Paris 2024 Olympics: Designer of Games logo files complaint for “favoritism” against organizers

Le concepteur du logo des Jeux estime avoir été évincé de la commercialisation de son œuvre. MAXPPP – Alexis Sciard

After winning a first contract in 2019, Sylvain Boyer, designer of the Olympic emblem, believes he was then ousted in favor of a communications agency under the pretext of an expanded market.

An investigation was opened this fall after a complaint from the designer of the emblem for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games accusing his Organizing Committee (Cojop) of favoritism in favor of a communications agency, we learned Friday from a judicial source.

In a complaint filed in April, the designer of the Olympic Games emblem, Sylvain Boyer, accused the communications agency W Conran Design and the Cojop of favouritism, illegal taking of interests, counterfeiting and receiving stolen goods. The opening of this investigation is “the logical and expected next step in light of the facts“, considered his lawyer Me Henri de la Motte Rouge, emphasizing that he was pleased “that justice can do its job with complete peace of mind in this case”.

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A contribution to the visual identity not sufficiently highlighted

“We are chosen for our skills, the success of the Games is proof of that. We have feedback in France and internationally on the fact that this is quality work, which is why we were selected for certain calls and not others”, reacted to the AFP Gilles Deléris, co-founder of the W Conran Design agency. “We know what we did, how things went”, he added, saying he was“serene” and not have “particular concerns”.

The Cojop did not immediately respond to AFP. Sylvain Boyer won a first contract in 2019 dedicated to the design of the emblem and typography of the event. The emblem, unveiled in October 2019, refers to an Olympic flame and a face representing Marianne, the allegory of the French Republic.

Four investigations underway around the organization of the Games.

M. Boyer believes that he was then fraudulently dismissed in favor of the W Conran Design agency, under the pretext of a new expanded market. He also considers that his contribution to the visual identity of the 2024 Olympic Games was not sufficiently highlighted by the Cojop.

The National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) has entrusted the preliminary investigation to the Brigade for the Repression of Corruption and Tax Fraud (BRCF) – formerly called the Brigade for the Repression of Economic Crime (BRDE) -, the judicial source specified. The organization of the Olympic Games, wanted to be “exemplary” by the president of the organizing committee Tony Estanguet, is the subject of at least four other known financial investigations, notably concerning the latter's remuneration or suspicions of favoritism when awarding contracts.