Anyways gathered an international squad of illustrators for these Olympics-inspired YouTube Yoodles

These days, sports have a bigger platform than ever before, being watched by billions of people all around the world, all year round. At the heart of this is the Olympics – indisputably the biggest sporting event in history, and certainly the most well-known. But it isn’t the only global gathering of sports fans. Every day, thousands of communities dedicated to a wide range of activities head over to YouTube to get their fix, watching their favourite creators participate in and discuss their respective sports, driving the culture forward and building a loyal following as they go.

“The Olympics are a global event with athletes taking part from every corner of the world, so the Yoodles team wanted to represent each sport with illustrations taken from each of those corners,” explains Saffron Lee, creative at Anyways. “The aim of the series was to capture the energy and community of each sport and highlight [their] unique characteristics.”

For the series, Anyways commissioned five illustrators to work on each of the sports, respectively: Daniel Batista from Brazil for gymnastics, Jack Fletcher from the UK for running, Russell Abrahams from South Africa for table tennis, Kate Dehler from the US for golf, and finally, An Chen from the UK for wrestling. Each of these artists brought their unique vision and style to bear on the project, working only within the confines of a pre-chosen colour palette to help the various artworks feel visually aligned. Aside from this condition, they were free to put their own spin on the work.

From Jack’s dynamic linework and wide-angle perspectives to Kate’s fuzzy, retro-themed aesthetic, the illustrators were chosen for their ability to depict the respective sports, and capture not just the energy of the game, but also those who play it. After all, it’s the passionate people behind the sport that make it what it is.

It goes without saying that no sports-themed illustration would be complete without a bit of movement, so Anyways also worked with a group of talented motion designers to transform the static drawings into short, captivating animations. These show the sport being played and then the forms in the animations quickly shapeshift to take the place of the YouTube wordmark.

Speaking on the project, May Azcue, creative producer at YouTube, says: “Our goal was to celebrate the communities around these sports and the way they show up year-round on YouTube, often in creative and compelling ways which lean into the joy of play and pleasure of physical accomplishment rather than the pressures of high-level competition.”