They will be used to guide visitors at the Olympic venues and will also appear on tickets, events schedules and Sochi 2014 licensed merchandise.

The pictograms complement the concept of the integrated Look of the Games in Sochi, the patchwork quilt - the combination of 16 ornaments of the most famous national crafts in Russia.

The graphics used on the pictograms match the Sochi 2014 logo as they have the same line proportions and all the corners where the lines connect are rounded.

The designs of the pictograms also owe more than a nod to the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, the only previous occasion that the Games have been held in Russia. 

The Moscow 1980 pictograms were designed by Nikolai Belkow, a Mukhina Art School graduate from Leningrad

The artists adapted the original visual historic style from Moscow 1980, taking into account modern views.

In the Sochi 2014 series, a number of Olympic pictograms have been created for freestyle and snowboard sports.

This has been done as the types of event within these disciplines vary significantly.

Therefore, the number of pictograms does not directly correspond to the number of disciplines on the Olympic programme with 22 pictograms for 15 Olympic disciplines.

All 22 icons have been developed using two colour schemes.

The first is, a monochrome color scheme, the second color scheme comprises of yellow, violet, green, dark blue and red.

The new pictograms will "create a bridge from the past to the future" says Sochi 2014 President and chief executive Dmitry Chernyshenko

At the heart of this design is the concept of the integrated visual Look of the Sochi 2014 Games, the patchwork quilt of Russia.

Pictograms of competitive sport disciplines were used for the first time at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, but began to really grow in importance at the Tokyo Games in 1964. 

At London 2012 38 pictograms were developed in two designs.

The first design, completed in black and white, was used in all the traditional designations.

The pictograms completed in the second design, named by their creators as "dynamic", appeared on London 2012 merchandise and on posters of the Olympics. 

The pictograms were designed with the map of the London Underground in mind.

Designs for London 2012 pictograms were based upon the city's famous underground

"The new Sochi 2014 pictograms have been carefully created incorporating the Look of the first Winter Games in the history of Russia," said Dmitry Chernyshenko, the President and chief executive of Sochi 2014. 

"The symbolic images of sport will be everywhere; at our Olympic venues, on licensed merchandise and even on Olympic tickets.

"The pictograms turned out to be intuitively understandable.

"I have no doubt that the pictograms will have particular significance to all residents of Russia, as these new symbols have been influenced by the 1980 Moscow Olympics pictograms, creating a bridge from the past to the future."

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