About me

Profession: graphic designer and Olympic historian

Work: deesign osterwalder gmbh, Switzerland

Languages: german, spanish english and italian

Hobbies: reading; researching, Olympic collecting, designing and travelling

Sports: tennis, equestrian and skiing

ISOH | Secretary General of the International Society of Olympic Historians

PROLYMPO | Board Member of the Intern. Association of Olympic Memorabilia Collectors

IMOS | Member of the Internationale Motivgruppen Olympiaden und Sport" (Germany)

OLYMPIN | Member of the Olympic Pin Collectors Club (USA)

Since the early 90’ies probably no other topic has interested me more than the development of the design of the Olympic Games. The biggest event worldwide with unparalleled media coverage is an illustrative example for how important great design is. The design does not only provide the event with a face but also reflects the image of the host town and country. There are excellent but unfortunately bad examples, too. All Olympic Games have their own characters – influenced by people, culture, history and politics of the host country- since the very first Games of modern time. Ever since the Olympic Winter Games of Lillehammer in 1994 I have been visiting all the Games. By monitoring locally, reading, researching and collecting I was able to get an overview and to form a judgement about the quality of design. Whenever possible I contacted key people of the Communication & Design Department to talk about processes and problems in the development of the design. Sometimes even after the events. Since the early 90’ies I have been collecting Olympic documents and objects. In the meantime my collection has reached a size of 60’000 objects and keeps further growing.