VANCOUVER – Many months before any athletic competition was held at the 2010 winter games, another contest was held to determine which artist would design the 882 medals give to the victors. The winner was Jerusalem-born designer Omer Arbel.
“It’s a great honor,” Arbel told The Jerusalem Post. “It’s something I don’t think will even happen again in my life.”
Arbel, an architect and industrial designer, sought to convey the great honor of winning an Olympic medal through his design proposal, submitted nearly two years ago.
His work generally focuses on making large-scale compositions and even mass-produced objects unique so that they are valued rather than seen as uniform and disposable. While Olympic medals hardly suffer for not being valued, it was important to Arbel that each one be individual and original in the context of a cohesive theme.
“Each athlete’s story is unique but each athlete is connected to each through a larger Olympic ideal,” he explained.
He also wanted the medals to evoke the emotional and personal aspects of the Olympic journey for each owner, and have a distinctive shape. He initially proposed a “locket” concept in which a two-pieced medal, held together by magnets, could be designed to hold a lucky charm or memento that the athlete connected with his victory.
“It speaks to the profound emotions associated with winning an Olympic medal,” he explained, pointing to the years of sacrifice, need for belief in one’s self and support from family and friends. “Often winning the Olympic medal is the culmination of that chapter of their life.”
Read more at Jerusalem Post.




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