Design Better Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Raffaela Panie: Designing the brand and visual identity for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games
Date: January 21, 2026
Hosts: Eli Woolery & Aarron Walter (The Curiosity Department)
Guest: Raffaela Panie, Brand Identity and Look Director, Milano Cortina 2026
Sponsor: Wix Studio

Episode Overview

This episode delves into the immense design challenge of creating the brand and visual identity for the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milano-Cortina. Raffaela Panie, the mastermind behind the look of the Games, unpacks the creative process, cultural considerations, stakeholder management, and the balancing act between Italian heritage and innovative, contemporary design. The conversation is a deep dive into how one of the world’s most recognizable global brands is made both universal and uniquely local.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Scope and Nature of Olympic Visual Identity

Timestamps: [03:37]–[05:29]

• Vast Scale & Ephemeral Peak:

  • Raffaela describes Olympic branding as a "big challenge" that takes 4–5 years to build up, but "when it gets to its maximum, highest peak, it's the end."
  • The brand has to start from the Olympic and Paralympic values and evolve into a unified, consistent visual system – spanning medals, emblems, venue graphics, mascots, and more.

• Stepwise, Guided Process:

  • Consistency is achieved by using a strong brand personality as a guide for every decision, and building the brand "step by step," consolidating at each phase.

  “What helps is trying to have a consistent and very structured, strong brand personality. That was one of the first things we really started working on and it's really been guiding us in all our choices.”
  — Raffaela Panie [04:38]

2. The Range of Assets & Creativity in Execution

Timestamps: [05:29]–[06:53]

• Multi-Disciplinary Design:

  • The team touches everything from industrial design (medals, torches) to mascots, cartoons, venue branding, digital platforms, and architectural sub-brands.
  • The mascot journey started with a child's drawing and grew into a full character for animation and live events.

• Long-Term Unveiling:

  • Some assets, like the "look of the Games" at venues, are revealed last—during the Games themselves.

  “I sometimes think I’m not really doing… money is not really a job at the end. I mean, I’m enjoying it so much, it’s sometimes difficult to think of it as a job because some of the projects are just so different from each other.”
  — Raffaela Panie [05:44]

3. Balancing Heritage and Innovation

Timestamps: [06:53]–[07:58], [13:04]–[13:48]

• Selective Use of History:

  • The process begins by studying the Olympics’ visual history “to learn from mistakes, but also for inspiration.” However, the team consciously avoids over-reliance on ancient symbology or Italian stereotypes.
  • The goal: A brand that is “vibrant, dynamic and contemporary,” not a repetition of past glories.

• Focus on National Culture:

  • The brand expresses “the Italian spirit”— choosing to highlight energy, passion, and a modern view of "beauty" over predictable references.

  “We don’t want to talk about Italy and beauty. It wouldn't be anything innovative, but it was very strong... So we decided to try to understand where beauty is more under the surface... It's the beauty that is in the energy, in the passion of people, in the talent.”
  — Raffaela Panie [08:39]

• On Poster Design:

  • The iconic poster series incorporates contemporary design, yet “you can see elements from the past… a good balance.” [14:12]

4. Research & Stakeholder Engagement

Timestamps: [11:25]–[13:04]

• Comprehensive Input:
  • Research started with workshops among staff, but crucially extended to mayors, government, sponsors (local and international), and 2,000 everyday Italians.
• Grounded in Real Voices:
  • The process was intentionally bottom-up (“We wanted people to tell us”), resulting in a brand that resonates nationally and internationally.
• Danger & Opportunity in National Identity:
  • “Beauty” came up repeatedly but the team sought to express it beyond the cliché, focusing on intangible aspects like passion, energy, and talent.

5. Translating Values into Design

Timestamps: [10:06]–[11:25]

• Mascot as a Brand Personality Test:
  • Starting with a kid’s drawing, the mascot transformation illustrated how the values of vibrancy and energy could come alive visually.
• “It’s Your Vibe” Motto:
  • The phrase emerged organically from the design thinking, reflecting the intention “that people have their own vibe when they come to the Games.”

6. Modularity, Flexibility, and Technical Challenges

Timestamps: [14:59]–[17:06]

• A Living, Evolving System:

  • Especially in graphic design for venues, flexible systems are vital:
    • E.g., Gradients made of dots must be adapted whether printed small or on a massive grandstand banner.
    • There’s continuous iteration as different materials and scales introduce new visual effects.

• Team Flexibility as much as System Flexibility:

  • Success depends not just on a malleable design system, but on a staff comfortable with change, problem-solving, and creativity in process—not just output.

  “I think creativity is also in the way you do things, and that can help a lot when you need something so flexible.”
  — Raffaela Panie [17:02]

7. Team Structure and Coordination

Timestamps: [17:14]–[18:03]

• Three Divisions, 33 People:
  • Brand Team: Develops brand assets, oversees sponsor usage, approvals, and manages over 100 guidelines.
  • Creative Team: Applies visual assets across platforms and contexts.
  • (Other teams were referenced, but details cut off in preview.)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Building an Olympic Brand:

  “...you're building a brand that normally takes four or five years if you think of a company. And when it gets to its maximum, highest peak, it's the end. So that's really, really strange.”
  — Raffaela Panie [04:12]

• On Collective Authorship:

  “We didn't want an agency to just come along and say, this is what we think you should be. We wanted people to tell us.”
  — Raffaela Panie [11:40]

• On Italian Identity’s Global Relevance:

  “Everybody already knows about our history. So maybe we want to talk about something more modern, more contemporary, more young.”
  — Raffaela Panie [08:38]

• On Design System Adaptation:

  “When you print them in small, one thing, when you print them on a huge 4 by 5 meter material, the effect is completely different. So we've also been adapting files and creating displays, different systems of files according to what we are printing on.”
  — Raffaela Panie [16:02]

Episode Structure & Timestamps

• [00:01] Flexibility in design and process
• [03:37] Introduction of guest/scope of Olympic design projects
• [05:29] Asset types: medals, torches, mascots, brand architecture
• [07:10] Heritage vs. modernity in Olympic visual identity
• [08:06] Olympic, Paralympic, and national values distilled into “vibrant, dynamic, contemporary”
• [10:06] Mascots and the translation of brand values
• [11:33] Research, interviews, and workshops informing the brand
• [13:04] Decision not to lean on ancient or traditional symbology
• [14:12] Navigating history, learning from past Games’ missteps
• [14:59] Design system flexibility and technical adaptation
• [17:14] Team structure and internal process

Final Reflections

This episode offers a detailed window into how colossal the stakes and scope are for Olympic design. Raffaela Panie’s approach is rooted in research, a deep sense of responsibility to both tradition and innovation, and a deft management of complexity—both human and technical. Her insights into modularity, brand personality, and cross-cultural creativity are relevant to anyone leading large-scale, high-profile branding efforts.

Listeners walk away with a sense of the Olympic brand not just as a set of visual assets, but as an evolving, living system—one that’s designed, above all else, to unite and inspire.