and the present. They drew inspiration from the world of French fashion, food, the shapes embedded within iconic Parisian landmarks, and their revolutionary history. They even considered that 100 years ago, Paris hosted the 1924 Olympics. Their final campaign actively celebrates sports, Parisian style, and French culture.

Equally, Conran investigated what captured people’s attention back then—trends or populous Parisian art movements—and orphism, like cream, simply rose to the top.

Orphism is an offshoot of Cubism. Think: circles, circles everywhere! And a harmonious sense paintings should be like music. According to the Guggenheim, “Orphism engaged with ideas of simultaneity in kaleidoscopic compositions, investigating the transformative possibilities of color, form, and motion.”

The legacy of the Parisian skyline may have been too overburdened so Conran took design notes from another foundational feature of France: the paving stones right beneath their feet. Every city and every village has paving stones, and these square sections not only mimic echoes of Art Deco, they easily allow image construction and interconnecting squares of various art to build upon one another.

The color palette is meant to riff off Paris’ characteristic sandstone hue. While formal and slightly buttoned-up, sandstone vibes with these softer colors. A mix of green, purple, blue, and red adds a bit of play. They are happy, inviting, and optimistic colors and “celebrate the joy that is the Games.”

Paris in the summertime offers its own natural color palette in the blue of the river and the greens of gardens sprinkled throughout the city, so Conran went with pink as the chosen hero color, which pairs nicely with a neutral white and a mustardy sandstone resembling that of an Olympic gold medal.  

The Phryges are the official Paris 2024 mascots. These playful and sentient red characters are based on the French Phrygian cap, a symbol of freedom and revolution in France. They have eyes and sneakers.

Like athletes and spectators alike, the Phryges have their own distinct personalities—from wistful to proud to mischievous—demonstrated by their facial expressions and how they utilize the accessories they carry with them.

Inclusivity is a central theme at Paris 2024, and for the first time in history, the Olympics and Paralympics share the same mascot. Notably, some Phryges appear in a racing chair, and, in fact, the first Phryge to sell out was the one with a prosthetic leg.