Rio 2016 unveiled the 'look' of the tickets for the Olympic and Paralympic Games on Friday (20 May) morning at the organising committee's headquarters. And the colourful yet practical designs will soon be winging their way out to sports fans around the world who have bought tickets to the Games.

"From 1pm (Brasília time) today, the tickets will begin to be sent out from the graphic design company and somewhere in the world someone will receive the first ticket," said Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman.

Find out how to buy tickets to the Olympic and Paralympic Games

The tickets feature the Rio 2016 sport pictograms, which for the first time in Games history, have one for each Olympic and Paralympic sport.

Uniforms for Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games unveiled

The tickets are being produced by the same graphic design company in the USA that produced the tickets for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Staff at the company, which has 30 years of experience in ticket production, "live to produce tickets" said Donovan Ferreti, the Rio 2016 ticketing director.

Left to right: tickets for the Olympic Games opening and closing ceremonies, and the Paralympic Games opening and closing ceremonies

More than four million tickets for the Olympic Games – 67% of the total available – have already been sold. Two million tickets remain on sale and every Thursday a new batch of tickets, including for some of the most sought-after events, goes on sale to Brazilian residents.

"We will want to tell our grandchildren about the Rio 2016 Games and these are also our tickets to history," said Mário Andrada, executive director of communications at Rio 2016.