In the summer of 2017 I contacted Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton in Calgary, AB to inquire about their plans for the design of Team Canada's bobsleigh and skeleton sleds for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. I decided to do this as I was in between semesters at school and was hungry for a large project. I had heard that they used a student design in Sochi, and thought they may be receptive to working with another student. They were!
The inspiration for the sled was the Royal Canadian Air Force. The team had spent the training season with the RCAF going on training missions to hone their bodies and their minds in preparation for what it takes to win gold. The parallels between not only fighter jets and bobsleds was brilliant and obvious. Powerful, sleek, and screaming with pride. When we started thinking about it, the pilots of these vessels were equally as profound. The athletes and RCAF pilots have to be sharp in their mind and lightning quick in their reflexes. The connection was perfect.
As the sleds would be representing Team Canada, I turned to the RCAF Canada 150 CF-18 demo jet as the project's muse. Jim Belliveau's design for our nations birthday served as a symbol of pride for our country that spent the year streaking across skies nationwide.
I had to adapt the design and rethink it to serve the same purpose, while embodying Canada's edge in sport.
The only issue with the original design of the jet being put onto the sleds was that the Canada 150 logo was no longer valid in the year 2018. I was able to take that inspiration and create new graphics for our sleds using the jet's as inspiration, rather than adaptation. This worked out for the best as it was a great design challenge and truly made the jets ours. Our athlete's, our country's.
