Ilanaaq – Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Emblem

For centuries, the Inuit people of Canada’s Arctic stacked rock in human form to create the inukshuk, a steadfast guidepost that provided direction across the vast horizons of the North. Over time, the inukshuk has become a symbol of hope and friendship, an eternal expression of the hospitality of a nation that warmly welcomes the people of the world with open arms every day.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem is a contemporary interpretation of the inukshuk. It is called Ilanaaq which is the Inuktitut word for friend. This is the symbol of Canada’s Games – our friend who will help us greet the world in 2010.

The emblem was chosen by an international judging panel from more than 1,600 entries from every region of Canada submitted through the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Emblem Design Competition. Rivera Group of Vancouver submitted the design, created by a team that included company principal and creative director, Elena Rivera MacGregor and designer, Gonzalo Alatorre.