Charis Tsevis - The Royal Mint: TeamGB in Paris 2024

How a Greek digital mosaic artist was chosen to design Britain's official Team GB coins for Paris 2024—and why the smallest canvas sometimes demands the biggest dreams

The impossible brief

Picture this: You have exactly twenty-seven millimeters of precious metal to capture the entire essence of Olympic glory. Every detail must survive industrial coin production. Every element must honor both Olympic and Paralympic excellence. And oh, by the way—this will become Britain's official commemorative currency, handled by collectors worldwide for decades to come.

When the Royal Mint's invitation arrived, requesting my participation in their design competition for Team GB's Paris 2024 commemorative coins, I knew this wasn't just another commission. This was an invitation to solve one of sports illustration's most beautiful paradoxes: How do you compress infinite Olympic aspiration into a canvas smaller than a two-pound coin?

The deeper challenge?

How does a Greek digital mosaic artist authentically represent British sporting excellence while honoring my own Olympic heritage—the very birthplace of the Games themselves?

My first proposal: The jumpers (Metallic and color)

My first proposal: The runners (Metallic and color)

Where pixels meet precious metal

For two decades, I've created Olympic sports illustration across massive canvases—from Nike campaigns to national team murals spanning entire walls. My variable-size tessellation technique typically requires space to breathe, to guide the eye through flowing narratives of athletic achievement.

But a coin? A coin demands everything be essential.

The breakthrough came through understanding compression not as limitation, but as purification.

Working with Royal Mint specialists, I discovered how my digital mosaic methodology could translate into relief sculpture. Each tessellation element serves multiple purposes: From normal viewing distance, unified athletic figures emerge—runners in perfect stride, jumpers approaching peak extension. Move closer, and hundreds of micro-details reveal themselves: Union Jack fragments, geometric patterns echoing the mathematical beauty of elite technique, abstract representations of that moment when preparation meets opportunity.

The psychology is deliberate: Immediate recognition for casual observers, progressive revelation for collectors who will handle these coins for years. Like great commemorative illustration, it rewards both quick glances and extended contemplation.

My first proposal: The runners.

My first proposal: The runners (Metallic and color)

The cultural diplomacy of design

Being selected as a non-British designer for such an emblematic British project speaks to something profound about Olympic values transcending borders. Yet it also created unique responsibilities.

I spent weeks researching authentic British sporting culture—not the promotional imagery that decorates corporate walls, but the genuine emotional DNA that creates champions. British athletic excellence operates through a specific visual language: understated determination, collective achievement, grace under pressure that transforms ordinary moments into extraordinary legacy.

The Paralympic integration proved equally crucial. Rather than token inclusion, I focused on the universal geometry of elite athletic technique—the mathematical perfection that defines peak performance regardless of physical variation. Paralympic sport embodies the same competitive intensity and technical sophistication as Olympic competition. The visual representation needed to reflect this reality.

The moment of truth

My final designs—"The Runners" and "The Jumpers"—emerged from this synthesis of cultural understanding and technical innovation. Each image functions across multiple production methods: metallic relief, colored variants, and even limited edition prints.

"The Runners" captures that perfect moment of synchronized motion, where individual excellence serves collective achievement—quintessentially British in its understated power.

"The Jumpers" celebrates the geometric beauty of bodies defying gravity, the mathematical precision underlying what appears effortless.

Both designs embed hundreds of symbolic elements within their tessellated structure, creating commemorative artwork that functions as both currency and cultural artifact.

My first proposal: The jumpers

My first proposal: The jumpers (Metallic and color)

Beyond transaction to transformation

Working with the Royal Mint taught me something profound about the intersection of **digital art** and traditional craftsmanship. When molten metal meets artistic vision under industrial pressure, something alchemical occurs. Digital precision enhances rather than replaces centuries of British numismatic tradition.

The coins now circulate globally—in collectors' hands, museum displays, and even casual transactions. Each one carries a fragment of Olympic dream compressed into precious metal, a tangible connection between the Paris 2024 Games and the eternal human pursuit of excellence.

The real honor wasn't just being selected. It was discovering that authentic Olympic art emerges not from patriotic symbolism, but from understanding the universal language of athletic transcendence—something that connects a Greek artist, British sporting culture, and the dreams of athletes worldwide.

The limited edition poster.

The infinite circle

From my studio in Cyprus, examining the struck coins that emerged from months of collaboration, I'm reminded why Olympic art matters. These twenty-seven millimeters of metal will outlast the Paris Games, the athletes who inspired them, and perhaps even the artist who created them.

They represent something larger than commerce or commemoration: the eternal human project of transforming individual excellence into collective inspiration, compressed into a form you can hold in your palm.

When future generations study the Paris 2024 Olympics, some will encounter these coins in museum displays or family collections. They'll discover that in an age of digital everything, we still valued the alchemy of art meeting metal, vision becoming legacy, dreams becoming tangible history.

That's the true magic of Olympic commemoration—turning moments into monuments, regardless of size.

The Team GB and ParalympicsGB 2024 commemorative coins are available through the Royal Mint, along with limited edition prints. Each piece represents not just artistic achievement, but the enduring power of Olympic dreams made manifest in precious metal.